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After 8 Years, A Thank-You
Refugee Float Debate
December 30, 2001 Combine News service
Pasadena, Calif. - In the 25 years since Madalenna Lai boarded a wooden boat and fled communist-led Vietnam, she has wanted to say "thank you" to the Americans who helped her build a new life in the United States.
On New Year's Day, she will get her wish in one of the country's most-watched events, the Tournament of Roses Parade.
It has taken eight years, and she had to sell her house to raise the $100,000 to do it, but when the parade's 52 floats start through Pasadena, Lai's will be among them.
Lai, 59, said she has wanted to enter a float since she first saw the parade on television in 1977.
She had arrived in the United States two years earlier with her four young children. Her husband, Quang Thanh Nguyen, stayed behind with fellow police officers to fight North Vietnamese troops. It would be 15 years before Lai would learn whether he had survived.
After Lai and her children reached U.S. soil, an American family in Pennsylvania took them in for two years. Lai later moved her family to Pasadena, where they lived on welfare for a year while Lai got her footing in her new country. She eventually started two beauty shops, then opened a cosmetology school in Pomona, Calif.
In 1990, she was reunited with her husband, who she learned had been jailed in Vietnam for a decade.
Lai said she and others in the southern California Vietnamese community have been trying for eight years to get their first float in the Rose Parade, which annually proceeds through the streets of Pasadena to mark New Year's Day.
The two-hour parade, which for more than a century has featured colorful floats decorated entirely with flowers, is watched by millions of people around the world and competition for entries is fierce.
Lai said she and others in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Westminster, about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, first began raising money for the float in 1994, going door to door and standing outside grocery stores to collect donations.
At the same time, they began applying for the necessary permits, but year after year were rejected by officials at the Tournament of Roses.
"Then this year they called me in April and said 'Congratulations,' and I was so happy, but when I hung up the phone I realized that I didn't have enough money," Lai said, adding that she needed close to $120,000.
"I asked my husband: 'Honey, can I sell the house to do the Rose Parade?' and he finally said OK."
Lai sold her home for a price she does not want to disclose and used more than $40,000 of the proceeds toward building the float and paying entry fees. She lived at her beauty parlor for six months while the float was built until her daughter helped her buy another house.
"It's old and nothing works," Lai said, laughing. But she added the float "is beautiful. ... I'm happy to show my appreciation to the United States and the world."
The float is built in the shape of a boat to symbolize the journey of Vietnamese immigrants and features a large mystical bird at the prow. It is decorated with thousands of roses, carnations and mums, along with yellow and bronze straw flower, sweet rice, seaweed, onion, flax and lentil seed.
The 35-foot long, 18-feet wide float is officially sponsored by the Vietnamese Cultural House, a nonprofit help agency Lai founded in 1996.
Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc.
From: LL Subject: Re: [VWF] [VK News] Lai and her float Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 16:58:41 -0500 (EST)
Ladies -
I don't understand why someone would spend so much to build a float whenthe investment would go farther towards nonprofits in the Vietnamese-American community. It seems more like a personal gesture that benefits very few. I can see why she couldn't round up the money. Given a choice I'd rather donate to youth programs, especially towards the youth in crisis work that forum members are running.
It's strange to work all these years to thank of all people, an audience of football fans.
Does anyone have any info on Lai's organization?
- L
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From: DV Subject: Re: [VWF] Lai and her float Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 19:11:22 EST
Dear L and other Ladies:
IMHO:
I used to think the same about the Olympics, especially for the poor developing countries who run constant risks of starvation. Take the former soviet bloc for example.
However, over the course of the year, watching the different national flags raised for the medalists and living through the noisy nights of Italia '90 in Saigon, I have come to realize that symbolic gestures and symbolism matter. People (the mass) need rallying points, common grounds, something less politically-charged to feel some sort of commonality with others. Pride arisen from accomplishments does give the soul some uplifting moments, albeit short-lived at times. To folks in Vietnam (although I must admit it mostly is to men as the women are too busy working to be able to look up), the SEA games are a BIG deal.
Unfortunately, to communicate this message these days costs lots of money. Just ask any politician.
The fact that Ms. Lai could not raise the money for her endeavor speaks more to the fact that it is very difficult to raise money within the Vietnamese communities towards non-profit ideas in general as well as unfamiliarity with the project itself.
Furthermore, the Rose Parade is not for football-minded folks at all. Children watch these floats for hours on end, it is a big deal -- at least in Southern California. It is something gorgeous to behold and I feel that our/my children's life is a tad bit more enriched as a result.
I would not dispute the fact that many regimes have tried (and continue) to use this neutral card to lull the public into more tolerant views for other intolerable totalitarian acts. But to argue this point would not be the same as to admit the effectiveness of this type of activity/participation.
Many points raised, don't know if any got across as intended.
Take care. DV
From: LL Subject: Re: [VWF] Lai and her float Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 21:40:35 -0500 (EST)
chi. D et. al -
Well, I am anti-football. It might be from living too close to the country's largest college stadium. Or it might be from playing in the marching band for too many seasons as a kid. Either way, I think the sport and parades for that matter are strange reflections of national pride. The Olympics comparison is interesting. But if we go with that argument, isn't there a big difference between supporting an athlete that's worked a lifetime toward his/her goal and another to celebrate a float that lasts a couple days?
I've watched the Rose Bowl plenty of times as a kid and it wasn't until adulthood that it seemed like a funny event. Actually, last year's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit really made me think about the meaning behind parades. I had brought my brother who my parents had adopted from Vietnam not to long ago. I tried to explain why people would line up hours beforehand, suffering in the wind and cold, to watch gigantic floating balloons in the shape of Santa Claus and Underwear Man. Yes, some of the floats were spectacular and people were quite friendly. But, I'm not sure that makes for a valuable experience where commonalities are celebrated. Phong was weirded out and thought that our stop at Church's Chicken was the highlight of the day.
I think it's great to celebrate our refugee history lest we forget, especially as we work on the 3rd generation of Vietnamese-Americans. I worry that organizers in our community are getting distracted and are using less effective venues for their agendas. If education was the goal then Lai could have funded a documentary/video for elementary-aged children, maybe put together a literary collection of refugee experiences. Better yet, she could speak to Vietnamese youth and fund their programs.
I know even in Michigan's Vietnamese-American community we have youth in crisis, addicted to drugs or joining gangs, not to mention teen pregnancy. Surely these problems are magnified in California? I wonder if kids in crisis would feel represented by this float. I wonder if the folks who serve them are imagining where the money would have gone to in their budgets. They should get her on the board in case she sells her salon.;)
I also worry about the "thank you" part.... Is the American public looking for gratitude? How does this further immigrant/refugee awareness? I'm very disturbed that one woman would take it upon herself to thank America for the community. She certainly didn't do it on my behalf.
Anyway, there is one parade that I do like and it's the Disney Xmas Parade. There's nothing like it, totally outrageous and very American. L
From: KL Subject: [VWF] [debate] Lai and her float Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 18:21:46 -0800 (PST) Reply-to: vnwomensforum@topica.com
Dear D, L and others,
I believe Lai’s endeavors does represent a large number of individuals who are grateful to the US for “allowing” them settle here since 1975 and thereafter. We won’t get into the debate of historical amnesia or imperialism here. Suffice to say, the Boat Float does symbolize some sort of acceptance in the host country—a coming of age as Americans if you will. As D mentioned, having the float can inspire some kind of national pride that I believe includes ones Vietnamese heritage and status as an American citizen.
However, like L, I too wonder about Lai’s motivations. Or more so, those like her who participated in activities for the goodness of the community but it’s unclear who benefits from those altruistic acts.
For example, there is a growing number of Viet Kieu “art collectors” who have amassed impressive items from bat trang pottery to trong dong son to paintings from contemporary artists like Bui Xuan Phai. Many of these collectors claim the things they collect is to preserve Vietnamese culture—to be made into an archive or museum or research center…However, it remains by in large behind closed doors and in the private collectors’ hands.
In this case, and maybe in the case of Ms. Lai, their acts could be argued as self-serving. I don’t necessary doubt the good intensions of such individuals, however, I will critique the reality of their actions. That is, their deeds do not better the lives of the community nor does their collection bring us national pride, whatever that means. And in the case of the collectors, because so few are able to view their collection, we are unaware of their good intensions—period.
My two dongs.
KL
From: C Subject: Re:Re: [VWF] Lai and her float Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 06:05:42 GMT
just my quick 2 cents -- maybe she just wanted to get her message out there to as many people as possible -- and did what she/her imagination could do -- C
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