This document summarizes an interview with a Vietnamese woman named Mi about her home country of Vietnam. Mi discussed growing up in a multi-generational household in Ho Chi Minh City and enjoying family beach trips on the weekends. However, the document also discusses the serious issue of human trafficking between Vietnam and China. Many Vietnamese women and children have been kidnapped and sold as brides or forced into labor in China. The stories of Linh, who was sold as a child bride, and Hieu, who was trafficked into forced labor, illustrate the human impact of this crime. Overall, the document provides insight into Vietnamese culture from Mi's perspective while also bringing attention to the ongoing problem of human trafficking along the Vietnam-China border.

1. Cervantes 8
Kandyce Cervantes
Cullom
WR 121 (Friday)
Ethnog. 4 Rough draft
Vietnam from the Outside
Flying high over the Andaman Sea, Gulf of Thailand, and
finally the plane swings around into Vietnam. Coming down,
getting closer and closer to land, I see beautiful turquoise water
with shades of brown rippling through it. I cannot believe the
reef is visible. All I can imagine is how the reef is a completely
different underwater world than what I am used to seeing back
home on the Pacific Ocean. I look out further onto the land and
see large mountain ranges covered with every water loving tree
and plant out there. The rainforest is incredibly dense with
jungle, and I cannot even see where we could possibly land the
plane. Not to mention that I can only see the tops of buildings.
Where are the roads? The plane finally comes to a stop and the
doors open.
Stepping off the plane I see an old run down building that is the
terminal. It has finally, come to the end of the ride, after twenty
hours of sitting! It is midday now and the sun is beating down.
It feels as if it is 120 degrees out even though it is only 80
degrees, it is extremely humid. I am walking around trying to
find baggage claim and cannot figure out at all where to begin
to walk, I am already lost in translation, and I haven’t even left
the airport. Deciding to ask someone, because I cannot
understand the signs for the life of me, I say, “Excuse me where
can I find bags!” as I hold up my backpack and point vigorously
at it. The middle age couple points with their finger straight
ahead, then to the left, right, right, and then straight again. I
continue to say this over and over in my head trying my best not
to get the rights and lefts mixed all around. At last, I have my

2. bags and I am off to now find a taxi.
I arrive to the hotel and wave and say “hello” to the women at
the front as she hands me a telegram from the organization I
will be working with. I will start my new adventure tomorrow
with someone who is picking me up in the morning. I head up to
my room exhausted from my day. Whether it was figuring out
where to find my bags at the airport or feeling like my cab
driver was going to kill someone, it was something I
appreciated to the fullest. I cannot wait to have more amazing
meals or actually go back to the woman I received my meal
from and ask her how to make it myself. Maybe she would even
be so gracious to show me how to make it. As I clean up and put
my bags away, I pull out my blanket and head off to bed. My
sight-seeing day comes to an end and the real reason I am here
begins.
My shoulder shakes, and I quickly snap out of my day to dream
on a brief adventure to Vietnam. My husband said he had been
calling my name, “Kandyce, Kandyce, K---andyce for a little
over two minutes. Which is not long, but when you think of the
normal span of day dream, which is about fourteen seconds, that
was intense. I have always wanted to travel, and heading
towards my goal to go into midwifery; there are many countries
that are in need of proper pre and post natal care. Midwives are
most cost efficient and safer. Vietnam has always been one of
many countries I have wanted to travel to. Of course it is the
most rural areas I am looking at going to be of any assistance.
I have a friend, Mi, who I met in my spring term of 2013; we
had a class together and continued to keep in touch. I was able
to sit down and talk to Mi about her country, Vietnam, as I
jumped to this opportunity to find out about this place I, one
day, would love to go.
First off, Mi is from a city called Ho-chi-minh, which is the
largest city in Vietnam. I asked her how long she had been in
the United States, and she replied, “I live nearly three years.”
Mi moved here with her husband, who has lived in the United
States for quite some time now. He, too, is from Vietnam and

3. from the same city. I asked, “How long have you been
married?” and she replied, “Three years I married my husband
and I have to come here with him.” Mi claimed that it was very
difficult to come to the United States because the government
did not believe that her husband and she were married. I asked,
“What did you have to do to come here?” She said, “We give a
lot of pictures and married paper.” She and her husband have a
two year old little boy at home that keeps her pretty busy, which
is why the only time she was able to meet with me was during
her work-study hours on the weekends. As we continued to
whisper and complete the interview, she suddenly stopped
talking and pointed to her boss, who was sitting only twenty
feet away. Then she took the red vest off so we were not
bothered. It was clear that we are doing work for school, and I
couldn’t really imagine her getting in any trouble. We gradually
eased back into what seemed to be our secret interview. She
suddenly said lowly with a bit of excitement, “My country give
rice to other country, the second largest in world for give rice.”
It was like she suddenly remembered that bit of information
about her country’s economy which I found really pleasant.
In addition to what she remembered about her country’s
economy, I asked Mi what she missed about Vietnam. She
answered, “I miss my family and best friends when rainy and
dark here. I feel my country is good. My culture three
generation in the same home; it very happy and warm, make
everyone close relationship.” I can imagine how that feels to not
have that anymore.
Having had three generations in one home, I asked Mi if there
were a lot of arguments. She said, “Sometime they are fight,
and the eldest have to solve problem and have to obey.” Mi
grew up with a younger sister who missed her so much she
applied to a college in Texas so she could visit Mi more often.
This makes it easier for Mi’s parents to come to the United
States more, too.
I asked Mi what her fondest memory was with her family
growing up, “On weekend usually go to the beach as a family.”

4. From the city of Ho-Chi-Minh the ocean is only about an hour
away. In my opinion, what kid doesn’t love the beach? Mi said,
“Beach is sandy with no fish, very shallow, so kid just play.”
She had a warm smile on her face, as if she was going back to
that time spent with her family in her head. "You don’t swim?”
I asked, and Mi replies, “Very shallow, no swim.”
Finally, as our conversation progressed, Mi started to relax
a little more and began to tell me more without me having to go
down my list of questions. “My country like here we only have
two weather, the sunny and rainy. When rainy we don’t like go
out, because it very dirty.” As I only imagined tons of mud
everywhere and jungle, she reassured me that is not the
landscape. Mi turned on one of the computers and Googled the
city where she is from, which was just as she said, “like here.”
In the pictures there were freeways, beautiful architecture, a lot
of buildings, and it is clean. Unfortunately, I had assumed it
was dirty, old, and unkempt. I asked her, “Why is it when it is
raining, you don’t go outside?” She replied, “Travel by bike and
motorcycle, only rich people have car,” which now makes
perfect sense to me. This made me wonder if Mi thinks about
ever going back to live in Vietnam to raise her son, and she
replied, “No, stay here permanently. We go at end of year to
visit my country. New year very special, I dress in Ao-Dai and
celebrate.” An ao-dai is a long sleeved tunic that goes all way
down to the ankles, with a beautiful embellishment on the front.
It is normally worn over pants. Mi explained that for New Year
or special occasions you wear bright colored ao-dai, but for
school the girls have to wear white ao-dai. Mi continued on
about the New Year and explained what all she has to do for the
New Year preparation. She said, “I have to clean house, clean
everything. Third day of New Year, kid are very happy. They
have new clothes which spend with lucky money.” Lucky money
is what kids get on the first of the year in red envelopes
normally given by the parents, and occasionally friends and
relatives, depending on family circumstances.
Sitting down with Mi, my Informant on Vietnam, was very

5. informative and I am very appreciative of that. To hear about
the everyday aspects of her country’s traditions and the lifestyle
of the average family was an eye opener, but I cannot help but
think about an article I came across that spoke about human
trafficking in Vietnam. I decided to go more in depth on the
matter and found that it is a problematic issue. The number of
Vietnamese victims who have gone missing has considerably
grown from 1990 to 2013, reaching a total of over 400,000
victims missing (Dale-Harris). The biggest population of these
victims comes from the towns that border with China.
In contrast to Vietnam’s own human trafficking, in “China, it is
the demand for an ideal family model which is what fuels the
industry” (Dale-Harris). Children are being sold whether it be to
have a son or a wife, or just to work in garment factories. In
China because there is the one child policy the result is in a
preference for all males, which ends in a shortage for girls
available for marriage (Dale-Harris). Since Vietnam is on the
border of China, they take full advantage of solving the problem
by paying Vietnamese people for kidnapping.
According to the Havoscope Global Black Market, trafficking is
a $32 Billion industry; worldwide 20.9 million Human
trafficking victims as of 2013. “Within Vietnam, security
services have broken up over 3,000 human trafficking attempts
along the Vietnam-China border between 2003 and 2013”
(Havoscope). The human trafficking activities between Vietnam
and China has increased in recent years. Chinese men are
willing to pay up to $5,700 for Vietnamese women to be their
brides, according to court documents (Havoscope).
According to Linh, who was born and raised in Vietnam with 8
older brothers. Linh, now 25, was a young girl when she was
kidnapped and taken to Hekou in China. Most of the kidnapping
seems to take place by a relative who cons the children and sells
them into the trafficking war. The story says Linh, whose aunt
never showed her any interest, one day decided to take her on a
shopping trip. The aunt sold Linh to two Chinese women, who
then took Linh to a market to be sold as wife to a 30 year old

6. man (Dale-Harris). I could not imagine the horror that a little
girl could go through. Linh, thinking it was just an average day,
was asked to go shopping with her aunt. The next moment she
was taken from her home and family to all of a sudden being an
adult and a wife to someone she had never met before, let alone,
being just a child. Linh’s job in the marriage was to produce a
baby, and when she would refuse to sleep with her husband, he
would then beat and rape her. Linh finally got the courage one
rainy day and escaped to a local police station where she was
put into a shelter and given a meal and bed. Linh’s shelter had
fifteen other girls, who all had similar stories of their own
(Dale-Harris).
With a similar story to Linh, Hieu was a young sixteen year old
boy who lived in a small town in Vietnam called Dien Bien. It
is a small mountain town in northwestern Vietnam, in one of the
poorest provinces and bordering China (Brown). Hieu worked at
job making coal bricks when one day a woman approached him
in the village asking him if he wanted vocational training.
Happy to tell his parents that he would finally have a chance for
a real job to make money, he took the woman’s offer. Hieu and
eleven other children were taken by a bus 1,300 miles away to
work in Ho Chi Minh in the south of Vietnam (Brown). The
children were sold and then locked up in a small cramped room
making clothes for the next two years. The children worked
from six in the morning until midnight with no wages. If
mistakes were made, the children were beaten with a stick
(Brown). Hieu was very fortunate, and one day managed to
escape with two other boys who all jumped out of the window
of the third floor. The boys all ran as fast as they could, not
knowing where they were going, and just ran until morning and
found help (Brown).
Furthermore, trafficking is focused more on children and
women than men; the women have to deal with, “Multiple push
factors, in terms of persistent gender inequality that can be
considered one of the underlying causes of trafficking in women
of Vietnam” (Vijeyarasa). These include high rates of domestic

7. violence. Many victims are promised jobs in the hotel or leisure
industry, or as interpreters, but when they arrive they are
"groomed or threatened" and used for sexual exploitation,
forced labour, or both. Women who are able to return to
Vietnam are often scarred by traffickers, similar to that of sex
workers. “The social economic inequality that leads to
trafficking, including extreme poverty, lack of economic
opportunity and gender biased” (Vijeyarasa).
(Conclusion)
(This will be on page 10)
Works Cited
Brown, Marianne. “Vietnam’s lost children in labyrinth of slave
labour.” BBC NEWS, ASIA. 27 August
2013. 30 October 2013. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-
23631923?print=true.
Dale-Harris, Luke. “The Ultimate Betrayal: Human Trafficking
in Vietnam.” Huffpost Impact, United Kingdom. 1 July 2013. 30
October 2013. www.huffintonpost.co.uk/luke-
daleharris/vietnam-human-trafficking.web.
Havoscope. “Price to Purchase Bride in Vietnam.” “Vietnam
Jails Chinese National, Locals for Human Trafficking.” Than
Nien Daily. Havoscope Global Black Market Information. 17
June 2013. 21 November 2013. www.havoscope.com/tag/human-
trafficking/page/5/. Web.
Vijeyarasa, Ramona. "The State, The Family And Language Of
'Social Evils': Re-Stigmatising Victims Of Trafficking In
Vietnam." Culture, Health & Sexuality 12.(2010): 89-102.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
“Vietnam Justice Department Issues Regulations on Foreign
Marriages.” The Advocates for Human Rights. 30 July 2007. 21
November 2013. www.stopvaw.org.vietnam_trafficking.html.
Web.

8. Cervantes 1
Kandyce Cervantes
Cullom
WR 121 (Friday)
2 November 2013
Rough Draft Ethnog Part 3
Human Trafficking: Vietnam
Sitting down with Mi, my Informant on Vietnam, was
definitely very informative and I am very appreciative of that.
To hear about the everydays of her and her countries traditions
of the average family was an eye opener, but I cannot help but
think about an article I had come a crossed that spoke on
human trafficking. I decided to go more in depth on the matter
and found that it is a problematic issue. The statistic of
Vietnamese victims who have gone missing have considerably
grown since 1990 till now (2013) to a total of over 400,000
victims missing (Dale-Harris). The biggest population of these
victims come’s come from the towns that border with China.
In contrast to Vietnam’s human trafficking, “China is the
demand for an ideal family model which is what fuels the
industry,” (Dale-Harris). Children are being sold whether it be,
to have a son or a wife, or just to work in garment factories. In
China because there is the one child policy the result is in a
preference for all males, which ends in a shortage for girls
available for marriage (Dale-Harris). There for since Vietnam is
on the border of China take full advantage of solving the
problem by paying Vietnamese people in kidnapping.
Linh, now 25, was young girl when she was kidnapped and
taken to Hekou in China. Most of the kidnapping seems to take
place by a relative who cons the children and sells them into the
trafficking war. The story says Linh who’s aunt who, never
showed her of any interest, one day decided to take her on a
shopping trip. The aunt sold Linh to two Chinese women, who
then took Linh to a market to be sold as wife to a 30 year old
man (Dale-Harris). I could not imagine the horror that a little

9. girl could go through. Thinking she was just going on shopping
trip and the next moment taken from your family to be all of
sudden be a wife to someone you have never met before, let
alone being just a child. Linh job in the marriage was to
produce a baby, and when she would refuse to sleep with the
man her would then beat and rape her. Linh finally got the
courage one rainy day and escaped to a local police station the
police who put her into a shelter where she was given a meal
and bed. Linh shelter had fifteen other girls, who all had
similar stories of their own (Dake-Harris).
With a similar story to Linh, Hieu was a young Sixteen year old
boy who lived in a small town in Vietnam called Dien Bien.
This is a small mountain town in north-western Vietnam, it is
one of the poorest provinces and borders China (Brown). Hieu
worked at job making coal bricks when one day a women
approached him in the village asking him if he wanted
vocational training. Happy to tell his parent that he would
finnaly have a chance for a real job to make money he took the
womens offer. Hieu and eleven other children were taken by a
bus 1,300 miles away to work in Ho Chi Minh, south Vietnam
(Brown). The children were sold and then locked up in a small
cramped room making clothes for the next two years. The
children worked from six in the morning till midnight, with no
wages. If mistakes were made the children were beaten with a
stick (Brown). Hieu was very fortunate, and one day managed to
escape with two other boys who all jumped out of the window
of the third floor. The boys all ran as fast as they could, not
knowing where they were going, and just ran until morning and
found help (Brown).
These children are extremely fortunate to have escaped these
harsh conditions. One of the other problem’s the kids are faced
with are, once these children have escaped, they are disowned
from their families or are no longer able to track down their
families so they are left to live in the shelters until they are
adults and can survive on their own. Once the kids are
kidnapped they are taken far away from their home so that is

10. they are able to escape they cannot just go home. The
trafficking target on small rural towns, because the people in
these communities do not know of the risks of human
trafficking (brown). “The trafficking business is getting worse,
because it is so lucrative and other people in the trafficking
business want a piece of the pie (Brown). The fact that it is a
growing a business is deeply saddening, although that
Vietnamese government’s agenda is to increase in the number of
prosecutions involving these gang like activities(Brown), I do
not see this as a benefit. The problem will still be there.
(Conclusion)
Works Cited
Brown, Marianne. “Vietnam’s lost children in labyrinth of slave
labour.” BBC NEWS, ASIA. 27 August 2013. 30 October
2013. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23631923?print=true.
Dale-Harris, Luke. “The Ultimate Betrayal: Human Trafficking
in Vietnam.” Huffpost Impact, United Kingdom. 1 July 2013. 30
October 2013. www.huffintonpost.co.uk/luke-
daleharris/vietnam-human-trafficking.web.
Vijeyarasa, Ramona. "The State, The Family And Language Of
'Social Evils': Re-Stigmatising Victims Of Trafficking In
Vietnam." Culture, Health & Sexuality 12.(2010): 89-102.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.