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South Wind Changing by Jade Ngoc Quang Huynh (1994-02-01) Hardcover – January 1, 1656
byJade Ngoc Quang Huynh(Author)
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A Time magazine "Best Book" of 1994This is the compelling personal narrative of Jade Ngoc Quang Huynh, who was born in South Vietnam in 1958. He survived the war in Vietnam to become a university student in 1974. But because the Hanoi government policy was to persecute writers, intellectuals, and any suspected enemies of the state, Huynh was sent to a labor camp. South Wind Changing tells the riveting story of this early existence, his escape from Vietnam, his time in a Thai refugee camp, and the eventual new life he was able to carve out for himself in the United States. Here, where he first learned English while working at McDonalds, he was finally able to complete his education. In this well-written Asian-American memoir we encounter a remarkable life of struggle and survival, dreams and determination, imperialism and immigration, and other key twentieth-century experiences.
- PublisherGraywolf Press
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1656
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Product details
- ASIN : B01FIW8BJG
- Publisher : Graywolf Press
- Publication date : January 1, 1656
- Customer Reviews:
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Customer reviews
4.7 out of 5 stars
11 global ratings
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2025Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase“South Wind Changing,” by Jade Ngoc Quang Huynh was published in 1994, but I just learned about it. He did the most honorable thing he could do for his mother and that was writing this book so that others can read about his mother, what she went through and what her children went through. He said on page 305, when talking about is mother and the hardships “she suffered, as she paid the duty of a daughter-in-law, the duty of a wife, and the duty of a mother. How can I describe that life in words?” Well jade eloquently did exactly that in this book. Read the book and you will thoroughly understand what I am talking about.
Jade Ngoc Quang Huynh has a unique way of writing. It is engaging and at times you find yourself living in Jade’s skin. He doesn’t hold anything back. He talks about life in South Vietnam before the fall of Saigon. The he shares a great deal about what life was like in the reeducation camps after the fall of Saigon. Jade clearly describes the murder, mayhem, misery, starvation and cruelty of the reeducation camps.
Then he eloquently describes how escape from the reeducation camp was just a door away, and he walked through that door; always having to look over his shoulder after he escaped. Life after the reeducation camps was not a bed of roses for Jade. He planned his escape from Vietnam; twice it was unsuccessful, but the third time he made it. He does not hold back in describing that final boat trip away from Vietnam and cruelty of the Thai pirates and they brutally raped the teenage girls that were on the boat with him and how they were terrified of all men after that. Then he finally made it to the United States.
One would think after he made it her that life could not be as treacherous as it was in Vietnam, but Jade sets the record straight. He talks about the insults that were thrown at him, by Americans. He doesn’t hide the fact he was discriminated and harassed in the United States, when he had done nothing wrong. Then at the end he is finally rewarded for not giving up.
Joan once told Jade (page 298) “You’re a good storyteller and a good poet… It’s not only because of your voice but the way you tell it, and it shows in your writing.” Joan was right and Jade is certainly a great storyteller and writing, and I am very proud to highly recommend this book for others to read. It is well worth the time spent in reading it. Great job Jade Ngoc Quang Huynh in writing a book that is as good as the best books you have read! - Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2020Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseI met a brother of the author
- Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2013Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseEveryone who has knowledge of the situation with the Vietnamese boat people, should read this book to understand what the Vietnamese people really went through during this tragic era. Those who were fortunate enough to make it out alive deserve our utmost admiration and respect. I was a teacher during these times and we had some young students who appeared overnight in our classrooms. We never really knew their stories due to the fact that they were learning a new language and could not share their experiences. Buy it and understand!!!!!!
- Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2014Format: PaperbackThere are not enough stars in the sky to award to this memoir. Beautiful is perhaps an odd word to apply to a harrowing yet uplifting ttale of endurance and courage, but beautiful it is. The writing is simple and magnificent, even exquisite at moments. A unique reading experience.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2002Format: HardcoverThe author was a college student when the communists invaded Saigon and sent him to a reeducation camp. He was neither a politician nor a military man.
There he witnessed the cruelty of the wardens who starved, beat, and killed prisoners whenever they liked it. He was able to escape from the camp while accompanying an injured Viet Cong cadre to the hospital. He escaped to Thailand by boat and went on to graduate from Bennington College and Brown University after flipping burgers for some time.
This memoir describes the events from the time he was a highschooler in Vietnam until his enrollment at Bennington College. The resilience and courage of the author could only equal his academic success and his lyric prose. - Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2000Format: HardcoverThis is a powerful story of survival and eventually escape from the jungle re-education camps of post-war Viet Nam.
See, perhaps for the first time, the untold side of this tragic piece of history. Huynh's prose is precise and poetic, at times transcending the brutal realism of the story in order to reach the spiritual core that held him together through his experience.
This is an important book for anyone who is interested in this time period, and more importantly, where we, the US and Viet Nam, will go from here.
