 That is our library introduction. I am now going to move on to the Amazing Quay Mine. So we are fortunate that we were able to get the mountains sing as are on the same page for APIA. On the same page is a monthly read, bi-monthly read, that SFPL participates and we try to get our community to read the entire book, the entire community to read the same book. So thank you for doing that and thank you for participating. The book is an epic multi-generational tale set in Vietnam during the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Lots of land reform and communist government rose in the north. It's really the story of Huang who comes to age as her parents and uncles head off down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to fight the conflict that tore not just the beloved country, but her family apart. Quay Mai is a Vietnamese poet and author who has written eight books. This is her first novel in English. Quay Mai is one of the few authors bringing Vietnamese literature to a wider English-speaking audience. The story is unlike any I have read, a powerful look into a side of the Vietnam War. Those of us educated in the Western West have never heard. Quay Mai was born into the Vietnam War in 1973. She grew up witnessing war's devastation and its aftermath. She worked as a street seller, rice farmer, before winning a scholarship to a turned university in Australia. Her writing has been translated and published in more than 10 countries. Most recently in Norton's inheriting the war anthology. For more information, you can visit her website and that will be in the link. Hoopla also has Quay Mai's poetry book available too and that's also in the link that will be in the document. So now I would like to introduce Quay Mai everybody, virtual claps. Thank you so much Anissa for this wonderful introduction and thank you too Anissa for being the co-panel of today. I'm seeing 90 people in today's discussion and I'm so so moved and so honored. Thank you so much for sharing your precious weekend time with me and with my book The Mountain Sing. So actually I'm thrilled to be hosted by the San Francisco Public Library. Libraries changed my life. Actually when I was a little girl I always wanted to be a writer but I was told not to become a writer so I listened to my family and I had to do so many things to survive and to, you know, life took me on different journeys and I only returned to my writing dream when I got a job at a library. Library of the American International School in Dhaka Bangladesh and I was responsible for ordering books for the library so you can guess what I did. I ordered all the Vietnamese authors. You know, I wanted to increase the collection about Vietnam, Vietnamese literature in the book in the library but I also wanted to read authors that I did not have a chance to read when I was in Vietnam. For example, you know, authors who live outside Vietnam or authors like Dung Tu Huong who worked was not available in Vietnam anymore. So yeah, I love to be, you know, in the library and I'm so honored to be hosted today and I want to acknowledge quite a few Vietnamese people who are in the discussion today. I see some names, Vietnamese names. Thank you so much for being here this Saturday. Thank you. Thank you. So should I read a little bit of the book? I think that sounds great by mine. I think let's start there. How about an excerpt from the book and then we can move into a few questions that the audience might have. Yes. All right. I'm muting myself. So we have a lot of time today so feel free to ask me questions about the book. So I wrote this book with the wish to have a grandmother because both of my grandmothers had died before I was born. So I wanted, you know, our family doesn't even have a picture of my grandmother. So I wanted to imagine how it was for them and what they went through. And, you know, I wanted to imagine their faces and hear them speak to me. And growing up, I was so jealous of my friends who had grandmothers to tell them stories because Vietnam has a very strong storytelling traditions. And this is the very, the tradition that helps us survive through our long history of foreign domination, colonization, of many war and conflict. So I wanted to hang on and treasure this kind of storytelling heritage by writing this book. And inside this, when I wrote this book, it took me seven years. I found the grandmother I wanted to have and her name is Grandma Zi Lan. So I'm going to read to you a little bit of her voice. And, you know, the book is also told in the voice of Huong, her granddaughter. And she, Huong is next name Guava because Huong means fragrance, which would be attracting evil spirits. So according to the Vietnamese traditions, we call young children, you know, very ugly names so as not to attract, you know, the spirits, which I believe to hover above the earth and looking for beautiful children to kidnap. So this is the first part that the reader hears the voice of Grandma Zi Lan. The fortune teller Nghe An province 1930-1942. Guava, remember how we used to wander around the old quarter of Hanoi. We often stopped in front of a house on Hangai. I didn't know anyone who lived there on Silk Street, but we stood in front of the house, peering through its gate. Remember how beautiful everything was? Wooden doors featured exquisite carvings of flowers and birds, lacquered shutters gleamed under the sun and ceramic dragons soared atop the roof curving edges. The house was a traditional nam zan with five wooden sections, remember? And there was a front yard paved with red bricks. Now I can tell you the reason I lingered in front of that house. It looks just like my childhood home in Nghe An. As I stood there with you, I could almost hear the happy chatter of my parents, my brother Gong and Auntie Tu. Ah, you asked me why I never mentioned to you about having a brother and an aunt. I'll tell you about them soon, but don't you want to visit my childhood home first? To go there, you and I will need to travel 300 kilometers from Hanoi. We follow the national highway passing Namding, Ningbing and Tenghua provinces. Then we turn left at the pagoda called Phu Dinh, crossing several communes before arriving at Vinh Phu, a village in the north of Vietnam. The name of this village is special, Vua Va, as it means forever blessed. At Vinh Phu, anyone will gladly show you to the gate of our ancestors' home, the Jan's family's house. They walk you along the village road, passing a pagoda with the ends of its roof curving like the fingers of a splendid dancer, passing ponds where children and portfolios splash around. During summer, you gasp at clouds of purple flowers blooming on swan tree and red-garb flowers sailing through the air like burning boats. During the rice harvest season, the village road will spread out its golden carpet of straws to welcome you. In the middle of the village, you arrive in front of a large estate surrounded by a garden filled with fruit trees. Picking through the gate, you see a house similar to the one we saw on Silk Street, only more charming and much larger. The people who take you there will ask whether you are related to the Jan's family. If you tell them the truth, Vua Va, they'll be astonished. The Jan's family members have either died, been killed or disappeared. You learn that seven families have occupied this building since 1955. None of them are relatives. My beloved granddaughter, don't look so shocked. Do you understand why I have decided to tell you about our family? If our story survives, we will not die even when our bodies are no longer here on this earth. The Jan family's house is where I was born, got married and gave birth to your mother Ngoc, your uncles Da, Thuot, Sang and your aunt Han. You didn't know this, but I have another son Ming. He's my firstborn and I love him very, very much, but I don't know whether he's dead or alive. He was taken away from me 17 years ago and I haven't seen him since. So this is the opening of Grandma Ze Lan's voice. She is to tell Huong and the reader about her family and the history of Vietnam before 1972, and Huong will continue the storytelling tradition by recounting her experiences after 1972. So together, the two women wait with the history of Vietnam into the history of their family to make up the mountain scene. Thank you so much. Thank you, Khoai Mai. So we do have a couple of questions already. Would you like to go there? Yes. Oh, Quynh just said, your voice is so beautiful, lyrical like music. Thank you. That's the part I love about Vietnamese language. Our language is very lyrical. So I use a lot of Vietnamese language inside the book and I'm really thankful to readers who appreciate the Vietnamese culture by reading this book, you know, because all of our language is with full tonal marks. And I just want to tell you how proud I am that my name is written in full tonal marks. So at first when I had this, I had a publishing contract, I was thinking whether to leave the tonal marks out of my name. It would make it much more memorable for the international reader, right? They would remember how my name is spelled or how to say my name. I would be able to sell more books. But then I told myself, no, you know, I want to preserve the Vietnamese culture through this book. I want to present you Vietnam with its full color, full complexity, you know. So I insisted to my publisher to keep the full tonal marks of all the Vietnamese language in this book. And I'm really thankful for their support. And Algonquin Books has done such an amazing job. Okay, so I'm ready to take your questions. Thank you. I'm glad you brought up the lyrical nature of your language and the book. But I think your poetry also comes through as part of the lyricalness of how you write. So I think that's also, you know, important to let people know that you're also just an amazing poet as well. And that comes through as well. So I will ask a couple of questions and you can just jump in. Do you have plans for a new novel coming up? Oh, thank you for the question. So actually I sent my second novel to my agent and reading it. And yeah, I'm really excited. The second novel is based in the South of Vietnam. You know, I grew up in North Vietnam and as well as South Vietnam. And I couldn't have written this book, you know, without experiencing the Vietnam in different regions. So I have, I based the first book in North Vietnam, so I wanted to be fair to South Vietnam, which I love very much. So my second book is based in the South of Vietnam and it's more of a recent story of also, you know, of people struggle to overcome the aftermath of war. So I'm really excited about this book and my agent is loving it. She told me, I have an excellent agent, Julie Stevenson and, you know, she, because I must tell you that I wrote this book in the second language, right? And during the years that I wrote the book, I said, how am I going to sell this? Who's going to read this? And you know, I needed a champion because like for a minority writer who writes in the second language, who comes from a faraway country. I mean, you know, the person has to take a big chance and Julie was by my side from the beginning and I'm just so grateful. And you know, normally when, when books are published, people always, you know, attribute all the grace to the writers, but actually there's so much, so many people are behind this book. And I want to thank my editor, Bessie Glike and the Algonquin books, you know, she really believed in the book in the beginning as well. And this gives me hope for literature and I hope to have more voices from around the world, you know, and with my novels publication, I want to help more writers from Vietnam to be published internationally. Now I know how to do it. Thank you. Quy Mai, do you, do you remember a defining moment when you wanted to become a writer? I think I wanted to become a writer when I fell in love with books. So I was six years old when I was uprooted from my small village in the north of Vietnam and planted again in the garden of South Vietnam and that garden rejected me in the beginning because I was a stranger. I had different accents and I had come from, you know, the north and the north and the south had been separated by the war for 20 years and, you know, people were fighting against each other. So no wonder I was not accepted, but I was very confused. I was very sad and I found my piece in books and one of the books I really loved was 1001 Nights. I love that book and I read it and I was like, wow, this is the power of storytelling, you know, stories can really change our life and change other people. And the more I read, the more I loved words and I started to keep a diary. I wrote, I wrote every day, you know, the stories that I was witnessing and actually I wanted to be a writer and I told my family and they said, no, no, no, you know, no, you should not become a writer. And my two brothers told me, don't you see how cool we are, you know, we don't even have enough to eat. If you become a writer, you will be stopped, you know, do something useful with your life. So guess what I did? I went on to study business. Yes, and I worked in business for quite a while and and actually I was one of the first investors of the Vietnamese stock market. You know, but, you know, when I moved to Bangladesh with my husband because of his job, then I got to work in the international, in the library of the American International School of Dhaka and I found my dream again. I was a fish being returned to its pond. I was swimming and I was like, I thought this is my place, you know, among the beauty of words and but I just read at that time. I think during those years, I made up for all the years that I was into business by reading, reading. I read authors from all around the world with a focus on authors who had who had written in Vietnamese. So then I so I read and absorb a lot of that love for literature, but I only started writing in 2006 when we returned to Vietnam. And I want to tell you why because being, you know, I had before that I lived and I lived and work in I studied and work in Australia and then Bangladesh. And I'm so homesick, you know, and so I was very homesick and the joy of being back to Hanoi was was fantastic. So I remember I used to ride on motorbikes to work. And at that time, you know, I mean the joy of riding the motorbike at a scooter, you know, I had a scooter and I was thinking you put the wind in my hair and you know, with the trees. So I was writing poetry in my head. And guess what happened? The police didn't like it because I would often forget how to blink when I turn right. For example, I was fine so many times. I mean, writing poetry is a very expensive hobby, you know, expensive thing to do. It costs money and it doesn't bring you much money. Just kidding. It brings a lot more. But yeah, so I started writing poetry first in Hanoi. So when my poetry was known, so publishers in Vietnam contacted me and said, oh, why don't you write prose? And then I started to write, you know, travel, travel books and also, you know, short fiction. But I never thought I would write a novel until the year 2012 when I paint the mountain sing. That's amazing. That you just started writing in 2006. I mean, that's like you're a fresh new writer. That's amazing. I love it. And yes, poetry can be expensive. Is the book also published in Vietnamese? So there have been publishers who approach me with the interest to have this published in Vietnamese. But when we sold the rights, my publisher wanted international rights. But I said I wanted to keep the Vietnamese rights because I want to translate it myself. Even though I had written the mountain sing with, you know, with the consciousness to protect the Vietnameseness of the Vietnamese setting. You know, the authenticity of the Vietnamese setting and the people speak and behave like Vietnamese. But I feel I should be translating it by myself because maybe I want to rewrite some part. You know, I don't know because I also work as a translator and when I translate my work, I feel I can open some smaller secret doors into the language. Which I have the freedom to do if I'm the author. So I look forward to translating this book when I have time and I want my parents to read it because they can't read it yet because they don't know English. And I want my relatives, you know, the older people in the villages to read it as well. So yeah, so this is one of my next projects I think. Thank you for the question. Let's just continue with the writing. Like people are very intrigued about your writing process I think. So how do you capture your creative thoughts and get them down on paper? Do you have a writing ritual that you do? That's a great question. To be a writer, one of the first things is like you need to be very disciplined. In one of the interviews I said that I used to get up at 4 a.m. to go and catch little shrimp. And you know, nowadays as a writer, I get up very early to catch the earliest words of the day. And you know, normally when I work on a novel, when I get up, I don't check my phone, don't check the internet. I wanted my mind to be pure. So then I can, you know, because once you read the news, you may be disturbed, right? And you may be worried and your mind is not totally focused. So that's why when I work on a novel or when I edit a novel, normally I get up very early and be disciplined not to check the news until I've done, you know, more than an hour. And also, so routines, I read a lot. One of the best things of being a writer is reading and calling it a part of your job. So you know, reading, you know, provides me so much motivation. So whenever I read a good book, I'm like, wow, this person can do it like that. Maybe I can do it too. I don't have to write the same, but they have, look how easy they have employed the words. I can do it the same way. So, you know, reading is such an important part of learning as a writer. And I read widely, nonfiction, fiction, history, you know, I feel like I need to learn so much as a writer. Today I was rereading After Life by Julia Alvarez. And this is one of the new books, new novel, which I really, really love. And Julia radiates her knowledge and her insights in this book, her knowledge about, you know, world events from climate change to, you know, to immigration. And to, you know, her understanding of politics in America. So she brings everything together inside this book After Life. And when I read, I'm really fascinated because, you know, I think a writer has to show what he or she know, right? You know, either poetry or fiction or nonfiction. So that's why, you know, I'm really excited to learn from all the writers and to read. Another, another tip about writing for me is to keep the mind calm. So, you know, one of the routine for me as a writer is to practice calmness. You know, I must tell you it's not easy to become a writer. You, you, because the world is so noisy out there, you can get criticized for something that you just said, for example, I just give you an example, right? Recently I answered an interview and I was interviewed for one hour and 10 minutes. And the journalist, because of the World Cal Limit, she had to condense, you know, the article, the interview to a small section, you know, 700 words. And of course she only presented a part of my story and some readers read it and then became furious and criticized me. And at first I was so shocked, I was called a gook that, you know, a commenter called me a gook, you know, in the comments. I was so upset with a lot of racist comments, but I calmed down and I accepted that being a writer is about putting yourself out there, you know, and accepting criticism. And in Vietnamese we say, being a writer is having thick skin, you know, you need to have thick skin to be able to, you know, like to accept people's criticism and also learn from constructive criticism. Because I think being a writer, you know, I think nobody is perfect and I have a lot of learning to do, you know, when I read people's feedback about my book, I may realize that there's something I did not cover in the book. I may not be able to cover in this book, but as I learn from writer's feedback, I may absorb it and then bring it out in the next novel. So it's a continuous learning process and I'm just so thankful that I'm able to return to my dream because there's nothing I want more than being a writer. So, you know, I was saying that one of my disciplines about being a writer is to keep the mind calm and, you know, keep the noise out. So one of the things for keeping calm is to read a lot and I meditate. I spend a lot of time in nature. I love taking walks and listening to audio books when walking and I do yoga. Yoga is so important. It keeps me fit, but also it keeps me focused. So sometimes I read, you know, I read so much and I write, I spend a lot of time on the computer. So one of the best things to clear my mind is to do a handstand. And I have been practicing handstand, you know, for about six months, but because I'm afraid of height. So, you know, I can do the handstand if somebody helps me to flip up, but I cannot jump up because I'm a bit scared. So I have to overcome my fear. And hopefully when I talk to you next time, I can do handstand in the middle of the room. That's my dream. Thank you, Kway Mai. That was all great stuff. One last writing kind of question is, do you have any advice for folks who want to get published? How did you get published? Oh, the journey to publication is difficult, but not impossible. I'm the proof because I've tried for two and a half years to find an agent. And you know, and I think my book is difficult because it deals with a difficult topic and, you know, it's not a happy book, right? So, you know, to find an agent who believes in it is difficult. And also because I was teaching to American agents and the first scene of the book is the American Formula of Hanoi in 1972. So, you know, I was hoping an agent would be able to, you know, an agent would say, I want to read the whole book, not just the first chapter. So, but I did not give up. I tried for two and a half years, and then luckily I met Viet Thanh Nguyen. And then, you know, we exchanged books and because he's so wonderful that one day I thought, what do I have to lose? I emailed him one page synopsis of the novel and he said, oh, wow, this sounds wonderful. I'm going to introduce you to my agent. So, my advice is to work really hard on a project that you believe in. And, you know, I used to be a documentary filmmaker and a film producer. You used to tell me you can't make a good film unless your hands trample behind the camera. And I believe this is true. We cannot write an excellent book if we are not, unless we are passionate about the subject. For me to write the mountain sing, I cry so much. I leave the experiences of my characters. I felt their pain. And, you know, I wrote stuff before that, but I throw it away because I know it's not good enough. Unless you feel inside deep into your, in your guts, that is good. Then you should send it out. And my advice is not to publish something which is just okay. Because, actually, I wrote another novel before this and I had another agent who sold it. But I thought it's not good enough. So I said, no, I don't want to publish it yet. So she was so furious with me. So we ended the contract. But imagine if I published that book, my career would be down the drain because I have heard stories from writer that your first record, the first book that you launch is so important, right? Because once you sell, when you want to sell the manuscript, the editors will look at the sales record of your first book. So patience is so important. You know, I worked seven years on the book and sometimes I felt like, oh, I'm so sick of this. I wanted to be out there, but I knew it wasn't good enough. So patience and resilience and like just keep working on it every day and build your connection. Build your connection. You never know a writer whom you met today is going to help you tomorrow. So be kind and be helpful and be supportive. One of the best things on my road of publication is that I have had wonderful, helpful, amazing authors like Bia Thanh Nguyen, Ocean Vuong, Thibui, Thanh Hai Lai, so many, so many amazing people. And I really feel there's a lot of jealousy in the publishing world, but so much kindness. And I think for me, I believe that a writer needs to support other writers. And even if you are trying to become a writer, show support to other writers, show your love to the books that you are reading. And there's so much to do. But if you have the chance to become a writer, go for it. And I really, really wish you the best of luck. Kui Mai, that is really great advice. And if you didn't meet, you want to hear it again, be kind, helpful and supportive. Let's be that cool. Kui Mai, thank you. We would love to hear. We'll come back to some questions. Not about writing, but a little more heavier in content. But let's turn to some poetry. And I want to let you all know that, let's see how I can do this. I am going to do that, that, and can you all see that? This is a cover of Kui Mai's book and her poetry and it is available through Hoopla. There's a link there. And again, it will be in the doc that I send you or you can pick up that link. Kui Mai, would you like to read us some poems or whatever you'd like? So I couldn't have written this book without being a poet first. I just want to tell you that I cheated. I sneaked poetry into this novel because it's hard to get people to read poetry nowadays, right? So, you know, when I worked on the editing, I thought, oh, let's turn this into poetry. So you have been reading a lot of poetry or you will read a lot of poetry through the mountain scene. So I, you know, I should be holding the cover of The Secret of Heart Sand, but because I was evacuated due to the pandemic, I didn't bring that book along. So I'm going to read from my computer. And today, you know, I'm really homesick and I miss my mom. So may I read a poem about my mom? Yes, please. I want to read in both Vietnamese and English. You know, so I've written this first in actually I wrote this first in English and then I translated into Vietnamese. So let me read it to you in English first so you get the idea of the poem and then I read it in Vietnamese. My mother's rice through the eyes of my childhood. I watched my mother, who labored in the kitchen, built palm straw and mud. She lifted a pair of chopsticks and twirled some light into a pot of boiling rice. The perfume of a new harvest soaked her worn shirt as she bent and fed rice straws to the hungry flames. I wanted to come and help, but the child in me pulled myself into a dark corner where I could watch my mother's face, teach beauty how to glow in hardship and how to sing the rice to cook with her son's bed hands. That day in our kitchen I saw how perfection was arranged by suit, blackened pants and pots and by the bent back of my mother. So thin she would disappear if I wet or cried out. So let me read the poem in Vietnamese. So you know, I just want to tell you a little bit about my mom. My mom was both a farmer and a teacher and she grew up without her parents. So her mother died because of childbirth and her father died because of the land reform. So her childhood was filled with difficulties and she managed, both of my parents didn't go to university. And their biggest dream was for their kids to go to university. And you know, unlike most parents at that time who wanted to make sure that their daughter would find a husband and didn't need to study, my parents place importance on my education. They make sure that I kept going to school and yeah, so my mom is just my inspiration. And some of the strong, you know, the character of Huong's mother in the novel is fiction. But actually Huong's mother has a lot of character, you know, like Grandma Ziu Lan and Huong's mother being strong and resilient and being positive. These are the characteristics of my mom. Sorry, my computer froze on me. So let me try and go back to that poem in Vietnamese later because I don't know. Sorry. So I will read that poem in Vietnamese later on when the computer has obeyed me. So you can ask me the next question. Okay, we're going to, we'll do that. We will go on to some other questions and I'm going to stop sharing. All right, so let's see. We all, I think we can all share that we just are loving your energy and passion, Quy Mai, and your love of books. Do you have any comments on the place of women in the Vietnamese culture? Oh, I was talking to my daughter today and she asked me, is it easy to become a manager in Vietnam, you know, a manager of a company? And I felt like Vietnamese women have done quite well compared to, you know, women in other countries. We are not really oppressed, but we have different obstacles. For example, in the Vietnamese family, women are supposed to do all the housework to take care of the kids, to be responsible for the kids and to be still successful in their career. And Vietnamese men are not supposed to share the housework. Let me tell you this story. My, my, my own father complained to me because my eldest brother was too helpful with his wife's housework, you know, with the housework of his family. And he, every day, my eldest brother is a very loving man, so he loves to pick up the kids, you know, from school and he also goes shopping and he cooks and he cleans the floor. And my, my father, one day, he told me, daughter, you have to tell your eldest brother, he should not do easy labor. He should not be under the wife's skirt. So that's, that's the Vietnamese saying for, for men who are afraid of their wives or who are too obedient. And, and I said, I love the fact that he's helpful, you know, in this, in this, in these days, you know, men and women should be equal. We should be sharing the household responsibilities. But my father said, no, there are things for women to do and there are things for men to do. Men should be, you know, doing bigger things like investing or making a good career. You know, so my father belongs to the older generation. So I had to talk to him a great deal to change him. So that's, that's the perceptions of the general Vietnamese public. You know, women are supposed, are supposed to burden all the tasks and I will quote another Vietnamese proverb. Con hưu tại mẹ, châu hưu tại bàn. So, so that says the children are spoiled or are doing badly because of the mother's fault and because of the grandmother's fault. So this is a proverb, you know. So women are to blame, you know, for the things that go, that go wrong inside families. So we are responsible for running the household and Vietnamese women are supposed to manage money matters as well, you know. So the men normally, you know, give the salaries to the wives. So the wives should manage it as well. So, but regardless of that fact, Vietnamese women have done really well. You know, Vietnam has a long history of women who are strong, who have, you know, for example, the history of Hai Ba Trung sisters who fought against the Chinese invaders and who became the first queens of Vietnam. And so if you, if you go to Vietnam today, you will see the street called Hai Ba Trung, the two queens sisters. And also, you know, in, in, in literature, there's, they're really famous figures like Ba Chua Nong, Hồ Sơn Hương. She's one of the first Vietnamese women who wrote about taboo subjects. She wrote about sex. She wrote about, you know, women's rights. And she was like, it was that time when we were still having emperors, you know, when Vietnam was a very conservative, conservative country and people were really shocked. He was a woman writing about women's rights and freedom of speech and about sex as well. So, yeah, so, so I told my daughter, it's, it's really, it's, in Vietnam, if you try hard and if you, yeah, it's, it's possible to make a great career as a woman and have a family as well. And it's not as easy as, as men and Vietnamese men normally there's a, there's a drinking culture as well. So, you know, for women, we don't have to drink, we don't have to go to karaoke. So for example, if you do business in Vietnam, the culture is so different. It's like in Japan, you know, if you want to build business, good business relationships, nowadays will go and play golf or they go karaoke or they go and drink a lot. And, you know, luckily as women, we are not expected to go drinking or go karaoke. And, yeah, so, so, yeah, so two genders face different kind of challenges and expectations. Thank you, Kwemai. I think that the, the, it's universal that women are, it's all women's fault. It's a universal subject. Yeah, but actually I want to tell you another story, you know, like I have founded a charity group in Vietnam to help kids with cancer. So because of Agent Orange, a lot of young kids in Vietnam inherit, you know, these faulty genes from their grandfathers and they have all types of cancer and the rate of childhood cancer is very, very high in Vietnam. And one of the mothers told me that when her child got cancer, the neighbors stopped speaking to her. She's from a small village in the rural area and the neighbors blamed her that the child got sick and they said because she did something bad in her past life. So it's her karma that she's getting. So they, they, you know, they, they really gave her hard time and it's heartbreaking. Terrible. What's the name of your nonprofit? Oh, um, yeah. Yeah. Giving wings to dreams. So, you know, these kids, they have, when I talked to, you know, I founded this as out of the blue, you know, like, because when I was in Hanoi one, one Christmas I went to a hospital and I started to give Christmas gifts. And I saw these kids with cancer who were looking so afraid, you know, like the hospitals in Vietnam are so crowded, you can imagine that a small single bed can have two or three kids lying on them. And these kids, they see, you know, children dying around them and they were very afraid. And I wanted, and I asked them what they wanted, you know, to, to have and they said, Oh, you know, we wanted to see, to have books here so we could read or we could, we wanted to see, you know, colorful pictures in on the wall. So I decided to set up, you know, libraries inside the hospitals. I talked with the art students and we painted the whole, you know, every room and we had the music therapy. So we, I asked donors to buy, you know, like iPods for us. And then we did film showing and these kids told me they wanted to have birthdays and a lot of them have never had birthdays in their lives because, you know, birthdays are not normally celebrated in Vietnam. Traditionally we celebrate death days, the days that people died and, you know, you remember that day and then you make an offering for next year, but for birthdays traditionally it's not celebrated and these kids they wanted to have that. So you know what I did? I went to the five star hotels in Hanoi and I said, I have this, this, this group, all volunteers, nobody got paid. I want to do a monthly birthday party. Would you donate your cake? And I found that this group like more than 10 years ago and now still these five star hotels every month, they, they give us the best cakes. And I just, I just want to tell you that these kids when they have the birthday parties, they're just, just so, so happy. And you know, and our group do not accept donations directly. I want people to go to the hospital and give the gifts. So every month like our, our volunteers, they write down the kids with birthday, birthdays, so they send it to the donor. So the donors go, you know, they can be the moms or the dads, they go to the market and buy and rep, rep these gifts and give it to the kids themselves. And that's such a meaningful thing. And I want to return to the, my message kindness, you know, earlier, there is so much that we can do to spread kindness. And I mean, now with the COVID situation, you know, I think we can only overcome this. We are more kind to each other. And my book, even though it's about the horror of war, but it highlights the value of kindness. And I just, I just desperately want people to love each other more and be more kind to each other. Powerful words, Kway Mai. It's so true. So we're kind of wrapping up on our hour, but just a couple more questions. Can you comment on how your book has been received by the Vietnamese community in the US? And do you think the reception will be the same when it is published in the Vietnamese language? I am so encouraged by the wonderful, wonderful feedback I have received from second generation Vietnamese American. You know, I can see in this group a comment from Michael, who read my book and I was so excited to see his, you know, Twitter account because he has been organizing to bring students from the US to Vietnam. And then I read his research paper about his emotions of, you know, having been in Vietnam because, you know, a lot of Vietnamese Americans have not been to Vietnam or have not, you know, the older generation have not returned. And with this book, I just want everybody to return because Vietnam as a country is different, different than a political regime, right? And being back in Vietnam, you can, you can connect with your family history, you can find out more about yourself. And, you know, there's so much good food to enjoy. And it's a wonderful travel destination. You know, Vietnam is one of the most popular tourist destinations in recent years. And, you know, I, and I'm just, I'm just warmed by reception of, of, you know, of Vietnamese, the second generation Vietnamese from different countries in Germany, in Europe, in France, we have read the books in the US, you know, and I'm so honored to be championed by, you know, like amazing Vietnamese American writers like Ocean Blanc. He's just incredible and he champions this book and such a big honor for me and honor Vietnamese American writers. So, for the older generation, it's a bit difficult. They, they read, for example, I had an interview with Voice of Vietnam in Vietnamese language and, and you know, like the comments there were really like, if I, if I told these comments personally, I would be this depressed. I would not be able to write anymore, because they are very hurtful. But, but I believe that the people who commented have not read my books and, and, and with this book, I am addressing difficult issues, which existed in our history for so, for so many years, you know, the issues of reconciliation, of forgiveness, of seeing others experiences through somebody else's eyes. So, you know, like, I think with any war, the tendency is to dehumanize the other side. And you know, and with this book, I want to humanize all sides so that we can see, you know, into the other people's experiences through to their, through their stories. So this is a difficult, difficult process. So, so I don't know yet, because I cannot speak for so many Vietnamese people. I just, you know, this is a work of fiction, right? Not everything here is true. Of course, it's inspired by real experiences. But, you know, it is a book, it provokes people reaction, I think it's wonderful whether it's positive or negative. It makes people to care about the topic. It makes people to care more about Vietnam. It makes people want to talk about issues that we need to resolve within our community. And that's important. Thank you, Cui Mai. That was very beautiful. I just want to shout out some of the comments that people have been saying. I don't know if you've been reading them, but everybody loves the work. They love your lyrical tone. They love, let's see here, beautiful writer, beautiful person and soul inside and out. Fabulous story. A lot of us did the audiobook and we just love the narrator and thought that the flow and the beauty really came through in that as well. Let's see. I see somebody put in the D-Van link. That's a really great writer's resource and I'll put that, I'll add that to the list as well. Thank you. Let's see. Beautiful story. I, a restingly beautiful writer, but a beautiful person. Thank you so much. Let's see. Anything else that I want to shout out? Is there any? I mean, I know there were other questions, but, and Cui Mai, you did mention several other writers, but do you have any last recommended reads that we should be? We love that you're a reader. You should just become a librarian. We love you. You're an honorary, honorary librarian person. I mean, I'm like, oh, I can recommend, you know, for literature about Vietnam. I want to recommend, you know, if you're interested about, you know, the, the experiences of, you know, in English, you can read Zing Tu Huong Paradise of the Blind. It's a wonderful book. And I hope your library has it. Paradise of the Blind by Zing Tu Huong or, you know, The Sorrel of War by Bao Ninh. And there are so many books that I love which have not been translated into, into English. But, you know, in terms of Vietnamese American writers, you have so many fantastic writers like Ocean Buong. Ocean Buong on Earth, we're gorgeous. Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer is so amazing. And his next, the sequel to The Sympathizer, The Committed is coming out soon, so I'm reordering it. T-Boy, the best we could do a graphic memoir or graphic novel is fantastic. Like Thang Ha, Inside Our and Back Again, which is like, it's poetry. You know, she writes the whole book, you know, in poems, you know. So she's working on a sequel for Inside Our and Back Again. Monique Chuong is a wonderful writer. There's so many other writers. And one other writer who I really love, if you love the language, is Andrew X Fah. Andrew X Fah, you know, wrote this book, A Catfish and Mandala. And, oh, there's so many, so many wonderful writers. Or When Heaven and Earth Changed Places. It's a wonderful memoir by Ly He Slipp. But you know, like I've been reading authors from around the world and I'm loving, you know, the girl with the loud voice. From an author. I can't remember her surname, but her first name is Abby. I just finished reading this book that changed me. And I highly recommend it. So you want to talk about race. You know, it's about racism and action we need to take as an individual and as a community to counter racism. And I think it's so important that we work together on this because I've seen so much racism. I've heard so many stories of racism now with the COVID situation. Oh, that just, there's just so many wonderful stories that so many wonderful new books this year. I'm so excited. My, my list of, you know, reading is so, so long, but I'm really happy to be able to read. Thank you. Thank you, Kway Mai. And I think I caught most of the books that you just listed off and I'll add those to the document and link them for you. Hopefully we have them in our collection. If not, I will attempt to get them in our collection. And yeah, we are all working in E format, but definitely support our local bookstores here in town, and they will ship to your house or do curbside. So please do that. And you know, I just wanted to give a shout out to the boy. She's was one of our one city one book, which is a big, big campaign. So her graphic novel was read by all of the Bay Area pretty much and everyone in the Bay Area loves her. She's just amazing. She's amazing human too. And I want to highlight that you should save up some money because she has two excellent books coming out. She's doing graphic memoir on climate change. So she went to Vietnam and she interviewed Vietnamese women in Vietnam who are doing many things to counter climate change. And she's also doing, but her forthcoming project is about immigration, how the refugees have been sent home by the Trump administration. And so she's fighting for their rights against, you know, eyes and all that. So her work is so, so important. And so you should read T-Boy if you haven't read her. She's an amazing person. Yeah, I cannot say highly enough about her work. We agree too. We love her very much in San Francisco. I mean, obviously she's a Bay Area person and we just love her so much. Kui Mai, thank you so much. You are amazing and we appreciate everything and you being here. You are so passionate and we just love, I love you today. You are wonderful. I am going to unmute. Does anybody want to give a shout out? There are lots of people who have shouted out in the chats. If you can check that out, Kui Mai, you'll see how much love you're getting right now. But if anybody wants to be unmuted, please go right ahead and unmute yourself and quick shout out. We're trying not to go past 11. I just found this this morning. I missed the beginning, but I just absolutely love this. And I, you know, I was in between two tsunamis in 2013. I was gone for five and a half weeks there and it was just unbelievable. The spirit of the people, they don't wait around for government handouts like we do here waiting before they can go. It's just superb. Thank you. Thank you so much, Vivian. Thank you for joining us. I know and I hope I get added to the list because I was taking notes right here, but it was just your spirit is superb. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much and stay safe from the hurricane, please. Oh, yeah. It was just unbelievable. We were just able to get in right after one started and we left just before another one started with the spirit of the people. And we went to university and I remember I was having problems with my brand new Apple. And so here I am. I go in and find somebody because basically it's Samsung and Vietnam. And I, they give me a rider and a motor scooter to this little place and oh, then I found a museum and I was in the library and they only had one book and nothing from, from America since 20, I mean, year 2000 how they, and I thought, and I thought chief, I, it only knows I would have put some books in my bookcase. I mean, in my luggage and just bring them over and get live and even with the library because it's so hard, you know, through regular genes and the business library and her husband was connected with Stanford University and they still had a hard time getting books. It's unbelievable. So of course this is. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. So before we leave may I read you, you know, the poem that I promised you. I found it. Oh, this is in Vietnamese language so it gives you a chance to appreciate our language and I want to dedicate it to my Vietnamese brothers and sisters who I hear in, you know, in this group. Okay, so here it goes. Here it goes. I Thank you so much for your time and I love everyone of you and thank you for staying with me throughout this chat and thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody. I'll email you the link to this document. Thank you everybody. Have a wonderful Saturday. Hashtag committed at home. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye.