Friday, May 11, 2012

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.