Lit Talk: Author Bich Minh Nguyen

It is somewhat astounding and certainly a blessing that we can count Bich Minh Nguyen (pronounced Bit Min New-win) among today’s authors when one considers her early life.

When she was 1-year-old, her Vietnamese family fled Saigon on April 29, 1975, the night before it fell. Nguyen now teaches literature and creative writing at Purdue University, published a memoir entitled Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, in which she tells the story of cultural identity through food, and will release a novel entitled Short Girls soon.

Below is an excerpt from an interview by Tommy Nguyen of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop with the very personable Bich Minh Nguyen, who talks about her memoir, heritage, and appetite.

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Tommy Nguyen: There seems to be a very common coming-of-age setting for the very first wave of Vietnamese American children: '70s hand-me-down clothing, '80s pop and new wave music, Buddig luncheon meat and Pringles. Tell me about the socio-economic realities of that particular time and how they helped define this generation of Vietnamese Americans.

Bich Minh Nguyen: Can I ask you where you grew up?

Tommy Nguyen: I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, until I was five years old, and then my family moved to Orange County, California, in the early 1980s.

Bich Minh Nguyen: It's just really interesting hearing where other people resettled after the refugee camps. In my mind, all the lucky people got to go to California. But I think I know more people who resettled in small, more [Middle-American] towns. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, the work that was available to immigrants or refugees was factory work. My dad did that for many years, and so did my uncles, even though they were trained to do other work in Vietnam. My dad, for example, was going to be an eye doctor. But in Grand Rapids, my dad worked in a feather factory, and that smell of feathers was on him whenever he came home. I knew, always, even as a little girl, that this was blue-collar work. I didn't know the word "blue-collar" back then, but I somehow knew it was blue-collar in the pejorative sense of the word. Most of my classmates' fathers did not work in factories. So very often I felt the class difference, which was compounded by the racial and ethnic differences. Children learn right away what the status symbols are. For example, I knew that generic cookies were very shameful, and I thought about these symbols a lot because I felt they prevented me from fitting in. My stepmother really wanted us to have free school lunches, but we were just above the qualifying level. That was her reality-- she saw it as "trying to get by." I didn't see it that way. I read so much as a girl, and I had these fantastical visions from--well, British literature, frankly. I felt that there was this other, better world out there. And I was stuck in this one.

Tommy Nguyen: Tell me more about your obsession with food, and how that influenced your understanding of class and culture as a young girl.

Bich Minh Nguyen: Let me start off by saying, Vietnamese food in Grand Rapids, up until very recently, was just strange. All the Vietnamese shops were in a particular part of town, totally segregated. We were the only ones in our neighborhood who were Vietnamese and cooked this "weird food." I had a very strong sense that it was not normal. Of course, I would never want to invite my friends over; they were always white girls. I was afraid they would think I was gross-- I think "gross" was a word that was used quite often back then. Secretly, I loved my grandmother's food. But I would never bring her food to school; that would be like wearing a "Kick Me" sign.

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You can check out the full interview here. Nguyen will be reading at Women and Children First next week.

Wednesday, August 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Women & Children First

5233 N. Clark St.

Chicago, IL 60640773.769.9299

--Emmaline Silverman

Photo: Nguyen's site