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Vietnamese Quotes

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Vietnamese Quotes

“My chances of returning to America were small, and I thought with regret about all the things I would miss about America: the TV dinner; air-conditioning; a well-regulated traffic system that people actually followed; a relatively low rate of death by gunfire, at least compared with our homeland; the modernist novel; freedom of speech, which, if not as absolute as Americans liked to believe, was still greater in degree than in our homeland; sexual liberation; and, perhaps most of all, that omnipresent American narcotic, optimism, the unending flow of which poured through the American mind continuously, whitewashing the graffiti of despair, rage, hatred, and nihilism scrawled there nightly by the black hoodlums of the unconscious. There were also many things about America with which I was less enchanted, but why be negative?”

AmericaUnited StatesOptimismImmigrantsVietnamVietnameseVietnamese Americans
Book:The Sympathizer
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“I breakfasted with the crapulent major a week later. It was an earthy, quotidian scene, the kind Walt Whitman would have loved to write about, a sketch of the new America featuring hot rice porridge and fried crullers at a Monterey Park noodle shop crammed full of unrepentantly unassimilated Chinese and a few other assorted Asians.”

FoodChineseImmigrantsBreakfastVietnameseVietnamese AmericansAsian AmericansChinese Americans
Book:The Sympathizer
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“Our gathering was not as strange a thing as it might have appeared. A xenophobe would see a company of foreigners in camouflage uniforms, carrying out military drills and calisthenics, and might imagine us to be the lead element of some nefarious Asian invasion of the American homeland, a Yellow Peril in the Golden State, a diabolical dream of Ming the Merciless sprung to life. Far from it. The General's men, by preparing themselves to invade our now communist homeland, were in fact turning themselves into new Americans. After all, nothing was more American than wielding a gun and committing oneself to die for freedom and independence, unless it was wielding that gun to take away someone else’s freedom and independence.”

FreedomIndependenceGunsXenophobiaAmericansVietnameseAsiansAsian Americans
Book:The Sympathizer
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“Our Vietnamese a time capsule, a mark of where your education ended. Ma, to speak in our mother tongue is to speak only partially in Vietnamese, but entirely in war. That night I promise myself I'd never be wordless when you needed me to speak for you. So I began my career as our family's official interpreter. From then on, I would fill in our blanks, our silences, our stutters, whenever I could. I code switched. I took off our language and wore my English, like a mask, so that others would see my face, and therefore yours. It's true that, in Vietnamese, we rarely say I love you, and when we do, it is almost always in English. Care and love, for us, are pronounced clearly through service...”

ChildhoodIdentityMotherhoodImmigrationVietnamese
Book:On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
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“Giây phút nhìn con thở yếu ớt vì uống quá nhiều thuốc ngủ, cha tưởng chừng tim mình ngừng đập. Dù thế nào, cha cũng phải vững vàng trước mặt mẹ con, nhưng lòng cha hoàn toàn trống rỗng, như thể trái tim đã đi đâu mất rồi. Cha cuống cuồng gọi xe cấp cứu, nhưng bác sĩ nói rằng coi như hết hy vọng, rằng có thể con sẽ phải sống thực vật suốt đời. Dù vậy, họ vẫn dốc lòng cứu con. Con còn ít tuổi, các y bác sĩ đã cố gắng hết sức để mang con trở về bằng mọi giá. Nhìn cảnh ấy, cha cảm động biết chừng nào. Và con hồi sinh một cách thần kỳ như để đáp lại nhiệt huyết của mọi người. Đúng lúc ấy cha đã nghĩ, người tốt hay xấu đều không còn quan trọng...”

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Author:Eto Mori
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“Maman ordered the pork meatball bánh mì, and I ordered the lemongrass chicken bánh mì, with an order of shrimp salad rolls to share. "People forget about the French and the Vietnamese, sometimes," she told me as we waited. "The French brought their baguettes, and the Vietnamese used them to make bánh mì sandwiches. And then the French came home with a love for Vietnamese chicken soup deep in their souls." "There are perks to imperialism," I noted.”

ImperialismFrenchVietnameseBaguette
Book:A Table by the Window
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“I was doing my best imitation of a Third World child on one of those milk cartons passed around elementary schools for American children to deposit their pennies and dimes in order to help poor Alejandro, Abdullah, or Ah Sing have a hot lunch and an immunization. And I was thankful, truly! But I was also one of those unfortunate cases who could not help but wonder whether my need for American charity was due to my having first been the recipient of American aid.”

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Book:The Sympathizer
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“Tại sao mỗi ngày tôi phải sống khổ sở như vầy? Vừa mở cửa sổ ra để thấy mặt trời và thở không khí phải gặp một bộ mặt nào đó chìa ra. Tôi tránh tất cả khách; tôi tránh gặp tất cả bạn bè; tôi tránh tất cả người quen; tôi tránh gặp tất cả những người trong gia đình. Không muốn gặp ai hết và không muốn nói chuyện với hết ai hết. Tôi muốn được im lặng và sống một mình suốt ngày và suốt đêm. Thế mà mọi người đều đến tìm tôi; họ đeo vào tôi như đeo vào chiếc phao; họ là những con đỉa đói, họ hút máu tôi bằng những câu chuyện bàn tán nhảm nhí của họ, bằng kiến thức thối tha của họ, bằng những ý kiến, tin tức, khuyên răn, thăm dò, miệng lưỡi, tóc, tay, tim, bao tử, gan, mật, thận, phổi v.v… Tôi hoàn toàn lạnh lùng. Dù mười trái bom H nổ tại thành phố này, tôi vẫn thản nhiên lạnh lùng. Dù động đất, hoả diệm sơn nổ, đại hồng thủy, dịch hạch, một tỷ người chết, dù gì đi nữa, tôi vẫn lạnh lùng. Dù là ngày tận thế, dù nhân loại, văn minh, văn hóa bị tiêu diệt trước mắt tôi, tôi vẫn lạnh lùng, hoàn toàn lạnh lùng.”

PhilosophyVietnamVietnameseVietnamese LiteratureVietnamese Authors
Book:Mặt trời không bao giờ có thực
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“Cool and serene, I thought... like a pale Japanese watercolour. After a few months in the province and many field trips, I still couldn't believe the delicate beauty of the Vietnamese countryside.”

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Book:Don't Break My Rice Bowl: A beautiful and gripping novel, highlighting the personal and tragic struggles faced during the Vietnam War, bringing the late author and his 'forgotten' manuscript to life
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“This wrap! It's made of rice! Now I get it... it's a variation on a Bánh Xèo!" BÁNH XÈO Literally meaning "Sizzling Cake," it is a Vietnamese rice-flour pancake. The batter is made from rice flour, water, coconut milk and other ingredients and is then spread thinly and fried like a crepe. Once cooked, ingredients like pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts are folded inside. I see the concept behind this dish now! It's mixing piping-hot rice with juicy fried chicken! Fried chicken and rice have always been a golden combination. Here they've recreated that in a form that's easy to eat on the go and just as delicious. And they even managed to do it in an innovative and eye-catching way!”

CombinationRiceVietnameseFried ChickenSouma YukihiraIkumi MitoWrapOn The Go
Book:食戟のソーマ 5 [Shokugeki no Souma 5]
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“The higher our degree of concentration, the greater the quality of our life. Vietnamese girls are often told by their mothers that if they concentrate, they will be more beautiful. This is the kind of beauty that comes from dwelling deeply in the present moment. When a young lady moves inattentively, she does not look as fresh or at ease. Her mother may not use these words, but she is encouraging her daughter to practice Right Concentration”

HappinessBuddhismConcentrationVietnameseVietnamese Authors
Book:The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching : Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation
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“Saigon, U.S.A. aptly documents the birth of a new American community, uprooted in the aftermath of war and forever torn apart by the wounds of the past, yet one capable of healing against all odds. An engrossing yet succinct film that captures not only a major incident in Vietnamese American life, but also an important chapter of American history. A profound film that manages to confront us with the deepest sorrow while allowing us to be hopeful about what it means to be human.”

HumansMeanImportantWarPastFilmCommunityHealingForeverBirthSorrowMajorsCapableProfoundWoundsManageHopefulAllowingCaptureChaptersOddsAmerican HistoryDocumentsTornIncidentsAmerican LifeAftermathVietnameseAgainst All OddsTorn ApartWhat It Means To Be HumanSaigon
Author:Nguyen Qui Duc
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“Is it not a rather fantastic historical irony that the torture techniques that the North Vietnamese used against McCain that forced him to offer a videotaped false confession are now the techniques the Bush administration is using to gain "intelligence" about terror networks. How is it possible to know that everything John McCain once said on videotape for the enemy was false, because it was coerced, and yet assert that everything we torture out of terror suspects using exactly the same techniques is true?”

KnowsSaidUsedEnemyOffersGainsHistoricalTerrorTechniqueAdministrationFantasticIronyTortureSuspectsConfessionMccainVietnamese
Author:Andrew Sullivan
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“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government.... There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when you say, 'Be nonviolent toward Jim Clark,' but will curse and damn you when you say, 'Be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children!' There is something wrong with that press.”

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Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“When I was growing up, Forest Park was full of integrated families. It was amazing. One my best friends was Vietnamese. Another one was half-Mexican, half-black. Another one was from Colombia. Another one was born in the U.S., but his mom was from Germany and spoke with a German accent. So we all had multiple identities.”

BlackBornHalfGrowing UpGrowingIdentityMomForestsGermanyParksSpokesMultipleAccentsMy Best FriendMexicanIntegratedColombiaVietnameseMultiple Identities
Author:Dinaw Mengestu
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“I did not feel proud of our country, seeing that we were bombing peasant villages, that we were not just hitting military targets, that children were being killed. We were terrorizing the North Vietnamese with our enormous Air Force. They had no Air Force at all. They were a little pitiful country and we were terrorizing them with our bombs. And no, I did not feel proud at all.”

FeelsChildrenLittlesCountryForceSeeingAirMilitaryProudEnormousOur CountryBombsTargetVillageHittingPeasantsBombingAir ForcePitifulVietnamese
Author:Howard Zinn
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“Richard Nixon was not the lesser evil, he was the greater evil, but in his administration the war was finally brought to an end, because he had to deal with the power of the anti-war movement as well as the power of the Vietnamese movement. I will vote, but always with a caution that voting is not crucial, and organizing is the important thing.”

WellsImportantWarEndsEvilDealsGreaterMovementVoteImportant ThingsAdministrationVotingCrucialAnti WarCautionVietnameseLesser EvilAnti War Movement
Author:Howard Zinn
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“The average Mexican lives longer now than the average Briton did in 1955. Infant mortality is lower today in Nepal than it was in Italy in 1951. The proportion of Vietnamese living on less than $2 a day has dropped from 90 per cent to 30 per cent in twenty years. The rich have got richer, but the poor have done even better.”

YearsDoneTodayPoorRichTwentiesAverageProportionMortalityCentsInfantMexicanLong LifeLiving OnVietnameseNepalBritonsInfant Mortality
Author:Matt Ridley
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“The National Liberation Front was not...a viable, autonomous organization with a life of its own; it was a facade, a "front," by means of which the DLD (the North Vietnamese Communist Party) sought to mobilize the people in the South to accomplish its ends, and to garner international sympathy and support.”

PeopleMeanWarEndsPartySupportFrontsOrganizationSouthInternationalAccomplishLiberationCommunistVietnam WarFacadeAutonomousVietnameseCommunist Party
Author:George Allen
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“Administrators tend to lump Asians in Chicago into one group, not understanding that these kids would be fighting each other, the Cambodians and the Vietnamese. We started a thing called cultural gift sharing, where everyone comes and says what his culture is, so the teachers and the administrators could understand they are different.”

DifferentWould BeKidsCultureFightingUnderstandingTeacherGroupsChicagoLumpsVietnameseAdministratorsFighting Each Other
Author:Malik Yusef
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“The true history of Vietnamese civilian suffering does not fit comfortably into America's preferred postwar narrative - the tale of a conflict nobly fought by responsible commanders and good American boys, who should not be tainted by the occasional mistakes of a few 'bad apples' in their midst.”

ShouldDoeAmericaSufferingMistakeBoysFitConflictResponsibleTalesNarrativeApplesMidstCiviliansOccasionalCommandersVietnameseTaintedBad Apple
Book:Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam
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“The Vietnamese Hoa were merchants and manufacturers. They were very successful and thus, according to the logic of Marxism, responsible for society's failures. The Hoa suffered the same fate as the pizza parlour in Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing except at the hands of the world's fourth largest army instead of a small, petulant movie director.”

WorldHandsSuccessfulFateDirectorsLogicArmyResponsibleRight ThingFourthMarxismPizzaMerchantsVietnameseMovie Director
Book:All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty
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