Vietnam - Closing Years of The Vietnam War

Amidst the closing years of the Vietnam War, I was born in Haiphong, North Vietnam’s major port. When I was just a month old, U.S. Navy jets began bombing my city, and my family quickly fled to the countryside. Unable to take refuge in the U.S., my parents attempted to flee to Macau, but we were rejected. Instead, we took a small boat along the coast to China, where my parents managed to make a living farming. However, as Chinese nationals, we weren’t recognized as citizens of either Vietnam or China.

Seeking a better life, we eventually left mainland China for Hong Kong. The journey by boat took a month, and the only payment accepted was gold bars. Hong Kong accepted us as refugees, and we stayed at the Kai Tak refugee camp for two years. In 1982, when I was ten, we were finally granted asylum in the United States.

Upon arrival in Brooklyn, NY, we had little compared to our former life in Vietnam, where my family had owned a supermarket. I didn’t know any English and had no formal education. In public school, I struggled to follow classes and communicated mostly through drawings. Math was the only subject I could work on, as numbers were universal.

Gradually, I began to pick up English, though I was held back a year in 7th grade. By then, the school offered a special program for non-native speakers, helping me catch up. When I graduated middle school, I was surprised to receive a plaque of scholarship as one of two students to be recognized. To this day, I’m not sure why I received it, but perhaps my efforts were enough to be noticed.