HomeCity NewsSan Marino Woman Recounts Her Childhood as A ‘Boat Person’

San Marino Woman Recounts Her Childhood as A ‘Boat Person’

Engineer/Author Charlene Lin Ung
Engineer/Author Charlene Lin Ung

What started out as a written narrative for her family turned into a book explaining the story of her journey from Vietnam to America. The book titled, “Nam Moi: A Young Girl’s Story of Her Family’s Escape from Vietnam,” was written by Charlene Lin Ung, an aerospace engineering manager at JPL who has two girls who attend San Marino High School.

Many who know Ung may not know about this part of her past, especially the year and a half she and her family spent as refugees living on the ship, Tung An.

She began learning English out of necessity, begging for handouts from dockworkers while she stood on the fetid deck of a rusty cargo ship. The infamous ship, Tung An, stranded in Manila Bay, was overwhelmed with thousands of other desperate refugees fleeing Vietnam in 1978. The 11-year-old and her family were part of an exodus of more than 800,000 seeking safety away from Vietnam at a time when refugee boats and ships of all description were turned away from the shores of country after country.

Ung recalls how as a girl aboard a miserably crowded, filthy cargo ship living on two servings of rice gruel a day; she grew accustomed to everyday desperation and tragedy. Even the regular sight of drowned corpses became so commonplace that she and another refugee girl made a grim game of guessing whether the bodies were male or female.

Ung’s family, ethnic Chinese “Hakka” who had lived in Vietnam for generations, were in a precarious situation in Vietnam. They faced growing resentment for their Chinese heritage and for their wealth. And if her father’s past in the South Vietnamese military became known, he would have faced imprisonment or worse. Preemptively, he began a methodical search for a way out of Vietnam for his wife, children and relatives.

Her family has often asked why she wanted to tell her story. The original intent was to write it after she retired, but she took some time off from work because it was that important.

These memories are vivid and painful at times and there were days when Ung said she thought of not going through with the book, but it is a story that needs to be told. Her and her family’s memories along with newspaper articles and research are what make up the book.

As an adult looking back on her girlhood experiences of survival, Ung said she found herself privately contrasting her “boat person” struggles to her current life of relative comfort. The generation of Ungs born in the U.S. had little knowledge of the struggles of their ancestors, including her own two teenage daughters.

“I wrote this book because I wanted to share the Ung family history of overcoming hardships with my daughters and with future generations. None of my nieces, nephews or even my two daughters knew anything about my dad. He passed away 21 years ago at age 57,” said Ung. “Writing this book was a way to tell them who we are and where we come from. It was also my way of paying back my parents, not forgetting their sacrifices, nor the hardships of hundreds of thousands of other boat people who took similar journeys.”

As her colleagues have learned the story of her childhood, some have said it helps explain the personality of the gutsy, direct and no-nonsense space engineering manager they know.

“Refugees have to accept deprivation and tragedy every day to survive. We were hungry,

The author, far right, and her refugee family in Manila Harbor, 1978
The author, far right, and her refugee family in Manila Harbor, 1978

filthy and miserable under the Asian sun and humidity living on Tung An, but we were grateful to be alive. Like all refugees, we carried the hope that someday we would be in a better place. These nightmare situations would soon pass if we could just hang onto our lives. We would be reunited with our family, relatives and friends again.”

Ung and her family were finally allowed to leave a Philippine refugee camp and enter the United States in 1980. They were reunited with Charlene’s two brothers and two sisters, and began life in the U.S. sharing a two bedroom apartment with 18 people in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. The family later moved to Alhambra where she attended school.

Ongoing refugee crises, with waves of North Africans and Syrians reaching Europe, remind Ung of her own experience and the traits common to refugees everywhere.

“My past experiences as a refugee shaped my personality, my drive and my future life. I never wanted to have to beg for food again. I was determined to get a good education, and worked hard to provide a comfortable life for my family. I am very driven to do the best that I can in everything that I do and not to waste my parents’ sacrifices for the opportunity,” she said. “No matter how hard the situation or how big the problem I encounter, there is always a way to overcome these obstacles.”

Ung’s book also tells the story of her traditional Hakka Chinese ancestors who migrated from China to Vietnam, and her family’s move from North to South Vietnam after the country was partitioned in 1954.

The book was published on March, 19, 2015, the same day as the anniversary of her father’s death. This was meant as a celebration of life to honor her dad. It can be found on Amazon and in the Crowell Public Library, San Marino High School library and the library in Alhambra.

Ung is currently working on an audiobook of “Nam Moi: A Young Girl’s Story of Her Family’s Escape from Vietnam.” A Vietnamese version was recently released as well.

“Nam Moi” was the name given to her at birth, which translates to “little girl from the South.” She changed her name to Charlene once she entered school in California.

“My experience as a refugee showed me that the most important thing in life is not wealth or material goods, but human lives. Life is the most precious gift. Everything else can be replaced or rebuilt.”

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