Lands of dreams (2010)

Conversations with Vietnamese Australians in Sydney. Conversation transcripts, digital photography, timber.

An
Cabra Cafe Nho, Cabramatta
4.9.2010

About the last 10, the last 15 years, I still dream, you know. I’m still living there, and I’ve got sweat everywhere, and I wake up. It’s like I’m still living there, living with the communists. Dreams about still living in the re-education camp. Working hard, and not enough for survival. And the conditions are horrible. Interrogation, they'd call you and ask questions at 2 or 3am.

I was in the re-education camp for 18 months. I was a first lieutenant. Before that, I joined the army in 1972, when I was a student. The camp was hard, in the morning you got one small bowl of rice with salt water. You worked hard, 8 hours, then in the night you got the same thing, one bowl of rice with salt water, or with the vegetables you found somewhere while you were working.