Pedaling Bodies Through Searing Sunshine

[Vung Tau, 5/3/25]

In 1976, Quốc’s family went to a New Economic Zone. He was four-years-old. The official categories of people exiled to these wild regions included 1) the unemployed 2) those living illegally wherever 3) those living in areas reserved for government officials and soldiers 4) small businessmen, small landowners, large businessmen 5) Chinese or Catholics. Since the war had generated millions of refugees, there were many unemployed and those living illegally. An unacknowledged category were families of ex South Vietnamese soldiers imprisoned in Reeducation Camps. Wives were told their husbands would return sooner if they would only move to these undeveloped patches to fend for themselves. Roughly half of Saigon’s 2.4 million people were relocated to New Economic Zones. Those who managed to escape back to the city found their houses had been confiscated. More than two decades after this trauma, a writer told me she hadn’t even known if she was male or female while barely alive in a New Economic Zone. At least she never forgot she was human.