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blished in 1992 by

utledge
I imprint of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
West 35 Street
'w York, NY 10001

.blished in Great Britain by Contents

,utledge
New Fetter Lane
,ndon EC4P 4EE

>pyright © 1992 by Trinh T Minh-ha

·twork and Jacket Design by: Jean-Paul Bourdier (detail from The Third Eye)
List of Illustrations, Filmography and
terior text design by: Karen Sullivan VII
Distribution
I photo designs by: Jean-Paul Bourdier

Film Scripts
I rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
ilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now
1. Naked Spaces-Living Is Round 3
lown or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
ly information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
)m the publishers.
2. Surname Viet Given Name Nam 49
brary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

inh, T Minh-Ha (Thi Minh-Hal, 1952- 3. Reassemblage 95

Framer framed / by Trinh T Minh-Ha.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-415-90561-3 (HB) 0-415-90562-1 (PB)
Interviews
1. Trinh, T Minh-Ha (Thi Minh-Ha), 1952--lnterviews. 2. Motion pic-
ture plays. I. Title. 111
4. Film As Translation: A Net with No Fisherman
PN1998.3. T76A3 1992
with Scott McDonald
791.43'0233'092-dc20 91-42876
CIP

5. From A Hybrid Place 137

itish Library Cataloguing in publication data also available
with Judith Mayne
v
 5

From a Hybrid Place

with Judith Mayne

Mayne: One of the things I admire about your work- your fi"ll11s as well as your book
Woman, Nati ve, Other-is that it resists any easy ca tegories. Your book is a work of theory,
but it is very poetic: the reader has a different relationsh ip to it than is usually the case in
theoretical writing. Your fi"lms are obviously not documentaries in any classic sense, and it's
1I0taccurate to call th em "commentaries" 011 the documentary genre either. Could you talk
about this resistance to categoriza tion that seems to be a crucial part of your work)

Trinh: I am always working at the borderlines of several shifting categories,

stretching out to the limits of things, learning about my own limits and how to
ll'Iodify them . The book, for example , was completed in 1983. It took me that long
to find a publisher. Ironically enough (although not s urprisingl y), what I went
through in submitting it for publication seemed to be sadly consistent with certain
realities of women's writing and publishin g, which I discussed in its very
first Chapter. The book was rejected by no less than thirty-three presses. The kind

Inte rview conducted by Judith Mayne in May 1990, when Surname Viet Given Name Naill was screened at
the Wexne r Cen ter for th e Arts. First published as "Feminism, Filmmaking and Postcolonial ism: An In -
:erView with Trinh T Minh-ha ," in Feminisms, September-October (part /) and November-December (part
I) 1990; and in Aflefllllase 18, no . 5, December 1990.

137
138 Interviews A Hybrid Place 139

of problems it repeatedly encountered had precisely to do with marketable Cate_ onstitutes the site where the very idea of a discipline, a specialization, and an
gories and disciplinary regulations; in other vvords, with conformist borders. Not expertise is challenged. No single field, profession, or creator can "own" it.
only was the focus on postcolonial positionings and on women of color as a Subject e I never think of my films as specifically documentary or fictional, except when I
and as subjects of little interest to publishers then, but what bothered them mOst send them off to festivals. Then I have to choose my jury It is with this jury in mind
was the wri ting itself. that I place the film in a category For years, no matter which one I chose, it seemed
For academics, "scholarly" is a normative territory that they own all for them_ as if I constantly made the "wrong" selection. When I chose "documentary," I knew
selves, hence theory is no theory if it is not dispensed in a way recognizable to and the problem would have to do with what people expect from a documentary and
validated by them. The mixing of different modes of writing; the mutual challenge the ensuing rigidity of criteria. Most of these specialized jurors not only had diffi-
of theoretical and poetical, discursive and "non-discursive" languages; the strategic culty in accepting my films as documentaries but also hardly considered them befit-
use of stereotyped expressions in exposing stereotypical thinking; all these attempts ting the social, educational, or ethnographic categories. The same problem occurred
at introducing a break into the fixed norms of the Master's confident prevailing when I opted for "film art" or "experimentaL" because jurors of such a category
discourses are easily misread, dismissed, or obscured in the name of "good writ- tend to see "experimental" as a genre on its own rather than as a critical venture
ing," of "theory," or of "scholarly work." I was continually sent back and forth from working upon "genre" itself. Many still hold on to a mystical concept of "visionary
one publisher to another-commercial, academic, and small presses-each one art," and any preoccupation with or attempt at exposing ideology is rejected as "cor-
equally convinced in its kind suggestions that the book would fit better in the other rupt"-Iacking pure vision, hence being no real Art. Now it seems that as my work
marketing context. What transpired through all the comments I received was mainly is getting better known the categories become less important. But these used to be
that the work never quite corresponded to what these diverse publishers were something that completely limited the ground on which the films could circulate.
"looking for." Obviously, as they said, they were very interested in writings "from
the Third World," but this one "would not fit in the series" they had or were in the M: You mention the word "borderline" severn I times, and the immediate collnection tlwt
process of establishing. An editor of a small press specializing in creative writing cOllles to mind is Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera. That notion of a space in
seriously felt he was being helpful when he decreed "it's not good writing because between conventional opposing pairs has beell very important to the work of many womell of
it's too impure." color. I wonder how you see your OWIl work in relation to that of other women writers of
It was a depressing experience. But I accept it as part of the struggle that this color?
book is carrying on. I have to find a place for myself since I am at odds with all these
categories of writings and modes of theorizing. A straight counterdiscourse is no T: I really like Anzaldua's works, and I often quote her in my own writings. I don't
longer threatening. It ultimately contributes to things remaining in place, because it want to collapse all fights into one, however. I do realize the question of borderlines
tends more often than not to block critical thinking; it is unable to do much bu-t is particularly exigent in the Latina/Latino community because for many it remains
repeat itself through the same anti-repressive rhetoric of modernist ideology. Let's phYSically an acute, everyday experience. This being said, and without forgetting
take the example of a notion in vogue like "interdisciplinary" This notion is usually the specificities of each context, I also recognize the commonalities between that
carried out in practice as the mere juxtaposition of a number of different disciplines. border fight and the ones carried 06t, literally as well as figuratively, by women 01
In such a politics of pluralist exchange and dialogue the concept of "inter-" color across ethnicities and cultures.
(trans)formation and growth is typically reduced to a question of proper accumula- As in all struggles there are divergences among us; mostly in terms of strategy
tion and acquisition. The disciplines are simply added, put next to one another with and location, I would say, but sometimes also in terms of objective and direction.
their boundaries kept intact; the participants continue happily to speak within their What I understand of the struggle of women of color, however, is that our
expertise, from a position of authoritv. It is rare to see such a notion stretched to the and silences across difference are so many attempts at articulating this always-
limits, so that the fences between disciplines are pulled down. Borderlines emerging-already-distorted place that remains so difficult, on the one hand, for thE
then strategic and contingent, as thev constantly cancel themselves out. This "neW First World even to recognize, and on the other, for our own communities to accepl
ground, alvvays in the making, IS what interests me most in everything I do. It to Venture into, for fear of losing what has been a costly gain through past struggles.
140 Interviews A Hybrid Place 14 ;

To u nlearn the react ive language that promotes separatism and self-encl osu re b ople confid e ntly ta lk about earlier ve rsio n s that "were la te r elaborated in th!
essentializing a denied identity requires m are than willin gness and se lf-cri ticisl11. rook," but in fact th e book was written in its entirety long be fore an y of these "ar
don't mean simply to reject this la n g ua ge (a reactive front is at times necessa ry fOr tides" came o ut. After submitting these " excerpts" to journals, I recei ved detailec
consciousness to emerge) but rather to displace it and play with it , or to pl av it 0 comments from academic readers whose advice was sought by the concerned edi
. Ut
like a musical score. tors. Some of th e rea ders, indeed, had a maj or problem with the Zen material:
Many of the younger di aspo ric generation who come forth today, on th e artistic included, which th ey considered to be u seless in a theoretical context. They reactec
as well as the theoretical scene , ha ve voiced the ir discomfor t with any safeg uarding most scornfully, focusing on the " what " and turnin g a blind eye to the " how" -th,
of bou ndaries on either side of the bord er. This is precisely because the re pressed waY the materia ls are used and the inter-link s created (as with Ci xou s's feminism ir
complexities of the politics of identity have been fully exposed "Identi ty " has nO\\I example you m e ntioned ).
become more a point of departure th an a n end point in the stru gg le . So although I can understa nd such a reactio n , especiall y living in California . I think tha
we understand the necessity of ack no wledg in g thi s no tio n of iden tity in politicizing Zen-as it has sp read in the West , especially in the 60s, with prominent names likl
the personal , we also don 't wa nt to be limited to it. Dominated a nd marginalized John Cage, Alan Watts, Allen Ginsburg-has been m ys tified in its ver y demystify
people have been soc iali zed to see always mo re than their ow n po int of view. In the ing practices. (Thi s de s pite and not because of th e works of the individuals men
complex reality of postco lo nia lit y it is therefore vi tal to ass ume o ne's radical "impur- tioned.) Zen was recuperated into a dualistic and compartmentalized worldvie'v\-
ity" and to recognize the necess ity of speaking from a hybrid place , hence of saying Speaking again of cla ssifications and borders, you a re here either " ho listic" o r "ana
at least two, three thin gs a t a time . Iytical," but yo u ca n' t possibl y be both, because the two are made into absolute
antithetical sta nces. Zen has the gift to frustrate and infuriate the rati o nal mind
M: What's loosely called "Frellch theory" has o/1l'iollsly influenced YOII . which hurriedl y di smi sses it as simply o ne mo re form of m ys tification . So Zen ':
tenets are a rea l problem for a number of academics; but I m yself d o no t o perate
T: France colonized Vie tn a m for a lo ng time . Despite hav ing fiercely resisted the within such di visio n s, and I don't see why I have to be bound to them.
French colonials, som eone li ke Ho Chi Mi nh would admit that he preferred the cannot be reifi ed. It 's difficult to talk about it , no t o nl y because it escapes the prin
French mentality to th e American one. Colonialism reall y has a g rip o n its people. ciples of logic but a lso because "s piritual " it se lf is a n impossible term : di sinheritee
At a recent conference on African cinema in San Francisco, the Mauritania n film- and vacated in thi s soc iety of reificati o n , he nce no t easy to use without exactin!
maker Med Hond o star ted o ut saying a few lines in perfect English, but he imme- negotiation s. The first book I wrote in 1976-77, Un Art sans oeuvre (An art withou
di a tel y ruptured hi s speech by say in g that he was colonized {irst by th e French, and masterpiece, published in 1981 ), includ es a chap te r relatin g the works of Jacque:
he went on in French for the rest of the session' " French theo r v" is ce rtainlv part of Derrida and Antonin Artaud to th ose of Krishnamurti and Zen Buddhism . For m·
-
m y hybrid reality. a lth o ugh I would say it is only o ne part among o thers .
- many of Derrida 's th eories, includin g th e critique of the metaph ysics of presence
are forces tha t h ave been active in Zen and in o th e r forms of Buddhis m for centurie s
M: At one point in your book, cOlllmellt ins 011 the work of Helene CiXOII S, .11 011 say, "The So what he says is no t reall y " new," but th e way h e puts them into discourse, tho
One is the All and the All is the One; alld Ifet the One remains the One alld the All lile AI/. links he mak es, are. The weaving oi Zen in m y tex t is therefore n o t a "return to
Not tll'O , 110t One either This is what Zen 'has beell repeating for cellturies ." I thill k there is roots" but a grafting of several cultures ont o a single bod y-a n acknowledgment 0
sOlllethillg uery colltempla tive alJout your filllls alJd your writillg , a meditlltive qualit!/- 50' the heteroge neity of my own cultural backg round .
called "high theorists" neuer wan t to talk a/lout a spiritual elelllellt ill the text , bll t 1 se il Si'
that elemel/t very strollgly ill yOllr work-speCifically in the references to Zen , Imt /11ore M: This connects to one of the issues YOll discussed at the screening last Ilight, the notiol
generally in your approach to representat ioll. of "Ill'gativl' space."

T: This is a po int ha rdl y eve r discussed Since it took so long to find a publisher T: In my films th e no tion of negati ve space has always been crucial. The "object
for the book, 1 h ad to reso rt to other publis hing venues . Hence, some parts eX' Oriented camera " -a camera that focuses o nl y on ca tching the object a nd is eager te
ce rpted for this purpose had a ppeared here and there , in different journals. No\V objectify-obscures th e role of negati ve space. I don 't mean the ground behind th!
142 Interviews

filmed subject or the field surrounding it, but rather the space that makes both
composition and framing possible, that characterizes the wayan image breathes. To
see negative space as intensely as the figure and the field , instead of subjecting it to
the latter in cinematography, mise-en-scene, and narrativity, implies a whole differ_
ent way of looking at and of relating to things . This is not far from the notion of the
Void in Asian philosophies. People often don 't even know what you are talking
about when you mention the vitality of the Void in the relationships between object
and non-object , or between I and non-I. Again, they ma y think it's a form of mysti-
fication. This is a problem with reify ing, binarist thinking: emptiness here is not
merely opposed to fullness or objecthood; it is the very site that makes forms and
contents possible-that is, also inseparable.

M: ['m curialis how YOIl see your most recent film in relationship to your two previous
films, both of which depict the women of Africa and your relationship, as an Asian woman,
to Africa. I'm thinking here especially of the term "hybridization" that you used last night to
describe YOllr approach to filmmaking.

T: The title of the film-Slimame Viet Givell Name Nam-is taken from recent so-
cialist tradition. When a man encounters a woman, feels drawn to her, and wants
to flirt with her, he teasingly asks, "Young woman , are you married yet 7" If the
answer is negative , instead of saying no , she will reciprocate, "Yes, his surname is
Viet and his given name is Nam." In this apparently benign reply the nation-gender
relationship immediately raises questions. One of the recurring motifs in the film is
the wedd-ing, women being married: to a little boy or to a polygamous husband
through famil y arrangements; to the cause, the fatherland, the state; to a foreigner
bowing a la Vietnamese; then to a nati ve man in Western outfit. The predicament of
married women, which is woven here w ith the condition of single women insin-
uated or directly commented upon in poetry, proverbs, and popular stories, is un-
folded in contexts of Vietnam that cut across the times before, during and after the
revolution, including the periods of Chinese and French dominations, as well as the
shift to life in the Vietnamese community in the United States. As one interviewee
affirms toward the end of the film , whether a woman marries a foreigner or a Viet-
namese, her surname will always remain " Viet" and her given name "Nam." A
slight mutation of meaning occurs in that affirmation as it gets transferred from one
context to another.
The question of nation and gender is opened up in a multiply layered w ay. The
inquiry into identity provides another example. The latter can be said to develop In
the film through a (re)appropriation of the inappropriate(d) body-the relationS
indirectly built up between the problematics of translation; the multiple (re)namlng
144 Interviews A Hybrid Place 145

of a country; and the plural expropriation (owning, selling, humiliating, burning, themselves be mystified as heroines in postrevolutionar y times. In brief, it took her
exposing, glorifying) of women 's bodies . Translation, like identity, is a questi on of five years to collect the interviews in question .
grafting several cultures onto a single body. For exa mple , the name of Trieu ihi So in using some of the interviews in my film, the question for me is: Which truth
Trinh, one of the historical heroines who resisted Chinese domination , has at least doe.s one want to offer to the viewer? The truth that Mai spent five yea rs to ap-
five variations (heard and seen on screen); each of these is a different readin g, a proach, or truth that we can easily claim by .setting up an interview situation,
differen t emphasis of her attributes-her lineage (by her last name) , her gender and directing a microphone at a person (like myself nght now!) , and trying to skim the
age status, her leadership, or merely her simplicity. Similarly, each of the numerous cream off the an swers afterwards? The point at issue is somewhat different here ,
names used to designate Vietnam (also heard and seen on screen) relates to a hi s- however, because when an interview is recorded and transcribed for publication
torical period of the nation, thereby to th e diverse outside and inside influences that you can work on it, and the length of the interviewee's replies is usually respected.
have contributed to what is vi ewed as the Vietnamese culture. So hybridi za tion here But in film the problem of editing is much more acute, because you can't reword to
refers to a negotiation of the difference not merely between cultures, between First condense, nor can you add to clarify; you can only cut . And you cut what you want
World and Third World, but m ore importantly within the culture. This plural sin- people to be saying: you cut only the statement that will help you to make your
gularity and the problematizati on of the insider-outsider pOSition are precisel y what point. So there are certain kinds of unintended surface truth s that may emerge as
I have explored at length in m y previous films , although in a way that is h ard ly unique to the filmed interview situation, but there are also other kinds that can
comparable si nce it is so differently contextualized. never be accessible through this antiquated device of documentary-unless the ele-
ment of realism is worked on.
M: Olle of tiJe 1110st striking fea tu res of Surname Viet Given Name Nam is your explo- Perhaps one can find an example in a film like Chronique d'u n etc (Chronicle of a
mtion of diffe ren t modes of storytelling , or luhat yo u described last evening as two differen t Summer, 1961, by Jean Rouch), where an interviewer just pointed a microphone at
kinds of truth. people in the street, asking, "Are yo u happ y?" The shallow answers might have
been a reaction to such a question , but they also implied the shallowness of such an
T: Storytelling is an ongoing field of ex ploration in all of my works, hence a vast interview setup . The director must then "work on" this shallowness, that is, delib-
subject to dis cuss. I'm afra id I can only cover a few aspects of it here. The inter views erately acknowledge it in order to further the film 's inquiries . As spectators, our
originally carried ou t by Mai Thu Van in Vietnam were published in the book Viet- attitude toward interviews often proves to be naive . We tend to forget how tactical
nalll: 1111 pl?llple, des voi.\" (Paris: Pierre Horay, 1983. Vietnam: one people, many speech always is, no matter how naturally it seems to come out. To assume that
voices) . I ran across this book while browsing in a small bookstore in France some testimonies filmed on the site are de jure more truthful than those reconstructed off
yea rs ago . It was certainl y a discover y. I was very moved , both by the stories of the the site is to forget how films are made . Ever y representation of truth involves ele-
women interviewed and by the personal story of the author herse lf. Born in New ments of fiction, and the difference between so-called documentary and fiction in
Caledonia , she is a second-generation ex ile, her mother having been sent there by their depiction of reality is a question of degrees of fictitiousness. The more one
force to work in nickel mines because her village was among those that rose in tries to clarify the line dividing the two, the deeper one gets entangled in the artifice
rebellion against the French colonials. Mai came to Paris at the age of twenty-three of boundaries.
to wo rk and study and went to Vietnam in 1978 to research Vietnamese women, The making of Surname Viet allows the practice of interviews to enter into the
which resulted in the boo k me ntioned . Being a Marxist, she landed in Hanoi with play of the true and the false, the real and the staged. In the first part of the film,
"a plethora of images of liberated wo men who have disturbed old concepts to meet the interviews were selected, cut, and blueprinted for reenactment. A certain length
socialism," and her stay there , as she puts it, "had profoundly shaken [her] precon- of the speech and the image was deliberately kept to preserve the autonomy of each
ceived ideas as well as pu lve rized the stereotypes of [Vietnamese] women made up story as it unfolded and , paradoxically, to render perceptible the play on traditional
by the press." It took her tenacity and an almost morbid care for the truth to wa it realism . The latter becomes more and more manifest as the film progresses, until
for th e ice to melt, to develop trust in an atmosph ere of fear and suspicion, to take further on the viewer is presented with a series of "real" interviews with the same
the blows, and to accept the eye-opening realities of women who refused to let Women as in the first part, but in the explicit context of the U.s. The editing of these
146 IntenJiew5 A Hybrid Place 147

last inter views comes close r to the conventions of documentary as the s tatements M: Another killd of distance is the discrepallcy between written text and voice , sometimes
are chopped up , re distribut ed, and woven in the fil mic text w ith footage of the that the text is beillg performed.
women's " real " life-ac ti viti es. By usin g both reenacted inte rv iews and o n-sit e inter_
views and by de ma rcatin g so m e of th eir differences (in the duration , mod e of ad- T: If it is unse ttlin g, it's because the line between performance and nonperform-
dress , use of English , camera work), in other wo rds , by presentin g th em to the ance in these interviews is not so evident. You can't tell right away that they are
v iewer together, what is visibl y addressed is the in vis ibility o f the p olitics of inter_ staged-Yo u do as k the question , but yo u can't tell for sure until you get enough
views and, more gene rall y, th e relations of representa tion . "cues."
I am not reall y interested in jud gin g which truth is better than th e o ther, but
rather in working with both together to open a critical s pace in the view in g of the M: III conclusion , co uld YOII say somethil1g about the kind of work that has most influenced
film. Whether the viewe r is kn ow led gea ble enough in cine ma to attribute some oi .1/011
7

the strategies to a qu es ti o nin g of the conventions of d ocumentar y a uth o rit y is also

not the point. The viewing s ituation created is such that it is likely to provoke ques- T: It's very difficult for me to talk about influence . Even with someone like Ho
tions and reactions . By pla yin g with the false and the true a t work in th e two kinds Xuan Huong, the early nineteenth-century poet quoted in the film : I knew of her,
of truth , what is u sua ll y take n for granted in interviews suddenly becomes verI' but she was hardly taught in school. I remember how perve rsely excited we (the
prominent. As a bewildered Vietnamese vie\,v e r to ld me: "Your film is different. ·1 students) were whenever a teacher announced that a poem of hers would be read
can't ye t tell exactly how, but I know it's different from the docum e ntar y films I am in class. Not o nly because her poetry is kn ow n for it s forbidden se xuality and ex-
used to seeing." The recogni ti o n that the early interviews in the film a re ree nact- plicit defian ce of Confucian (male-chau vinis t) m o res , but mainl y because she is a
m e nts comes at different places and stages for different viewers. Thi s is deliberately poet whose work we are never trul y exposed to . All this to say tha t on the side of
planned , as I prev ious ly sugges ted . Of course, as yo u proba bl y not iced at yester- women you always ha ve to do more ; yo u hn ve to be co mmitted to reach out to non -
day's screenin g, some viewers were furiou s because they expected to be to ld about mainstream works and to the writings of o ther wome n . This is one of the constraints
it nt the outset of th e film (as the norms dictate). But o th er viewers felt thnt to reveal that you necessarily assume as a feminist. The writing of Woman , Na tive, Other
the reenactm e nt from the sta rt would be to give away the " plot" of the film; they touches upon thi s spec ifi c issue. For example, the only chapter that deals exclu-
were uncomfortabl e with the lingering unce rtaint y, but retroactivel y loved the sively with th e world of white males is the chapter on a nthropology. This chapter is
challenge and the int e rmitte nt discomfort. I obviously do not intend to "hide" the also onc, howeve r, in which all the name s o f the repre sentative fa mous men are
reenactment-o n the contrary-only to dela y o r g rade its visibility fo r s trat egic pur- replaced in th e tex t by impersonal, stereotyped appe llations ("The Great Master,"
poses . No r do I feel co mpe ll ed to flatten o ut the film to facilitate its consu m ption. "The mod e rn a nthro p o logist," " the wise man"). Their proper n a mes , their " true "
Instead of being a m ere illu st ration of a point that is evident from the beg in ning, a names, arc "bu ri ed " in the footnotes .
film could be n co n s ta n t discovery process . M u ch of filmmaking a nd sto r yte lling For me there is n o such thing as a o ne- way influence . In (re)readin g women's
relies on an ability to wi thh ol d informati o n as well as to let go of knowl edge and Works-actu all y a n y wo rk-I am not sure w ho influences whom, for I ha ve th e
intention . feeling that I' ve co ntributed as much as I've lea rned , And if I take the e xa mple of a
few Weste rn w rite rs w ith whom I ha ve affinities, s uch as Rol a nd Barthes, Walter
M: The process of "recoSllitioll" III the fi/III is very lIlIsettlillg. Benjamin, Mauri ce Blanchot, or Derrida , sure , I find their writings uplifting and
penetrating. But our actualities are undeniably different. They have their own house
n1e11 to empty out, their own obsessions to pursue. However, their works do provide
T: The distance be twee n the written texts and the imn ges is necess a ry. The wo
J h' 0\\'11 tOols of resistan ce that we can use on our term s. Tools that also allow me indepen-
are asked both to e mbodv other selves, other voices , a nd to drift back to t elr
-e111
den tly to redi scove r, let's say, Zen Buddhism or o ther Asian philosophies as if I were
J

selves, w hi ch are not rea ll y their " natural " selves b ut the se lves they wan t to
or the ima ges th ey wa nt to project in front of the camera reading them for the first time; and vice ve rsa . What has become more e vident to
148 Interviews

me is that I can't settle down with any single name, any single work. The only tirnes
I felt that something could strongly inspire me, and in ways that were both mOVing
and baffling, was when I was staying in the villages in Africa. The richness of the
diverse oral traditions is humbling. Again this may seem romantic to man Y-al.
though in the context of other cultures it is rather "realistic." As a Yoruba song of
divination says, "Anybody who meets beauty and does not look at it will SOon be
poor." Stories, songs, music, proverbs, as well as people's daily interactions, cer.
tainly constitute for me the most moving sources of inspiration.

sv
 2

Surname Viet
Given Name Nam

1989. 108 minute color and B & W film.

Directed, written and edited by: Trinh T. Minh-ha

Mise-en-scene, lighting design, and associate producer:
Jean-Paul Bourdier
Cinematography: Kathleen Beeler
Narrators: Lan Trinh and Trinh T. Minh-ha
With: Khien Lai, Ngo Kim Nhuy, Tran Thi Bich Yen,
Tran Thi Hien, Lan Trinh, and Sue Whitfield
Distributed by: Women Make Movies (New York); The
Museum of Modern Art (New York); Cinenova (London);
Idera (Vancouver); Image Forum (Tokyo); The National
Library of Australia (Canberra)

film, women speak from five places; these are represented here by different typestyles. There are
.uices-over reading in English (italic & plain); a third voice singing sayings, proverbs and poetry in
(bold), with translations in a smaller typeface; interviews in Vietnamese subtitled in English;
in English synchronized with the image (indented plain and italic texts).

49
 50 Film Scripts
Surname Viet 51

Than em nhu tam lua dao

Phat pho giua cho biet vao tay ai? "Let's say that my job is better [than others]: I belong to the restaurant service. Some-
(f am like a piece of silk times I go to the embassies when there is a reception or a dinner. I feel less iso-
lated .. , . I do see the foreigners coming and going. , . , [But] we can't develop any
Floating in the midst of the market,
relationship with them,
knowing not into whose hands it will fall.)
"In principle, a foreigner is already a spy, . , . Even a socialist. , .. Or even you (Ly
Dat nuoc nam trong con bao to smiles). We live in constant suspicion: between husband and wife, between parents
Con toi nam trong Con bao to and children. , .. Suspicion is everywhere, There is no mutual trust.
Toi muon lam sao dem than yeu nho
"When a foreigner gives us something, it may be because of pure sympathy for us;
tre tro con toi
but it is often thought that they want to obtain something more from us. ' .. You
Nhung trai dat truyen rung, truyen rung have to know how to compose yourself to be admitted in the heart of the system.
va chiec noi con toi truyen rung, truyen rung
(The country lies under a heavy storm "Sometimes I revolt against the fact that our children can't have a bit of meat or fish,
my child lies under a heavy storm whereas the foreigners can sneeze at them. But Vietnam offers whatever it has
I wish to use my fragile body best to the international diplomats and governmental staff. They should come and
to protect my child see, at least once, what a meal in a Vietnamese family is composed of!" (Interview
with Ly)
But the earth is shaking, shaking
and my baby's cradle is shaking, shaking) (Sister Phuong, "A Lullaby")
Trong dam gi dep bang sen
l.a xanh, bong trang lai chen nhi vang
(Quoted on screen:) Nhi yang, bong trang, la xanh,
In principle, a foreigner is already a spy . .. Even a socialist . .. Or even yOI/. We IhJe ,Gan bun rna chang hoi tanh mui bun.
in constant suspicion. 771ere is 1/0 ml/tl/al tmst. is more beautiful than a lotus in a pond?
Ly, 37 years old, employee, Vietnam 1982 allow stamens, white petals, green leaves:

"(Voi" off,) "Om two "I'ri" "" no longe< 'nough. I do 'om, ,"wing in the ,w·
ning, for the cooperatives.
(Sync:) "We receive, from time to time, a package from my brother who lives abroad.
l
,
I
"
near mud, it never smells of mud. (Trans. Nguyen Ngoc Bich)

kept hold of her: "You try to run but I won't let you. Young woman, are you married

she replied: "Easy, young man, you're spilling my rice! Yes, I am with husband, his
He sends us 2 kilos of MSG, 3 kilos of wool. We sell them back in the free market I is Viet a/ld his given flame is Nall1"
and buy whatever we need [With the money]. It's a satisfying exchange! This is the
same situation for almost all families .... How can we do otherwise? My mother I

lives with us. My father is departed. Six of us live in two tiny rooms. My mother is (Voice off:) "[When I first met the women of the South,] we looked at each other
60 years old, she is still strong and in good health to take care of the housework and with distrust, if not with hostility. Slowly we started talking to each other. From
to cook our meals. This leaves me some free time to do my sewing. distrust, we have come to dialogue. And this was a radical turn that changed my
political understanding. Before, I learnt in the political courses that capitalism was
the exploitation of man by man. Period." (Thu Van)

Vol,,: All interviews conducted in Vietnam (here with l.v, Thu Van, Cat Tien and Anh) are excerpted and
anslated from the book Vielnlllll, 1111 1'['111'/[', des l'oix, by Mai Thu Van (Paris: Pierre Horay, 1983), These (Quoted on screen:)
,ten'iews are reenacted in the film, with: Tran Thi Hien, both as Ly (her role) and as Hien (her real A society that imposes on its people a single way of thinking, a single way of per-
)ice); Khien Lai as Thu Van and as Khien; Ngo Kim Nhuy as Cat Tien and as Kim; Tran Thi Bich Yen as
nh and as Yen, ceiving life, cannot be a human society.
Thu Van, 35 years old, health technical cadre, Vietnam 1982
 1if(/IIIVIm.)
lUtMitJn.J,'.kJ.,

It:# j;, uJtL,

Our Me 11
I,? end I)f t.'lY ollr
(J4l.,t 'I /' I do someS in the evcnin
AmalVAJHt in eYening
W. e ' from urne to
rae.lIve,
us 2 O@3
whawverwe Med [..itt; tJ:l,iiiii

A/o,., ..

"/ ?L' {

!
in.- JA, ft/'

fitr' :J!Jftk-l,
tU

1t,Hr 6U14. iH
When <l

4-

..t@
. •*--
I
 ......
JO
[When 1 first met the women of the SOtl
n.ot with host..illty Slowly the frost broke
Vie have come to
Iit ical understanding
the t!;p loiHHlon of man by

that we don ' l have to

and of :;uspicion .... A

e caanoL deny t.his

.. bathed in their customs

•
II. example One cannot kill

has w rned fear into

The )'oung people t.hink .like me

__
jl{ f
The young people
LO
V'IlA
condition
war IQ Of Dlper

boll.i the gun as one bold

"---- '
II....

bm the revolu Lion is aLso the,)

r
- - -I
Girls wanl LO rediscove r th eir femjoLD beauty. They
e;:ill for lo,'e . .lad lor colors Look.11 j)l
56 Film Scripts Surname Viet 57

(Sync:) "In [our] socialist society, we discard all disturbing subjects so that we don't violently attacked and trashed by male poets of the time, and who wrote femi-
have to deal with them. We prefer to cultivate fear and suspicion.... A society that poetry on free love, on single mothers, on labia minora and labia majora desire;
imposes on its people a single way of thinking, a single way of perceiving life, cannot attacked polygamy and double standards of morality, who ridiculed empty
be a human society. authority and religiosity, and who challenged all the norms of Confucian

"1 ignore how a capitalist society functions, 1 ignore its diseases. (Thu Van
"
smiles) .... Between two modes of exploitation of man by man, it is difficult for me lYhen he claps his hands, she has entertained
to choose! In spite of all the years of resistance and of revolution, the same hierar_ \When she claps her hands, he has made a Significant contribution-to his village,
chical principles exist. We cannot deny what we have inherited from China ....
';ltis town, his country. The fatherland, as they call it now.
"And in spite of our own divergences with China, we are nonetheless full of their
customs and political conceptions. The camps of reeducation are an example. You for a life to save another life
cannot kill man's conviction by reducing him to an animal. no more self-pride, no pride, no self
she kneels and begs mercy for him who is her son, her husband, her father.
"Before, I would not dare speak up to say what I thought. But today, the situation is
different. [I have deeply rebelled,] and this awareness has turned fear into fight.
I have nothing to lose other than this ridiculous salary and some rations tickets. (Quoted on screen:)
In the beginning, I tried to make things work [at the hospital], but slowly, we founl1
"The young people think like me, I am not alone. The young people are tired of ourselves in an atmosphere of distrust, then of suspicion! I carried out my work in Il
holding the gun as one holds chopsticks. The revolution is also the obligation to live heavy silence.
and to advance human condition. Girls want to rediscover their femininity, to please (" Wounds do not heal with humiliation.
... to revive desire, beauty. They call for love, and for colors .... Look at me .... Cat Tien, 50 years old, doctor, Vietnam 198:
I no longer have any breast, any hip .... My skin has dried up because of under-
-!,L
nourishment. I no longer look like a woman. Our men no longer desire us. They
spend their time among themselves in cafes, drinking and smoking." (Interview "I am a doctor, with almost 20 years of experience .... My husband is also a doctor
with Thu Van) He was assigned to the military hospital of the city. [When Saigon fell on April 30th
1975,] we were among the most moderate. Without being communists, we are nc
less Vietnamese; we are nationalists. I will never erase the memory of [that day] frorr
There is always a tendency to identify historical breaks and to say "this begins my mind. It was [total] panic. All our friends called us to urge us to leave .... M)
there," "this ends here," while the scene keeps on recurring, as unchangeable as husband and I did not know what to do.... [He] told me: 'We have nothing te
blame ourselves for, we are not criminals. We are from the South. If the country i:
change itself.
divided into two, it is not because of us!' Of course, my husband wore the uniform
but he wore it in spite of hims;lf.... Each government uses its citizens as it think:
Life seems suddenly fragile and vulnerable . . . . The past surfaces and what is al-
best.
most forgotten reappears from the ruins.
"My day began at 7:30 am and ended at 4:30 pm, with a break of one hour for lunch
Nobody knows, they say, whether Ho Xuan Huong really existed or whether she Afterwards, 1 had to attend civil and political education courses .... Every othe
was a mere name. She wrote poems in the early 19th century, but they were noto- week, I had to write a resume of my past life.... I was smarter than them (laughs)
rious for the scandal they caused and they continue today to defy the principles of I kept a copy of my first declaration. I recopied it exactly each time, respecting thl
right speech and good manner of womanhood. So some men went as far as affirm- commas and the periods .... In the beginning, I tried to make things work [at thl
ing that poems signed under her name might not be hers; they might, of course, be hospital], but slowly, we found ourselves in an atmosphere of distrust, then of sus
written by a man! Who was then, we may ask, this feminine man whose womannes 5 picion! I carried out my work in a heavy silence.
 Film Scripts Surname Viet 59

"I stayed in the service for two years, and would probably have stayed on, had my herself on the riverside
husband not been arrested .... To tell the truth, we never knew the real reasons for carrying rice to her husband, the stork cries dolefully,
his arrest. back, dear, and feed our children
I can leave for the hills and rivers of Cao Bang.)
Verses below are heard voice off, simultaneous with interview:)
..Iua dem an ai cung chong
..Iua dem ve sang ganh gong ra di "My colleagues greeted me but never asked any questions about my husband's dis-
Loving her husband half of the night, appearance.... Everybody sank into silence .... It was terrible to live in the world
.he spends the other half before dawn carrying her merchandise to market) of silence. I was no longer used to it. From then on, I was inhabited by a feeling of
terror. I discovered fear .... Sometimes I did not even dare breathe, for fear of my-
::;ai cham chong me cha khac khoai self; I didn't want to hear my own heart beat .... Despair settled down within me.
The later she gets married, the more distressed her parents are) I had given up all form of resistance. After three months in that atmosphere, I de-
cided to quit my job. As for my husband, I was left without news. I had to find out
by myself the reasons for his arrest. ... The question that kept on coming back in
::;ai co chong nhu rong co yay,
my mind was: 'Why did they wait two years before sending him to that camp of
::;ai khong chong nhu coi xay chet ngong
reeducation'?
She who is married is like a dragon with wings,
;he who has no husband is like a rice-mill with a broken axle) "... I prefer to forget that moment when I saw my husband in his prison clothes,
looking devastated and desperate. It is a painful memory.

"Today, we suppose it was a problem of power and of competence. The patients n . . . Twenty five months! twenty five months in hell. My nerves cracked .... My
prefer us to the [others). There was a kind of complicity among the people of the children were neglected like orphans. The only reasonable solution was to quit that
South .... When the doctors of the new regime took over the hospital, all the ser- job, to accept to lose the rations tickets and to live in uncertainty. I earned 80 dong
vices worked. Two years after, it was a disaster, the equipment was paralyzed, the per month, a salary of destitution in a bath of humiliation." (Interview with Cat
stock of medicines emptied, the buildings dilapidated .... We, the older staff of the
Tien)
hospital, we became cumbersome. In a way, we assisted the failure of victory.

"For a week, I didn't receive any news concerning my husband. I came up against a
(Voice off) "Hmmm, ahem ... I am not the ideal person [to be interviewed] .... I
mixed silence around me.
have never had a passion for oolitics althou2h this does not mean that I am not
interested in it."
Verses heard simultaneously with interview)
.. We are absurd petals in a puff of wind
irifting over a temporary and indifferent world. "Kieu's life is very case. I think there Ilre hundreds, thouSllnds
the young, spring-limbed and green, of lives like hers." in Vietnamese)
earn to stare at death through veils of white hair Nguyen Binh Khiem
tragic is women's fate," wrote Nguyen Du. In Vietnam, almost everybody,
:on co Ian Ioi bo song or rich, use verses from the Kim Van Kieu fluently in their daily expressions.
::;anh gao dua chong tieng khoc ni non. known as The Tale of Kieu, the national epic poem recounts the misfortunes of
\lang ve nuoi cai cung con in the person of a beautiful talented woman, Kieu, whose love life has re-
lJe anh di tray nuoc non Cao Bang. t!ate<11v served as a metaphor for Vietnam's destiny. The heroine, a perfect model
60 Film Scripts

of Confucian feminine loyalty and piety, was forced by circumstances, to sacrifice

her life to save her father and brother from disgrace and humiliation, and to sell
herself to become a prostitute, then a concubine, a servant, and a nun, before she
was able to come back to her first lover. Kim Vall Kieu was written in the early 19th
century in the people's language Nom. Despite its length of 3,254 lines, it became So
that it was widely cherished by all social strata only a few decades after it
appeared. Illiterate people knew long passages of it by heart and recited it during
evening gatherings. It has also been loved for its unorthodox approach to sexuality:
Kieu's destiny is meant to be sadly complicated because of the woman's
beauty, she not only freely her lover, but she also eagerly loves three men.
Her life offers a revisionist interpretation of the Confucian principle of
governed the conduct of women.

I wish to use my body as a torch

to dissipate the darkness
to awaken love among people
and bring peace to Viet Nam
Nhat Chi Mai poured gasoline over her body and lit the match

"Socialist Vietnam venerates the mothers and the wives. The woman does not exist,
she is only a laborer. The liberation of women is understood here as a double ex-
ploitation.

n • • • The men want to keep the better share of the cake. They hold the key positions

of power, women only the leftovers .... There is not a single woman at the
Political Bureau. .. The men are the only ones to discuss problems that concern
us.

"[As for the Women's Union], the Mother-in-Laws' Union, they have made of us
heroic workers, virtuous women. We are good mothers, good wives, heroic fight-
ers.. . Ghost women, with no humanity! They display us in shop-windows for
visitors who come to look at our lives, as if we were polite animals.

"The image of the woman is magnified like that of a saint! ... We are only human
beings. Why don't we want to admit that these women are tired of seeing their
children exposed to war, deprivations, epidemics, and diseases? The very idea of
heroism is monstrous!

"The woman is alone, she lives alone, she raises her children alone. She gives
alone. It's a sea of solitude! The revolution has allowed the woman to have accesS to
62 Film Scripts Surname Viet 63

the working world. She works to deprive herself better, to eat less. She has to get with the red scarf around my neck, and at 16 years old, I was trusted an important
used to poverty. role. I was leader at the [Youth Organization], of my University. I was taught
discipline and rigor'
"Love. . (Tlw Vall smiles). When I was young, I wanted to become a writer. Mv
parents told me: "You have to write with your heart, but don't forget your " ... Life could have gone on smoothly if there had not been the liberation of the
belongs to the Party." How to write then) I have therefore quit writing for a mOre South, the reunification and my being transferred to Saigon. . A painful confron-
scientific profession. tation, indeed'" (Interview with Thu Van)

"Love. . Personally I have crossed this word from my vocabulary, I no longer

want to remember. I live in total emptiness, around me, perhaps inside me. . Even you who live in the West, if you are admired and liked, it's because we,
women of Vietnam, we work so that your image may be beautiful. We contribute to
"Yes, we have to live for love. It is an emotion that escapes men's control, that hap- the respect the world has for Vietnamese women." -Ai Tran, from Vietnam
pens inside the body, a very personal intimacy. I end up loving my bicycle I My
old bicycle with its old tires. I have a sincere affection for it because it helps me when The two sisters Trung Trac and Trung Nhi of Vietnam's earliest history of resistance
I am tired. It is a loyal companion. It keeps me company in my morning solitude, it
are proudly remembered for the uprising they led in fighting against Chinese dom-
takes me home in my distress in the evening It is the only witness of my
ination. Every year in Spring time, on the sixtieth day of the second moon, young
movements. . (Interview with Thu Van)
Hai Sa Trung are seen parading on their elephants in the community in L.A. It is
fantasied that to conquer their female armies, the only successful strategy the Chi-
nese soldiers finally came up with was to strip themselves to the skin and expose
(Quoted on screen:)
their "thing" shamelessly to the sight of their female opponents. The women fight-
Socialist Vietnam venerates the mothers alld the wives. TIle wOlllan does not exist,
she is only a laborer. The liberation of women is understood here as a dOllble ex p loi- ers retreated in disgust and the Trung sisters committed suicide.
tatioll . ...
The ven; idea of hero is III is 1I10llstrollS! The stories that grew around the beloved heroines of Vietnam history tell about
both the dreams of women and the fears of the men who fought or heard of such
account. Popular descriptions of the physical appearance of the sisters Trung arE
(Quoted on screen:) often confusingly similar to those of Trieu Thi Trinh, another cherished figure in thE
... Life could have gone on sll100thly if there had not been the liberation of the Soutlr, memory of the Vietnamese and a young peasant womall who led thirty
the reullification and my beillg transferred to Saigon . ... A painful confrontatioll, against the Chinese. She was said to be nine feet tall, with frightful breasts, threE
ill deed. meters long, flying over her shoulders as she rode on an elephant. She too commit
Thu Van, 35 years old, health technical cadre, Vietnam 1982 ted suicide rather than return to serfdom when her army was defeated.

"Toi muon cuoi con gio manh, dap duong song du, chern cha trang-kinh 0 bl
"I am willing to talk, but you should not have doubts about my words. There is the
Dong, quet bo coi de cuu dan ra khoi noi dam duoi chu khong them bat chuol
image of the woman and there is her reality Sometimes the two do not go well
nguoi doi cui dau cong lung lam ti-thiep cho nguoi ta __ ." (Trieu Thi Trinh)
together'
(I only want to ride the wind and walk the waves, slay the big whales of the Easterr
sea, clean up frontiers, and save the people from drowning. Why should I imitat(
"I am 35 years old, the age of the resistance movement and the revolution l 1 do not
know what a society of pe,l(e looks like' My childhood was that of the struggle. I afl1 others, bow my head, stoop over and be slave to a man?)
a child of the Party. My parents are high cadres. They have [fed] me with revolution-
ary discourses since my childhood. My childhood was secure, 1 was puffed up, cher- We call her: Trieu Thi Trinh, but also Trieu Trinh Vuong, Trieu-Trinh, Trieu-Au, S,
ished; and there were always adequilte answers to my questions. I went to school Trieu.
SB1'ffN{f JI u'I,HT TN/,) VAN} to'ssi8t.,E
IDeIf- £.re4"-c;,,
t1()1/pteHrS HIHlf!1'1FNT'$

TIW inn,
f\,
j·..m e:,}t't}f

Um I WMr? Iii
l;i (!) experienCE
with the SI

\., ,:"7"" /' ..

,;;:.a,'lIAtv GM..-.ru
....,.." ,U/I!'AA')

t;;jA;J}- V . ?-h. @ the l!yeso

OIV

tdf, I
I
!1iJe1
lli-W·
i '¥
1.1-
krHHI'lHJai
•
! , tou live at
I
I
+---
" distress Y.

and menta
, years.
(Thu Van
Slid)
I am willil
image oft.

,y i- together l

lam 35ye
knowwha
1.4" child flf th
aiston
i there was
IJr ,cad ,lrOIl
I
leader at t
._ Ulue;ht dis
r,Lif(:co,
the reuni)
I, £, indeed l
Our enure
,;:vl,lul\Vfi
th(Hli;ht 0
66 Film Scripts Surname Viet 6i

The market remains women's city. "It is the heart of daily life where information is
exchanged, and where rumors are spread." It is also at the market that one tastes dau nua rna nguoi uoc ao?
the real popular cooking of the country. flower has already lost its stamen
desiring it when it no longer bears fragrance?)
My worthless husband gambles all day,
but if 1 told the world we'd both be shamed.. sound): "When the smoke clears, the inevitable roundup of prisoners,
Don't laugh, it's true, I'm the daughter of them seriously wounded. Among the captured a large group of women,
of a Confucian house. A work of art y used by the enemy as ammunition bearers, village infiltrators and in-
sold to a stupid bumpkin, that's what 1 am.
A golden dragon bathing in a dirty pond!
recurring in the prisoner's mind is the fear of a time when the witnesses
They spread, on the pavements, their baskets full of merchandises and wait pa- ves die without witnesses, when History consists of tiny explosions of life,
tiently. of deaths without relays.

Song gui nac, that gui xuong . witnesses go on living to bear witness to the unbearable.
([to her husband's family,] Alive, she entrusts her body
Dead, she entrusts her bones) tranh nhu non khong quai
thuyen khong lai, nhu ai khong chong.
co chong nhu gong deo co,
"I will tell you the lives of women who are the misfits of history. They are by the khong chong nhu phan go long danh.
thousands, those who live in economic distress. They sell everything that is market-
like a hat without a chin-strap,
able, including their bodies to support their family. They deny their dignity to sur-
a boat without rudder, as she is without a husband.
vive and become prostitutes in a socialist society.
who is married wears a yoke on her neck,
she who has no husband is like a bed whose nails have come loose.)
(She stares at the interviewer and says ironically:)
"[You're asking me if there are social services to help them?] You must be dreaming!
... You underestimate the drama of the women of the South! We suffered the war _ bao nhieu nuoc cho vua
like all our women compatriots. This war went on without our consent, we were bao nhieu vo cung chua bang long.
swept along as in a tornado. Crushed by the machine, and nobody could stop it. is never enough water to fill the river
is never enough women to please a young man.)
"Today, many women must demean themselves because they have no choice at all.
Some accept to live with a cadre simply because of economical necessity; they obtain one's body remains an active trade. A Vietnamese woman journalist said:
thereby tickets and protection.... Sometimes they do it with the best intention, in runs in our blood except venereal disease .... Women do not become
the hope that their husband may be liberated. Time goes by and they see nothing
I"'UlULt:S for pleasure; they suffer the counter-shocks of our country's history....
happening. Sometimes a woman finds herself pregnant but goes to the camp never-
colonisation, American presence, long war years that have dismantled oUI
theless to visit her husband. She stands there in front of him with this belly of hu-
miliation. The latter looks down and remains silent. I will spare you of the most
... Today all we have left is the promise for a better society. But the sun
sordid dramas that many women live through since the existence of the reeducation every morning on anguish and uncertainty; it goes down every evening with
camps." (Interview with Cat Tien) of not being able to nourish one's family."
 Surname Viet 6!

married me off 10 a child

knows there was no lack
his mauling is all the love 1
asleep and snores fill
you: What kind of spring is this?
how many times is a flower fo /!loom?

cha cai kiep lay chong chung,

dap chan bong, ke lanh lung.
thi muoi hoa nen chang cho,
thang doi Ian co cung khong.
dam an xoL xoi lai ham,
bang lam muon, muon khong congo
nay vi biet duong nay nhi?
truoc thoi danh 0 vay xong!
Jlo Xuan
"
rolls in warm blankets, the other freezes:
this husband-sharing destiny!
lucky ever to have him,
comes perhaps twice a month, or less.
to fight for-this!
to a half-servant, an unpaid maid!
I known I would have stayed single.)

(Quoted on screen;)
I gazed at my (own imagel with sustained attention and realized I wore the samt
clothes, the same wooden shoes, for as long as I could remember. I didn't think an-
other world existed. I was stirred to ti,e deptll of my soul by a mad anguish, and mIJ
mind became confused. I became aware of my own existence!
• Anh, 60 years old, doctor, Vietnam 1982

(Voice off, simultaneous with sync, below:) "My sister lives in the South.... I wenl
to see her after the reunification .... More than 20 years of absence .... of suffering
and of separation. But my sister didn't choose exile. We are too attached to OUI
family links. We couldn't say a word. (Sync:) We looked at each other in silence for
a long moment, full of tears and choking with emotions. More than 20 years have
separated us and it was like a miracle to find ourselves there, facing each other
again ....
70 Film Scripts Surname Viet 71

"My sister sat still. She was staring at me as if I came from another planet. I could My friend, who was from the central region, said in Hue, girls coming back from
see a glimmer of revolt in her eyes. Suddenly her cold, grave voice told me: 'You school in hats and white ao dai, crowded the Truong Tien bridge every afternoon,
my little sister ... the socialist doctor' ...' She stood up from her chair, took m; their tunics flapping softly in the wind like butterflies. Every young man had gone
hand and led me to a mirror: "Look at yourself at least once'" I had not, indeed through a period when he would regularly find himself standing there just to look
looked at myself in a mirror for years, and I saw an old, worn-out woman .... ; and contemplate. If he followed her on her left, she would pull her hat down on the
gazed at my [own image] with sustained attention and realized I wore the same
left side of her face, if he stepped to the right, she would pull it down on the right
clothes, the same wooden shoes for as long as I could remember. I didn't think
side to prevent him looking while she kept on glancing at him at leisure. The ma-
another world existed. I was stirred to the depth of my soul by a mad anguish and
jority of the people there wrote and appreciated poetry, perhaps because of its un-
my mind became confused. I became aware of my own existence' .
forgettable landscapes, just like those in the North about which mother and father
"Peace restored, our problems have increased, professional relations have deterio_ so often told us.
rated. Equality between men and women still figures on the program, but the rela-
tions between women themselves are more uncomfortable. The officer in charge is a Gio dua eanh true la da
woman, [but] she is not a doctor. Her function is above all political, she is there to Tieng ehuong Thien Mu, eanh ga Tho Xuong
control the ideological aspect of the profession. An irresolvable conflict has arisen (The wind softly rocking the bamboo blends in with
between her and the health technicians. It's a problem of power-political power
the bells of the Thien Mu Pagoda and the rooster's song of Tho Xuong
versus professional competence' .
village)

"We have been trained to think that a woman has to please a man to the detriment
of another woman. If only woman could trust woman, then we could talk about
revolution." (Interview with Anh) "The Vietnamese woman has two qualities I've a/ways praised: her ability to sacrifice and to
endure". (Yen, in Vietnamese)

(Quoted on screen;) Here, everything is public. We receive our patients in a cold, large hall, in the
If only men reread their history books, they would never dare send their people killing presence of the officer in charge. It's very difficult to establish trust. How do you
each other for ideologies. The Vietnamese people fought to [throw offl the yoke of want a woman to disclose her intimate sufferings when there is no intimacy to pre-
domination. They didn't fight for some ideological principles. One should never forget serve professional confidences? It is impossible to feel for someone's pains and suf-
this essential point. ferings when there is no complicity between a doctor and her patient.
Anh, 60 years old, doctor, Vietnam 1982
"When a woman understood nothing about her body, about hygiene or contracep-
Dear sister, what we loved most at the time my girlfriends and I, was to be able to tion, she came to see me and shyly whispered these to me. .. The VietnameSE
buy little snacks to pass them on secretly to each other during class. 0 mai, xi mHi, woman does not unburden herself easily to someone; she is caught in prejudices,
che dau do, che dau trang, how would you translate these into English? I am thrilled inhibitions and taboos. In the old society, the body was an unnamed place, a non-
just at naming them! It was a real treat to savor them at one of these street-vendors' existent and not-talked-of place. If the woman's body got sick, it was immediately
thought that she had had sexual relations outside the norm .... Even today, thio
carts in front of Cia-Long School, or at Nga Sau, not far from our house, where che
mentality continues to bloom in our society. . Ignorance drives women to a world
sam bo llwng was their specialty! I gave some private lessons then and had some
of silence." (Interview with Anh)
pocket-money I could spend. Since mother had always forbade us to eat on the
street, 1 felt particularly excited to do so and to taste anything that appeared novel
to me. When I think about them now, they were really nothing special, but the fact To marry and have a child, how banal!
that they were forbidden made all the difference! But to be pregnant without the help of a husband, what merit' Ho Xuan Huong
72 Film Scripts Sumame Viet 73

Up there, a hn/1ging pallel: them read political discourses quickly put together by men, and the trick meets with
The Governor's Shrine. success. These women forget for a while that they are sweepers, and have the illu-
sion of being full citizens." (Interview with Thu Van)
Oh, well, if I were tllrlled into a mall
I'd do better things thall that' Ho Xuan Huong
"I am caught between two worlds. ." (Thu Van)

Doctors: women who relieve other women

_and I would have to affirm this uncertainty: is a translated interview a written or

As ill a fairy tale, falling from my lips are changed into toads" spoken object?

She helps, he directs "Our bosses are often men, women assist them.. . This is what equality amounts
She directs, he reigns to! We fight very tightly for our rights, but the men always succeed to win over.
Sometimes they may make a few compromises because we outweigh them in num-
ber. In meetings, women never take the floor to claim or demand, they speak but
"It is a contempt for human effort to believe that we adapt ourselves, even to pov- only in a feminine spirit. . [I mean] a spirit eager to please. To please their boss.
erty' Our fellow people who live abroad do sometime have the same reasoning. They They can't simply say "we think" or "we want" . they only SIt/lIIlit such opinion
come back to their native land to visit their relatives, they temporarily share their or such solicitation. They listen and they raise their little fingers. It's very difficult to
promiscuity, then they go away. They can afford a small effort of heroism, and adapt speak freely when one does not have the power.
themselves to the unusual surroundings.
"[The cadres of the Women's Union] are our mothers-in-law. They recite texts written
"But for those of us who remain in the country, we have to go on living this life by men and put women on the work market. . (Ly)
without any joy or pride. To say that we are courageous or heroic beings is to pay a
tribute to our revolution. But to glorify us is, in a way, to deny our human limits." "... We must fight for a more equitable society. When we will have won the
(Interview with Anh) fight against bureaucracy, swept away the incompetent cadres, then we will have
made a first step toward revolution. And this task also belongs to women." (Thu
Ai vo Binh Dinh rna coi Van)
Dan ba cung biet cam rai di quon
(Come and see the women of Binh Dinh "Women have always been educated to sacrifice themselves. Women do not dare say
who also know how to handle the rod and practice boxing) they are being mistreated by their husbands.
Meetings are the places where adverse or different ideas are minimized. They do not
allow any room for confidences on our intimate lives ..
The notorious double day flashes back in my memory: women work as a full unit of
You have to be careful when you look at our society. There is the form and there
economic production al1d do all the unpaid housework and child care. Popular say- is the content. Truth is not always found in what is visible. .. Our reality is inhab-
ings qualify the three steps of her life and her victimization as that of a lady before ited by silent tears and sobs. . Women's liberation' You are still joking, aren't
marriage, that of a maid during marriage, and that of a monkey long after marriage. you I" (Ly)

InterView: an antiquated device of documentary. Truth is selected, renewed, dis-

"One has to demystify the image of the ideal woman that has been made up and
placed and speech is always tactical
fortified for the needs of significant moments. It is only to better hide her exploita-
tion that they flatter her conceit. Let us take the example of the street sweepers.
These women are doing repellent, very repellent work.... They select a few of
So how mal1lj interviews il1 the overall?
them and they put them on the platform during a congress or a meeting. They make Whom do y;u choose 7
 SEnlH4
FAA HI.... "

c.tJ'l\{'l.L . "'flAt J; '&/t u'

VlM.l..- bKr fL(Ir 1'1k.
F"j
!tVfl.;

f'L
It<- u::.... \\1/ ___
It/ has tn de mystify the Im,11o\C Ill' the ideal woman ma
si8 0l fl (l1 nt momentS It IS !lll ly to helter hide ber t: ...

®I ; @
\
t
at
us take tlle example of the street sweepers
repellent v. ork . They seleCl c1 few of!
dlJrin g a. CQogl'ess or a meeljng . They make l
\, , ,
put toget.ber by milO , and lbe trick meetS witb
,
uJu ai.4
\

a "nile lhat lhey are s'nepers, and bave the lllusi

Iiilz- wJti1nn.. .{}jr
--0/1- ft/ d'fltY It;,
\
y I kn ow I wil l never reach tbe 5h01'C of soc

nr4l1V J \ \ I/

jl A:tj \\V
i fr f- @ /5
!'l as Qol to ',lSk too many quesLlOos, so as not to drown

:u, {/.tJrt.- IiWnJ

,:.t1Y\£lta.? .";)-,' do nOl let lbemselves be Impressed by ideo
must fo r ,,, a more equil3.ble societV jw hell
Iii;

,
K,.. If
bureaAl cracy swept away tbe incompetent end
\ ', I !
\ v. 1 un h :Idf
/d 1Pu,... /b." k
h ,,;1step to wanl revolution And devolve

ttJ- ,Jt(!4 It.?r dMUjJ

dn . :or*'"" ';.t.1' 1-"

l.t\
:1z;uf Mnr7
• __ d;:; _ _
/., hl1j
J
 CN'feAA- afHe:AAt-
iDut

r®7
\..
:z:
.>.!I' 8<)lal'lllL!'6 e;w;y '\'e fight \'e
.::I

...
In numb.:r [0 me.:tialols .lVom.:a aev i
bul on ly in sp lnt (] mea
.l'
The)' can I sImply say "we Lhink or
They a.nd lh
AtJiE $peak freely 'IW'hen one does not have
®
by men and put women
fa mily in teresLS or baltered
5ufft'flOg The old customs prevail "
by !.helf husbands.
"
are ashame l

®
lre lbe plJ.ces where
IIf'inti-m-as

-
They U1lk a Inl abllUL I:qllalilY and c
logeLber then the Vietnamefe SOlj.

Today we can say lhilllhe woman hll

78 Film Scripts Surname Viet 79

In one case, 150 inter vie ws we re made for the film. Fi ve were retained in the fina.l cent's Mom. Today [ have a chance to talk to yo u about Vietnamese wo men 's dress ,
version. ao dai. We ca ll it ao rlai. Vie tnam has over four thousand yea rs of histor y. In the
beginnin g the Vie tnamese wo men 's dress was composed ot th ree pieces, one in the
What criteria 7 back and two in fr o nt. The two pieces tie together. In 1744 Vietnamese King VO,
V-O, asked all Vie tnamese wome n to dress w ith pants, pants like this."
age, profession , economical situation, cultural re gions-North, South and
(Two American children model the traditional dress)
critical abilit y, personal affinity.
Khien: "We would like to show you th e ao dai designed by Madame Nhu like Mrs.
Spoken, transcribed and tran s lated Tran just told you."
From listening to recording; speech to \'\Iriting
You can talk, we can cut, trim , tid y up (Transcribed from a conversation during lunch):
Khien: "Oh, I tell you, th e first tim e in my life I never knew how to carry water
The game often demands a respon se to the content, ra rel y to the way that content acrosS my shoulders. It [th e pole] bites into me. But I had to do it. I act rca/ good,
is framed and after 3 months they thou g ht I had become a 'country girl : not a Saigon person
anymore. Because they were a lways wa tchin g us, day by d ay, tim e by time. Even at
Spoken and read lunch. They opened the door and wa lked right away in my kitchen-they want to
watch what 1 eat' But you know wha t, we o nl y eat a littl e bit o f egg (xao xao tmng)
and vegetables out of our ga rd e n ."
Between a language of inwardness and that of pure surface
"I speak a little English, also my husband."
. Yeah. 1 say, No, pl ease stop, no, I don't want to escape. If I wa nted to
Dear sister, there was something particlilarly pleasurable in going to an ice cream place to escape, I escape years ago, when Saigon first fe ll. I can go in the harbor- there are
elljoy a drink in Vietnam. 1 feel 110 such excitement here, where ice cream shops have no a lot of ships-and 1 can jump o n a sh ip a nd escape . But no, I love o ur co untr y. After
ambiance. To filld sllch pleasure again, one has to So all the way to Houston , Texas, or to my husband was reeducated by the government I love our country. So no, please
Sallta Ana, California, where the Vietnamese COlllllwnities form their own towns and vil- don ' t shoot me. No. H e said , 'Are yo u telling me the truth?' I said , 1 swear' "
lages. It sOlillds like getting old and outdated "But yo u know, 1 read the book my husband had in the reeducation camp. So I
know how to talk , So I said, I be lieve in the go vernment, I believe in the cha irman .
The pose is always present, and accidents on film are know n as "co ntro lled acci- We have been liberated' W h y would I wan t to escape? 1 a m Vietnamese I don' t even
dents." know English. I convinced him a nd he said, ' H ey Ch i Tu '-h e ca ll ed me C h i Tu
because I changed my name , I didn ' t wan t to be ca ll ed Khien- ' What is you r edu -
The more intimate the tone, the more successful the interview. cation, w hat le vel?' I sa id , well- I o nl y talk a lo t-I said 1 have no ed ucatio n ."

(Images of Khien at the Japanese gardens with a s mall boy)

Every question she and I come up w ith is mo re o r le ss a copy of the question we
Khien (voice ov er): " Fiftee n minutes. It took me fifteen da ys to see him for fifteen
have heard before. Even if the statement is o ri gin al it so und s fa miliar, wo rn , thread- minutes. Then 1 had to come back to Sa igo n . After [ listen to m}' husband I camE
bare. home and sold everything-the TV, the radio, the furniture , good clothes, eve ry-
thing goes to the flea market and from then I became a sa les lady. O n th e st reet, 111
By choosing the most direct a nd spontaneous form of VOicing an d documenting , I the street. I bu y things, resell thin gs , get a profit to take care of my children."
find m yself closer to fiction.
(Images of Khien and Hien sitting in a crowd , watching a show intercut with KhieI1
at lunch)
(Transcribed from Hien's Ao Dai presentation , in a grade school classroom): Khien (voice off, then sync): " It was 1976 . Twelve yea rs later I work w ith Hills Com-
Hien: "Good morning teacher, good morn in g boys a nd g irl s. I'm Hien Tra n , ViJ1" pany. They put me at the fire. They say, tha t o ne , we'll ge t her. And I knew abo ul
80 Fill1l Scripts Surname Viet 8]

the rire . I talked with nw supervisor, I said , no, please . He said, What's th e nl cl tter) In certain cases, the only way to enlighten one's surrounding was to burn oneselJ
I said , e very time I look at the fire my nightmares come back and I'm thinking of the to death,
time I was in Vi e tilam, the bombing . And h e said , Khien , be cool (he's my su pervi_
sor, and also my neighbor). He said , According to vour story, vou have been through Y£m Ilsk l1Ie to write IlbOlit l.ulTllt I rememher most from mlj stlly III tile refugee cllmp il;
i1 lot. What 's tht' matter with the fire' I know you can do it. Do it Khil'n, don't giVe Gllam. I slTall never forget tiTe dlly when we left. I WIlS sllffering from e.tcrl/cillting stomllc/,
Upl He gave me some energY, so I sZlid, yeah , why not. Then you know what , then
paill s Illld was gelling relldlj to go ll11d sec the doctor, wilen 1111 Alllerimll officer showed up t(
I do it. I \"<15 too small , then the fire goes high like this , and every time I reach ed fOr
tell /IS wc had to lellPc in fiI le milllltes As YOIl kllew, sillce flltiTer chose not to lellve Ilt thlll
the pole to open it I ha ve to jump like this . And even sometimes my hair was burned,
tilllC, we were four womell theil , motller Ilnd dllllghiers. UpOlI 01/1' Ilrrivll/llt tlTe Ilirport wit/;
and nlY eyelashes burned too . I didn't know. I just tried to do the work to ge t the
money to raise my children. Then mv co-worker, she said, Khien , you burne d Your
0111' /llL'llgel' bUlldles of cloths, we were struck hy tlTe sight of people cllYryillg slIitcases of Ill,
hair. I said , Is that right' And I touched m y hair-it looks like 1'1/11 fnll and it smells.
sizes. Mother, who hlld Illld experience in fleeillg Will' 011 foot, lOllS cOIIPinced thllt not only w(
I touched my ev('brows and thev were all so curly." Iwd to reduce ollr /lelollgillgs to the millillllll, but Illso, thllt the clothes we wore 1l1ll1 cllrrie(
"They couldn't give the work to S(lmt'one else'" dark colored SOilS 1101 to drmu Illly Ilttentlon 011 ourselves as women, Tile Alllericllns wen
"No-that's what thev hired me for. And I' m small but they know I'm very, Very brash Illld coarse Illld tlTey were yellillg at 115 IlS if we were 11 bUllch of cattle or pigs. At GUIlIll
Jtapping her temple] in here." (Transcribed from conversation) tl /imited lIumber of tellt;; Illld of foldillg beds were tlTrowlI Ilt the flock. People pllnicked Ilnc
I'vL'I'yhody lUllS SllOutillg Illld crying. As the Imu of ti,e jungle dictllted, only the 1Il0st physi
Do YOU translate by eye or by ear! enlly brutlll alld Ilggressive slicceeded to Illy IWlld 011 these thillgs; we could IlOt compete wiU
the lIIell. We wllited ulltiinighttime before Ildditiolllli beds Ilnd tellts were brol/ght ill. Nom
Translation seeks faithfulness and accuracy and ends up always betraying either the of liS could really sleep for week;; , especially mother, wlTose Illlgllish ill siTllrillg 11 tellt witl
letter of the text , its spirit, or its aesthetics (lthers callie 1I0t frolll tlTe fellr of theft , hut from thllt of rnpe.
Mnst IIllhearnble were tlTe puhlic wllshillg Illld toilet fllcilities ellclosed in SOllie crudely IlS
"The original text is always already an impossible translation that renders transla- $t'mbled woodell structures. TlTe Illller lUcre mere lToles dug ill the grollnd ill which ol'Crspill
tion impossible" (Barbara Johnson). illg excrements collid lIever he ePllclillted fllst ellol/glT Illld col/ld he smelled from miles 11m
miles aWIllj. I WIlS so obsessed by this thllt evell todllY whell I go to IIlltiOllll1 parks , it is 11 rea
Co chong chang duoc di dau, ordenl for me to /Ie forced to usc their restroom fllcilities ; IlOwever distllnl tlTe memory, I cnf
Co con chang duoc dung dau mot gio hardly hellr tlTe sight Illld slIIell of these woodell CIl/lil1s.
(With husband, she can 't go anywhere,
With children , she can't even have peace for one hour)
(Lan & Sue, day:)
Lan: " , .. sitting her e thinking about my mom. I can't believe how much change shl
Co con phai kho vi con,
went through since we Cilme here . . She went through so much transition frorr
Co chong phai ganh giang-son nha chong, one culture to another, and, li'ke, remember those spandex pants you bought me
(With children, she would have to endure hardship , with the snakeskin patterns' New Year's Eve I brought them home and put them or
With husband , she would have to bear her husband's patrimony) ilnd I didn ' t have a matching sweater so I asked her if she had a black or gre y
sweater. She said, Here, and gave me this sweater and I was going to sneak out thl
The exiled: "But if I don 't have roots, why have my roots made me suffer 507" door so she wouldn't see me but no, she comes out: Let me see those pants- "

RUlll/il/S II/llte 1llllOIIg Oilier 5111'uil 0r5, yOllr hellrthents cchoillg with cllch footstep , yUIi
1 Sue: "\ can't belie ve it -"
led hy 1111 AIIIL'ricllll offi·cl'r to 11 Illrge delldly ;;ilel1t Illiditol'llll11 iuiTere suddellly UpOIl ope'll illS
tile door, YOII fOlllid YOllrself ill the CUIIIPIlIlY of tllOllslllids of presellCeS-1l sou lid lesS, Lan: " I thought she was going to be scandalized , like, they ' re too tight. She said
dCII,;cly pllckcd mass of pl'oplc mOllitillg tlTcir tllms to I,c lifted off the ground. Oh , I can ' t believe how much that matches' She took a look at me and said, YOl
82 Film Scripts Surname Viet s:

know if you'd worn those a co uple of months ago you ' d have looked o ve rWeight, A million of Vietnamese dispersed around the globe.
but you 've lost just enough weight so you look good . I like that design ." It will take more than one generation for the wounds to heal

Sue (laughing): "That's insane l " Of course, the image can neither prove what it says nor why it is worth saying it
the impotence of proofs, the impossibility of a single truth in witnessing , remem
Lan: "When I was looking in her closet for the sweater she had these leopardskin bering, recording , rereading
pattern silky shirts, something I could wear. I couldn' t believe it-Mom's going
wild .... But that's just one of the things. I see so much gradual ch ange in her, her
As [ was about to leave her, she reached for a magazine and asked me whether
values."
have heard or read about the refugees, espeCially the mountain peoples, who hac
passed away in their sleep without any evidence of heart attack or any other recog
Sue: "Well, you helped her a lot. "
nizable disease. "The reporters described this as one of those myst erious, inscru
Lan: "It's not so much help-l put her through a loti"
table oriental phenomena, but [ think they die of acute sadness." Bu on thai ruot, sac
to the extent that one's bowels rot, as we commonly say.
Sue: "Remember when you first moved out of the house after high school - th at was
a big drag for you."
(In Vietnamese, from the Miss Vietnam 1988 Pageant:) "Candidate H--- P---
please tell us what characteristics of Vietnamese culture we should preserve ill American SOCI
Lan: "Yeah. . dramatic." (Transcribed from conversation)
ety?" "J think that, as far as women are concerned , we should preserve our Vietnamese hen
tage and the four virtues Cong Dung Ngoll Hal1h "
I am like a jackfruit on the tree.
To taste you must plug me quick, while fresh: Phan gai tu due ven tuyen,
the skill rough, the pulp thick, yes, (ong, dung, ngon, hanh, giu gin chang sai.
but, oh, I warn you against touchillg- (Every young woman must fully practice and scrupulously conform to 4 virtues:
the rich juice will gush and staill your hallds. Ho Xuan Huong be skillful in her work, modest in her behavior, soft-spoken in her language,
faultless in her principles.)
Che la che lay, Con gai bay nghe:
Ngoi Ie la mot, I Dua cot la hai, I An khoai la ba,1 rai gia tong phu
An qua la bon, I Tron viec la nam, I Hay nam la sau, I Xuat gia tong phu
Hay an do chau la bay. Phu tu tong tu
(The seven deadly sins of a girl: one, sitting everywhere; two, leaning on pillars; (Daughter, she obeys her father
three, eating sweet potatoes; four, eating treats; five, fleeing work; six, lyin g d own Wife, she obeys her husband
too often; seven, wolfing her nephew's sweets.) Widow, she obeys her son)

Dear Minh-ha , "Since the publication of the book, I felt like having lost a part of Theo luan ly tam cuong ngu thuong
myself. It is very difficult for a Vietnamese woman to write about Vi e tn a mese dan ba khi nao cung phai tuy thuoc dan ong
women . At least in France where , in spite of the Mouvement de Liberation de la khi COn nho thi phai thea cha
Femme, maternalism remains the cornerstone of the dominant ideology. To khi lay chong thi phai thea chong
everything as it should be, [ should have accepted a preface by Simone de BeauvOlf khi Chong chet thi phai thea con
.. . as my publisher had wished ." (Mai Thu Van) SUot doi Ia ke vi thanh nhan
 Surname Viet 85

ha i dua vao mot nguoi dan ong lam chu chot

khong bao gio duoc doc lap
(ACcording to the moral of the three deferments and five human virtues,
women must always depend on men
Child, she must follow her father
Married, she must follow her husband
Widowed, she must follow her son
all her life she remains a minor
depending on a man as on a central axle
and can never be self-governing)

(Kim in her office and at the substation-voice off and sync voice are heard simul-
taneously in Vietnamese:)"ln Vietllam, when I quit school, I got married alld had a child.
I stayed home and didn't have an olltside job. But when I came to the U.S., the sponsoring
church members found a few small jobs for me. For example I babysat for a mOllth, after that
I taught French at a grade school for 3 or 4 months. Then I helped in a retirement home for
half a year before I applied to work for all electric company. From 1976 until now I have been
doing electrical draftillg for a hydro-electric power statiOIl. I am the only woman ill this job."

(Kim, Sync:) "At first I was very hesitant when you asked me to participate, but then I
thought: why would I refuse, whell I am a Vietnamese woman myself, and the role in the film
speaks the truth of the Vietnamese women still in Vietnam as well as of those emigrated to the
U.S.? ... Especially since this film, unlike the commercial films is not about love stories
featuring some Hollywood stars, so I didn't think there was anything excessive in myaccept-
ing to be on fi·lm. I hape also read about you and your films, and am proud of your beillg a
Vietnamese woman filmmaker."

(Kim Voice off:) "My son's friend who is very fond of the Vietllamese told me 'You should
take that role so as to speak up the repression of your mother and sisters in Vietnam.' 50,
because I care about Vietnamese 7Voll!en ill general, I want to get involved ill this film.
"I still have many friends in Vietnam. Compared with Cat Tien (my role) their condition is
much worse. Some of them who were highly placed in the past are now selling treats all the
street, or trying small enterprises to survive with their children."

(Kim, sync:) I asked my husband who saw nothing wrOllg and encouraged me to do my best
to contribute to our native country. Otherwise I would be too shy to appear on TV, not to
mention film!

(Kim, voice-over:) Generally, every girl or woman in Vietnam must practice the four vir-
sv
tues. She must know how to sew, cook, speak and behave. Obviously, she is subject to the three
submissions vis-ii-vis her parents, her husband, although not always vis-ii-vis her SOil.
86 Film Scripts Surname Viet 87

(Kim, sync:) "A frielld of II1lne opelled hcr eyes wide when she heard I was going to be all working for techllical compallies grows larger eueryday. Eight , nine I/ears ago there were only
fillll : 'YolI've l1ever /teen 011 actress, hOlI' cal1 you fake if?' Another friend of 11111 hllsballd teased 3,4 ellgilleers, but sin ce thel1 111011.11 who came in 1975 have grad uated , al1d there are 1I0W
IIIC, 'Th ey know you cal1 act . so they haul' selected the right person . Who kllows, lIIaybe YOll'l/ about 300 or 400 Viet l1allleSe ellgilleers at Illy company, but only 2 of us are WOl11e ll .
act 50 weI/ that tlte AmericaliS ll'il/n oticc .110 11 and you'll be a Hollywood star ill the fllt llre)' "
"When I start ed workillg titere , I encountered lots of dIfficult II, first, /Iecause I alii Asian ,
(Kim , voice off:) " I keep all tll/llkillg despite our emigrati ng to tile U.S, if oll r 511r1talile is ,ecolld because I 011/ a Wall/all . / do ha ve to overcome these two dIffiCUlties. The Amerlcal1S
Viet , ollr gi1'ell l1am e alight to /te Nalll-Vietl1am . For the Vietl1alllesl' womall , the have always looked dowlI all Vietnam as a second-class cOlll1try. Now we Vietllamese are
closest to her is her husbal1d 's; as for Ollr natiue coul1 try, we all laue it , YOllng and old I-\ic ellierillg professiollal careers alld are competillg with them. So although they do not real/If
will always keep ollr last nallle Viet and first l1am e Naill. Evel1 when the wOllien lIIa rry for- show it, YOII can feel that they dOIl't accept the fact that there are more alld more Asians with
eigl1ers here, th ey are still Vietnamese, 50 I thil1k your fillll title is very sllggestille . Pit .Os working in the COli/PO llY, especially ill Research where Asia llS form the majority because
III eo 11 ingflli ." . a Ph .D is req uired ."

One thing the man said he learned to let go of while in prison , is ident ity this (Sync:) "(o llcel'l1i l1g Illy YO lll1ga brother's weddillg, it is in our fa mily tradition th at I, th e
singular naming of a person, a race, a culture, a nation. eldest sis ter, be respolIslble for it sillce Illy fa th er is no longer with us and 111.11 mother is
advanced 111 age That's why I was very dil lided during the filming week ."
Vietna11lese adjustilIg to their Ilew lives: masterillg elevators alld esenlators, learning
wristwatch-type punctuality, tamillg vendillg machines, distinguishillg dog's ca n1/ed foods What did your Vietnamese friends think when they heard you're going to be o n
from hLima n ca nlled foods, and understalld i Ilg tha t it was not perm issible to wal/der Ihe film?
streets , thc 110tels or a11ywhere oLitside in PYja mas

(Yen, in Vietnamese, sync:) "Their reactioll is very different frollll/lY reasons for accepting.
(Yen , in Vietnamese, sync:) "Wh en I accepted to help in this film, it was becallse it s slIbjecl. Tllclj all lauglt and tease l/Ie, saying that 1'1/ become a mouie star alld will earn enoush money
as you told Il1e , concemcd Vietnalliese WO lllell . Sill ce I haue always praised their ability to so I call quit Ill y Job ill tile future ."
saCrifice al1d to endure, I thoug/lt this was all opportullity to speak alit , although I was going
through a lot of pressure alld difficulties at the till/e. Ol1ce I worked all my part , I 1(lOuted to (Voice off:) "Traditiollal/y, tlte Vietllalllest! wOlllan who gets married lIIust endure many
gil'e Illy I'est because I dOll't thillk it is an individual Illatter bll t aile that cOllcems a whole hardships. Site almost lIever li ues for Ilers el! When she liues with her family, all decisions are
COIlIllIU II i tv l11ade by her fa ther. Whl'l1 she marries, she must obey her husballd's fOlllily. All decisiolls belong
to the husha lld alld his family.
(Voice off:) "All actress or a slIIser is looked dow II UpOIi ill tradltiollal society. People /l sed to
say that ill Il respectful falllily, the WOlll all enlll/ot be illuolued i,l cinema or Sillgillg; they hmlf "Sumal17 e Viet, givell 110IIIe Nom. I thill k when a mall asks a woman whether she is married
111011.11 derogatory terlllS to qllOll/y such a 11'0111011 . But 1II0re recen tly, with the Wes t's illfi llellce, or not, by sll ch a question perltaps sit!' is rxpected to wed a Vietl1amese man and to keep th e
cillellla is con sidered all art alld 1I10St actresses would likl! to play the role of a bealltifuI1l',lI1tn l1 , Vietnalll est! traditiolls . Perhaps her husband to have patriotic fe elillgs toward his
so Illy friellds were all takell ahack whell th ey heard I 1unS acting the roll! of a 60 Yl'a r old country. Every )(Iomall wou ld wa llt her husba l1d to be a hero for the people.
100111011 .
"011 T V alld ill lIewspapers, the telldellcy most often IS to side with the North ; 0111.11 ill a few
(Sync:) "Everyday I go to work IJefore 8 aliI alld COl/II! hallie around 7 pm . Thett , /II/Irrl/ tv cases the siding is witll the South. Bllt I have never cOl11e across a film or an analysis that is
cook for Illy hushand alld 5011. Ollly afla Ihat alii I able to rehearse Illy part for this {iltll OIlC; truthflll , that stallds ill th e lIIiddle alld looks at both North and SOllth with IIlIbiased eyes .
the rehearsal is cOlllpleted I ca ll cat dillller alld get Illy SOIl alld Illyself ready for scllt'ol nil This IS very sad, becallse I just want to see all tlte good points we need to keep, and the fa11 Its
11'ork the Ilext day. " WI! Ileed to cl10IIge ill ourselves so IIlat we call build a lIew Vietnamese society. As for tlte
[orelgners , of course tilelilook at Viet 110m with th eir own eyes . I dOIl 't evell wallt to see films
(Voice off:) "I itave beell in the Stat es for 16 years. I've bem workillg for all electroll iC' that speak 0 111.11 for aile side or the other. I wa nt to p'nd a book that speaks truthfully of Vielnam
COli/polly for allllost 10 years ill chell/ical processing. The lIulllber of Vietnalllese ellg illfl'r' hecause ellertlthing I read either praises or blames, hilt alwalfs in all absoillte, black and white
88 Film Scripts SIIn7ame Viet 89

clear (III lIIallll er. Ami I dO Il '1 Ihillk II'Crt' is alll/tllIl/v ahsoill te: cach sid!! has il s "I '
peop le when the y wa nt to learn. But it happens 24 hours a dilY, so vou' re consta ntl )
, ,\ ,\ . " /<1
ll'rollgs speaking English. "

Lan : "That gets on your ner ves. "

War as a succession of s pecial effects; the wa r became film well before it was s hot
Cinema has remained a vast machine of special effects , If the war is the
Sue: " By that time I felt pretty comfortable w ith Chinese. So he comes up and start!
of politics b y ot her means, then media images are the co ntinuati o n o f wa r by o ther asking me questions. [ told him in Chinese that I wasn' t American , tha t I was French
means, Immersed in the machinery, part of the special effect, no critical distance. And he was like, So what, you're European, you speak everyt hin g, ri ght? So I saic
Nothin g separates the Vietnam war and the superfilms tha t were made and COn, no, I o nl y speak French no t English. He said, That's impos sible, you' re all European
tinue to be made about it. It is said that if the Americans los t the other, they have So finall y he sa id o ka y and he just started speaking French ."
certainly won this o ne, (Inspired by Jean Baudrillard) [laughter]

Lan: ''' Oh ac tu a lly I' m German.'"

(Kim, in Vietnamese:) "Till'S£' illlagcs call for IlIllllali colllpassioll toward cOll lltries ill li'nr."
Sue: "Oh, tha t was embarrassing. I just had to be snobbish ."
There is n o w inner in a war.
Lan: "So that 's w hy I like this place. When I first cam e to visit yo u , I' m walkin,
between you a nd Julie, yo u both ha ve blonde hair, and blue eyes . Julie's spe akin,
Japanese, you're speak ing Chinese, here I am , 'Hi , Pennsylva nia: spea kin g English
(Yen, in Vietnamese:) " These are illlages thai arc ell/ol iolla lly Iliovillg, They (a ll chal/ XI' thl
It was a nice change of rol e." (Transcribed from conversation)
Imy .'lOll Ihillk . For !!xalllple if YOIl dOI/ ' t like Imr all(lIIO II st!e ill/ages o{ 1II0thers their
child ill Iheir arms 10 flee {ro lll It >al' .'10/1 '11 be 1II0ped alld stirred to do somelh ill{\ 10 help. T/11'5t
illlages arc perij painflii. Whal is o{lell brOilS'" lip is Ihe 1II0lher 's 10lle {or her c!lild. III i(,1r
For yenrs we Jearnt about "Oll r ancestors, thc Gall/s," we Jea rnt that " Fren ch In doch illa " (Ua
th e motllcr always protects her ch ild 's safety." sitl/atcd in Asia under allOt alld humid climate.

(Lan & Sue, fireplace) Grafting several lan g uages, cultures and realities onto a single b o dy. The problen
Lan: " Here in Berkeley it's not so bad-you have so many Orientals that people of translation , after a ll, is a problem of reading and of id e ntit y.
recognize the difference between Oriental cultures like Japanese, Chinese, Korean,
Vietn a mese . ] don't know how many times I've run int o people that, like, first of all Van-Lang, Nam-Viet , Hoang Viet, Oai-Viet, An-Nam (Bac Ky-Le Tonkin; Trun:
the y prete nd like they're interested enough to ask yo u , Are yo u Chinese or Japa· KY-An Nam ; Nam Ky-La Cochinchine), French Ind oc hina , (Viet-Nam, 'Nam)
nese? No, Vietnamese. Then they have the ne rve to say, Oh, sa me difference. I find
th a t really insulting, " "Victllam" (American Accent)-tllelf also call il 'Nal11.

Sue: "] wou ld too. It 's ridiculou s" Reeducation camps, rehabilitation camps , concentration camps, annihilatiol
camps , All the distinctive features of a civilization are laid bare. Th e slogans con
Lan: "] wasn' t so aware of it until recentl y, when yo u to ld me that story of_\\,ha t tinue to read : " Wo rk liberates," " Rehabilitation thro u g h work ," Here, wor k is a pre
was ie-the bu s. , How it wo rks both ways, What happe ned?" cess whereby the worker no longer takes powe r, " fo r wo rk has ceased to be his wa
of livin g and has become his way of dying" (Maurice Blanchot). Work and death ar
Sue: "Oh yes. It was really funny I was li vin g in Tai wa n a nd I go t o n the bus_the eCJuivalent s,
o nl y white American-and this guy spots me from across the bus. Of (Ours,: it'S
jammed packed and everybody's in each others' armpits and we're holding on for
"111 Guam I recogl1ized a gClleraJ," slle said, "He [had] /Jeen olle of Ihe ricllcst mell ill Viel
dear life because they're maniac drivers, and he starts making his way back, He
wanted to get a little English lesson , which is fine-you like speaking English to
/111m, , , , Ol1e mornil1g ill the camp, a mob of women came up 10 Ilim, Tiley look off thel
90 Film Scripts
Surname Viet 91

... woodell shoes Ilnd begllil bentillg him Ilbout the helld, screaming: 'Because of you, Iny Hope is alive when there is a boat, even a small boat. From shore to shore small
my brother, my husband WIlS /I'ft behind.'" (Wendy Wilder Larsen & Tran Thi Nga)
SOIl,
rafts are rejected and sent back to the sea. The policy of castaways has created a
class of refugees, the "beach people."
"The world is like a butterfly" wrote a Japanese poet of the seventeenth century.
Each government has its own interpretation of Kieu. Each has its peculiar way of
A woman discloses the content of a letter her father recently wrote in prison in using and appropriating women's images. Kiell has survived in hundreds of differ-
Vietnam. A poet, looking desperately fragile on photo in his long silver hair, he did ent contexts. First appreciated for its denunciation of oppressive and corrupt feu-
not write to complain about his politically condemned status, but only to weep OVer dalism, it was later read as an allegory of the tragic fate of Vietnam under colonial
his eldest daughter's death on the very birthday of Buddha. Forty days after she rule. More recently in a celebration of its 200th anniversary it was highly praised
died, he wrote, she came back in the form of a golden butterfly encircling him by the government's male official writers for its revolutionary yearning for freedom
insistently for an entire day. and justice in the context of the war against American imperialism. For the Vietnam-
ese exiled, it speaks for the exodus or silent popular movement of resistance that
COllg Dung Ngol1 Hanh. What are these four virtues persistently required of women? continues to raise problems of conscience to the international community.
First, COllg: you'll have to be able, competent and skillful-in cooking, sewing, man-
aging the household budget, caring for the husband, educating the children-all
this to save the husband's face. Second. Dung: you'll have to maintain a gracious,
compliant and cheerful appearance-first of all for the husband. Third, Ngoll. you'll
have to speak properly and softly and never raise your voice-particularly in front
of the husband or his relatives. Then fourth, Hllnh: you'll have to know where your
place is; respect those older than you and yield to those younger or weaker than
you-moreover, be faithful and sacrifice for the husband.

The boat is either a dream or a nightmare. Or rather, both. A no place. "A place
without a place, that exists by itself [and] is closed on itself, and at the same time is
given over to the infinity of the sea." For Western civilization the boat has not only
been the great instrument of economic development, going from port to port as far
as the colonies in search of treasures and slaves, but it has also been a reserve of the
imagination. It is said that "in civilization without boats, dreams dry up, espionage
takes the place of adventure, and the police takes the place of pirates" (!\Iichel
Foucault).

Than em nhu tam lua dao

Phat pho giua eho biet vao tay ai?
Em ngoi eanh true, em tua eanh mai,
Dong dao tay lieu, biet lay ai ban cung?
(I am like a piece of silk
Floating in the midst of the market, knowing not into whose hands it will fall
Sitting on a reed, leaning against an apricot branch
Between the peach tree to the East and the willow to the West
Who shall I befriend for a lifetime 7)