Reflections on Vietnam

Just as I needed to meet my family in Cambodia to feel related to them, I needed to come to Vietnam to understand its part in my heritage. Ma’s mom was born in Chinatown in Saigon. She was adopted at the age of six by a Chinese family living in Cambodia. Up until the age of six, she only spoke Vietnamese and Chinese. After arriving to Cambodia, she dropped the Vietnamese exchanging it for Cambodian instead. A Vietnamese neighbourhood has sprung up in Santa Ana, California. When grandma shops there now, some of her Vietnamese comes back to her. It’s like Vietnam never really left her. It was just asked to be forgotten, but she still remembers her birthplace. And now we do too.

While grandma was born in Saigon, she is only 50% of Vietnamese descent; her mother was Vietnamese while her father was Chinese. Since grandma married grandpa whose ancestors were all Chinese, ma is 25% Vietnamese. Since ma married pa whose parents were born in China, Van and I are 12.5% Vietnamese.

That said, according to locals, ma looks one hundred percent Vietnamese. The locals enjoy conversing with ma (or attempting to anyway). When they hear me call her “mommy”, they call her “mom”. “Mom, it only cost 4 dollar US, that very good price.” Exhausted by the negotiation process, ma has actually become quite good at demanding prices. “Four dollar too expensive; two dollar I take it.” For the first time, I actually feel like a part of me comes from here…