“My Work Is to Show That It’s So Much More Beautiful When You Can Mix”: An Interview With Kim Thúy

publishes under the pen name Kim Thy, was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1968.In 1978, when she was ten years old, Thy and her family fled their home country by sea as part of the mass emigration of people seeking to escape the repressive communist regime and harsh economic conditions in Vietnam after the end of the war.These refugees, who were collectively referred to as "boat people" due to the many small, overcrowded boats they used to escape Vietnam, often faced perilous conditions on the sea; those who survived the risky journey were initially accommodated in refugee camps in Southeast Asia before being resettled in countries such as the US, Australia, France, Germany, and the UK. 1 Thy and her family made it to Malaysia, where they spent a few months living in a small refugee camp in Kuantan; they were subsequently offered political asylum in Canada and settled in French-speaking Qubec in early 1979.In this interview, Thy describes the warmth and affection with which she and her family were welcomed in Canada, which marked a sharp contrast to the emotional restraint she was used to within Vietnamese culture.She also outlines the challenges her parents faced in integrating into Canadian society and culture, which was so different from everything they knew.By contrast, Thy quickly immersed herself in the culture of her new home, learning French and pursuing an education.She studied at the University of Montral, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Translation in 1990 and subsequently with a Bachelor's degree in Law in 1993.It was Thy's work for a legal firm that brought her back to Vietnam, where she also had her first son; her second was born in Bangkok, after her husband, also a lawyer, was posted there with his job (Hong, "Q&A with Kim Thy").In this interview, she speaks about the challenges of mothering her children in a foreign culture, despite the fact that she was living in relatively affluent circumstances and was able to communicate in English and French.Language and communication are also discussed in depth in this interview, as Thy reflects 1 The appropriateness of the term "boat people" to denote refugees from Southeast Asia from 1975 on has been questioned in recent years, especially since it was also used to refer to refugees from Cambodia and Laos who left their countries on foot: see, for example, Lambert on this point.We note, however, that this is the term that Thy chooses to use to refer to her own family's experience.