oh off to 100 years was the ideals of the bronx more relevant today than they were. visionaries reshapes things to come with all the promise people understood as a way of shaping society. with its. small 3 part documentary starts maybe it's on t w. we only feel the fear of everybody in the worries and and on the day that we. of course my parents couldn't tell us that we were 14. we never thought it would survive the books when.

we went to montreal to meet kim 20 and despite the chilly weather we couldn't have wished for a while mobile come. on the run she has been living in canada for over 40 years now and much she claims novels draw on her own experiences and memories. you were 10 when your family fled saigon. member anything what happened inside and what was your life that when i left i was all the enough to remember and then all the not old enough to understand. everything so when you sit down to write you can

you have the freedom to reinvent you know the stories between the little dots that you have of the memories but this saw visit images and as children i think you have a very tunnel vision of things right and so i remember the smell the kitchen the women how they would dress have they moved around and then i also have images of those tanks coming into town we only feel the fear of everybody and the worries and and on the day that we fled of course my parents couldn't tell us that we were fleeing right but the tension was so dance that you can you know you know without anybody say anything and to have certainly all of the at the orbs in the house to be rumor you know to whisper they never talk anymore. came to his childhood in saigon ended in 1975 when south vietnam fell to the

communist north after 20 years the home city was renamed the main city. the 1500000 people who fled across the south china sea were dubbed the boat people hundreds of thousands died the despair that drove the mom board and the survivors are really hard to imagine. we never thought we would survive the boat trip so already when we arrived in malaysia. it was a bonus you know a 2nd chance to life and as we got off the boat and the ball broke up 15 minutes after we got off so when you standing on the beach and you see that boat break up. you have no more complaint if anything goes after that. kim and her family lived in a refugee camp in malaysia until her parents secured entry to canada the start of a new life today she's one of the country's most celebrated authors her 3 best

selling novels have been translated into 25 languages. it must have been a clash of cultures when you came to canada what was your most difficult challenge we have arrived not from our home we arrive from refrigerate camp so basically do you we became subhuman you know we lived in places that were not places and under citizenship we were stateless right and so you we arrived here and we couldn't compare with anything else we compare with 0 rights or anything after 0 was great and the beauty was that we arrived in a small city where my impression was the whole city was there waiting for us someone picked me up and held me in their own of his arms or her arms but everybody was being held and that was the 1st moment where we became canadian it was

not 2 years later with the paperwork and all that we became canadian on that 1st moment because you form one of you fall in love with these people who didn't hesitate to pick up a dirty refugee and i mean dirty you know we had infection everywhere we had wise in our hair and and even today you know i wonder if i would pick up myself when i was 10 when i. arrived here can trace family had been affluent and well educated her parents valued tradition as refugees they lost everything. going to canada was a decline for your parents for your father was a philosopher professor and both of your parents worked in factories in kenya where did save see there's the start of their new life in kenya as i would in richmond as a loss because my parents could already speak french and english so they couldn't follow courses in have

a salary from the government for learning their language the hotel where we were we landed where we stay the director. gave him a job to clean the stairs to the emergency stairs meaning he didn't meet anybody he created this job for my dad and i still remember my dad gathering all of us in the room and he said and he started a sentence by saying we're small. the director he could have just given that money but he wanted to create a job so that that 1st job would lead to another job and also to give us back our dignity and so giving is a very difficult gesture and he knew exactly how to give that with dignity you know it not only a means of living in terms of money but dignity and dignity is everything from their own wants and you you you have that back that you really

consider as a full human person. you can do anything. so how can we complain. kim and her 2 brothers didn't just have to learn english and french upon arriving in quebec i had to learn how to trust again. i didn't have a voice you know vietnam felt really into silence after the end. the war in 75 you could no longer speak freely or as much as possible to not eat so that you don't make your the people around you bad information because we were all forced to the nouns and the jesters of our actions which were considered to be anti-revolutionary our anti-cult or as you know you know in a communist context and so as much as possible that you don't you no longer speak

you no longer you try not to hear it try not to see and so that's how we lived it to mean years after the end of the war and before that because it was such a shy kid i didn't speak at all or very very little all i did was crying i was very good at crying canada and our specify quebec because we arrived here in quebec and that's why french is now my 2nd mother tongue i would say. gave me a voice a voice that i didn't know that i had and that i was now looking for. with this voice came to a become an author eventually had 1st book route was published in french in 2009 the novel is full of memories of her childhood in saigon of the city smells and food of being forced to flee and the refugee camp the language remains poetic even when dealing with despair. if a choreographer had been underneath the plastic sheets on

a rainy day or night he would certainly have reproduced the same $25.00 people shortened to all on their feast each holding a tin can to collect the water that dripped off the roof sometimes in torrance sometimes drop by drop if the musician had been there he would have heard the orchestration of all that musha striking the sides of the chains if a filmmaker had been there he would have captured the beauty. of the silent and spontaneous complicity between wretched people but there was only us standing on a floor that was slowly sinking into the class. to it. finally the family was permitted to immigrate to canada a new life between 2 cultures into a 2nd book man was published in 2013 it tells the story of a woman from viet nam who meets her great love in canada similar to the author herself who has 2 children with her canadian husband next novel is also somewhat

autobiographical published in 2016 it's protagonist is a vietnamese woman living in exile in canada who gets relocated to hanoi for work. i have a chance to go back to work as a lawyer i was sent to vietnam on a project and that that's when i had the chance to meet vietnam vet you know to learn to know about vietnam as an adult and what more than that not only as an adult but as a comedian but hung noise was not cells we had known it was enemies learned yes it was a different country. to me hanoi words totally unknown and i think you know i would have adopted at that to myself better in germany then in hanoi simply because i thought anyone or it was germany i accept but i don't

know anything or going to learn the language i'm going to learn the culture was how i went as of yet the remains of what is taught me be stabilized because it was not the same vietnam that i had in mind but i have discovered you know. so many stories that all of us there were no winners and we were all victims of a war for from one side or the other and that's why today. i would never call the north of vietnam as the enemy land we were just victims you know of the same war standing on both sides of the fences but it's the same it's the same suffering it was the same sadness it was the same was nobody won in the war. i don't think so. millions died in that war which also drove over one and a half 1000000 people to flee their home country 60000 vietnamese went to canada in

the 1970 s. alone where they received a warm welcome. and when in 2015 the world was asked to grant asylum to syrians canada once again opened its doors prime minister justin trudeau even came to greet the 1st syrian refugees but there isn't a phobia in canada too jim 20 hopes her own story could help counter anti immigrant sentiment but when you came to canada you your received a warm welcome this what about today's canada it's not recess you know when we left vietnam the international community community was waiting for us. that everybody was opening their arms in a taking us in today's not the same. it's not the same situation and that's why i just want to remind all of us that we have already been so generous and so good we have this in the us we are capable of this goodness we can be great which is forget

sometimes. canada's hospitality it's breathtaking scenery can make us forget the darkest chapters of this country's history it's banning of the cultural practices and languages of its indigenous peoples the so-called 1st nations even in the 1990 s. it was still being relocated repressed and disenfranchised they continue to suffer the economic and psychological consequences to this day only now is the state. king responsibility for those terrible acts. we always forget that they were here before all of us but in books in images very often we have one image one portrait of the typical communion but today canada and specially canada has set a new country. but they have been many many layers of of migration of people coming in. so yeah i think we are malty color multicultural

multi you know we have that kind of country we live together in order to live well together we need to know each other before we can love each other right so if we don't know the story of our 1st nations then we will never be able to connect and live together and saw their stories have to be told we asked canadians need to know it's our responsibility to know like a family we need to know our brothers and sisters and stories and lives and their love break up so it's all for so i think fought for our nation is is so important to have conversation and as you know as soon as we have the communication is broken and that's where the misunderstanding start and war if you know and hatred so we need to have this conversation. a conciliatory attitude means that came to

influence extends far beyond the literary world and she doesn't shy away from to be one of her sons has autism the author says he has changed her perceptions and her writing. and i always think about 10 years late because i arrived here at when i was 10 so i'm always running to catch up the 10 years that i have lost that i'm late on every. rationally i know am ok you know i am at the same pace than everybody but i don't know instinctually i'm always running in my son who's artistic cannot go with that pace he goes at his own wisdom and he forces me to slow down like he does you know like at his speed and so for him when he walks into a room it takes him time to examine the room and because of that i also have to

stop and examine the room to understand why he prefers one room to the to the other is of the right is of the shape of the lamps is it the number of people is of the the texture of those the so far or you know i have to analyze all of the senses and because of him at become since oriel i become aware of all the little details that i would have never seen if i was just me i would just go into the room who were over and get out and then me and would not have even seen that there was a sofa. came to return challenges into opportunities for optimism has helped to succeed and it seems both literary critics and the public are impressed in 2018 she was shortlisted for the alternative nobel literature prize. there are only a handful of canadian writers known worldwide and this man will walk with edward young. michael and that may be you where where do you see yourself in

canadian literature i don't know. i i still don't see myself as a writer because a writer has to be. mr of the day think more you know and i don't think so what i only enjoy what you know what i am doing. to me it's such a privilege to sit down and find the right. ward that's it i can spend a whole day just to try to find one word and that would be an accomplishment for me and. i don't want the writer has to be like this you know i don't know. him too he isn't troubled by what others think of her she enjoys trying out new things she's been a lawyer owned a restaurant and become a bestselling novelist she's even written a cookbook which she also presented in berlin with a cooking class. this is great cuisine just roasting flour.

well there was more than roasted flour there were vietnamese style pork meatballs. and the air was thick with the smell of spices roasted nuts and kim to ace delicious homemade sources. she didn't just make it look easy it really was easy and the results were delicious kim tree has received several awards for her cookbook which also contain stories from her family life in class 2 she showed how cooking and eating can bring people together there was chatter and laughter and occasionally explanations from kim to a vietnamese food also plays a large role in her novels where it's used to seduce to comfort and to celebrate she says the vietnamese people eating is about much more than sustenance it's an attitude to life as she learned in her early childhood in saigon.

my cousin's parents would base their choice of what to buy on the color of a fruit or the purview of a spice or simply according to the whim of the moment the food they brought home was always surrounded by a festive aura a sense of decadence and thrill they didn't fret over the empty rice char in the kitchen or the palms we were supposed to learn by heart they just wanted us to stuff ourselves on mangoes to bite into fruition make the juice. spurge boss spinning around and around like tops to the music of the doors town michel sardou the beatles or cat stevens. you write that you like your family you were lying on foot to express your feelings what do you cook for french was really suffering and what do you cook when you're happy oh i think the same. it's the fresh rolls because in vietnamese food is really. a

particular for its. aromas where we eat a lot of fresh herbs just really yeah you don't cook before they just put on the table and for the fresh rolls you put the leaves in the role and just really you have maybe 6 or 7 kinds of different kinds in there so every bite is different the 1st the 1st by the 1st perfume perfume that you you have is at the level of the lips right and then when you chew you have a different cocktail and when you swallow you have a whole opening up and everybody is different because you can never have this the same intensity in each leaf and the same amount of leaves and now so each lie is a new experience right at the end it's like it's almost like a garden in your mouth so if you sat that will make you happy and if you're happy then you explore if you follow through. always in. my desk and maybe

a foot and have a similar effect not yes yes i know that you will laugh but it's called but they should more and the 3rd layer of names means being corn and mashed potatoes it seems very simple but it's all comforting it's something i hear a lot of it over and over. and it's quite heavy because it was invented for the people who work on the railroad when you eat that you know your spirits stay strong for a long time so i don't need that much strength from food. but when i eat pettish you know it's always like a huge piece i can never stop. him to eat is very much at home in canada but vietnam is also an integral part of her. if you ask me if i was

a chameleon all of the music i would say i'm both i don't have to choose in the same circle you know 30 percent of either me 70 no i'm 100 percent on both especially because i would say i've even too much cheese and bacon now i'm big enough to sit on 2 chairs and not at the crack of the chairs you know and so i would say that i understand the immigrant. poster of our position because i have been one but i've also become of fully tuning in you know i i don't know i consider myself a very often i forget that you can tell that i am not a white person. on readings of your books if be publicly about your past about your experiences as a refugee does your success happy to raise awareness about a reality for you we have a referee trees i hope i hope i have had the chance to be invited to many events

where i speak and i'm always you know happy when there's one person in the room who would come up to me and say you've changed my view on on the refrigerator you know on how we see with fiji's and that's the whole purpose you know of yeah of me speaking because very you know when do you give a microphone to a rift. never very rarely or when we talk about immigrants or refrigerate we talk as a about them as a group there's no story there's no name there's no age there's nothing right there's no history to it of that it's like a big group and as a human person you know as our brain we cannot relate to a whole group we have to relate to one person at a time so i guess i am that person that you know who has the microphone and so i try to speak for all of. i hope that i was doing you know

the job fairly well. so yeah i tried to take responsibility basically of this privilege to have a chip you know where i can speak about that experience life insight on a flight from viet nam her marriage to a canadian came to his personal experience to serve as a basis for characters in all 3 of her novels can you imagine to write a novel that has no connection to your personal life. right now i can't i have so much to say still about the people that i've met and really my only objective when i write is to share what i find beautiful and this humans do you know around me and so i don't even have enough time to write about the things i know so. maybe once the better i finish that than our will imagine

you know science science fiction on some different planets but right now just the people around me are already so fascinating and amazing i don't need to go anywhere really and so maybe that's why it's so close to me you've changed your profession so often is there any challenge you still want to achieve i hope i hope there are more out there and there are many things i haven't done i'm so yes absolutely i've just last friday i've just accepted. a mandate that was way beyond my you know abilities and it was outside of my comfort zone but i accepted it for that very reason that i will learn something so absolutely this one should know i would love to be an astronaut. but i think i'm too old.

oh all model i think i'm too short i'll never get to be a wall. thank you very much it was a typo she was a better candidate but. it seems unlikely that came true even from out of material any time soon and through her storytelling she will continue to act as a force for all those.

ceiling lights that can send an e-mail the floor lamp that can stream a fellow. a marvelous network that uses it. sounds like science fiction right. by far the internet might.

good to borrow today. 30 minutes. the global corona traces you can find more information online ads e.w. dot com and on t.w. social media channels. sitting in the rooms. are always. symbol of a long conflict in the philippines. between the muslims. and the christian population. when i as fighters occupy the city center

doesn't 17 president and church's response was good. i just don't know it will never again will hold. the reconquest turned into tragedy. the be reasonable this is not the kind of freedom that we. didn't already become a gateway to islamist terror. by the now deceased so god i mean was in there as a result of. an exclusive report from a destroyed sitting in the. philippines in the sights of bias starts may 20th on d w. plan

. this is news live from berlin and europe moves cautiously out off its last downs children in the austrian city of south florida enjoy the freedom of the park again italy is easing some of its restrictions today while germany and spain also relax some curbs also coming up to millions of doses of corona virus vaccine at an affordable price.