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43 room for another person. With so much food and too much beer and far too many friendly, happy individuals filling my glass and wanting to toast with a ‘Mot, Hai, Bar,Yo!” Or a comment that sounds like ‘champon-cham’ which means 100%, meaning they want you to ‘scull’ the whole glass. Vietnamese at family gatherings drink like Irishmen.
I’m no historian, so forgive the simplicity of my views, but in researching Irish history and the suffering of the Irish people in the mid 1800s and now living in Vietnam, it’s hard not to draw comparisons. In Ireland at that time the famine took over a million lives as did the American War in Vietnam. The Irish were poor battlers – farmers mainly, struggling to deal with a natural disaster and the powerful and callous forces of the English, whereas the Vietnamese, also predominantly farmers and fishermen, struggled against the French, Japanese and Americans for over a century. The Japanese during WW2 burned crops and later the Americans sprayed Agent Orange, causing food shortages and starvation for many Vietnamese. During the second potato famine the Irish watched with anger as boatloads of Irish-grown oats and grain departed their shores for shipment to England. Food riots erupted in ports such as Youghal near Cork where peasants tried unsuccessfully to confiscate a boatload of oats. As the Famine worsened, the British continually sent in more troops. "Would to God the Government would send us food instead of soldiers," a starving inhabitant of County Mayo lamented. Consequently I find it easy to empathise with the Vietnamese, who suffered and endured colonial powers, wars and struggles. My Irish blood has a penchant for the underdog, despises injustice, and relishes stories of triumph over hardship. My great-grandfather Thomas was a boat person, and I believe boat people grasp life with fervour and passion. Irish hospitality is world renowned, and there’s nothing more inviting than an Irish Pub. Likewise the Vietnamese are hospitable people, I can’t say how many wedding invitations I receive each year, and at Vietnamese gatherings they’re never stingy when it comes to the guest list and there’s always
My parents loved music and my father would often sing to us when we were small. We even had our own ‘Mellifont’ family song – which was based on the ‘Harrigan’ song, which featured in some old Jimmy Durante movie. One of the most delightful memories I have of dating my wife Mung, was picking her up of an evening to go for coffee, and she’d sit on the back of the bike and sing. I’ve found that just as my father would sing to us, or as we’d have family sing-a-longs, the Vietnamese love singing too. I’m not really talking about Karaoke, which I personally find difficult to endure, but at family gatherings I’ve seen older generation Vietnamese sing beautiful folk songs, they sing them even unaccompanied by musical instruments whilst the others listen with delight, and watching and listening they often clap or smile at moments where the lyrics of the song are striking, amusing or keenly remembered after being long forgotten. As Vietnam boldly goes where Western countries have been before; 21st century living, with luxury housing, small families, material wealth, and all the problems that go with that lifestyle, I wonder how soon it will be before they look around and lament the loss of a simple life. Personally I hope the simple life will exist in Hoi An for a long time to come.
an Australian Phil Mellifont is an Phu and i An and is wellery at 82 Tr who lives in Ho ner of Lotus Je ow g, un M s M m .co married to sjewellery-hoian visit: www.lotu 53A Le Loi Sts,