[Vung Tau, 1/7/24] At 6:12AM, I’m at my second cafe, Bitter. As I walked in, the lady was about to take her boy to school. Very well behaved, this kid. Yesterday, he folded his arms to announce, “Dear great grandma, dear four sirs, I’m going to school.”
When I was in Sacramento, California, working at Sacramento City College (the best, and really only enjoyable job I've ever had in this rather sorry life) I took an anthropology class with a young lady professor who told us one day (I don't recall why?) that her father was an "American white guy" but her mother was "from one of the hill tribes in Southern China and Northern Indo-China" (I assume she was referring to the Hmong or one of the related hill tribes).
I recall in that class we went over the very strict hierarchical structure of East Asian societies. She mentioned that here in the West and in America in particular we have an almost enforced tradition of equality. The French Revolution put a real damper on being a royal or a noble. Thanks to Dr. Guillotine. The saying "Don't lose your head!" took on a whole new meaning in France at that time. That enforced equality carried over in regard to age. The elderly, for the most part, were no longer venerable.
So smart, upper class people gave up their white wigs and began wearing the long trousers of the lower classes. But it seems that in East Asia social hierarchy still prevails. Elders must be treated with respect and deferred to by youth. I know when I was in the Philippines I was ALWAYS deferred to as "sir." I kept looking over my shoulder thinking some dignified, elderly man must have been right behind me in line. But they were talking to me! Here I'm just "hey you", or most humiliating of all "pops." That really makes my blood boil! "Don't call me that!" I want to say. I ain't nobody's "pop."
Great piece, Linh. I often feel bad about my poor Vietnamese. It's nice to hear what I'm missing through you. Have a great trip and a good flight back.
When I was in Sacramento, California, working at Sacramento City College (the best, and really only enjoyable job I've ever had in this rather sorry life) I took an anthropology class with a young lady professor who told us one day (I don't recall why?) that her father was an "American white guy" but her mother was "from one of the hill tribes in Southern China and Northern Indo-China" (I assume she was referring to the Hmong or one of the related hill tribes).
I recall in that class we went over the very strict hierarchical structure of East Asian societies. She mentioned that here in the West and in America in particular we have an almost enforced tradition of equality. The French Revolution put a real damper on being a royal or a noble. Thanks to Dr. Guillotine. The saying "Don't lose your head!" took on a whole new meaning in France at that time. That enforced equality carried over in regard to age. The elderly, for the most part, were no longer venerable.
So smart, upper class people gave up their white wigs and began wearing the long trousers of the lower classes. But it seems that in East Asia social hierarchy still prevails. Elders must be treated with respect and deferred to by youth. I know when I was in the Philippines I was ALWAYS deferred to as "sir." I kept looking over my shoulder thinking some dignified, elderly man must have been right behind me in line. But they were talking to me! Here I'm just "hey you", or most humiliating of all "pops." That really makes my blood boil! "Don't call me that!" I want to say. I ain't nobody's "pop."
The indignity of it all!
Great piece, Linh. I often feel bad about my poor Vietnamese. It's nice to hear what I'm missing through you. Have a great trip and a good flight back.
Where are you now, Linh? Cambodia?