BOGE XIAO · PORTFOLIO

Field notes.

I carry a notebook into bookshops, family meals, temples, and city streets. Begin with the new Vietnam series, or explore the earlier stories.

OBSERVATIONS · ENCOUNTERS · EVERYDAY LIFE

这些笔记记录我在中国与越南遇见的人、地方和日常生活。2026年5月至8月，我在越南生活与旅行，去了胡志明市、河内、岘港、顺化、大叻、芽庄和会安古城。七篇胡志明市笔记已发布，其他城市的内容有待更新。越南系列保留完整中文原文，并配有英文改写。

A NOTEBOOK IN PLACES

Follow a place
into a story.

Six stops across China, and a notebook from Vietnam. Choose a location to see the encounters recorded there.

Anhui, China

Huangshan 黄山

These notes include Hongcun, Doushan Street, and Chengkan. The marker shows the wider Huangshan area.

City and town area markers locate these published notes; they do not identify participants’ homes. Base map: Natural Earth. Further locations will be added as their notes are documented.

NEW SERIES · SEVEN STORIES · ENGLISH & 中文

My Vietnam notebook.

Notes from my time in Vietnam, May–August 2026. Seven stories from Ho Chi Minh City are published; notes from other stops are still to come.

Food at the Japanese barbecue meal in Thảo Điền.

My first meal in Vietnam was Japanese barbecue

Following a friend to dinner unsettled my expectations about what a first meal in Vietnam should be.

Red brick passage and tiled gateway inside the temple.

Visiting Mazu in Ho Chi Minh City

Familiar gods, a different language, and a temple that belongs to the city's everyday life.

Goat hotpot on a burner, with a plate of fresh leaves and vegetables.

Why are there so many leaves on the table?

A goat-meat meal becomes a lesson in assembling flavor—and in learning with the hands and mouth.

FROM THE EARLIER NOTEBOOK

Six encounters across China

A tall stack of books with Chinese and English titles, seen close up inside the bookseller’s space.

A collector of everything

An afternoon in a second-hand bookshop, and a conversation about the care behind a lifetime of collecting.

A collage of small photographs of old buildings, doorways, and personal encounters from the Huangshan field notebook.

Lives beneath the eaves

Three encounters in Hongcun, Shexian, and Chengkan: architecture, family histories, and the generosity of strangers.

Two people work together at a kitchen counter, handling ingredients beside a mixing bowl.

Memory in the making

Learning nyonya kueh with an Indonesian Chinese family, where recipes carry four generations of memory.

An embroidered garment and a pleated dark skirt with red panels displayed against a wooden wall.

The hands that remember

Maonan weaving, dyeing, and bamboo craft, encountered with a Minzu University research team.

The illustrated title card of the Liuzhou field recording, with the Chinese characters 柳州 above a layered mountain landscape.

Listening to a city

A student team follows stories through riversides, old walls, street stalls, and everyday conversations.

A man gestures while speaking indoors, with handwritten menu boards behind him.

Everyday poets of Nanjing

A snack-shop owner follows the landscapes of poetry; a young bartender finds room for music between shifts.