The Refugees

Phuong Ly and her brothers, Hanh and Phuc, are named after her father’s first set of children, who live in America. Phoung believes that her half-siblings are blessed. According to the letters the first Mrs. Ly sends periodically, Phuong’s namesake, 17 years her senior, is taller, more beautiful (by Western standards), and more successful.

In 27 years, Phoung’s half-siblings have never written; consequently, it is a big deal to the family when Phuong’s sister, a pediatrician who goes by Vivien, writes to tell them that she will be visiting Vietnam for two weeks and that she hopes to stay with them. Mrs. Ly scoffs at Vivien using a Western name, but Phuong knows it comes from Vivien Leigh, star of Gone with the Wind, Mr. Ly’s favorite movie. The fallen grandeur of the Confederacy reminds him of the fallen South Vietnam.

Phuong forms an image of Vivien as a glamorous, Western woman; this image is reinforced when they meet Vivien at the airport. After a week in Saigon, Vivien is still out of place, “eas­i­ly mis­tak­en for a Ko­re­an busi­ness­man’s fraz­zled wife or a wea­ry Jap­a­nese tour­ist, her frost­ing of make­up melt­ing un­der the trop­i­cal glare,” but “In cer­tain in­door set­tings […] she was clear­ly the mis­tress of her do­main” (127).