Author: Ancy Lee
Born in Vietnam, my six siblings, including myself, lived in a Chinese town called “Cholon.” Cantonese was the business dialect that even the native Vietnamese learned to speak. Many of the Vietnamese natives sent their children to Chinese schools. Vietnamese and Chinese have many cultural similarities, but oddities remain between them that deny intermingling. It was not unusual for the Vietnamese to be jealous of the Chinese. They hurled name-calling such as “you bully” to their Chinese neighbours, meaning that the Chinese occupied their jobs, land, and economy. In the 1970s, the Chinese controlled 60% or more of the Vietnamese economy. A Chinese person’s impression of his Vietnamese neighbours was usually a lack of courtesy and honesty. He thought they were poor money managers who often outspent their income and were tangled in debts and poverty. For instance, they would feast over all their savings over a banquet but lived on two patties of rice and a small cup of soya sauce the next day. They would send their children for groceries with their last remaining coins. This shortsighted and impulsive spending enslaved them in perpetual debt. Similarly, people nowadays with endless credit card debts are held captive by the same impulses and enslavements.
Hard-Working and Generous
I respect my parents’ business practices. They allowed no-interest loans to our neighbours when they could not fully pay for our textile products. Although my mother had zero formal education, her quick mind mastered the basic arithmetics of multiplications and divisions. She also served as our family’s textile retail business’s de facto accountant. My parents diligently opened their shop in the morning and closed it for afternoon inventory work. In the evening, my mom would carry the account books to visit our neighbours to collect outstanding balances. I remembered once that my mom was in a nearby alley to collect debts from a soft drink shop owner. The conversation between our neighbour and mom escalated due to miscommunications. When Dad heard the elevated yells and complaints, he thought a quarrel might break out. Dad immediately ran to mediate the situation while holding our 2 years old baby sister in his arms, and I followed along. Our neighbour thought Dad was coming to fight and raised a glass bottle to throw at Dad. Dad fled with Mom before him, and I was the last. Dad was fleeing so desperately that he lost one of his slippers. I fled closely behind Dad. In that panicky split second, a glass bottle was flung forcefully and shattered between Dad and me. Fortunately, it missed hitting either of us.
Racial Conflict
A Chinese gangster ring roamed about an alley opposite our alley. Our neighbouring alley had a Vietnamese gangster ring. The two groups gang-fought each other frequently. I witnessed once the Vietnamese group chased the Chinese group carrying wooden clubs, monkey bars, and meat cleavers. It only ended after the Chinese group fled into their alley and latched shut the alley gate. Our alley’s Vietnamese neighbours came out and yelled at the cowardly fugitives. The Chinese neighbors were quiet. They turned off their lights and closed their windows and doors, fearing they would be implicated—no wonder we Chinese were mocked as a dis-united mess. The Vietnamese people had a united will and extended helping hands to one another.
Fearing God is a True Blessing
The Bible reminds people to fear Jehovah as God and Lord. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth—he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do” (Psalm 33:12-15). But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, (Psalm 33:18).NIV
Author: Mrs. Thuyen-Anh (Ancy) Lee was born in Vietnam. She immigrated and was educated in Sweden as a teenager. Her profession was social work until she married Pius in 1994. The couple responded to the calling to be ministers and relocated to NY in 2023.
“[Interesting Adventures] Cultural Divide” NYSTM Truth Monthly, September, 2023.
nystm.org/nytm0923-10/