Bonus Episode, Vietnamese Boat People Podcast: Episode #51 Ngày Về Của Bố

Siblings Hương, Karin Hạnh, Hedda Hiếu, and Benjamin Hoàng Nguyễn grew up together in the San Francisco Bay Area in a boisterous Vietnamese American family. In 2019, their father, Nguyễn Khánh Hưng, a first-generation immigrant from Việt Nam, passed away. To pay tribute to their father, the siblings participated in our 3rd Annual Mỹ Việt Story Slam in 2022 with their spoken word piece, “Ngày Về Của Bố” (roughly, “The Day of Dad’s Return”), a reflection on grief and Vietnamese mourning rituals. In this special episode of Vietnamese Boat People, the Nguyễn siblings are at the helm as our first-ever guest hosts. They’ve brought their group dynamic and conversational style to Vietnamese Boat People’s format, in order to delve into their father’s life, legacy, who he was, and his unique and multifaceted experiences.

Vietnamese Boat People is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to preserving and continuing the narratives of the Vietnamese diaspora community. Their mission is to empower individuals within this community to share the stories of our community from intergenerational voices. In addition to their award-winning podcast, they have public programs available that empower individuals to preserve their family histories through storytelling workshops, story slams, community blogs, conversation kits, and the journeys map. To learn more, visit www.vietnameseboatpeople.org.

Do you speak another language? Tune into Hương, Karin Hạnh, Hedda Hiếu, and Benjamin Hoàng as they discuss the blessings and challenges of a heritage language and whether it's worthwhile.

While honoring the two year anniversary of their Bố's (father) passing, Hương, Hạnh, Hiếu, and Benjamin Hoàng have a discussion on grief and their different processes of moving forward. 

How do you know you're loved? Hương, Karin Hạnh, Hedda Hiếu, and Benjamin Hoàng talk about what expressions and feelings of love mean and why this quiz can help you better connect with others.

Dissecting a term like racialization isn't easy but we get into it this episode! Hương, Karin Hạnh, Hedda Hiếu, and Benjamin Hoàng share how our Vietnamese-American identity affects what people believe about us and what it means for the stories we tell ourselves.

We’ve talked about what it’s meant for us to be Vietnamese-American throughout several chapters. For this final chapter, we talk about customs and traditions and how we blended several to create and carry out a uniquely Vietnamese-American ceremony--the funeral for Bố, our dad.

12 years later… Hiếu and Hoàng visited Vietnam! They traveled from North to South Việt Nam while riding a moped, dabbling in snorkeling, and even meeting unknown family members. This chapter, they share what it was like for them, years later after Hương and Hạnh's trip, to come face to face with being Vietnamese-American in Việt Nam.

Our first trip to Việt Nam! And the first time meeting our paternal cousins... Well, for three of the crew, at least. From a wedding to the sand dunes, it was quite the journey. Listen in on today’s chapter to hear more about Hương and Hạnh's experiences on the other side of the Pacific Ocean and what it felt like to come face to face with being Vietnamese-American in Việt Nam.

This chapter, we got some confessions. But our real-life confrontations and conversations don’t need to be a secret! In today’s release, we delve into what our experiences have been like growing up Vietnamese in America.

You’ve probably felt out of place and awkward before. We’ve definitely felt the same, and especially when people have made a point of the things that make us stand out as Vietnamese-American. This chapter, we share stories and memories of those times we didn’t feel “Nguyễn” enough.

Tune in to learn more about what Hương, Karin Hạnh, Hedda Hiếu, and Benjamin Hoàng know and *still* don’t know about how our parents and grandparents came to the United States and how our parents met.

Huong, Karin Hanh, Hedda Hieu, and Benjamin Hoang delve into what our sibling relationship dynamic looks like and why we do (and don’t) work well together.

For this first chapter of our book, Hương, Karin Hạnh, Hedda Hiếu, and Benjamin Hoàng sit down to talk a bit about what brought about our podcast and what it was like growing up in our Nguyễn household.