The Vietnamese Boat People

Phillip, the oldest of three siblings, joined the military at age 18 and was deployed to Afghanistan. The Fall of Kabul and the resulting turmoil that led to a mass exodus of refugees, changed his perspective of his parents and gave him context for what they lived through after the war in Vietnam. His father was one of nine Vietnamese refugees who fled the country in 1984 in a small sampan fishing boat with no motor and just two oars. After seven days at sea, they were picked up by a French merchant ship and eventually resettled in the U.S. Their boat was tugged to France by the merchant ship and Phillip’s father always dreamed about finding that boat again. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Phillip joined his father on a mission: find the sampan. They embarked on a quest for answers that would lead them to France, then California, and would eventually reunite the group of survivors nearly three decades later. 

Executive Producer: Tracey Nguyễn Mang

Associate Producer: Saoli Nguyễn

VBP theme music: Clarity, Paulina Vo

Other music: The Quiet Hours, TREVOR KOWALSKI; Shifting Waters; HELMUT SCHENKER; I Will Remember, GAVIN LUKE; Image of You, JOHANNES BORNLÖF; Golden Thought; MEGAN WOLFFORD; Dismantle, PETER SANDBERG 

Mother, Métis, Memory is a documentary film by Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn, whose practice is fueled by research and a commitment to communities that have faced traumas caused by colonialism, war, and displacement. Through his continuous attempts to engage with vanishing or vanquished historical memory, Tuấn investigates the erasures that the colonial project has brought to bear on certain parts of the world.

Mother, Métis, Memory is a documentary that captures interviews conducted in 2018 with the Senegalese-Vietnamese communities in Dakar and Malika Senegal. Throughout the First Indochina War, between 1945-1954, France had mobilized an estimated 60,000 tirailleurs in Vietnam. Tirailleurs, or Senegalese soldiers, were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army and among the forces deployed to Indochina to combat the Vietnamese uprising against French rule. After the beginning of the end of the French Empire, hundreds of Vietnamese women and their children migrated to West Africa with Senegalese husbands, some voluntarily but others against their will. Some soldiers left their wives and took only their children, while others took children not their own and raised them in Senegal without connection to their Vietnamese origins. 

This interview was part of a film screening event hosted by Vietnamese Boat People and Co-sponsored by Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University during Tuấn's first USA solo exhibition Radiant Remembrance opened on June 29, 2023 at the New Museum 235 Bowery in New York City. 

Photo: Taken from Mother, Métis, Memory

Kim Thái, shares the story of how her parents Chánh and Phượng Thái met, fell in love, and began their journey as husband and wife, only to get separated by the aftermath of the war in Việt Nam. During the height of the war, her father was stationed abroad, and made the decision to return to Việt Nam to be with his wife and baby, even though many had advised him not to. Upon his return, her father was imprisoned in a re-education camp, everything was taken from them and her mother had to find a way to raise their child alone. Their story is one that proves above all else, love prevails through war, separation, and hardship, even when all odds are stacked against you. This episode celebrates 50 years of their love and marriage. 

This episode is directed and produced by VBP 2023 Mỹ Việt Story Slam storyteller Kim Thái, a writer and Emmy-award winning producer whose work can be seen on MTV, TED,  New York Magazine’s The Cut, Newsweek, and Buzzfeed. 

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Siblings Hương, Karin Hạnh, Hedda Hiếu, and Benjamin Hoàng Nguyễn grew up together in the San Francisco Bay Area in a boisterous Vietnamese American family. In 2019, their father, Nguyễn Khánh Hưng, a first-generation immigrant from Việt Nam, passed away. To pay tribute to their father, the siblings participated in our 3rd Annual Mỹ Việt Story Slam in 2022 with their spoken word piece, “Ngày Về Của Bố” (roughly, “The Day of Dad’s Return”), a reflection on grief and Vietnamese mourning rituals. In this special episode of Vietnamese Boat People, the Nguyễn siblings are at the helm as our first-ever guest hosts. They’ve brought their group dynamic and conversational style to Vietnamese Boat People’s format, in order to delve into their father’s life, legacy, who he was, and his unique and multifaceted experiences.

The siblings also host a podcast called Growing Up Nguyễn, a story of 4 siblings holding onto our identity while fulfilling our parents’ dreams: the blessings and challenges of being Nguyễn in America.

The Vietnamese Boat People’s fourth annual Mỹ Việt Story Slam celebrates stories from the Vietnamese diaspora, and explores the theme of Ba, Mẹ ơi. Five storytellers were selected from an open call for submissions, to share stories about their mom, dad, or someone they consider to be a parent-figure. This live, virtual event features Cindy Truong (Connecticut), Vanessa Nguyễn (New York), Kim Thai (New York), Geoff Vu (Liverpool), and Nicole Ngo (Sydney) with guest appearances from Jackie Nguyễn, entrepreneur and owner of CafeCaphe and filmmaker Bao Nguyễn. The event replay and featured stories can be viewed online at www.vietnameseboatpeople.org

Thank you to this year's Story Supporters: Qeep Up, VietFive Coffee, Key to Teas, Red Boat Fish Sauce, Hello to Chao, Quill Hawk Publishing, Media Vines, Traveling Calligrapher, Kahana Press, Contemporary Arts Network. 

Episode Credits

Kevin Truong was born in a refugee camp. His mom fled Việt Nam with his two older sisters, while two months pregnant with him. Kevin grew up in Oregon ashamed of his immigrant mother and how un-American their lives felt. For the past ten years Kevin has been working on a documentary called Mai American. The film is about a 70-year-old Vietnamese American refugee living in Oregon who writes down her life story, indelibly shaped by the War in Việt Nam. As she shares what she has written with Kevin, they begin separate but parallel journeys confronting the traumas of their past and the emotional divide in their present.The film is more than just a story about a Vietnamese refugee, or the immigrant experience, it is an American story and at the heart of it, a story about the relationship between a mother and a son. 

Mai American is one of five film projects participating in the 2023 DocPitch, a film pitching competition presented by the California Film Institute. https://www.doclands.com/docpitch-mai-american/

Buried Ruins is a play written by Vietnamese American actor and playwright, Carolina Đỗ . It started out as a series of interviews that Carolina did with her parents, over the course of almost nine years, and turned into a personal writing project about memory and wishful dreams. The play is centered around a series of torturously absurd family dinners interrupted by glitches of memories of the past. It is a reflection of Carolina’s own experiences about Vietnamese parents and daughters trying to get through to one another despite generational trauma and the force of cultural assimilation. The play premiered in a staged reading in New York City with an all Vietnamese team, both onstage and backstage. This episode features discussions with Carolina, "Buried Ruins" director Cara Hinh, and actor Bi Jean Ngo. The conversation delves into the making of "Buried Ruins", the process of learning about one's parents, and what it’s like to be Vietnamese American in the theater industry.

Note: This episode contains some adult language that may not be appropriate for all ages. 

Episode Credits:

Lisa Phu is an Alaska-based journalist and the creator of "Before Me", a limited series chronicling her mother’s journey to America. Lisa has always wanted to record her mom's story but never quite found the right moment, until she gave birth to her first child in 2016 and her mom came to care for them both. During that visit, Lisa's mom finally shared the real story about growing up in Cambodia, fleeing genocide by the Khmer Rouge, surviving as a gold dealer in Vietnam, building a home in America while navigating the fallout and traumas of war… and carrying the future of her children throughout the journey. Lisa shares her 5-year journey in making the series from the first day she pressed record to releasing the story, Before Me with Self Evident Media. 

"Before Me" is a 5-part story that follows one woman’s life, from Cambodia to America, over the course of decades. But it’s also a long overdue conversation between mother and daughter about their family’s history — through war and violence, separation and loss, endings and beginnings. To make Before Me, Lisa was awarded an Individual Artist Grant from the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council and did a residency at Alderworks Alaska Writers & Artists Retreat. She was an AIR New Voices scholar in 2017 and an AIR Edit Mode fellow in 2021.

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PodSwap with Self Evident podcast!

Before Me is a limited series launched by Self Evident with Alaska-based journalist Lisa Phu, chronicling her mother’s journey from Cambodia to America over the course of decades. The story unfolds between Lisa and her mother Lan as the two care for Lisa's first born daughter — and for the first time, Lan feels ready to share her own experiences fully with Lisa, on tape. But it’s also a long overdue conversation between mother and daughter about their family’s history — through war and violence, separation and loss, endings and beginnings. Because while we may never fully understand the reality of those who came before us, every story is a chance to get closer. 

Listen to the full show at Self Evident podcast

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This episode contains topics on abuse.

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