“Fresh bánh mì! Hot, crispy bánh mì! Fresh bánh mì! Soft, thick-crumbed bánh mì!”

“Sticky rice! Xôi cúc, corn sticky rice, black beans, peanuts! Come get your sticky rice!”

“Sweet corn, sticky corn! Three ears of sticky corn for just 10,000 đồng! Three for 10,000! Sweet corn, sticky corn!”

From the streets of Hanoi and the markets of Central Vietnam to the narrow alleyways of Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, street vendors' calls have long been a familiar element of Vietnam's everyday soundscape. Far more than invitations to buy and sell, these cries reflect regional linguistic characteristics, livelihoods, consumption practices, and the changing rhythms of urban life.

Digitizing Việt Nam is pleased to introduce the digital collection Street Cries of Vietnam (Tiếng rao hàng rong Việt Nam), featuring audio materials sourced from Vietnam Sound Library and Lưu Chữ.

The collection brings together recordings made across Vietnam between 2017 and 2024, including Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, Quy Nhon, Da Lat, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Soc Trang, and Dong Thap. These recordings document a wide range of street-vending practices: calls delivered directly by vendors, prerecorded announcements broadcast through loudspeakers, the ringing of handheld bells, and musical signals associated with mobile commerce.

Beyond communicating what is being sold, these calls reveal a remarkable richness of linguistic expression, verbal creativity, and vernacular performance.

For example, in Quy Nhon in 2018, a shoe vendor employed rhythmic expressions, wordplay, colloquial humor, and persuasive storytelling to attract customers:

“You can eat all you want, but the food will be gone; buy something, and it stays with you! Chew betel and you'll spit out the quid; take medicine and you might suffer the consequences! Here, every pair is just 150,000 đồng! Men or women, boys or girls, it's all the same price. Take your pick, everyone! When something's available, you don't buy it; when you finally need it, it's nowhere to be found! Today, I'm offering a special clearance sale: fashionable canvas shoes, just 150,000 đồng a pair, the same price for men and women! Around the corner, make your turn; come on over and take your pick! Don't miss this wonderful opportunity, everyone! I only hold a clearance sale once in a while. I'm not like Ms. Lan selling bánh mì, whom you see at the market every single day!”

Meanwhile, in Hoi An in 2017, the simple call “Chè đậu xanh, chè kem!” (“Mung bean sweet soup! Iced sweet desserts!”) was delivered directly by the vendor's own voice rather than through amplification equipment.

Such recordings invite investigation from multiple scholarly perspectives, including linguistics, ethnology, urban anthropology, the history of everyday life, and sound studies. Pronunciation, intonation, rhythm, regional vocabulary, and modes of vocal delivery all offer valuable material for comparative research across geographical regions and historical moments.

As urban sound environments continue to change, collecting, digitizing, and organizing street cries helps preserve traces of everyday cultural practices that have rarely been documented through conventional written records. At the same time, the collection opens new possibilities for examining the relationships between sound, public space, livelihoods, and collective memory.

Explore the collection on Digitizing Việt Nam here. 

Audio sources: Vietnam Sound Library and Lưu Chữ.

Digitizing Việt Nam gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Vietnam Sound Library and Lưu Chữ to the collection, documentation, and preservation of Vietnam's everyday sounds.