beautiful but also sad for obvious reasons. having been to vietnam (a couple times by now) one of the first things i noticed was how life and work are not just seemlessly connected there but in fact appear inseparable and in some cases practically identical. this is somewhat common in many developing countries of course but for vietnamese people entrepreneurship seems to be part of their dna. even in other asian countries i didn't see so regularly families having dinner in what was a shop for clothes or a garage just an hour ago. almost every business there is a family business. so, it's no surprise that this young fellow just naturally decided to financially support his family by following in his father's footsteps when he got sick. i'm absolutely sure there was no sensationalist interests or seeking of danger at play. he probably would have preferred to go to school and play with his friends. it was simply the natural decision to take in times of uncertainty and danger.

what happened to him? quick google-fu doesn't seem to answer the question...

I’ll read a story like this and can’t even comprehend what living that life must be like.

For all our gripes in the modern world, we have it really really good.

I get the impression he was generally tagging along with his photographer father, who was taking so many of the photos of the boy we see in the article.

A somewhat similar story from the other side of the world is told in the semi-autobiographical novel "Cidade de Deus" by Paulo Lins.