Memory Is Another Country: Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora

226 Pages·2009·1.724 MB·English

by  Nguyen, Nathalie Huynh Chau

Memory Is Another Country
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Memory Is Another Country
Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora
Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen
P
RAEGER
AnImprintofABC-CLIO,LLC
Copyright2009byNathalieHuynhChauNguyen
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyany
means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise,
exceptfortheinclusionofbriefquotationsinareview,withoutprior
permissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
PhotoEssay:Allphotosappearcourtesyoftheinterviewees.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Nguyen,NathalieHuynhChau.
Memoryisanothercountry:womenoftheVietnamesediaspora/NathalieHuynh
ChauNguyen.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-313-36027-5(hardcopy:alk.paper)—ISBN978-0-313-36028-2(ebook)
1.Vietnamesediaspora.2.Women—Vietnam—Biography.3.VietnamWar,1961–1975—
Personalnarratives,Vietnamese.4.Vietnam—History—1975–5.Women—Vietnam—
Socialconditions.6.VietnamWar,1961–1975—Socialaspects.7.Womenimmigrants—Social
conditions.8.Memory—Socialaspects.9.Vietnamese—Australia—Interviews.
10.Australia—Ethnicrelations.I.Title.
DS559.913.N46 2009
305.480895922—dc22 2009021942
13 12 11 10 9 1 2 3 4 5
ThisbookisalsoavailableontheWorldWideWebasaneBook.
Visitwww.abc-clio.comfordetails.
ABC-CLIO,LLC
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Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
PartoftheIntroductionappearedin“‘YourMemoriesAreYourBelongings’:TheNarrativesofViet-
nameseRefugeeWomen,”Island112(2008):24–31.ReprintedherebypermissionofIsland.
AnamendedversionofChapter2appearedas“MemoryandSilenceintheVietnameseDiaspora:
TheNarrativesofTwoSisters,”OralHistory36,no.2(2008):64–74.Reprintedherebypermis-
sionoftheOralHistorySocietywww.ohs.org.uk.
AnamendedversionofChapter5appearedas“VietnameseWomen:NarrativesofCross-Cultural
Marriage,”Intersections:GenderandSexualityinAsiaandthePacific,issue21(2009):23paragraphs.
ReprintedherebypermissionofIntersections.
An amended version of Chapter 6 appeared as “‘We Return in Order to Take Leave’: Memory
andtheReturnJourneysofVietnameseWomen,”Crossroads:AnInterdisciplinaryJournalofSouth-
east Asian Studies 19, no. 2 (2008). Reprinted here by permission of the Center for Southeast
AsianStudies,NorthernIllinoisUniversity.
Extractsfromthefollowingpoems:untitledpoembyTessaMorris-SuzukiinTessaMorris-Suzuki,
PeelingApples(Canberra:PandanusBooks,2005),47;TheTaleofKieubyNguyenDu,trans.Huynh
SanhThong(NewHaven,CT:YaleUniversityPress,1983),157–158;“Famine”byTranThiNga
inShallowGraves:TwoWomeninVietnam,ed.WendyWilderLarsenandTranThiNga,156–157
(New York: Random House, 1986); and “He Covered Me with a Blanket” and “Searching” by
Thuong Vuong-Riddickin Thuong Vuong-Riddick,Two Shores/Deux Rives (Vancouver: Ronsdale
Press,1995),158andn.p.,arereprintedherebypermission.
CONTENTS
ListofIllustrations vii
PrefaceandAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter1. LostPhotographs 11
Chapter2. SistersandMemories 35
Chapter3. WomeninUniform 57
Chapter4. FragmentsofWar 99
Chapter5. LoveacrossCultures 121
Chapter6. ReturnJourneys 141
Conclusion 161
Notes 165
Bibliography 191
Index 203
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate1. HoawithhercousinNgot(intheforeground)in
Saigonin1970.Hoadisappearedatseain1978with
hertwodaughters,agessevenandthree,andher
youngersisterandbrother. 89
Plate2. Hoangplayingtheaccordionaspartofthe
VietnameseRedCrossWomen’sAssociationBand
ataconcertfortheDepartmentofAmmunition
andLogisticsin1966. 89
Plate3. Tran’smotherinthefamilybookshopinBienHoa
in1974.In1975,thecommunistauthorities
confiscatedandremovedallthebooks,andthe
bookshopwasclosed. 90
Plate4. LeintheCentralHighlands,circa1969. 90
Plate5. LeinBuonMaThuotin1983. 90
Plate6. Frontrowfromlefttoright:Nga,Kiet,and
SuongwiththeircousinNhanbehindthemin
Saigonin1957. 91
Plate7. Anhin1970,shortlyaftersheobtainedherdegree
inpharmacyfromtheUniversityofSaigon. 91
Plate8. Suongonthedayofhergraduationasanursein
Melbourne,Australia,in1984. 91
Plate9. Thuywithherparachutepackonhershoulderat
CuChi,ajumpingtrainingsite,in1957.Shewas
intheAirborneDivisionforsevenyears. 92
viii Illustrations
Plate10. Thuyasamilitarysocialassistantgivingpresents
toasoldierattheDepartmentofArmySecurity
in1969. 92
Plate11. Quyinherarmyuniformin1970.Notethe
rankinsigniathatsheremovedfromthephotograph. 93
Plate12. Yen(seatedinthefrontrowontheright)witharmy
colleaguesin1972.Hoaisseatedinthefrontrow
ontheleft. 93
Plate13. BoninSaigonin1971. 94
Plate14. Hoa(secondfromright)withherclassmatesat
GiaLongGirls’HighSchoolin1956. 94
Plate15. Kieu(frontrow,secondfromright)withher
classmatesatLyc(cid:1)eeDescartesinPhnomPenh,
Cambodia,in1960.Sheremembersavibrant
cosmopolitanupbringinginPhnomPenhinthe
1950sand1960s. 95
Plate16. KieuandClaudeinSouthVietnamin1973. 95
Plate17. TuyetandTerryatKyHoaLake,Saigon,in1992. 96
Plate18. HanhandSammyinVietnamin1999. 96
Plate19. VinhasahighschoolstudentinHuein1961. 97
Plate20. VinhwithherdaughterAnhin1975. 97
Plate21. Tien(ontheleft)withherfriendMaibythebanks
ofoneofthesmallerbranchesoftheSaigon
riverin1973.Maidrownedatseawhileescaping
thecountrybyboatin1978. 98
Plate22. Ngoc(ontheright)withhersisterThanhin
Galangrefugeecamp,Indonesia,in1980. 98
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Seamed and worn as it is by age, by experience, and by time, the face
of the elderly Vietnamese woman on the cover of this book is a beauti-
ful one. She gazes out of the frame of the picture, and appears to reflect
on the past. She is emblematic of the many aged parents and relatives
who were left behind and mourned as Vietnamese refugees fled their
country after the fall of Saigon in 1975. This book is about the memory
of Vietnamese women. Women speak of their experience of war, dislo-
cation, and migration. They remember their homeland and those they
have lost. Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, women
reflect on their past, and the choices they have made. Their stories are
framed by trauma and loss, but they also reveal a fascinating glimpse of
life in South Vietnam before 1975, the changes that occurred in post-
war Vietnam, and women’s fortitude in rebuilding their lives in the
aftermath of war and displacement.
Gathering oral narratives from Vietnamese women raises particular
challenges. First, many Vietnamese are reluctant to write or tell their
life stories, because it is seen as an individualistic rather than community-
oriented activity and because many had experienced censorship or
imprisonment in postwar communist Vietnam.1 Second, Vietnamese
women find it even harder to speak than Vietnamese men since they
traditionally have had a lower level of education and are expected to
remain quietly in the background. And, third, women are often hesi-
tant to bring their private stories into the public domain. Many of
these women had experienced trauma either during or after the war
and during or after their escape from Vietnam. Women are reluctant to
speak of rape or abuse at the hands of pirates. And within the context
x PrefaceandAcknowledgments
of resettlement, women also find it difficult to speak of violence or
abuse within marriage. Once they have made up their minds to speak
however, they do so with astonishing honesty. I am constantly surprised
about this and about the fact that they are prepared to entrust painful
and difficult events in their lives to the interviewer. The women who
agreed to be interviewed for this book are doing something new and
unusual. The refugee and migration experience has allowed them to
reinterpret their traditional role. By agreeing to speak, women indicate
that they are not only capable of articulating their stories but also that
they feel they have a story to tell, and are prepared to bring it into the
public domain.
This book arose out of a five-year project on “Vietnamese Women:
Voices and Narratives of the Diaspora.” It is based on in-depth inter-
views with forty-two Vietnamese women that were conducted in
Australia between 2005 and 2008.2 I approached women through the
Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association, which is based in Mel-
bourne and has had twenty-five years of experience in welfare work, as
well as other community groups. I made extensive use of private net-
works in Melbourne and interstate, since in my experience, the most
detailed interviews are provided by women who have been approached
in this way. I conducted interviews with twenty-one women over three
years.3 The remainder of the women were interviewed by Boitran
Huynh-Beattie and Thao Ha, and I am indebted to both for their
patient work. Boitran Huynh-Beattie in particular went to considerable
trouble to contact women in different states. Interviews varied in
length, in focus, and in intensity, and lasted from thirty minutes to
more than six hours, with repeat interviews in several cases. Half of the
interviews were conducted in Vietnamese, and the procedure of having
these interviews translated into English and interpreting them contrib-
utes yet another dimension to the process of memory-making. All the
women were provided with information on the project and on the
topics that I was interested in exploring in my work. These possible
topics of discussion were by no means prescriptive. Some women
focused on central events in their lives, while others provided lengthy
life histories that stretched from early childhood to their present lives.
Overall, the interviews resulted in more than 1,300 pages of transcript
in English and in Vietnamese. Interviewees were provided with a re-
cording and full transcript of their interviews. A number of women
responded with corrections and comments, or requested that some