Love, Money, Prison, Sin, Revenge

Talie Chen

ASA 002 A03

8 November 2015

Blog 8

I found it interesting that in his article Love, Money, Prison, Sin, Revenge, Lam sympathized with the four youths as victims of refugee transnationalism instead of presenting the the four youths as culprits. He argues that being traumatized by war and the chaotic and broken society back home, the later wave of Vietnamese refugees were ill equipped to adjust to a less-generous America. Lam relates himself to the young men of the Good Guys siege, in that they are both children of defeated warriors. He says that in the demands they made, he hears the thematic echo of vengeance, that forms and shapes many Vietnamese youths who grow up in America. I recognize that growing up as a refugee in America is to grow up with the legacy of belonging to the loser’s side and to endure all that it entails. However, it bothers me when a young man at a coffee shop tells Lam that the Good Guys siege has become a legend among his friends, and that he would’ve supported them in their act of revenge. The means the gunmen took were illogical, irrational, and based off of highly stylized violent Hong Kong films. They believed that through these actions they would bring honor to their father, but they instead killed three others and then were killed themselves, leaving their families in grief. The world hasn’t recognized their battle as refugees either, and the news has simply labeled their motive as being frustrated by their inability to learn English and find jobs. How can refugees today balance their identities and make the appropriate adjustments needed for their new American style, that the Nguyen boys struggled with?