Melissa Bailey

October 30, 2008

Merr 80A-6
White
Culture, Who You Are or How You're Shaped?

In Le Ly Hayslip's memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, she describes her

childhood in a small farming village in Vietnam known as Ky La, and how her interactions and

experiences with the Viet Cong, Republican, and American troops present affected her from her

beginnings as a child farm girl to her growth into a savvy independent city slicker. Underlying every

situation and decision Hayslip faces in the book are aspects of her Vietnamese culture that either

influence her or hinder her. The most important aspects of Hayslip's culture that she addresses

consistently throughout the book are her devotion to her family, her strong Buddhist faith, and the role

of women and men in Vietnamese culture.

In the very first chapter of the book, Hayslip describes her mother's hair cutting ritual that

occurred once a year, and how their neighbors would buy her hair in order to sell it to wigmakers.

However, more often that not, Hayslip's mother would give her hair clippings to relatives in order to

keep the money made from her body in the family. This simple act is only one of many connections to

family that Hayslip lists in her book. Later on she tells a story about how her father stole some sweet

potatoes to feed their family, despite the fact that the action went against his morals. Although this may

be an action taken for granted by most children, Hayslip takes this action in a different way. “Only when

I was older did I realize how much my parents suffered during this time. I made a child's solemn oath to

be a dutiful, perfect daughter. I would stay close at hand when I grew up and help them when they were

old. I would let nothing prevent me from repaying their love” (Hayslip, 2003). Another example of

Hayslip's deep connection to her family is how she addresses her mother: “'Mama Du--?' I call her my

mother of the breast so she will know this strange woman is her natural daughter” (Hayslip, 2003). This

way of addressing one's mother, alluding directly to the first bonds made between mother
and child, shows a deeper connection in speech alone than many cultures show in action. Hayslip also

has a deep connection with her father, which she depicts in her flashbacks on moments with him and her

description of how he sometimes will talk to her even after his death, always referring to her as “my

little peach blossom.” Another connection she consistently makes to her father is her reference to herself

as a “Phung Thi woman” which she describes as someone of strength and worth. However, she is still

willing to put these things aside in order to provide for her family, which she did when she agreed to

service two American troops about to leave for home when she was offered four-hundred dollars. She

states, “I stared at the cash the way a thirsty prisoner stares at water. Four hundred dollars would support

my mother, me, and Hung for over a year- a year I could use finding a better job and making

connections or, as a last resort, greasing palms for a paid escape” (Hayslip, 2003). With Hayslip, her

family always comes first, no matter the price to her pride and self-worth.

Hayslip's Buddhist faith also appears frequently throughout the book. The best example of her

faith is illustrated in her takeover of her family's spiritual duties when her father commits suicide. The

main problem with this was the family's desire to give him a traditional burial, despite the fact that it

would be incredibly difficult and expensive to do this. Since no one else in the family had cared enough

to learn all the rituals that go along with burial, Hayslip must act as the head of the family temporarily,

despite the fact that she is female and this job typically goes to the male head of the household.

However, she states, “As things turned out, I was a better student in these matters than anyone expected”

(Hayslip, 2003). Hayslip explains that all the rituals the family performed were with the intention to

bring her father's soul from hell to heaven, since he had committed suicide, which was considered a sin

in Buddhist beliefs.

Another example of Hayslip's rooted faith was shown through her parents' example. In the 1955

Presidential Referendum, many Buddhists voted in order to express their unhappiness with their

government. In return for voting, they received identification cards marked with a small cross, a
Catholic symbol. “Naturally, the Buddhists in Ky La, including my parents, didn't want to carry around

the Christian symbol, so they threw the cards away. This caused them untold grief when they were

stopped by the authorities...If they said, 'I voted, but I threw my card away,' they would be accused of

favoring the Viet Cong, for only enemies of the states would be afraid to participate in the ID system”

(Hayslip, 2003). Buddhism was so deeply rooted in Hayslip's family that they could not even carry

around a card marked with a small Christian symbol, no matter what trouble it caused them with the

authorities. Hayslip also shows her own ties to her faith when she prays and burns incense in front of her

employer Anh's ancestors when she comes to terms with her pregnancy with his child. “All that was left

for me was to make my peace with god for my attempts to abort the unseen life inside me” (Hayslip,

2003).

When growing up in Ky La, Hayslip was instructed clearly her role as a woman, but her

understanding and behavior does not stick to this role, most clearly illustrated, unfortunately, in her

sexual encounters with men in her life. Hayslip describes what is expected of the Vietnamese woman

when it comes to sex, compared with American men, “Where Vietnamese men were satisfied with

passive acceptance, American men demanded acrobatics” (Hayslip, 2003). When Hayslip is raped for

the first time by the soldiers Loi and Mau, she writes, “I now knew the horror that every woman dreads.

What had been saved a lifetime for my husband had been ripped away in less time than it takes to tell.

Most horrible of all was that the act of making life itself had left me feeling dead” (Hayslip, 2003). Later

on after she returns home, Mau comes again for her and rapes her, but she lies there without protest,

even though she knows she can fight back this time. “It would have been easy to disarm him- to knock

the gun away and crush his testicles with my knee and run back to cousin Thum's- but what then?”

(Hayslip, 2003). However, her next sexual encounter she was able to fight back. When her new

employer lunges at her when he's drunk, she states, “I reacted as if the playground were a battlefield. My

stiffened fingers jabbed his through and as the beery breath choked off, I kneed him as hard as I could”

(Hayslip, 2003). After just one traumatic sexual encounter, Hayslip, rather than freezing in fear, is able
to break her expected gender role and fight back against unwanted advances from her employer. This

happens again when she is taken out to the movies by the teenage son of another one of her employers.

“Although the sound of his head hitting the seatback in front of us was terrible, I knew only his mannish

pride had been hurt” (Hayslip, 2003).

When Hayslip begins getting involved with Americans, she begins to stray even farther from her

expected role as a passive Vietnamese woman. When she begins living with her sister Lan, Hayslip is

forced to act as servant at parties where her sister and friends entertained American GIs. “After an hour

or so the girls would take off their tops and dance or sit on the GIs' laps. I used to hide in the bathroom

until things settled down” (Hayslip, 2003). This changed one night when Hayslip heard her sister being

attacked by one large American GI boyfriend that Hayslip was previously fearful of. “Stupidly (but

dutifully!), I ran in and tried to pull him off my sister” (Hayslip, 2003). Hayslip is also changed by

Americans in how she dresses and behaves. When Hayslip begins dating an American she calls Red, he

complains about her appearance, citing it as why he never takes her out with his friends. “That,

apparently, was the problem. American men, it seemed, liked their lovers to be special; to look different

from other women” (Hayslip, 2003). In response, Hayslip begins to wear makeup and style her hair into

a beehive, which greatly pleases her boyfriend, to the point where he asks her to work as a dancer at a

club frequented by American troops. When she realizes the club is a topless bar, she refuses to do it and

runs away. “I would have to endure wolf whistles and propositions of the servicemen the whole way, but

it was worth it to be free- to be back in a world I understood” (Hayslip, 2003).

Despite the challenges and hardships Hayslip endures in her life in Vietnam, it is her ties to her

family and religion that bring her back to visit. Her ability to adapt and change her values as a

Vietnamese woman allow her to become free and independent, and eventually bring her to America

where she can better provide for her family. Even though her ability to change is what got her out of

Vietnam and the situations she faced, remaining true to her faith and close to her family kept her from

completely losing sight of her own identity. The things that formed who she is, her family and religion,
remain closest to her heart, and her willingness to sacrifice what she feels is expected of her to provide

for them shows her true devotion and worth as a woman.

Sources Cited

Hayslip, Le Ly (2003). When Heaven and Earth Changed Places. New York, New York: Penguin Group
(USA) Inc..