In Duc Hoa, Tay Ninh, stands the Statue of Liberty (Nữ thần Khai Phóng), which symbolizes the harmony between tradition and modern thinking: a Vietnamese woman wearing the traditional ao dai, her right hand holding aloft a torch that represents the light of future hope, and her left hand cradling a book with the Tan Tao University logo, symbolizing knowledge and lifelong learning
Florentino in HoK is vastly different from his AoV counterpart. Personally, I feel his flower throw range is longer, his passive dash is slower, and his late-game healing mechanics are more complex. The most critical difference is that in AoV, his ultimate can be interrupted by stuns, whereas in HoK, it cannot. I’ve played around 20 matches and won nearly 100% of my solo lane matchups, even against ranged heroes, Diaochan, or marksmen. To be honest, he has no absolute counter. In AoV, the map is very small, allowing the mid laner to gank top frequently and forcing Flo into 1v2 or 1v3 situations. However, HoK's map is much larger, and mid laners tend to gank the dragon lane more, basically forcing you into a 1v1 against him. The only viable picks are: Mi Yue: Try to position yourself away from one of his flowers to disrupt his combo. Also, look for constant trades at level 1, because from level 2 onwards, he can chain his combos relentlessly. Tachibana: You must space properly and bully him in lane before level 4, while saving both of your dashes to escape his flower range. Of course, by mid-game, there’s no stopping him, so your best bet is to just ban him. There are also 1-2 good junglers who can give Flo a hard time, namely Li Bai and Zhuge Liang, if anyone is interested. Ultimately, all of the above are just temporary fixes because this hero truly has no match—it all comes down to player skill
Between 1967 and 1972, during the naval mining of Hai Phong harbor, Vietnam organized "living funerals" for the personnel tasked with clearing the mines. These ceremonies allowed families, relatives, and local officials to conduct farewell rituals for the clearance crews before they began the operation
Most people, even many Vietnamese, think ancient relations between Vietnam and China were just 2,000 years of non-stop wars. But in reality, the peacetime diplomacy between the two nations was fascinating, weird, and surprisingly lucrative. While the tributary system (triều cống) often conjures images of smaller countries begging for mercy and getting robbed of all their gold, the actual historical reality of these diplomatic missions was completely different.
First of all, these missions required a grueling two-year road trip. Unlike diplomats from Champa or the Khmer Empire who traveled comfortably by sea, Vietnamese and Korean envoys had to travel entirely by land. A single round-trip mission routinely took up to two whole years to complete. Furthermore, the Chinese imperial court maintained strict quotas on how many people could be included in the entourage and exactly what gifts they had to carry.
Depending on the specific era, the diplomatic caravans packed local luxuries like elephant tusks, rhino horns, pearls, tortoiseshells, and gold. Sometimes, the gift exchange involved serious political friction. After the legendary Vietnamese commander Lê Lợi utterly crushed the Ming army, the Ming Emperor was so bitter about his defeated general Liễu Thăng that he demanded Vietnam send a 1:1 life-sized human statue made of solid gold as compensation. The Vietnamese court actually complied just to secure peace. The Chinese courts also demanded human talent. For instance, Nguyễn An, the chief architect who designed Beijing’s famous Forbidden City, was originally a Vietnamese youth sent to China during one of these tribute eras.
However, Vietnam did not just get ripped off. This system highlights a fascinating aspect of Eastern geopolitics, showing why China practically paid to be a part of this arrangement. The Chinese Emperor did not care about the actual economic value of the gold or rhino horns. What he craved was "Face" (Thể diện) and the validation of being recognized as the undisputed ruler of the world. To secure that prestige, the Emperor would flex his wealth by giving back gifts that were worth double or triple what the foreign envoys brought. Envoys returned with massive amounts of high-end silks, fine ceramics, and raw silver. This tribute system was so profitable for the smaller countries that Korea and the Ryukyu Kingdom (modern-day Okinawa) kept trying to launch frequent tribute missions just to cash in. Eventually, China had to pass a law limiting them to one visit every three years because they were draining the imperial treasury.
When foreign envoys finally arrived at the imperial court, they engaged in a remarkably silent form of diplomacy. Because the diplomats from Vietnam, Korea, and China could not speak each other's languages, they communicated entirely through "Brush Talk" (Bút đàm). Everyone used classical Chinese characters but pronounced them completely differently, so diplomats would sit across from each other in absolute silence, furiously writing notes back and forth on paper to conduct state business.
The job did not end at the court either, as envoys had to act as royal shoppers on the way home. On the return journey, Vietnamese diplomats were legally required by their own government to source rare medicines, books, and specific northern goods. The domestic court set strict quotas for this, and returning without the requested goods could lead to severe punishment. Because of this pressure, many diplomats spent an extra year just wandering around China doing business before heading home. Ultimately, these ancient diplomatic missions were high-stakes, highly profitable trading operations wrapped in rigid imperial etiquette.
If you look closely, this ancient dynamic is not too different from how modern diplomacy with Beijing works today. Even now, for smaller neighboring nations, negotiating with China is not always about winning every single legal battle or forcing hard, fast rules on paper. Often, it is still about navigating the psychology of dealing with a superpower. As long as smaller nations accord China the prestige it craves, letting them feel like the central, influential power in the room, Beijing is usually more than happy to hand out massive economic deals, infrastructure projects, and trade perks that far outweigh what they receive. Once the summit is over, the photo ops are done, and the foreign delegations head back home, the Chinese government often does not care what happens behind closed doors, as long as the public prestige remains intact.
Historical sources if you want to dive deeper: Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư, Khâm Định Việt Sử Thông Giám Cương Mục, and An Nam Chí Lược.
Most people only know about 20th-century Vietnamese history, mainly the war against the US (The Vietnam War). But in reality, we had an "original version" of a divided Vietnam that lasted for nearly 200 years before that (the Trinh-Nguyen civil war). Here is some insight into how insane the scale and military tech of Vietnam were during that era.
As a history nerd, my biggest regret is how the subsequent Nguyen Dynasty ruined all this momentum. Check out these crazy descriptions from Westerners who were actually there at the time:
When the French missionary Alexandre de Rhodes got shipwrecked in Thanh Hoa, he witnessed the Trinh Lord's navy mobilizing to attack the South (Nguyen Lords). He wrote:
>"First, we saw a vanguard of 200 warships, brilliantly carved and gilded, fully equipped with firearms, advancing in perfect formation... Followed by 80 guard ships, even more lavishly decorated with silk sails and crimson cords. In the center was a massive dragon flagship... The rearguard was even larger. In total, the naval and land forces numbered nearly 120,000 men."
Vietnam wasn't technologically backward at all. Because of this North-South civil war, both sides entered a massive arms race. They bought guns, cannons, and learned shipbuilding tech from the Portuguese, Dutch, and Spanish.
Elite Marksmanship: Italian priest Cristoforo Borri noted that the Southern fleet had over 100 warships, and "every single soldier on board was equipped with a matchlock." Alexandre de Rhodes also praised Vietnamese soldiers, saying their marksmanship with muskets (fusil) and matchlocks (arquebuse) was "admirable".
Advanced Weapons: Aside from rifles, spears, and custom lightweight bulletproof shields, they even used primitive hand grenades (explosives) in naval battles against the Tay Son later on. This was cutting-edge tech in Europe at the time.
Because of this military strength, Imperial China didn't even dare to mess with Vietnam during this era.
After Emperor Quang Trung (Nguyen Hue) unified the country, he started a bunch of open-door and commercial reforms. Sadly, he died way too young.
The real tragedy began when Gia Long (the Nguyen Dynasty) took over. Paranoid about potential rebellions, the Nguyen kings stopped adapting. They copied the Qing Dynasty's conservative model: locked the borders (closed-door policy), monopolized foreign trade, and strictly banned citizens from owning firearms.
By the time the French invaded in 1858, our military tech had been dragged backward by 200 years. If Vietnam had kept the 17th-century momentum of trading and adapting, we could have industrialized way before Japan's Meiji Restoration. But well, history has no "ifs"