THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

"Where do you come from?" is a typical question non-Asians asked Asian Americans. And when a response such as "I came from Chicago, Illinois" is given with a perfect midwestern accent, the answer still not satisfactory to the inquiring mind. It is 2006, and yet most of non-Asians still assume that someone with an Asian face was born overseas, came from somewhere else and not from downhome Alabama or as American as apple pie.

Most of the time when someone asks me the question, "Where are you from?", I respond with a question, "How far back do you want to know?" I used to say that I came from Jupiter. When I am not in a friendly mood I would say that I am saving the information for my biography and ask whether the person would like to be on my mailing list to purchase the book.

Next month, January 2007 will be 27 years since my family & I came to America. We left our birth country, Viet Nam in May 1979. We survived the horrid boat journey and lived in the refugee camp in Indonesia for about 7 months. An uncle, a cousin of my mother, sponsored our family to relocate to New York City. A major snow storm visited the City the week before we arrived. Coming from tropical region, we were not prepared for the bitter cold and strange beauty of snow covering the parking lot.

I moved to Michigan in December 1988 when I got married. My answer to the question, "Where do you come from?" became, "I came from New York."

In October 1994, I again moved to St. Louis, Missouri. My answer to the question, "Where do you come from?" became, "I moved here from Michigan."

I understand that people will ask me the question of my background to create relationship or to seek understanding of Asian culture. However, it is not my job to entertain people who are not sincere in their inquiries. It is a waste of time to share my life story with someone whom I most likely would not meet again. I really dislike people who ask me the question, not to know me as a person of interesting background, but as an open line of bragging about their vacations in China or Viet Nam.

The story of where my family came from is a story I hope to record and preserve so that my nephew J will appreciate and understand the struggle and how we overcame the difficulties on the long and winding road from Viet Nam to America.