Huynh, Kim2026-01-012026-01-012332-8894ORCID:/0000-0002-3585-2698/work/163475289https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733799685This commentary considers proceedings from the workshop, "Can the Case be Made for Asian Democratic Theory or Practice?: Local Asian Perspectives," held in Hanoi in February 2015. Particular attention is paid to the presentations of the two presiding professors, Pham Quang Minh and John Keane, both of whom argued that the Asian democracies of the twenty-first century would and should depart from the Western liberal democratic models of the late twentieth century. They also assuaged some of the visceral sentiments and tensions between the author (a boatperson who fled the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1979) and the local workshop participants (who were avid Vietnamese socialists).The international workshop “Can the Case be Made for Asian Democratic Theory or Practice?: Local Asian Perspectives” was sponsored by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under Hanoi National University, The Australian Catholic University and the Sydney Democracy Network. It was conceived of and organized by Dr Jean-Paul Gagnon and Dr Nguyen Hong Hai.8enPublisher Copyright: © 2016, Berghahn Journals.Asian politicsDemocracyEmotionsFrancis FukuyamaJohn KeaneVietnam2015-12-0110.3167/dt.2015.02020685047371487