Francois Nguyen

Francois Nguyen (00:00): My name is Francois Nguyen. Today's date is April 18th, 2026. We are located in New York City, Manhattan, Chinatown. 

Kim Chinh (00:10): My name is Kim Chinh. Today's date is April 18th, 2026. We are located in New York City, Manhattan. Chinatown.

Francois Nguyen (00:22): Wonderful. 

Kim Chinh (00:23): Welcome, Francois, and thanks for coming to this interview. Thanks for letting me interview you today. I think we'll just start out with the basics. Some of these things I know, but I think it's a great opportunity to be able to have this in archival history. So just curious, I know that you left Vietnam when you were quite young. How old were you exactly on the day that you left, and do you have memories of that day? 

Francois Nguyen (00:57): Sure. We fled Vietnam in 1975. I was born in Saigon, and so that makes me about two and a half when I left. I have some spotty memories of Vietnam, namely being under, crawling around under a table, the dining table with my parents trying to coax me from being underneath it. But I can't say there are many memories beyond that. 

Kim Chinh (01:31): And when you arrived in New York, how old were you? 

Francois Nguyen (01:37): So when we fled Vietnam, we fled through a connection my dad had with someone in the US because he went to school in the US and we escaped in an open military US transport plane that was used to carry tanks over. And so we were in this open, open door military transport plane. We first ended up in Guam and then when we made it to the US we ended up in Fayetteville, North Carolina for a little bit, and then Virginia for also a few months I believe. And then we ended up in Roosevelt Island, New York. So that would be about 1976 ish. So that makes me about three slash four years old. 

Kim Chinh (02:41): Okay. Well, going back to your escape from Vietnam, when you and your family actually left, can you go back, I know you probably don't remember the details, but can you tell us the story of that day or maybe the weeks leading up to your actual retreat, your actual departure from Vietnam? 

Francois Nguyen (03:03): So from what I heard from my parents, and I've heard bits here and there, I haven't sat and listened to the full story in accurate detail. The account has shifted a little bit and also my recollection of it. But my dad, my mom, my sister, and I am the youngest and my dad's sister and his family were at the airport leading up to that. And actually his friend who contacted New York, he came out to Vietnam because he was out in Vietnam for a little bit American out there to help pull my dad out of Vietnam and said, you need to get on the next plane because historically, 1975 was the fall of Saigon. And when the US withdrew all support, and one of the stories I remember was a plane was on the runway and there wasn't enough room for my uncle and his family. And he said to my dad, it's like, we'll get the next plane. You guys jump on this one. And right after they left, we left. They bombed the airport runway and no planes were coming back for it. So my uncle and his family, there were four kids, they did not leave for another nine years and they fled by boat. That was unfortunate. But we got a bit of a start in terms of making it over here. 

Kim Chinh (05:10): There was a story that your mom told a piece of a snippet of, and I was wondering if you remember it. She was saying how when you were actually leaving your home to get, I dunno, maybe you were traveling to the airport, that you and your sister weren't allowed to make a sound and you were both pretty young and that she was just praying that you wouldn't make noise. Can you tell that story a little bit? 

Francois Nguyen (05:36): Sure. So a little bit of historical context. My dad worked for the government, the South Vietnamese government. This time in Vietnam, there was the north that was in favor of communism. And then the south backed by the US, the north communism. When Nixon withdrew, when the US withdrew support, that's when everything collapsed. And so when we were fleeing, there were a lot of soldiers on the lookout for that to make sure people didn't leave. And if you were tied to the government, that was a precarious situation for you. So yes, I mean it was literally refugee from war in a country torn by civil war. And we were quiet and we had, I think the moms or measles too. So my mom was particularly grateful that we were able to stay quiet during that time instead of complaining.

Kim Chinh (07:02): Or crying.

Francois Nguyen (07:03): Or crying. Yes. But I don't remember that at all, only what I hear. But there are a lot of stories I hear from them that they're just so wild. You just can't believe it's in your family or in your life. And there are a lot of obviously stories in Hollywood, films that tell these harrowing tales of survival, but they're a bit dime a dozen to my family and my relatives. Everyone that's here from Vietnam from that time is a refugee of war. And the boat stories were just heartbreaking. For my uncle who and his four children that left, they fled on a boat. They tried several times and it was about they had to watch out for pirates and they had to watch out for obviously the police, the communist police catching them. And there was a time they were out and they made it past a lot of these zones and areas and they hadn't had any water for days. And his youngest, they thought she was going to die. They were getting ready to throw her overboard, everyone was dehydrated and he just started praying and started raining. So then they had water and all four of those kids survived my cousins. And they all live in Southern California now, and they are successful. 

Kim Chinh (08:58): Yeah, that's good. I forgot that was tied. That story was that family who lives in San Diego, right? 

Francois Nguyen (09:06): Yes. 

Kim Chinh (09:07): Yeah. Well, so fast forward to moving to the US. Do you have memories of Fayetteville or any of, what are your first memories of the US? 

Francois Nguyen (09:20): Yeah, I remember vaguely some things when we were in Fayetteville and more from photos, but I think my coherent memories kind of start in Roosevelt Island when I was out here. And those that don't know familiar with Roosevelt Island, it's a very small strip part of Manhattan and it's a quirky little island. I mean, there's a lot of development there now with Teknion and Cornell, etc etc. But it just, there's one school and one five and dime store and it's just a very small contained little island. And so it was almost a safe little spot for us to be. But I remember when my mom would take us in the Tramway, it was such an exciting thing for me. My sister and I, we'd always try to rock this tramway and my mom at the time worked at Tiffany jewelry store. My dad was working on the MBA at NYU Stern in addition to working for Exxon. He got a job with Exxon in Finance, and we just was like, my older sister was two and a half years older than me, and we just kind of moved around this little island. It was our world, Roosevelt Island, and it was such a interesting little time to have this space. And that's your whole world when you're a kid. 

Kim Chinh (11:09): So at that time when you lived on Roosevelt Island, can you name maybe, I dunno, two or three of your favorite memories or your favorite things to do there?

Francois Nguyen (11:20): Well, I have a couple memories. I remember there was an abandoned hospital, I think it was a mental hospital. And I don't know how we snuck in there, but we kids, we got in there and we run around throwing rocks and breaking windows in there. And I remember, kids are so delinquent, but we found a dead rat and then we were just taking turns throwing at each other, which is completely unhygienic and horrible, but we'd throw this dead rat and laugh at each other. And yeah, it was from that, from Roosevelt Island. Those are some distinct memories. I've always felt like a special moment to leave that island on the Tramway and go into the big city. So that was always felt like transcending experience. 

Kim Chinh (12:30): That's nice. I know that you moved out. How old were you when you left New York City after you left Roosevelt Island? 

Francois Nguyen (12:40): We didn't leave. Well, my parents continued to work there, but then we moved to Stanford, Connecticut and moved there when I was about eight, I think seven or eight around there. But as I said, I think between four or five to then there a couple good number of years in Roosevelt Island, I remember. Yeah. So then we moved to Stanford, which is not far away, but it was a very different life when we got there.

Kim Chinh (13:19): Did you ever come into the city after that? 

Francois Nguyen (13:21): Sometimes, yes, when my parents were meeting with their friends and all the kids would get together, instances like that, or I don't really remember all the reasons, but I have vivid memories of being through Manhattan, being through Chinatown. I have a distinct memory, which I'll share later with that. But usually we come in to get food supplies to cook Vietnamese food from Chinatown or we would eat in a restaurant there as a celebration seeing fellow relatives or the other friends.

Kim Chinh (14:11): So then you moved away from New York. I know your family moved to Bermuda for a while, and then they relocated out to California. And so I'm curious about when you first came back to New York after sort of a break. I mean, were you always sort of in New York or was there a long period of time where you were completely disconnected from New York? 

Francois Nguyen (14:37): Yeah, so we were in Connecticut for a while and then my dad's job took us to Bermuda. So I moved there when we all moved there when I was 12 years old and then spent about nine, 10 years living there. So it's interesting to be a Vietnamese family in the island of Bermuda. And then I went away to school for several years when I was there in the East Coast. So it's always stayed around tri-state area. And then after I finished school in Connecticut, moved to California for some time, and that's another story and chapter. 

Kim Chinh (15:23): When you lived out in California, I know you were mostly based in the Bay Area, did you make lots of trips back and forth, or did you kind of let go of New York during that time? 

Francois Nguyen (15:34): I had some trips back and forth, but I was thinking that I would make California my home in staple. And so I was out in the Bay Area for a long time, but I moved back here 10 years ago. I always felt in my heart a New Yorker and the Bay Area is beautiful, and I have some memories I cherish there, but it didn't truly feel like home. My parents and my sister and her family, they all continue to live out there in the Bay Area, but New York is my home for me in my heart for now. For now.

Kim Chinh (16:15): So when you came back to, wait, hold on. Are you telling me to stick to the script?

Francois Nguyen (16:23): I'm saying we want to talk about that. 

Kim Chinh (16:28): Which question are you talking about? No, well, I actually kind of wanted, yes, we'll get there. I just was curious when you first decided, or when you were thinking, considering coming back to New York after being in California for quite a number of years, what were your impressions about New York City, the things that you, I don't know, maybe remembered from your childhood or thought like, oh, maybe this would be the right place for me to really settle back into?

Francois Nguyen (17:02): So I didn't really think about settling so much as, I'll talk about childhood memories in a second, but I appreciate how New Yorkers role, they're direct and you're clear about where you stand with people I think, and trying not to throw shade at my West Coast people, but it's a bit harder to unpack. It's not so straightforward. And there's a lot of I, there's a cartoon that sums it up perfectly for me. The same image of someone both stuck in traffic, the New Yorker is swearing their head off out the window and the Californian is, the northern Californian is silently judging, not saying anything. And I think just depending on your style, it just felt like, and I also, when I was in California, most of the people that I was close with were East Coast transplants as well. But I think large part of it was being in the Bay Area, it felt like a very monolithic culture of technology that was quite frankly, boring to me. 

Francois Nguyen (18:21): I was more interested in, even though a lot of my work took me into that space, I was interested in people that did other things with their life besides work for the top 12 tech companies, but didn't even bother to ask people what they did anymore. The point you can kind of assume, but you weren't going to meet chefs or cooks. I mean, very rarely a lot of them work for Google or one of these tech companies. You're definitely not going to meet actors or playwrights in Northern California. Rare to meet anyone that does that as their full-time, time choice of career of supporting themselves. So just for me, I was more drawn back to where my impression of the United States was formed as a kid and how people talk to each other and communicate with each other. Yeah. 

Kim Chinh (19:29): Great. Well, that brings me to my next question. Well, you talked a little bit about being in Chinatown before, but do you remember when you first arrived in your first time in Manhattan? Chinatown?

Francois Nguyen (19:46): I don't remember the first time, but I remember we make trips to Chinatown because that's where you can get food and ingredients to make Vietnamese dishes. And I have one distinct memory that my parents, my dad in particular loves to tell this story, but I think it was about six. And we were in the seafood market, outdoor seafood market where you have all the fish and crabs and lobsters all hanging out. And as a kid, I was playing around teasing one of the crabs and it clamped down on my finger and wouldn't let go. It just clamped down. And I was like, and I couldn't leave people, all the people walking by were all trying to get this crab to let go of my finger when a person came by, it's like, no, you got to tickle it. And so they were tickling it and people were trying to pry it apart. And it became this whole scene, all these people coming by trying to dislodge this crab from my pinky finger. And my dad's like, what are you just going to have to buy this crab and snap its claw off. 

Francois Nguyen (21:09): And I remember as a kid, I was like, my finger was hurting and I was watching all these adults intervening, trying to show their different techniques and removing this grab. And it was, but they were all laughing. They were all laughing at me. It's like, I'm in pain. You guys are laughing at my expense. It's always, when it's a kid, it's always funny. You see a kid in pain, I guess. But in the end they put the crab in some hot water and then I let go. I don't know what happened after that, but yeah, I remember that distinctly. And you remember things that are a little painful, hit the visceral memories. Yeah. And so my dad loves to tell that story about the crab that hung onto my finger for half an hour. I think it was a long time. 

Francois Nguyen (22:08): But yeah, and there's another story too, when I mean now unfortunately, this person is in a celebrated member of our society, but when I was a kid, when we were eating in one of these Chinese restaurants, I think I was like seven, Bill Cosby came and sat down and we were all like, is that Bill Cosby? I don't know. We were watching Fat Albert at the time. There was no Cosby Show, but he was really featured prominently in Coca-Cola commercials. And so I'm sitting with my friends that are all Vietnamese kids from my parents' friends, and we'll say, we'll wait to see if he orders a coke. And he ordered coke. And then he saw us looking at him, and then he came over and he came to our table and he was entertaining, he was charming. And we had a Rubik's cube and he was playing around with it and he didn't solve it, but he was a charismatic guy and a very charming, and we asked him to do the Fat Albert laugh and he didn't, but that's a memory. We're just glad that he didn't drag any of us. 

Kim Chinh (23:33): We'll cut that probably. Well, I don't think I knew that crab story. Poor little Francoisl. Let's see. Well, do you want to talk a little bit about Chinatown and how it's figured into your New York City life? 

Francois Nguyen (23:58): Sure. So coming back here as an adult has been a very different experience. And when I come here, it's mostly for the Vietnamese food, some restaurants around here. But for me, Nam Son on Grand is one of my favorites to go to. But I mean, it's important to understand when you're a kid growing up in the eighties Asian kid, you don't have a lot of representation or role models. Those that may remember, they were playing in the tri-state area every Saturday, like these double feature kung fu movies. And so unfortunately, a lot of kids thought I can fight 10 people at a time. And they used to gang up and beat on me, get in a lot of fights, not asking for it. And that's another story. But what I learned about was that's your representation when you're a minority and I'm Vietnamese, but to the eyes of Americans, you're all in the same tribe. And so it was comforting to have Chinatown and this community to feel at home, to feel safe in and eat familiar food and celebrate familiar kinds of festivals, rituals, all those things, the red envelopes. 

Francois Nguyen (25:51): And so it's always going to be this place where you can buy firecrackers for me as a kid and get these red envelopes and get these, I remember we were always trying to get these ninja stars and throwing nunchucks and things that kids love, but we always as kids could only get this soft foam. Ones not like you want the hard dangerous ones. And we were eventually able to get ahold of those as we got older, but it was to me like Chinatown. And now we have Little Saigon and things like that in various major cities. But it represented a safe haven for uniquely the Asian American cultural identity, particularly at that time. I know it's a different landscape now than what it was in the early eighties, late seventies. 

Francois Nguyen (26:53): But yeah, that's what it represented to me. And here, so moving back from the Bay Area in California to New York, there isn't the same population of Vietnamese people in New York as there is in California. So the amount of Vietnamese, the access to Vietnamese restaurants is not close. It should also be noted, my parents own a Vietnamese pho shop, so I'm a little extra judgy when it comes to Vietnamese food, but there's spots here in Chinatown that always make me feel that comfort of being eating food from Vietnam at home and just the sights and the sounds and the smells reminds me of that when I was a kid.

Kim Chinh (27:53): Well, I know this is your interview, but I also want to put in my 2 cents about Chinatown because I grew up in Houston and my dad's also Vietnamese, and we spent a lot of time eating really good Vietnamese food. And so when we started dating, there were a lot of places that you took me to that I had never been to in Chinatown. So I went to one place for years and years, and then when we dated, you showed me a couple different places and we always tried out all the different Vietnamese foods to see which place we thought had the best pho broth, of course. But I totally agree, there was something so nice about just being able to connect, have that comfort food and to know where to go to get it and to feel like even though I was far from home, that there's these people who knew how to cook just like my grandma or just my dad. 

Interviewer (29:01): I have a question actually. Do you remember, it sounds like you knew that you were going to get back to New York and you might've wanted these different places before then, but do you remember that very first day that you got back to New York? What were you feeling like now you're an adult and you're moving back to New York? That first day coming back? 

Francois Nguyen (29:24): So little context around that too. A lot of the Vietnamese friends, the kids that we all grew up together when we were in Roosevelt Island and then Stanford, Connecticut, they stayed in the tri-state area and a lot of them were in Brooklyn and New York. And so it was a bit of a family reunion coming home of sorts. They're all accomplished professionals in this area and most of them are architects. And so it felt like a very natural thing to come back. And there was just a familiarity to it that felt the easiest thing. Also, with the East Coast, you have four seasons. You feel the changing of seasons, so you feel the passage of time, the Bay Area, it's always the same whether every single day. And so you lose a sense of time and you lose a sense of that movement through it. And so I think you value it a little bit less than what you feel there. But back to your original question, it just felt like a lot just coming home. 

Interviewer (30:45): What were the first things that you did when you got back here? 

Francois Nguyen (30:51): Well, I stayed in Brooklyn. I never left Brooklyn after when I came back here. But when I was looking for a place to move to in different neighborhoods, the first thing I suggested was Chinatown. And my friends that are Vietnamese, they said, no, got to stay in Brooklyn near us selfishly. But we always look for good Asian food to go find. And so eating is such a great way to obviously navigate and socialize and be with your people. And we have every year a Tết celebration and we eat a lot of these traditional foods that you can only buy here in Chinatown. I would stockpile it. I was like, oh, wow, look at all this access I have now. I would just buy too many of these. It's these bricks with rice and bánh tét wrapped in banana leaves with pork and all these other things in it. But just knowing that I can get that, I certainly took advantage of that. 

Kim Chinh (32:13): Our refrigerator would be full like a whole shelf of bunch of bánh chưng.

Francois Nguyen (32:17): Bricks. Yeah. 

Interviewer (32:22): I guess now that you're kind of thinking back, have your parents come to visit you here? What is that like for them to return? 

Francois Nguyen (32:33): Yes. Yes. They've come back a couple times and they haven't, I don't recall. Did we take them to Nam Son? 

Kim Chinh (32:46): Not that I remember

Francois Nguyen (32:47): No. Okay. But they always finally remember their time in New York and Chinatown and so forth. I think the California life is something that is easier on their system and the subways, I think my mom is still a bit scared of it, and she's still thinking New York subway circa 1980 when there was a very different time, but they feel very fondly about it. This is where we started when we left. So yeah. 

Interviewer (33:28): It sounds like you guys are really rooted here in New York now, and it sounds like there was a whole journey before you arrived back here at home. I'm wondering if you have anything that you would want to share with people who have made it to New York. They're getting whipped around as arriving in New York does to you. I'm wondering if there's how a friend just moved here to New York, how would you make them feel as welcome as it sounds like you were welcomed back home.

Francois Nguyen (34:08): Right. I'd love to hear your answer too, Kim, but for myself, there's a very unique special energy in this city, a spirit of it in which it was built and founded, you hear, said all the time in terms of multicultural, melting pot, etc etc. I think people coming here looking for calm and quiet in order, this is probably not the right city for you. Remember why you embrace this and just go with it. There's a part of pushing things out in this world and exerting oneself, and then there's a large degree of also letting go and just seeing where it goes. And I think this city is just beautiful and resilient. And I think we were through it in COVID, and you saw people's saying, I'm out of here and so forth. But it remains, the energy remains the same of this beautiful exploration, curiosity, ambitions, resilience, and I think that that's the energy we're drawn to too, Kim. 

Kim Chinh (35:28): Yeah, I think if someone that I knew and loved were moving here, it's a big step. And I definitely know people who've moved away pretty quickly, but I think there is, what New York offers is just the diversity that you talked about. And so especially if it's someone who is of color moving to New York City, there's such a feeling of belonging that you don't have in other cities. Just the sheer diversity, the amount of tolerance, the amount of different types of foods and music and clothes. I think that if you kind of get here and you're like, wow, I kind of want to stay, you already know that it's for you. You already have a feeling, a sense of, I could live here because I fit right in. And I think that's true for most people who come from places where they didn't fit in or they didn't feel like they really belonged. I think New York is a place where people belong no matter what, no matter where you're from, no matter what your accent. And I think food and love is a big part of feeling comfortable. So I think my main thing is having people eating together, bringing people over for dinner, making sure you have community around food. And I think that's also ties into Chinatown and having people come together in this, usually a big table of a round table with a lot of people where we're sharing food. That's all a big part of feeling like a place is home. 

Francois Nguyen (37:21): Great. 

Interviewer (37:23): I have one more question too. It sounds like when you were growing up on Roosevelt Island, your family would bring you into Chinatown and just as their friends would bring their kids into Chinatown, how you guys all became friends, and now your parents are on the other side, but you guys are still coming, you and your friends are still coming back in. Do you guys see that continuing to happen for many, many, many years to come? Like Chinatown is still pulling you guys in even all these years later? 

Francois Nguyen (37:56): Well, so our friends have their kids now that are growing up and they're discovering their identity. And there's a lot of biracial kids, and it's obviously a different time. But the cultural hub here in Chinatown, I think specific to the Asian American experience will always be some sort of a safe haven, will always be some sort of a cultural representational landmark that they can get the food, the supplies, the resources. Even in Brooklyn, my friend said, here are the spots. You can get these kinds of vegetables and spices and things that you can't get anywhere else. And it's great to have access to that in a way that makes you feel at home. So however these generations evolve because it's always evolving. Let's see. I hope it continues to be that support and comfort that it was for myself. 

Interviewer (39:08): Sweet. Well, I guess we can close it out unless there's anything else that you would like to say to each other or say to your friends' kids who are finding themselves in Chinatown now, close it out. 

Kim Chinh (39:25): Just one thing. I recently took a Tai Chi class again, I stopped for a decade, but I am back in and I needed to get my shoes, my Tai Chi shoes, so I got them in Chinatown, and then my teacher said, you need to do sword and you need to get a sword by next week. And I was like, ah. And sure enough, there's a really great, it's like a martial arts store around the corner, and it's like I could just walk in and buy this perfectly sized sword and be able to go to class. And I don't think a lot of cities have that. 

Francois Nguyen (40:00): No, exactly. Yeah. Being able to access these products, these cultural specific products is once again that safe touchstone. I guess to your final question too, about what I might say to I guess kids growing up, if I can speak to my friend, I know it's as kids grow up and they're trying to find their cultural identity, and once again, it's a very different time than what it was when we were kids growing up. And I know people that outright reject, they don't want anything to do with their Asian culture or even part of it is just to try to stay open and look for the things that you can be proud of because a lot to be proud of and there's a lot to be proud of. And just stay open. Thank you. Thank you.