Anyone who is either old enough to have lived through the Vietnam War or is from Vietnam would be familiar with the term, Amerasian. Of course, I'm referring to Vietnam War babies of racially mixed parentage. In Vietnamese, the given term is
con lai, which literally means "half breed child". There are about 60,000 Amerasians from the Vietnam War. I'm an Amerasian, myself.
Whenever the subject of Amerasians is touched upon, automatically a sad image of abandoned, mistreated children of American GIs that were left behind in Vietnam comes about and how they had to face the hardships of growing up fatherless, in some cases even motherless, as well, in a homogeneous oppressive society where they were often the targeted victims of racism and social injustice. We've all heard the countless horror stories told by the Amerasians and their experiences in Vietnam. The American mainstream mass media has also done its fair share to bring light to these atrocities. From the American mainstream's standpoint, some were deeply affected when they first became aware of the difficult circumstances that these children of American servicemen had to face in Vietnam when, as a matter of fact, they are Americans by law. I doubt that the intentions behind the media covering this issue were to seek pity for Amerasians, but in the end the outcome was just that. The responses from viewers and/or readers of such articles and features on Amerasians varied from "I am so sorry for what they've been through" to "Shame on those racist Vietnamese! Why should them yellow folks be racist to Amerasians, yet come to America expecting equality?" and of course, "I just saw my daughter for the first time on that television program." These were the letters I had read, forwarded, and replied to when I was a volunteer worker at Amerasian Services Organization. Occasionally, we even received hate mail from both mainstream America, as well as the Vietnamese-American community. A few mainstream American viewers found these mass media features as ammunition to further their hatred toward the Vietnamese race for being racist toward Amerasians. And several Vietnamese-Americans even responded with their disapproval of how the Vietnamese race had been portrayed unfairly and erroneously for being racists. As one Vietnamese-American viewer had put it, "Vietnamese people are not racist. That is not in our culture. We just don't like how all these children had mothers that were prostitutes who had babies with American GIs, especially with Black American men." Some letters were just downright vicious and written in extreme poor taste. While others I had to just laugh off, and consider them as humorous.
Was the purpose of these Amerasians coming forward and sharing their stories to seek pity? Absolutely not. I do know about the racism that Amerasians faced in Vietnamese society. I have seen the struggles some of my fellow Amerasians have had to go through, and I've listened to many of them share with me their own personal stories. Luckily, I hadn't experienced the same hardships that many of my fellow Amerasian friends had to endure in Vietnam, since I was fortunate enough to have been able to leave Vietnam shortly after the Fall of Saigon and my mother and I had resettled abroad while I was still at a very young age. But because I am also Amerasian, I certainly can empathize when I hear other Amerasians share their stories. I am easily moved by them. With each Amerasian's story that has been told to me, I can't help but think to myself, "That could have been me." It's a reminder for me of how blessed I have been for having had the opportunity to come live in America at a young enough age so that it was still possible for me to acquire my command of the English language and speak English like a native. For some unexplained reason, whenever I come across another fellow Amerasian, I sense a connection as if they were all my siblings. I can't explain it. But it's like we are kindred spirits, I suppose. But I've noticed this with others, as well, and not just myself. For some umysterious reason, Amerasians upon meeting one another for the first time instantaneously will develop a bond, as if we had known each other our entire lives. Why is there this innate bond among us Amerasians?
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Lilian - Pioneer Amerasian Singer
of the Overseas Music Industry |
When I entered the singing profession in the Vietnamese community, a slew of other Amerasian singers also started to appear onto the scene. Growing up, there was one Amerasian singer who had made her mark by the name of
Lilian. I remember the first time I saw Lilian perform was at a club in Orange County called Club Rex along with another Amerasian singer named Kathy Dung. I was then just seventeen years old. The way that these two girls looked on stage made them stand out from the rest of the Vietnamese singers that night. Lilian's explosive voice and high energy performance brought the house down. When I came by to say hi to the both of them, a simple hello led to a warm hug which only further supports my theory of this mysterious bond we Amerasians have for one another. Years later, I would become close friends with both of these Amerasian singers. As far as Amerasian singers go, Lilian and Kathy Dung should be given credit as the pioneers of Amerasian singers in the overseas Vietnamese music industry. I had heard of two other Amerasian singers that had made their mark back in Vietnam. The first being a singer named Kim Anh who had achieved national fame in the 1980s but was shot to death by her jealous husband at the peak of her career. The other was Phuong Thao who continued to live in Vietnam for many years passing up the chance to come live in the United States under the Amerasian Homecoming Act. In recent years, she would change her mind and relocated to the United States, but has since hardly participated much in her music career.
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| Jenny Trang and Thien Phu |
This slew of Amerasian singers I was talking about who first came onto the scene in the overseas Vietnamese music industry during the 1990s included
Randy,
Phi Nhung,
Thanh Ha, Luu Quoc Viet, Hoang Dung, Ngoc Anh,
Dai Trang, Danny Tuan, Lam Minh, Thuy Hang, Y Linh, Jenny Trang, and myself, Thien Phu. Having worked with, thus becoming friends with this group of talented Amerasian singers was like gaining a whole new family of brothers and sisters. Through these fellow Amerasian singers, I've learned more about the hardships they each faced having grown up in Vietnam being racially mixed.
The first close friendship I was able to form with another Amerasian singer was with Jenny Trang. Most people might recognize Jenny Trang for her portrayal of Amerasians in her song,
Kiep Con Lai, for May Productions. Though Jenny's father was an African-American servicemen, I never really saw much of a difference between us. We spent so much time travelling around the United States together, performing at shows, sharing hotel rooms, we were very much like brother and sister. Jenny was blessed with an incredible, electrifying voice. On every show that we had performed together, Jenny would have the ability to mesmerize the audience with her powerful stage presence
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| Thien Phu and the Late Luu Quoc Viet |
and husky singing voice. I really thought she was on her way to superstardom. But in the middle of it all, Jenny, sometime in the late 1990s after releasing her first solo album, decided to settle down and get married to an Anglo-American fellow by the name of John. Today, she is still happily married to John, who speaks Vietnamese just as well as any native speaker, and is the mother of three beautiful young daughters.
Through Jenny Trang, I became good friends with another Amerasian singer, Dai Trang. It's rather hard to believe, but Dai Trang and I have maintained our friendship for more than twenty years now. Not only am I close with Dai Trang, but I also consider her husband, Chau, as an adoptive older brother. Out of all my Amerasian friends, I must say that Dai Trang is the most driven. Throughout the course of our friendship, Dai Trang has managed to have a successful singing career, become a wife and mother, earn an MBA degree at UC Irvine, and also become a successful businesswoman running several different businesses with her husband. As I've always said, it's hard to keep up with Dai Trang. She's always running, while the rest of us are walking.
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| Thanh Ha |
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| Dai Trang |
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| Randy |
There are two Amerasian singers that I must give credit to for helping me regain interest in singing. Because of some personal matters, I had purposely put my career on hold and went on a seven years long hiatus from 2001-2008. When I attended the funeral of a good friend, fellow Amerasian singer, Luu Quoc Viet, in 2008, I ran into Randy. During this brief reunion for the two of us, Randy invited me to perform on a show in Oklahoma City, some benefit for Amerasians. This would be the first time I would walk on stage in seven years. Thanks to Randy, I was again bitten by the singing bug. Right around this time, I would also be reunited with another Amerasian singer friend, Thanh Ha. One thing I've always liked about my friend, Thanh Ha, is that she always tells it like it is. While everyone else wouldn't have the heart to tell me I had gained too much weight, Thanh Ha sat me down once and said, "Listen to me, Thien Phu, if you really want to go back into singing, since you still can sing, the first thing you must do is lose weight." When Thanh Ha and I first were reunited after so many years, I weighed at 236 pounds. I know I had put on weight. But I didn't realize the severity of it, until someone had to tell me. Thanh Ha helped push me with the determination I needed to lose all that weight. We became even closer than before. But after a period of a couple years, our lives caused a distance in our friendship. No matter what, I still consider her a good friend to this day. The image I have of Thanh Ha will always remain as a beautiful Amerasian girl who at one point was like a sister to me.
I can honestly say I've been fortunate not to have faced such discrimination being an Amerasian singer for Vietnamese audiences. The singing profession has allowed to meet many incredible people, in particular other Amerasians. While I'm aware that discrimination toward Amerasians from both Vietnamese, as well as from mainstream Americans do exist, I'm a bit puzzled as to why there is such discrimination especially from Vietnamese. After all, before there were us Amerasians, there were Eurasians from the French colonial era. I've met and worked with quite a few during all my years as a Vietnamese singer. Among these Eurasians from the French colonial era, there have been
Luu Hong,
Dung Thanh Lam, the late
Cai Luong performer and film actor,
Jeannie Mai, my late aunt, Pauline Ngoc, Marie Louise, Christiane Le and
Julie Quang, whose father was a French national of Indian origin. So when you think about it, Vietnamese people are not that homogenous as a race. There have been interracial Vietnamese people for centuries. What's so new and shocking with Amerasians? We clearly are in existence. Get used to it, because we're not going anywhere anytime soon.
Out of all the places in the world I've been to, I must say Paris has been my constant favorite. Since I'm a Vietnamese singer, I love singing wherever there are a lot of Vietnamese people. Paris certainly has its fair share of Vietnamese population. I remember the first time I performed in Paris. It was in the summer of 2008. What I loved the most was looking down from the stage seeing all the beautiful Vietnamese Parisians dressed in top-notched form. I had always been frightened of performing for an audience that spoke French fluently. I always thought that somehow they would disapprove of my French. That didn't happen. 
