Am I a “Việt Kiều Pháp”?
If I ask myself the question if I am a “Việt Kiều Pháp” (Phap means France), it’s because a lot of people in Vietnam asked me the question.
The term “Việt Kiều” means Vietnamese Overseas. It’s a phrase to identify all the Vietnamese who are living abroad and eventually now includes also the Vietnamese that are mixed with other cultures.
I am born and raised in France with Vietnamese origins.
Born in 1992, in France, I grew up in a small countryside town with a lot of nature. My friends often say that where I come from, there are more living cows than inhabitants! Which is probably true. For those who will dare to search this region, Google: “Auvergne” ;)!
And in a few interviews already, I talked about my upbringing in France, as a half-vietnamese, as child from divorced parents, etc.
- One was in Move To Asia youtube channel, where we approache the angle of being a “viet kieu” returning to Vietnam.
- And the other interview was in a podcast I co-hosted for 1 year called “Creators in Saigon” (now it’s called “Creators in Vietnam”) where this notion of Viet Kieu is recurring too.
Here is the interview from Move To Asia. You can watch it here:
Being a mixed kid is something I learned to appreciate. It’s easy to say: “you are never one or the other culture”. But it’s also easy to say that you are both cultures!
In 2012, upon coming back to Vietnam, my first goal was to connect with my Vietnamese side. I started to learn Vietnamese and actually started a career as an Entrepreneur in Saigon.
Then, now that I speak Vietnamese and I live in Saigon, this not making things more simple.
