Daughter from Danang

Daughter From Danang

There were many cross-cultural problems in the documentary Daughter From Danang. The first one that I recognized was the lack of understanding between Hiep and the people of Vietnam. When she went to visit, first of all, she experience a huge culture shock since she has been living in the United States since the age of six, and has no idea about Vietnam. Her mother and other relatives knew how to speak English, but to communicate with the majority was a bit of a problem. Hiep keeps mentioning how life is different here, the way people are brought up in Vietnam are very different than in the United States. After visiting Vietnam, her biological mother showed her an amount of love that she has never seen before. The mother that brought her up was not a loving person, barley gave hugs, and never used to say what all mothers say which was "I love you".

Vietnamese people are very affectionate, emotional people. Hiep realized how much they loved touching, kissing, and hugging. The way they express their feelings are too much for her to handle. She mentions how much love people have for each other, the amount of love and support among families, and with the whole community.

Her sister, Hien, was considered the poorest of the children. This led to another cross-cultural issue when Hiep offered her to help financially and as mentioned in the documentary "in a blink of an eye" the sister asked for more, where Hiep thought it was rude and felt insulted. It is possible that this act would be considered normal among Vietnamese people but not with Americans. Vietnamese are very upfront, especially for money.

Even when it comes to the realtionship with Hiep and her mother, she felt that her mother was considered the child and she was the parent for which the mother never left her sight and was with her all day, everyday. Hiep is not used to this, and therefore feels uncomfortable and wants to go back to her regular life.

Her brother later explained to her their situation and the help they need from Hiep. She felt devastated, shocked, and didn't know what to do or how to respond. She mentions how she wished she had never come to Vietnam because the memories she had before coming we're good memories, and now everything is destroyed. All these problems she faced when coming to Vietnam were cross-cultural, it was simply too hard for her to adapt.

Hiep's views has changed throughout the documentary. In the beginning, she felt that she was simply a miserable person because she has been rejected from two mothers. The first mother kicked her out of her life and did not mention her ever being her daughter, and her second (biological) mother abandoned her at the age of six. After visiting her, her view on this has changed for that she felt that being sent to the United States