Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam

Pham arrives in Tokyo in the dark and rain. Japan has always been both hated and revered by Vietnamese: hated for its treatment of Vietnam during World War II and revered as an Asian country that built itself up to rival Western nations as an economic success. Pham had never visited, only passing through the airport when his family fled Vietnam. On the night of his arrival, he is determined to ride out of the airport on his bike, but the traffic is daunting, and he doesn’t know the way. Unable to communicate with anyone for directions, he sits on a bench and sulks, wondering if this is how his sister Chi felt as a runaway: utterly alone and lost.

When it rains harder, he decides to set out, plunging into traffic on the wrong side of the road. After a near-miss with a bus, he makes his way to a parking lot where he spots an old man also riding a bike. He chases him, yelling out questions in English about how to leave the airport. The old man apparently takes him for crazy and pedals hard to get away from him. Pham follows him, nonetheless, hoping to at least find a way out if the man is going home. At an intersection, the old man finally shakes him by dashing across just as the light turns red and traffic fills the road. Pham realizes how ridiculous he appears and laughs aloud. After roaming some more, he finds an empty lot where he pitches his tent for the night.

In the morning, he rides north along the ocean. In the countryside, he comes across a grove of persimmon trees along the road. He is thinking of taking some fruit that hangs over a wall, when an old woman emerges from a gate. He offers her money in exchange for persimmons, gesturing his meaning, but she waves off his money and brings him a small basket of them for free. She tells him in English they are a gift, then suggests that he ride south since the weather up north will start to turn cold. He takes her advice and returns to Tokyo.

He spends a week at a hostel in the city, but the air pollution starts to make him sick, so he keeps going south. He only makes it to the border of the city the first day, where he stops by a river and meets an older couple who take him in and feed him at “their home of plywood and appliance boxes wired together in the tall reeds” (47). They let him stay the night, and in the morning, he sets out for Mount Fuji. With tourist season over, he is mostly alone there and wishes for some human interaction.

As he continues on, he sleeps wherever he can find space to pitch his tent. At one point, he stays at the Seiko Museum where, late in the day, a busload of tourists come to visit. When someone spots him at his tent cooking dinner, he hams it up by bowing and striking poses while they take photos of him. By November, he reaches Kyoto, then heads back north to return to the airport for his flight to Vietnam.

This chapter returns to the story of Pham’s father, after he’s released from prison. After months of lying low at home, Pham’s parents devised a plan to escape Vietnam. Pham’s parents sent him to his mother’s hometown, Phan Thiet, to live with his grandmother. The town was located on the ocean and specialized in producing fish sauce. There, Pham reunited with his siblings, where they spent many peaceful days. Pham’s relatives spoiled him since they had not seen him in a long time, and Pham’s sister Chi took him and his siblings to the beach every day where she taught them to swim.

Pham writes that it was a happy time, and Chi acted like he had never betrayed her. He explains what he means by “betrayal.” Earlier, in Saigon, Chi had befriended a young man with leprosy whom everyone called “Leper-Boy.” He used to beg for food since he couldn’t work, collecting snacks and scraps of food from market vendors. He had a beautiful voice, so he would sing in exchange for what they gave him. One snack he often got was sesame rice crackers with shrimp paste, which was Chi’s favorite. She would sneak cigarette butts from home to exchange with Leper-Boy for the crackers. But Pham’s father had forbidden them all from touching anything the boy had touched for fear of his disease. One day, he found Chi with her snack and asked where she got it. She said it was from a friend, but Pham told their father the truth. Furious, he took Chi out to the courtyard where he beat her severely. Pham’s mother finally intervened and told Pham to take Chi to their grandmother’s house. Chi lived there from that point on and “never wholly came back into our lives again” (57).

With all the children gathered in Phan Thiet, Pham’s mother arrived one day soon before their escape. A week later, Pham’s father slipped away from Saigon and joined them. Immediately, Pham noticed Chi withdrawing somewhat, keeping a distance when he was around. The night before they left, the family gathered in their grandmother’s home. One uncle had decided to stay behind to look after Pham’s grandmother. Early the next morning, the children dressed like peasants and left in rickshaws to the countryside. They then walked along back roads to return to the beach in town, where they would meet up that night with their parents and the fishermen who would take them out to sea.