Diep Dong Nguyen House

This guide to Diep Dong Nguyen House in Hoi An opens with two ordinary wooden chairs once lent to Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam, and traces what that loan says about the Diep family's reach in the old port. It follows Ngo Xuan Diep, a Cantonese medicine trader who sailed south from Guangdong in eighteen fifty-six and opened a pharmacy selling thuoc bac, the dried roots and barks of Chinese traditional medicine. The narration tracks how his sons and grandsons expanded the business at this address, becoming agents for Shell oil and branching into fabric, tea, spices, and jewelry. Look up at the roof beams inside the front room, where dragon-carp carvings still climb toward the ridge.