I Can Identify

Being adopted from China I can identify with some of the things Bich went through. She went to a school she described as "a sea of blonde". At Christian High most people are Dutch, or at least someone in their family is. A lot of the kids have very Dutch last names beginning with Van or Vander. She talked about sticking out, all of my friends are Dutch and when standing next to them my black hair and darker skin is accentuated by their pale complexions and light hair. It doesn't really bother me that much because I'm used to it, and we don't really talk about it. She also talks about how when she was out with her family people would stare at them and say things like: Don't you know how to speak English. When I'm out with my family people sometimes stare at us too but for different reasons. We get stared at because my parents and little brother are Caucasian and my little sister and I are Asian. Bich's family got stared at because they were Asian in a Caucasian world. When I was first adopted someone actually asked my mom if I could ever learn to speak English. I can understand how she felt when people would say stuff like that and stare. Bich went back to Vietnam years later with one of her uncles and her Grandma. They were all spoke Vietnamese very fast and she wasn't able to keep up. All her relatives thought of her as American though she looked Vietnamese, Americans thought of her as Vietnamese because that's what she looked like. When my family and I went to China it was like that for me too. People would speak to me in Chinese and I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying. During that trip I realized how American I really am. When she went to Vietnam she realized how American she was. That's also why I found this book so interesting, I can identify with Bich in a lot of ways.

Vietnamese Food

Phở

All throughout the book Bich mentions a lot of Vietnamese food. One thing they eat with almost every meal is white rice. The funny thing is, the cook who worked in the Holiday Inn restaurant didn't know how to make it when her grandmother asked for it once. She talks about Phở, which is a noodle soup with clear broth. On Tet (Vietnamese New Year) they eat special food including Bánh chưng a sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves and stuffed with mung bean paste and black pepper. I have tried this before and in my opinion it's fairly good, I like the sticky consistency of the rice. They also eat Bánh bao, which are doughy white balls stuffed with sweet Chinese sausage. When Bich's family learns that her step mom is pregnant they throw a big party. There is lots of special food prepared for it in advance. Some of it includes Chả giò, deep fried flour rolls filled with pork, yam, crab, shrimp, rice vermicelli, mushrooms, and other ingredients. Also Gỏi cuốn, rice paper rolls that often include shrimp, herbs, pork, rice vermicelli and other ingredients wrapped up and dipped in nước chấm or peanut sauce. I've never had those but they look really good and I want to try them sometime. Bánh xèo are savory pancakes made of rice flour, water, turmeric powder, and stuffed with slivers of fatty pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts which is all then pan fried. There is of course lots of other food, but Bich wrote an entire book talking about it so clearly this blog post would go on for too long. All the things she mentions you can now easily cook at home. You can search for all these recipes online and come up with multiple results. The ingredients can be found at a plethora of Asian markets in the Grand Rapids area. For the less adventurous there are different Vietnamese restaurants in the Grand Rapids area as well, including Lai Thai Kitchen. 


To learn more about Vietnamese food visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_cuisine
http://www.vietnamese-recipes.com/

Chả giò

Bánh bao

Bánh xèo 

Developing Tastes

Bich eats a lot of Vietnamese and Mexican food, obviously because she and most of her family are Vietnamese and she eats Mexican because her step mom and sister are Mexican. She likes it but what she really wants to eat is what everyone else eats. While reading this I figured out that as a kid she struggles with not fitting in. She doesn't look like everyone else, have a name like everyone else, basically she wasn't a middle class Dutch person.  She thinks that if she eats what everyone else eats she will fit in. Anyways, because of this she ends up spending most of her time daydreaming about American food, mainly of the preprocessed persuasion. She wanted the food that the other kids had: Bundt cakes and casseroles, Cheetos and Doritos. "My secret dream was to bite off just the tip of every slice of pizza in the two-for-one deal we got at Little Ceasar's." She also memorized the menu at Dairy Cone, the sugary options in the cereal aisle at Meijer's, and every inch of the candy display at Gas City. In short she was obsessed with unhealthy American food. She knew almost every kind of candy, including: Bubble Yum, Bubbbalicous, Hubba Bubba, Chewels, Tidal Wave, Big League Chew and gum shaped like hot dogs and hamburgers. She knew more than gum though, there was Reese's peanut butter cups, Twix, Heath Crunch, Baby Ruth, Bar Non, Oh Henry!, Mounda and Almond Joy, Watchamacallit, Chunky, Charleston Chew, and Dolly Madison. Plus WAY more the list goes on for an entire page! Some of the stuff she memorized and liked I've never even heard of. Such as Watchamacallit, apparently it's "peanut flavor crisp".

Reading an interview on Bich's website I realized that my observation was correct. She did think that eating the food everyone else had would make her a middle class Dutch. As an adult Bich acknowledged that, and doesn't find some of the foods as appealing anymore. She has developed a taste for the finer chocolates and handmade sweets.


To read the rest of the interview with Bich visit:
http://www.bichminhnguyen.com/q-a/

80's Culture

Bich grew up in the 80's. The 80's are described as the "spendthrift" 80's. During this time there were lots of weird fads.

Toys: Smurfs, Nintendo, PAC Man, Gameboy, Atari, Rubik's Cubes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Barbie, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Hacky-sacks, My Little Pony, Slip-n-Slide, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and many more.

Fashion: Legwarmers over jeans, neon, jelly shoes, Scrunch Socks, Spandex, friendship bracelets, slap bracelets, big hair bows, Nike, jean jackets, parachute pants, and weirder stuff.

Music and Movies: ET, Michael Jackson, Schoolhouse Rock, Raging Bull, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Amadeus, The Empire Strikes Back, Airplane, The Princess Bride, Madonna, Billy Joel, Whitney Houston, Cher, Chicago, Purple Rain, and LOTS more.

 

TV: Scooby Doo, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The A Team, Knight Rider, Care Bears, Mork and Mindy, M*A*S*H, Laverne and Shirley, Family Ties, and others.

 

It's interesting looking at just some of the things that were popular back then. Some of the fashions seem horrible in my opinion, but then again some are also coming back. Also some of the movies and TV shows that were popular, still are like Scooby Doo and The Princess Bride. Things that were popular and new in the 80's now are categorized as some classics. This is just a look at some of the American culture during Bich's time.

Comparing Grand Rapids

A sea of blond Dutch kids

The Grand Rapids Bich knew, and the Grand Rapids I know are both similar and different. From her point of view Grand Rapids and her school was a sea of blond. Which to this day is still fairly true, my school happens to be mostly a sea of blond. She mentions that most people in Grand Rapids were Dutch descendants, Christian Reformed, and conservative (most also have ties to Calvin College) that is also fairly true today. She also talks about the DeVos and VanAndel families pouring million of dollars into Grand Rapids. They continue to do so with different hospitals and research centers. She recalls the beginning of the construction of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel which is still here today and running strong, though they have made some changes. She mentions going to Celebration on the Grand, Festival of the Arts, and the Fourth of July fireworks. Being raised in Grand Rapids I have been to Festival, Fourth of July fireworks, Celebration on the Grand, and the Amway Grand Plaza. The fourth of July fireworks are some of the best fireworks around. Festival and Celebration on the Grand are also really fun to go to and hang out at with all the booths and things. One thing that Grand Rapids has now that wasn't there in Bich's time was Art Prize, which exhibits art people from all around have made. Another fancy hotel has also been added right next to the Amway, the JW Marriott, and is just as luxurious. Although Grand Rapids is still fairly Dutch there also seems to be more diversity and Asian and other ethnic restaurants than she said. Refugees and immigrants have brought their culture to West Michigan. We now have things like Asian schools, Chinese Culture Clubs, the celebration of other cultural holidays, plus many other things. Bich also commented on the people in East Grand Rapids with their big houses and Brady Bunch like families with maids. Much of that seems to be true today. Another thing she comments on is Meijer Thrifty Acres, which is now just Meijers. She went to the one on 28th street which is right by my school. In those times it sold things in bulk which was a new idea. It also sold mainly American food. If you go to Meijer now, you will notice it's just called Meijer, not Meijer Thrifty Acres. There is also an entire section devoted to international food, including some of the food she would have known and loved. I personally like when my mom shops from that section because she brings home lychees and shrimp sticks which taste amazing.  Regardless of the time, Grand Rapid is still Grand Rapids even though some things have changed.

Immigrating Into the United States

Camp Chaffee, one of the refugee camps

Back in the 1970s immigrating to the United States was a hard process. People coming over from Vietnam who were on U.S. planes or ships were taken to refugee camps. Once at the refugee camps they had to wait until a family would sponsor them. Life in the camps consisted of standing in meal lines, playing cards, hoping for sponsors, and sitting around the tents and barracks wondering what their new lives would be like. There were things to do at the camp though other than playing cards, though that would be fun. At Fort Chaffee Westark Community College (now the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith) set up different classes, including one teaching English. Different forms of entertainment were also provided, such as a rodeo and a 4th of July celebration. The point of the 4th of July celebration was to teach the refugees to have some American ideals.

Children playing at a refugee camp

The roles of sponsor families were to help refugees find homes, jobs and to also help understand American culture. Bich's sponsor family's dad was described as a person who wore wide sport coats and had yellow hair. He set them up with a rental house, some groceries, and some hand me down clothes for Bich and her sister Anh. Bich and her family didn't really see much of their sponsor. In my opinion they should have seen more of their sponsor family. The family could have taught and showed them how to fit in to the American life style more than they did. This being said the family didn't have to sponsor refugees. West Michigan has been known to show kindness and compassion to people in crisis. Reaching out in our Christian beliefs to help those in need. Being Jesus' hands we have helped many people around the world; this includes the Vietnamese refugees and some of the lost boys of Darfur. While we need to learn to help them more I'm still proud that at least we help those in need.

For more info on life in refugee camps or more about the CRC willingness to help those in need visit: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5562
http://www.crcna.org/pages/foundation_projects.cfm

Vietnam War

The reason Bich and her family had to leave Saigon was because the Vietnam war was coming to its end and the North Vietnamese were invading South Vietnam. The Vietnam war was North Vietnam with their communists allies and South Vietnam who was supported by the U.S and other anti-communist forces in that region. The reason the United States became involved in this war was because they didn't want South Vietnam to be taken over by communists and it was a part of their wider strategy of containment. Containment was a strategy to stop the spread of communism around the world. We failed in this instance. In the United States the war was very unpopular. People wanted U.S troops out of Vietnam and when they did leave some Vietnamese who were friendly to Americans were allowed to immigrate to the United States. The end result of the war was the North Vietnamese won. That brought with it the unification of North and South Vietnam with North Vietnamese rule. Communist rule also took over Cambodia and Laos. Another result is the huge number of casualties; more than 2,094,200 soldiers from both sides and around 420,000 to 2,500,000 civilians. This war is particularly interesting to me because my Grandpa was in the Navy at this time and was stationed off the coast of Vietnam. We also just learned about the strategy of containment in my American History class.

To find out more information about the Vietnam War visit: http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/

Many Americans protested the Vietnam War

U.S. soldiers 

Some of many civilian casualties 

Escaping Saigon

Vietnamese struggle to get aboard evacuation ships that will take them  to the United states.

On April 29, 1975 Bich Nguyen and her father, grandmother, sister, and two uncles fled Vietnam, the night before the city fell. That night everyone was trying desperately to leave. People were doing everything they could to get away from the North Vietnamese. Bich's family found a ship and jumped on it not knowing exactly where they were going, just somewhere in the United States.

On the morning of April 29 the last helicopters rose from the roofs of the American Embassy.

There were many different ways to leave South Vietnam before the communists took over. One way was the United States initiated Operation Babylift which airlifted children out of Vietnam. Over the course of April it would carry away more than two thousand children. The United States also had another program called Operation New Life, this was for Vietnamese refugees to be relocated to the United States. Wealthy Vietnamese used bribes to get any possible way out. Airports were mobbed. People would do anything to try and leave, some went to the point of giving their babies away to American soldiers who were departing. Escaping Saigon was difficult to do and if accomplished, still left people in countries unfamiliar to them and for many, with little money or possessions.

For more information about things mentioned in the blog visit: http://www.adoptvietnam.org/adoption/babylift.htm
http://www.vnafmamn.com/black_april.html

Bich and her family were just one of many people who fled Saigon during that time. To read or watch different people's stories about it visit:
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/content/vietnamese-immigrant-recalls-story-her-escape
http://www.refugeestories.org/stories/
http://archives.cbc.ca/society/immigration/topics/524/