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MAY TRUONG: COASTING ON A DREAM
24-year old May Truong was born on a sinking boat in the South China Sea. Her parents were Cino-Vietnamese refugees who risked their lives to escape the communist regime in Vietnam. May’s mother was 9-months pregnant with her at the time.
Since her dramatic birth on turbulent waters, May's life has been an epic journey to discover where she belongs. Is she Vietnamese? Is she Chinese? Is she Canadian? While exploring her parent's story, May learns a lot more about herself.
Photo: Anna Truong holding May not long after her birth on a sinking boat
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In 1975, Communist North Vietnam took over South Vietnam. After unifying the country they imposed a harsh and repressive regime. In that year 150 thousand people – mostly educated army officers, students and professionals – fled the country and made their way to the United States, France and Canada. Canada admitted over 3 thousand refugees.
Hundreds of thousands more refugees fled between 1978 and 1981. They were from the more rural parts of the country and had limited education. Many were farmers or fishermen. With limited financial means, they were forced to escape on overcrowded boats to neighbouring countries, including Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
The refugees, who became known as “the boat people”, were sent to live in refugee camps but they weren’t allowed to stay. Their challenge was to find a third country that would accept them. The Canadian government, together with church groups and private refugee sponsorship programs, admitted 60 thousand refugees to Canada during those years.
Photo: Vietnamese refugees in an overcrowded fishing boat. (UNHCR)
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- To learn more about immigration to Canada, visit The Canadian Museum of Civilization. Canada Hall traces 1000 years of newcomers arriving to the shores of this country with various colourful reconstructed scenes.
- When they first arrived in Ottawa, Chinatown was the only place where May's parents could eat familiar foods and buy the ingredients they needed to make Vietnamese dishes. Explore Ottawa’s Chinatown and have lunch at one of the Vietnamese restaurants. Then find the Vietnamese Mother and Child Monument which reminds us that not all of those who attempted to escape Vietnam survived to tell the tale.
- May’s family had private sponsors in Canada. But they could not have helped these refugees without the support of the Canadian Government which welcomed the newcomers. Take a tour of Parliament Hill in Ottawa to see where our representatives make the decisions that shape our country’s future. Every morning at 10am you can also see the Changing of the Guard.
- May's family are Cino-Vietnamese. To learn more about the Chinese side of their culture, visit Ottawa's annual dragonboat festival which celebrates the historic Chinese tradition of boat racing. There is also a children’s activity area and multicultural performances frequently take place.
Photo: Parliament Hill (credit: Ottawa Riverboat Co)
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IMMIGRATION HISTORY
Canadian Museum of Civilization
100 Rue Laurier
P.O. Box 3100, Station B,
Gatineau, Quebec J8X 4H2.
Telephone: 1-800-555-5621
www.civilization.ca
VIETNAMESE CULTURE AND FOOD
Somerset Heights Chinatown Business Improvement Area (Chinatown)
Website includes names of Vietnamese restaurants.
Vietnamese Mother and Child Statue is located at the corner of Preston and Summerset
Telephone: +1 (613) 230-4707
www.somersetheightschinatown.ca
CHINESE DRAGON BOAT RACE
Nortel Networks Ottawa Dragon Boat Race Festival Mooney’s Bay Park
June 25 and 26, 2005
Telephone: +1 (613) 238-7711
www.dragonboat.net
CANADA’S ROLE
Parliament of Canada Information Service
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A9
Telephone: +1 (866) 599-4999
http://www.parl.gc.ca
TOURISM
OTTAWA TOURISM
Telephone: +1 800 465-1867
http://www.ottawatourism.ca/
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SCN
Tue, November 21, 2006 @ 8:30 pm (CST)
channel m
Sun, October 29, 2006 @ 11:00 am ()
Mon, October 23, 2006 @ 8:30 am ()
Tue, June 6, 2006 @ 1:00 pm (PST)
Sun, March 12, 2006 @ 9:30 pm (PST)
Canadian Learning Television
Mon, November 7, 2005 @ 9:30 pm (EST)
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1. Anna and David Truong describe the thoughtfulness and generosity of their sponsors who prepared a new home for them in Canada. In the late seventies and early eighties many churches and communities sponsored Vietnamese refugees to enable them to start a new life in Canada. These new immigrants settled into life in Canada quite well and their sons and daughters succeeded academically in Canadian schools. Do you know of any churches, temples and communities that continue to sponsor new refugees? If your answer is no – what do you think has changed since that time?
2. May tried very hard to assimilate into mainstream Canadian society. What pressures would she have faced? Do you or any of your friends face similar pressures?
3. Before May traveled to Vietnam when she was nineteen, she wasn’t sure if she was Chinese, Vietnamese or Canadian. How did the trip help her to be more comfortable with her identity as a Canadian? Was her identity crisis solely due to the multicultural nature of her existence or was it also a natural part of the maturing process? What other issues can cause an identity crisis during childhood and adolescence?
4. May felt that her choice of photography was a disappointment to her parents. Is this kind of career conflict more likely to occur in immigrant families? What other kinds of issues cause hard feelings and misunderstandings between children born and raised in Canada and parents born and raised in other cultures/countries?
Further Research:
1. How many “Boat People” came to Canada in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s? Where did they settle? How did they get started in Canada? Tell the story of the Vietnamese immigration that occurred after the Vietnam War.
Additional Research Question:
This film tells the story of a woman who is a role model to women in her family and in her community. Who, in your life has been a role model? If you would like to share the story about this person with other young people to whom you think this story might act as a beacon, please add it to the website www.mothertongue.ca. Alternately, if you would like to read stories that others have posted, please click on the website and become a part of a dialogue about the importance of role models.
Note:
These starting points for discussion and research questions were written by Dr. Carole Ann Reed, an educational consultant. Dr. Reed has worked as a human rights educator for almost twenty years in the Toronto area and has authored and co-authored many articles, curricula, and educational kits as well as a book. The topics she writes about include issues such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, women’s rights and anti-racism. For several years she was the Director of the Holocaust Centre of Toronto.
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This series of educational videos was made possible with funding from
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Mother Tongue: A woman's history of ethnic Canada is a 13-part TV series that documents Canada's multicultural history from a female perspective. Each program tells the story of a notable woman in one of Canada's communities, including a Black fugitive slave, an Acadian mail order bride, and an Icelandic suffragette.
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