Journey to Canada
With the victory in 1975 of North Vietnam over South Vietnam, life became more difficult and uncertain for Lien, her parents and her brothers and sisters. During the next three years Lien and her family survived the best they could with the hope that life would improve once the process of unification between North and South Vietnam was completed.
However, in December 1978, the Vietnamese armed forces suddenly invaded the neighbouring country of Cambodia. The invasion had the goal of unseating the Cambodian government of ruler Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge- considered by the global community to be a brutal and cruel regime. Within days the Vietnamese forces occupied all of Cambodia and had removed the Pol Pot regime. A few months later, in February 1979, in response to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, the
Chinese government sent its army into the north of Vietnam to express its displeasure at Vietnam’s decision to occupy Cambodia. China stated it need to “teach Vietnam a lesson”
for having invading a neighbouring country.
The Chinese invasion of Vietnam created deep and angry tensions in Vietnam – especially for citizens of Chinese ancestry- like Lien and her family. Within days, the Vietnamese government declared that all Vietnamese persons of Chinese ancestry would be required to leave the country. This meant that Lien and her family would soon be forced into exile from their homeland.
Lien and her family were required to pay fees to the Vietnamese government in order to leave. If they did not pay the fee they risked being imprisoned or sent into the countryside to work. Their property, businesses and personal belongings were soon to be confiscated.
Over the next several weeks Lien’s uncle, with help from the family, bought and restored a large boat for the family and friends of Chinese ancestry to leave Vietnam. This exodus of Chinese ancestry Vietnamese refugees on boats became known as the “boat people.”
In early April 1979, nearly 65 members of Lien’s extended family and an additional 350 friends and neighbours boarded an old restored boat named the “MT 161”. Uncertain of their future, they left behind their businesses, homes and communities to seek a new future in an as yet undetermined country. Without any clear destination, the MT 161 floated off to sea with Lien, her daughter, her parents and sisters and more than 400 desperate passengers aboard.
For the next three days, the journey on the MT161 was soon filled with fear, uncertainty and tragedy for Lien, her family and the other passengers. Within the first two days of being at sea the MT 161 was boarded several times by pirates from neighbouring Thailand and Cambodia. The pirates robbed the passengers of all their remaining personal belongings, and physically and sexually abused them, while beating those who resisted. In addition to the pirates, the rough seas and overcrowding on the boat caused three passengers to lose their lives after falling overboard at sea.
Finally, on the third day at sea, the overcrowded MT 161 encountered a storm that threatened to sink the boat and it began to take on water. Just as the MT 161 was in danger of sinking, a Polish freighter appeared on the horizon, coming to the rescue of Lien and her fellow passengers. Safely aboard the Polish freighter, Lien and the other passengers were taken to Malaysia where they were placed into a refugee camp. At the camp, Lien and her family were registered and processed along with hundreds of others who had also fled Vietnam in boats for the same reason.
While in the refugee camp, officials from the Canadian Red Cross met with Lien and her family. When the official learned of the family’s experience as bakers, he offered them a chance to be accepted as refugees in Canada. Originally, Lien had hoped to come to the United States, but after meeting with the Canadian officials, she and her family decided that Canada would be a good place to start their lives over.
Lien and her family were told that the Central United Church in a town called Barrie, Ontario was willing to sponsor Lien and 11 members of her family. And so Lien packed up her few belongings and boarded a plane that would fly her to a new home in Barrie, Ontario.
