(Photo by K. GAUGLER / UNHCR / AFP) (Photo by K. GAUGLER/UNHCR/AFP via Getty Images)] My father was Chinese and my mother Vietnamese, but I didn’t know at the time that this was a problem for some people.
My family had no choice other than to flee Vietnam for the UK The biting British winter was a shock, as we stepped off the airplane onto UK soil in October 1979.
We lived in a bustling Chinese neighbourhood surrounded by my father’s family, so I often spent time playing with cousins – a carefree existence interspersed with school.
In spite of the dangers of unfriendly waters and piracy, tens of thousands took the South China Sea, and by 1978 the exodus had grown to dramatic proportions.
This is because – while the Sino-Vietnamese War officially began in February 1979 – tensions between the two countries were already escalating throughout 1978.
