Today in culture class we learned about Dualism, which is
the philosophy of Yin and Yang. According to the Vietnamese, there are pairs in
everything, for example Mother and Father, and Earth and Sky. Yin is Mother and
Earth, and Yang is Father and Sky. The two must always be separate—if they
absorb one another the universe will collapse. The first principle of Yin/Yang
is that inside Yin there is Yang and inside Yang there is Yin. For example,
although the mother is characterized as sweet and nurturing, if her children
are threatened, she becomes strong to protect them. The second principle is
that when getting to the highest status, Yang changes to Yin. When Yin gets to
the highest status, it changes to Yang. This principle of waxing and waning
applies directly to the Vietnamese attitude towards wealth. They believe that
you cannot be rich for more than 3 generations before losing their wealth. This
is why traditionally the poor are hopeful and content. They believe that,
though they may never be rich, by working hard and staying strong, one day
their children or grandchildren may have the wealth they did not. Something
that I thought was interesting was that even numbers are Yin and odd numbers
are Yang. The number nine means “forever”, so traditionally roses are sold in
multiples of nine. Something else that was interesting was that houses that
face south in Vietnam are the most expensive. Houses facing north are thought
to be unlucky, and a house facing west means death because of sunset. North and
west are Yin, while south and east are Yang.
In language class, we learned some basic conversational
phrases such as “How are you?” and “I’m fine, thank you. How are you?”. We also
learned how to say, “sleepy, tired, happy, beautiful, nice, hot, and good”. For lunch we ate omelettes that had onions and peppers and other vegetables in them. They were really delicious.
Today was an especially interesting day because we got to
meet with the CEO/Founder of Ascenx Technologies, Tung T. Bach. Ascenx is a
relatively young engineering company that began by repairing robots and now
provides a multitude of services both in the U.S. and Vietnam. In America,
Ascenx engages in contract manufacturing, contract repair (RMA operations), and
design engineering services. In Vietnam, they engage in engineering services
development, field service engineering operations, and obsolescence product
engineering. Mr. Bach explained that, like II-VI, they have some difficulty
retaining their employees, especially when large companies like Intel, who can
afford to offer higher pay, begin recruiting their employees. This is a problem
because when Vietnamese workers start earning higher wages very quickly, inflation
occurs, hurting the rest of the people. Ascenx sends their engineers to America
to learn how to work like an American, who tend to be more productive, and also
to improve their English skills. Mr. Bach said that their experience at Ascenx
therefore makes them very desirable to other companies, which is why he has
such a difficult time keeping them. However, he feels that he is succeeding
because he knows that the experience he is giving his workers has helped over
40 families.
The most interesting part of Mr. Bach’s presentation began
when he started to explain how he got where he is today. He is a Vietnamese
American that fled from Vietnam as a refugee in 1980. Before the Vietnam War,
or the War of American Aggression as it is known here, the Bach family was very
prominent and wealthy in the North. The Bach family owned the majority of
Haiphong, which is a port town, therefore controlling the seaway from Hong Kong
to Europe. With the rise of communism, his family was ruined. His great-uncles
were hung out in the market, and his father fled to the South, where he met his
mother. Mr. Bach was born in Saigon, and when the Vietnam War broke out, his
uncle fought as a naval officer for the South Vietnamese army. After South
Vietnam lost the war and Vietnam was reunited as a communist nation, the entire
country suffered from the failing command economy and the people began to
starve. Mr. Bach’s uncle was forced to move to a reeducation camp outside of
Saigon and was injured by a grenade while working out in the fields. Half of
his body was paralyzed. His uncle managed to escape the reeducation camp with
the help of some friends, and after living several years in Saigon with no
documentation, he found a chance to flee Vietnam by boat with two others. His
uncle chose his younger sister and Mr. Bach because of the kindness that Mr.
Bach’s mother had shown him by driving out to take care of him in the camp,
even though their family had no money. They fled by boat in 1980. As an
experienced naval officer, his uncle was able to safely steer the boat filled
with 50 refugees to an island off the coast of Vietnam. Mr. Bach said that on
the second day, they hit a storm and he remembers being terrified by the
massive typhoon waves that nearly killed them. He told us that over 2 million
Vietnamese fled the country after the war, but only 1 million survived the
journey because of the typhoon waves. As a naval officer, his uncle was given
priority entering the U.S., so they were able to settle in San Francisco. The
next year, his father tried to make the journey and was lost at sea. A few
years later, his mother and siblings safely reached America, and they were
reunited in 1984. Mr. Bach went to college in San Francisco for computer
engineering and later founded Ascenx Technologies, going back to Vietnam to
expand his company.
I was incredibly impressed by Mr. Bach’s story, and even
more so by his generosity and hospitality. He invited our entire group to get
coffee with him afterwards at Highlands Coffee so that we could talk some more.
He was an extremely interesting person to talk with, and I felt inspired by his
perseverance and strength in the face of such horror. Today he is the father of
two, travels back and forth between Vietnam and San Francisco, and helps coach
his son’s soccer team and little league baseball team. By listening to his
story and talking with him, at this point I feel like I cannot yet say that I
have learned a lot about the human nature and how we respond to change and
adversity. All I can say is that he has given me plenty to think about on the
15 hour plane ride home.
Tonight the UEF students picked us up to go to Domino’s
Pizza. We were craving American food after eating Vietnamese food for a whole week,
so tonight was a treat for us. The pizza tasted a little different than it does
in America. I think it was mostly because the pepperoni was thick like a slice
of ham. After dinner, we took motorbikes to Saigon South. We went to the
Crescent Mall and walked around a little bit and then walked over to the
Starlight Bridge. The whole place was beautiful at night. Everything was light
up and reflected on the water of the Saigon River. The Starlight Bridge is a
walking bridge that has little white lights speckled in the cement walkway to
look like stars. The edges of the bridge have colorful lights along them that
change colors periodically. It was so pretty.
