Nostalgic Weekends
“Viet weekends” by Thi Bui reminds me of when I lived in Vietnam for 2 years a few years back.
left during third grade and lived there for about a year. Hearing Thi Bui talks about the Viet school that she and her friend hung/went to reminded me of when I used to hang out with a group of friends near a store that used to sell TV’s. A large empty area was there in between stores and it was a great place for us kids to hang around and play. Right across from there was my uncle’s bakery, so I was never too far from home. The games we would play would range from Simon says, Red Light Green Light, and even a game that needed us to tie rubber bands together and jump over it. The rubber band rope would eventually get higher and higher, and the challenge was for each person to jump over the rope and clear it without getting tangled. I admit it was one of my fondest memories when living in Vietnam. Although I came very young and so I couldn’t relate too much to the experiences that Thi Bui had while living in Vietnam, I could understand the sentiment and the nostalgic feeling when presented with the writings depicting experiences from Vietnam.
As someone Vietnamese I could understand and even relate to her story, but what about everyone else? Why did she write/ draw these panels and what was the message that she was trying to convey? To me, I would assume that the message was that life is no different from any normal childhood. As the title says, “ Viet Weekend” you would assume that many parts of the ethnicity would play a part in the story. It doesn’t. If you take out the word viet in the timeline of her story and the way she describes the places, it sounds like a typical teenage/ childhood life. To me, she wanted to express how life anywhere is more similar to each other despite the labels given. Making new friends, cutting school to go to a place worthwhile, first experiences with love, even forming lasting connections that might not have been expected. These are all parts of what an “ average” teenage life would be about.
And despite her living a “Viet weekend” Thi was an immigrant who came to America 3 months after the ending of the Vietnam War. So in retrospect, the reason she calls it a “Viet Weekend” is because of how fresh her culture is still with her and her family. As a person who has lived in California most of her life, I would consider myself heavily whitewashed. There are aspects of my culture that I myself aren’t too familiar with because of my assimilation into American culture. Yet because Thi is someone who has come to America so fresh off the boat, her culture is still with her, letting her experience what she calls a “Viet weekend” because of the people and events that she encounters. I find it kinda cool and nostalgic.
What I also found interesting was the unexpected connections that she built when she was there, especially the relationship that she built with the mean teacher, who needed up being an important person in her life story. It reminded me of how when I lived in Vietnam I built a relationship with the people there ( some that may have forgotten me by now, but I remember them and their impact on me until this day!) and how my life has become significantly different. For example, the grandfather who I used to see all the time at the beach and would catch baby clams to show me ended up living with me when my mother was pregnant with my brother. He becomes an important person to us for those years and reading Thi’s comic brought all those memories back. In a way, it becomes a story that I related to more than I originally had thought, but I’m not complaining, just reminiscing on those moments from the past. I wonder what people think when they read her comic/ writing, what goes through their minds, and if they find any relation to themselves. I think that writing is one of the best ways for people to connect to moments in life and to each other, and this would count as a great nostalgic moment, especially for me.