In week 4, our theme is with respect to “Sleeping with the Enemy and War Babies”, and I specifically focus on the reading “From Dust to Gold: The Vietnamese Amerasian Experience” by the author, Kieu-Ling Caroline Valverde. After I read through the whole reading, I had to admit that this article really moved me and touched the bottom of my heart. It provides the whole experience for those Amerasian with half Vietnamese and half American after the Vietnamese War, and the idea of whether and how the United States or Vietnam should take the responsibility for them. After Vietnamese War, most of the Amerasian, abandoned by their fathers who left Vietnam and returned to the United States, lived with their mothers, and yet such a terrible single-parent situation didn’t cease imminent social consequences for Amerasian. Stereotype and discrimination were considerably severe in Vietnam after war, in particular in school and workspace. Many Amerasian couldn’t complete the education in school and dropped out in light of the fact that they couldn’t tolerate those gossip and humiliation when staying or talking with local Vietnamese. Because of this, Amerasian on average became less educated than those “normal” Vietnamese, and meanwhile they had to suffer from being questioned and isolated by the public in regard to their real identity. Even though the United States finally offered them the right to immigrate after 1982, the Amerasian community still had plenty of problems there, such as accommodating American Culture and creating positive influences in US, etc.
The article is very profound and articulated by analyzing the lives of Amerasian in both the Vietnam and the United States, and I can feel the hardship of life for those descendent after the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, I am glad that these offspring could eventually have the opportunity to find their “fathers” in America. Although Amerasian still have more problems in the United States, I still believe that the Amerasian community will procure more flourished future. God blesses them.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/557461260119383115/
Picture: A group of Amerasian children in Saigon after their fathers abandoned them
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