A FORLORN PLACE
Chinatown by Thuận; translated by Nguyễn An Lý
Tilted Axis PressJune 2022Selected by Barbara Epler
Thuận’s spellbinding novel presents one immigrant woman’s feverish reckonings with her entire life – and with her great love for her son’s father, seemingly lost to her forever. In an interior monologue at once as bottomless as doubt and as compact as a magnet, Thuận portrays a whole world. Her Vietnamese heroine grew up in Communist Hanoi and studied in Leningrad, but is now raising her son on the outskirts of Paris. She rakes over her past while waiting hours (with her son sleeping beside her on a bench, his head on her shoulder) for a suspect package that has paralysed the Métro system to be dealt with. The voice of Chinatown conveys bewildering levels of personal disorientation and cultural complexities even as it finely etches a sharp and most satisfying novel about loss and migration. – Barbara Epler
My watch reads ten o’clock. Vĩnh stretches and moans that he’s stiff. He’s been sleeping on the Métro. His head on my shoulder. The train has stopped at some minor station. Fifteen minutes and still no sign of it moving. They have stumbled upon an abandoned duffel bag. They suspect a bomb in such a forlorn place is a ploy to mask a far more sinister scheme. I wonder if I should stay put and see just how sinister. Or leave and catch a bus. Vĩnh puts his head back on my shoulder and falls back asleep. At 12 the boy is as tall as Thụy was at 16. He eats lunch in the school cafeteria. One plate of mashed potato. One piece of fried steak. Two slices of jambon. Two slices of cheese. Yoghurt. Ice cream. Cake. Thụy ate lunch at home. Home from school he would go straight to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Two cups of rice, half a bunch of morning glory, six brown shrimps for the three of them. Vĩnh is as tall as Thụy at 16. His hair is cropped like Thụy’s hair. His eyes are slanted like Thụy’s eyes. In class his friends call him that Chinese. In the streets people call him that Chinese. In the 13th arrondissement they address him in Cantonese. In school everybody called Thụy that Chink. Spawn of Deng Xiaoping. † Goon boy of Beijing. In the neighbourhood everybody would see him and ask, hey when are you going back to your country. Have you sold all your furniture yet. The headmaster was summoned by the local police. Student Âu Phương Thụy should be watched closely. Student Âu Phương Thụy’s family have expressed their wish to stay in Vietnam. The higher-ups are still deliberating. The higher-ups have not yet made up their mind. But it’s our duty to ensure that he is watched closely. The party congress has decreed that Beijing is enemy number one of the Vietnamese people. Student Âu Phương Thụy should be watched closely. The family might not have shown any signs yet. But it’s our duty to ensure that he is watched closely. After meeting with the police, the headmaster summoned a staff meeting. After meeting with the staff, the form teacher summoned a student-council meeting. The next day a murmur went through the whole class, that boy Thụy is a problem. The next day again a rumour went through the whole school, that boy Thụy’s family is on the counterespionage police’s watchlist. That boy Thụy’s family receives secret documents from Beijing all the time. In class no one talked to him. No teacher called him to the blackboard. The other students looked away when he walked by. He was left out of military classes. He was exempted from writing letters of solidarity to servicemen in the Spratly Islands. ‡ In the final year of high school even the worst-behaved students were admitted to the Communist Youth Union. Not Thụy. They didn’t even mention him. They acted like they’d never heard of any Thụy. They acted like there was no Thụy in the class. At 16 he was as tall as Vĩnh is now. His hair was cropped. His eyes were slanted. On the bus, he fell asleep with his head on my shoulder. He told me he was born in Yên Khê. We were born in the same year. Thụy three months and two days before me. The next day a murmur went through the whole class that I had fallen for Thụy. The next day again a rumour went through the whole school that I was bewitched by that Beijing goon. The headmaster summoned my parents. The form teacher wanted a private word with me. The maths teacher wanted a private word with me. The literature teacher wanted a private word with me. The English teacher wanted a private word with me. The secretary of the school youth union wanted a private word with me. You should focus on topping your class in the year-end exams. You should focus on getting the highest scores in the school-leaving exams. You should focus on bringing honour to our school in the university exams. Some evoked responsibility to try and convince me. Some brought up exams to try and threaten me. No one even mentioned Thụy. ◉
† Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese revolutionary leader and statesman who served as the leader of the People’s Republic of China from 1978 to 1989. Famous within China for his far-reaching economic reforms, outside the country he is known for ordering the violent suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
‡ The Spratly Islands are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. The islands are of strategic importance due to their proximity to fishing grounds and shipping routes between Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. Vietnam lays claim to them as part of Trường Sa, Khánh Hòa Province, as do Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.