I am reposting Tempe High School’s attachment for rap point 1(b), for those who could not open it the first time around.
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Book Rap
Rap Point 1 Vietnamese Culture
· Three Generations in One House.
This is common in Vietnam, with the grandparents caring for the grandchildren while the parents work. The grandparents teach the grandchildren traditional ways through stories, e.g. p.28, when Chau illustrates the end result of laziness by telling Toan the story of the laziest boy in the world. The grandparents also advise their adult children, e.g. Chau tells Minh to buy gold (p. 34).
· Mai goes with the pirate, Sai Rakdee.
This is to protect her daughter, Phuong, from dishonour. On p.25, Mai tells the many men who want her that “My husband will return”. Before the fall of Saigon in 1975, the longstanding principle in Vietnamese society was that a woman would have only one man, so that a widow would never consider remarriage. This rule did not apply to men, so that a widower was free to remarry if he wanted to. On p.69, the narrative states “she feels no shame”. Mai’s apparent betrayal of her dead husband is in fact a noble sacrifice. She gives her life and honour to save her daughter’s.
· Family Business.
All family members help in the family business. This is shown in Australia with the Vo family on p.166, when Linh comments “- we all had to put in some time -“ and on pp. 177 and 178, describing the Ngoc family’s Old Saigon restaurant. All six children are well educated, and all help in the restaurant, doing their homework in the kitchen.
· Behaviour expected of girls.
Vietnamese girls in Vietnam are supposed to be: quiet, obedient, chaste, virgin until marriage, loyal to the family, hardworking, only expressing their opinions when asked to do so. Linh’s relationship with Miro is reluctantly tolerated in Australia, but in Vietnam she would be pressured to marry him to save the family’s honour. Kieu and Phuong are both outside the mould in their involvement with gangs, but both are released from them. Phuong is released when Cang dies from the burns received while rescuing her from the fire in Pulau Bisa; Kieu, through Hai’s intervention at Phuong’s request, in Boundary Park. Linh’s reaction to Tang’s insults is said to be “reflex” (p.181), and is an understandable response to such filthy talk. The danger she has put herself in is shown by the words “I froze in horror as soon as I realised what I’d done.” Her break-up with Miro is true to her own character and to Mai’s (p.188), but not typically Vietnamese. She makes this decision without consulting him. When she asks Phuong to speak to Hai, the act of leadership again is true to character but not to Vietnamese culture. Phuong’s talk with Hai is reminiscent of Mai’s bargaining with Sai Rakdee (p.66) and helps him to decide to deal with Tang.
.Religion.
Tuyet’s devotion to the goddess Quan Yin helps her to care for her family and is used as a narrative technique to signal crisis points in the story e.g. p.38 New Years Eve - she talks to her dead husband about Toan; p. 44 – “a cold breeze touches her” when she sees a vision of Mai in the ocean;
p. 73 –76 – Grandma knows the officials are lying about the family’s capture and will not pay them; p.103 – Hoa remembers Tuyet’s confidence that Minh is all right; p.147 - Hoa decides to sell the pendant of the goddess to finance the family’s bus trip to Kuala Lumpur; p.173 – Tuyet sees Linh’s photo before the second encounter with the Triple K’s; p. 205 – Linh says her grandmother would consider the existence of the gangs as part of the balance of the universe. This follows the collapse of the Triple K gang; p. 211 – Toan says “a medium of Quan Yin should have no need of words to give her peace.
