Of course, national pride—and not simply a rising sense of consumer sophistication—filters into the resentment of all things Chinese. The Vietnamese are fiercely proud of their local industries and products, especially their food. One day we met for lunch with young Vietnamese businesspeople at the Chinese restaurant in the New World Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. The sumptuous multicourse meal was delicious, several orders of magnitude better than Empire Szechuan. But the executive seated to my left wasn't impressed: "Chinese food is too oily."

© 2007