Just came across this and man glad someone from the SGV shared their story. This resonated with me deeply. I am one of those who strayed towards the gang life early in life before finding my way. Never did feel like I fit in anywhere. Too hood for the Corporate world and too good for the gangster life. Thanks for inspiring me to share my story brother!
i am now addicted to TED talks, such great platform for all subjects especially Asian topics which is being long ignored by main stream media, still is today.
Thanks for sharing your story Ngo. It's so humorous ! What impresses me was when you realized that Asians in Asia are not the same as the Asians who grew up in America..
Very good talk! Thanks for sharing your family story. I’m Chinese Vietnamese too from SGV and a fellow boat people. Rarely do I have the attention span to listen to a Ted talk in it’s entirety.
What I find interesting is that all Asians have great heritage tied to their family names surrounded by great legends and urban myths. It’s kind of very interesting that in the western world you don’t have the same tone in family names.
Great talk, i'm really adorable of your story. Maybe i am a Chinese-Vietnamese but i live in Cambodia. I saw you said one thing of "Chinese people started immigrating over to the French Indochina which right now it's called Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam". I am not really into History, but for the Cambodia country or called "Khmer" is flat out of the History. KHMER IS AN ANCIENT KINGDOM. I am not lean to which country as where the family came from or live, but it is the true. And if talking about the History of these countries, it has another two countries involved in (Thai and another country no more today is Champa (Cham's kingdom)).
"My grandma's a gangster". - LOL. Of course, she lived the era of "The Red Detachment of Women". Hainan women are brave, hard working people and endure so much!
Similar story with me. But i am ethnically Vietnamese and Chinese. My father was a son of a wealthy Chinese business owner, my mother was a daughter of a Vietnamese Army officer.
