Bui Doi

Bui doi (Vietnamese: bụi đời) refers to Vietnamese street children, especially the Amerasian offspring of American soldiers and Vietnamese mothers abandoned at the end of the Vietnam War. The phrase connotes "uncared-for child," and literally translates as "living dust" or "dust of life". It is intended to bring to mind an image of a child abandoned and moving about without purpose, like dust. In Vietnamese, it has no racial connotation. Vietnamese refer to Amerasians as Mỹ lai (mixed American and Vietnamese), con lai (mixed-race child), or người lai (mixed-race person).

The majority of mixed race people after the Vietnam war were Amerasians or children of Vietnamese mothers and military or civilian men from the United States. Amerasians born during the Vietnam War (1965-1975) could be the issue of anything from long-term unions to rape. Because of the large sex industry brought on by the military economy, Amerasians are predominantly seen as off-spring of GI fathers and prostitute mothers. Life was frequently difficult for such Amerasians; they existed as pariahs in Vietnamese society. Under the Amerasian Homecoming Act of 1988, a Vietnamese Amerasian could obtain a U.S. visa on the basis of appearance alone. Amerasians gained the attention of con artists who claimed to be their relatives in the hope of obtaining visas.^[1] About 23,000 Amerasians immigrated to the U.S. under this act.

In the United States, bui doi, or the term "dust of life", again referred to the criminal class, where the youths included newly transplanted Vietnamese and Amerasians.^[2] The misuse of the word bui doi also migrated to the United States and was appropriated by the mainstream.

Its application to mixed-race children was popularized by the 1989 musical Miss Saigon. The movie The Beautiful Country (2004) describes the life of a fictional bui doi and his efforts to become reunited with his American father.

In popular culture

"Straight to Hell", a 1982 song by The Clash, deals with the problem of Amerasian children in Saigon.

References

1. ^ Surviving twice: Amerasian children of the Vietnam War By Trin Yarborough, p. 103.
2. ^ The bubbling cauldron: race, ethnicity, and the urban crisis By Michael P. Smith, Joe R. Feagin, p. 68.

External links

• The song "Bui Doi" from the musical Miss Saigon (1989). Sung by Peter Polycarpou. Lyrics by Alain Boublil. Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg.