In this episode of our cultural adventure series, May finds a curious watermelon that connects her to her Vietnamese heritage and herself.

This story is inspired by the Vietnamese folktale, The Watermelon Prince. It is the story of a king’s adopted son who gets banished to a faraway island after the king’s biological son spreads vicious rumors about the adopted one. It is on the island that the son discovers the watermelon. One day, he carves a message of love to his adopted father in the watermelon and throws it in the ocean, so that someone else may discover it. It washes up on the shores of  Vietnam and is taken to the king.  The king sees the message and discovers the truth: that the rumors about his adopted son were not true. Two weeks after that, a ship sent by the king brings his son back to the palace where he eventually becomes king of Vietnam and rules to the end of his days.

This podcast was produced by Studio Ochenta for TRAX on PRX. May and May The Driver were voiced by Vicky Nguyen, Stephanie was voiced by Helen Chhea, Mrs. Nguyen was voiced by Hua Szu Yang and May’s Mom was voiced by Lory Martínez.

Special thanks to the Cultureverse editorial team for this episode, Ty Nguyen and Liz Kleinrock for advising on elements from Vietnamese culture.

Transcripts and additional resources to learn more about Vietnamese folklore are available at ochentastudio.com/cultureverse.