Cultural Musings

Yesterday I went with Loan to a couple of different government offices to arrange for Luke’s Vietnamese passport. The rest of the gang stayed behind. Very interesting experience. There’s a number of times in my life when I’ve been in a situation where I’ve been the only White person and this was one of them. The people here are so friendly though – no staring or rudeness. No one looking at you wondering why you’re getting a Vietnamese passport when you don’t look so Vietnamese!

Some interesting things I’ve learned about Vietnamese culture:

The people (really, I think it’s mostly the women) want to be as white as possible. Loan says, “They all want to look like you – pale and skinny.” Did I mention that Loan is now officially my best friend (for the skinny part, of course; the pale I’ve never been so fond of)? Many of the women on the motorcycles ride with long sleeves, long pants, a mask on their faces, thick stockings under their sandals, and fuzzy gloves on their hands. Loan says they don’t want to get tanned – and I thought it was due to pollution, but apparently that’s a secondary issue for many. Even the bread here is really, really white – not sure if that is related, but it looks very strange. I have yet to see whole wheat. Also, people have commented on how beautiful Luke’s skin is. Now, don’t get me wrong, he’s a cute little guy, but right now he’s full of scabs from the scabies. I was puzzled by the beautiful skin comments. Turns out they mean his skin is very pale, so that’s why it’s beautiful. We’ve also noticed a lot of signs for Pond’s Spotless White Cream. Seriously. There are billboards everywhere. And at home we have a tanning salon in every strip plaza. Crazy world, isn’t it?

Loan also says that the Vietnamese don’t like to name children after relatives. It’s superstitious behavior. She says that they yell at their kids to correct them and it would be like yelling at their ancestors! So, when they name children, everyone tries to check to ensure no one down the line has had the same name. She thinks it’s nice that we often name our children after relatives. She named her dog after an ex-boyfriend. Not sure what that says in any culture!

I asked about all the retail here and how it seems that everyone has a store. Loan says that many people live in the buildings and open up a store front. Some people rent out the front of the building to others who open up a store but they (the people who own the building) still live in behind or up above. Makes sense that many immigrants become entrepreneurs when they come to North America.

Loan’s never been to China. She said that she’s heard the food is strange and very greasy. Interesting how we North Americans lump most Asian foods together. Not too many of us could distinguish between Chinese and Vietnamese food. In Waterloo, it seems most of the Vietnamese restaurants are also Thai – you rarely see one without the other. Guess they figured out that we don’t distinguish.

Speaking of distinguishing…When we go out everyone thinks Norah is Vietnamese. If they understand (the Vietnamese word for China does not appear to be China, which makes sense since it’s not the Chinese word for China either!), they don’t seem as impressed with us to find out she’s Chinese. We redeem ourselves, however, when we confirm that yes, Luke is Vietnamese. They look at us knowingly as if to say, “Yes, you got it right this time.” Obviously we got it right both times! Nice to see such cultural pride though.

Try finding this in Canada: Audrey and Doug went to the bank today – Audrey’s Dongionnaire status was getting precarious. When she went in she could see that there were some of the bank workers whispering and it appeared that they were talking about her. She figured it was her good looks, but it turns out that the last time she was in the bank, a few days ago, they had given her the wrong exchange rate. Get this: they OWED her money. So, they handed her the money that she was owed, which was almost a million dong! What’s even better still? When she was in before she had been exchanging money for Doug and me, so we’re now Dongionaires multiple times over!

Totally unrelated, but kind of relevant to our world (not to mention the blog!) – here’s a few pictures I took of Luke yesterday after his bath. What a cutie!




Picture of the Tax Center where we've been doing a little shopping:

Alley where we've been eating dinner almost every night. It's called Pham Ngu Lao - lots of vegetarian places here:

Same alley after supper:

Don't worry, we didn't eat here:

Sign in the bathroom of a restaurant:

Didn't faze us because we never put strange corpses into toilets, unless you count the dead bugs I sometimes flush!