During the Lunar New Year of 2006, my mother-in-law was hospitalized at Alta Bates Cancer Center for late stage lung cancer. While in the hospital, she started telling me a story about Hue, her birthplace and the site of some of the most atrocious fighting during the Vietnam war. She recounted how, shortly after 1975, the local people in Hue accidentally discovered a pond where more than a hundred bodies had been buried. Apparently, these people had been executed. The news began to spread and locals began to wonder whether their relatives' remains were in the pond. However, the Communist authorities, in an attempt to quell the situation, ordered the local police to seal the pond and silence any rumors.I was about to ask my mom the location and the name of the pond, when the doctor came into the room and interrupted the story. I kept on reminding myself to ask her to finish the story, but each time, something got in the way... rushing to get to school or mom being too tired from radiation. As each day passed, my mom's health became worse. A week later, she passed away - she never had a chance to finish the story. As I look at this quilt, I see my loss and emptiness and an unfinished story. I tried to reconstruct the story by visualizing the pond and how the pond might have encapsulated the dead bodies. The pond must be a lotus pond, since Hue is famous for its louts ponds. And, my mother loved lotuses very much and the color green. This quilt is for my mom, who has made me a better person and whom, I love immensely.

The mythical birth of Vietnam began 4,000 years ago. The myth begins with Au Co, a beautiful crane who was Queen of the Land, and Lac Long Quan, a dragon who was King of the sea. One day, Lac Long Quan traveled to the land where he met Au Co and fell in love with her. They married. Lac Long Quan decided to stay with Au Co on her Land to build their new family, and in due time Au Co gave birth to fifty sons and fifty daughters. However, as time passed, Lac Long Quan began to miss his kingdom in the ocean. He decided to return home and took his fifty sons with him back to the ocean, while Au Co remained on the land with her fifty daughters. Before departing, Lac Long Quan told Au Co "Even though we are separated, we still belong to each other. Whenever you have trouble, please come to the sea shore and call for me. I will come to rescue you." Au Co remained on the land. She raised her daughters, protected, fed, and educated them all. Thus, Au Co became the ancestor of all the Vietnamese people.

In 1954, Vietnam split into two political entities. My parents and parents-in-law were still very young. My great grandparents sent my parents to the North because they believed in the Communist movement and ideology. My parents-in-law, however, were sent to the South because their great grandparents were sympathetic to Western powers. My parents became communist comrades and my parents-in-law became anti-Communist fighters, not by choice but by family circumstances. They, like many of their generation, fought a war that pitted brother against brother, sister against sister, son against father. I created a Vietnamese map, cutting the map in half of the 17th parallel to represent the Split in 1954. In the process of creating this quilt, I made every effort to stitch the split back together. It will take immense effort, tireless work and many stitches to heal the spirit. I hope our generation and generations to come will work together to heal our historical pain.

I do not have the experience of the Vietnamese Boat People because I came to the US on Cathay Pacific. I was one of the fortunate ones. Since 1975, hundred of thousands of people and families have fled Vietnam by floating out to sea in search of new land and a better life. Thousands and thousands died from starvation, attacks from pirates, and disastrous weather. This quilt remembers and honors all the victims of those turbulent experiences. I can only imagine that these people had to leave quietly, in the darkness and sorrow, leaving behind all their families and possessions. I can only imagine that these people had just two things to rely on for survival, a hand made boat and a stick of burning incense. The boat was the fragile vehicle that would help them escape from Vietnam. The burning incense was a spiritual encouragement that would give them hope, hope for a successful escape and a hope for a better future.

In 1980, my parents divorced. My mother gained custody of my younger brother, my younger sister and me. When my father left the house, he took with him a Sanyo electrical fan. I saw it with my own two eyes. The fan was the only valuable thing that the whole family possessed at the time and the only thing that provided some relief durng the hot Saigon days. We needed the fan, especially for my two year-old sister. I hated him for that. My father died in 1993. My siblings and I attended his funeral, but no once cried. After his death, I began to learn more about my father. As time passed, I realized that my father somehow loved me very much. All along, I tried to hate him so much because I wanted to please my mom. I still do not love him yet, but I have stopped hating him. Perhaps one day, I will be able to love him again as I did when I was a child.

In 1983, my mother was sick with leukemia. Back then, there were no available treatments, especially not in a poor country like vietnam. My mom was in and out of the local hospital for three years, including a hospital stay in intensive care for six months. During this period, my siblings and I could not come to visit her because we were so young and did not have resources to get to the hospital. My siblings and I lived with my uncle. He took care of us, but we were still outsiders. I missed my mom and wanted to see her very much. One day, I drew a picture of my brother, my sister and me and wrote my mom a letter. My neighborhood helped deliver the letter to my mom. Years passed and my mother became the only leukemia survivor in the local hospital. The doctors were shocked and perplexed. When asked about her miracle, my mom showed the doctors the picture that I drew and the letter that I wrote. She explained, "I have three young children, and I have to get better to take care of them."

I was raised communist. Growing up Vietnam, every Monday at school I had to salute the Communist Vietnamese flag, a flag represented by a yellow star at the center on a red background. Whenever we sang the Vietnamese anthem, I felt extremely proud of being Vietnamese and extremely proud of the flag. When I came to the US in 1999, I witnessed a different attitude toward my Communist Vietnamese flag. The Vietnamese-Americans were saluting "their" own flag, as I would be when saluting mine. I soon came to realize their perspective and developed a sense of respect for both flags. As I reflect on the history and symbolism of these two flags, I come back to the story of Au Co and Lac Long Quan - we Vietnamese people come from the same family. The flags have different patterns, but they use the same base and the same two colors: red and yellow. In this quilt, I combined the two flags. The two flags are of the same origin and when combined, they balance each other and make each other more beautiful.

My mother-in-law worked in a nail salon for 20 years. Every day, she scrubbed and cleaned more than 15 pairs of feet, and for what? To make money to take care of her husband and children and her extended family in Vietnam. For each pair of feet, she would fetch water to fill the spa bucket, scrub and clean the feet, paint toenails and empty the bucket. For 20 years, 6 days a week, she toiled away. By toiling day in and day out, she was able to send her four children off to college and support her daughter-in-law at UC Berkeley. She sent money back to Vietnam to take care of her extended family in Hue. All her nieces and nephews finished high school and most went to college. They owe much of their success to her. I believe that the majority of Vietnamese women in the US do the same to support their families in the US and in Vietnam. In creating this installation, I want to acknowledge and honor our Vietnamese women - these women have toiled and sacrificed enormously for their future of their children and family.