We went to montreal to meet in the twentys and despite the chilly weather we couldnt have wished for a woman welcome. To the russia has been living in canada for over 40 years now and much of claims novels draw on her own experiences and memories. You were 10 when your family fled saigon. Doing evil man but anything what happened in saigon was how was your life when i left i was all the enough to remember and then all the not all the enough to understand everything so when you sit down to write you can you have the freedom to reinvent you know the stories between the little dots that you have of the memories but. This saw vivid images and as children i think you have a very tunnel vision of things right and so i remember the smell the kitchen the women how they would dress have they moved around and then i also have images of those tanks coming into town we only feel the fear of everybody and the worries and and on the day that we thought less of course my parents couldnt tell us that we were fleeing right but the tension was so damaged that you cant you know you know without anybody say anything and to have certainly all of the at the in the house to the room or you know to whisper they never talk anymore. Came to his childhood in saigon ended in 1975 when South Vietnam fell to the communist north after a 20 year war the home city was renamed holcim incity. The 1500000 people who fled across the South China Sea were dubbed the boat people hundreds of thousands died the despair the troth the mom board and the survivors relief are hard to imagine. We never thought we would survive the boat trip so already when we arrived in malaysia it was a bonus you know a 2nd chance to life and as we got off the boat and the boat broke up 50 minutes after we got off so when you standing on the beach and you see that boat break up. You have no more complaint if anything goes after. Kim and her family lived in a refugee camp in malaysia until her parents secured entry to canada the start of a new life today shes one of the countrys most celebrated authors her 3 best selling novels have been translated into 25 languages. It must have been a clash of cultures when you came to canada what was your most difficult challenge we have arrived not from our home we arrive from a refrigerator camp so basically you we became subhuman you know we lived in places that were not places and under citizenship we were stateless right and so you we arrived here and we couldnt compare with anything else we compare with 0 rights or anything after 0 is it and the beauty was that we arrived in a small city where my impression was the horsey was there waiting for us someone picked me up and held me in their arms or his arms or her arms but everybody was being held and that was the 1st moment where we became canadian it was not 2 years later with the paperwork and all that we became canadian on that 1st moment because you fall in love you fall in love with these people who didnt hesitate to pick up a dirty roof and i mean dirty you know we had infection everywhere we had lies in our hair and and even today you know i wonder if i would pick up myself when i was 10 when i arrived here kim tweeze family had been affluent and well educated her parents valued tradition as refugees they lost everything. Going to canada was a decline for your parents for your father was a philosopher provide. And both of your parents worked in factories in kenya where did save see their stay the start of their new life in canada as i read in richmond as a loss because my parents could already speak french and english so they couldnt follow courses and i have a salary from the government for learning the language the hotel where we were we landed where we stay the director. Gave him a job to clean the stairs to the emergency stairs meaning he didnt need anybody he created this job for my dad and i still remember my dad gathering all of us in the room and he said and he started a sentence by saying we are so lucky the director he could have just given that money but he wanted to create a job so that that 1st job would be to another job and also to give us back our dignity and so giving us a very difficult gesture and he knew exactly how to give but with dignity you know it not only a means of living in terms of money but dignity and dignity is everything from their own wants and you you know you have that back that youre really consider as a full human person. You can do anything. So how can we complain. Kim and her 2 brothers didnt just have to learn english and french upon arriving in quebec i had to learn how to trust again. I didnt have a voice you know vietnam felt really into silence after the end of the war in 75 you could no longer speak freely or as much as possible to not beat so that you dont make your. The people around you Bad Information because we were all sourced to the nouns any. Jesters accents which were considered to be antirevolutionary are anticult all as you know you know in a communist context and so as much as possible that you dont you no longer speak you no longer you try not to hear it try not to see and so thats how we lived the 2 years after the end of the war and before that because i was such a shy kid i didnt speak at all or very very little all i did was crying i was very good at crying canada and our specify quebec because we arrived here and go back and thats why french is now my 2nd Mother Tongue i would say. Gave me a voice a voice that i didnt know that i had and that i was now looking for. With this voice came to a become an author eventually had 1st book ruth was published in french in 2009 the novel is full of memories of her childhood in saigon of the city smells and food of being forced to flee and the refugee camp the language remains poetic even when dealing with despair. If a choreographer had been underneath the plastic sheets on a rainy day or night he would certainly have reproduced the same 25. 00 people shortened to all on their feast each holding a tin can to collect the water the dripped off the roof sometimes in torrents sometimes drop by drop if the musician had been there he would have heard the orchestration of all that water striking the sides of the tins if a filmmaker had been there he would have captured the beauty of the silent and spontaneous complicity between richard people but there was only us standing on a floor that was slowly sinking and the cry. Finally the family was to. Needed to immigrate to canada a new life between 2 cultures him to a 2nd book man was published in 2013 it tells the story of a woman from viet nam who meets her great love in canada similar to the war the herself who has 2 children with her canadian husband next novel is also somewhat autobiographical published in 2016 its protagonist is a vietnamese woman living in exile in canada ringback who gets relocated to hanoi for work. I have a chance to go back to work as a lawyer i was sent to vietnam on a project and that thats when i had the chance to meet vietnam again you know to learn to know about vietnam as an adult and more more than that not only as an adult but as a comedian but hung noise was not South Vietnam it was enemys land yes it was a different country. To me hanoi words totally unknown and i think you know i would have adopted at that myself better in germany then in hanoi simply because i thought i knew hanoi was germany i accept but i dont know anything or gonna learn the language im going to learn the culture was had i went in as of yet that means it was totally me stabilized because it was not the same vietnam that i had in mind but i have discovered you know. So many stories that all of us there were no winners and we were all victims of a war for from one side or the other and thats why today i would never call the north of vietnam as the enemy land we were just victims you know of the same war standing on both sides of the fences but its the same its the same suffering it was the same sadness it was the same was nobody won in a war. I dont think so. Millions died in that war which also drove over one and a half 1000000 people to flee their home country 60000 vietnamese went to canada in the 1970 s. Alone where they received a warm welcome. And when in 2015 the world was asked to grant asylum to syrians canada once again opened its doors the Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau even came to greet the 1st Syrian Refugees but there is xenophobia in canada too jim 20 hopes her own story could help counter anti immigrant sentiment that when you came to canada you your received a warm welcome what about todays canada its a recession you know when we left vietnam the International Community community was waiting for us. That everybody was opening their arms in you know taking us in today is not the same. Its not the same situation and thats why i just want to remind all of us that we have already been so generous and so good we have this in the us we are capable of this goodness we can be great which is forget sometimes. Canadas hospitality its breathtaking scenery can make us forget the darkest chapters of this countrys history its banning of the cultural practices and languages of its Indigenous Peoples the socalled 1st nations even in the 1990 s. It was still being relocated repressed and disenfranchised they continue to suffer the economic and psychological consequences to this day only now is the state taking responsibility for those terrible acts. We always forget that they were here before all of us but in books in the tears very often we have one image or one portrait of the typical can but today. Canada and especially canada is such a new country theyre so they have been so many many layers of of migration of people coming in. So yeah i think were malty color multicultural or multi you know the we have that kind of country we live together in order to live well together we need to know each other before we can love each other right so if we dont know the story of our 1st nations then who never be able to connect and live together and saw their stories have to be told we ask canadians need to know its our responsibility to know like a family we need to know our brothers and sisters and stories and lives and their love break up so and so for so i think fought for our nation is is so important to have conversation and as you know as soon as we have the communication is broken and thats where the misunderstanding start and war you know and hatred so we need to have this conversation. A conciliatory attitude means that came to influence extends far beyond the literary world and she doesnt shy away from to use one of her sons has autism the author says he has changed her perception and her writing. And i always thing that i am 10 years late because i arrived here at when i was 10 so im always running to catch up the 10 years but i have lost that im late on everybody else rationally and normal ok you know at the same pace than everybody but i dont know instinctually im always running and my son whos artistic cannot go with that pace he goes at his own wisdom and he forces me to slow down like a dust. You know like at his speed and so for him when he walks into a room it takes him time to examine the room and because of that i also have to stop and examine the room the understand why he prefers one room to the to the other is of the right is of the shape of the lamp is it the number of people is of the the texture of the the so far or you know i have to analyze all of the senses and because of him at the come since oriel i become aware of all the Little Details that i would have never seen if i was just me i would just go into the room brutal and i get out and then move and would not have even seen that there was a sofa. Kim tweeter and challenges into opportunities optimism has helped to succeed and it seems both literary critics and the public are impressed in 2018 she was shortlisted for the alternative nobel literature prize. There are only a handful of canadian writers in the worldwide of this man world market at work young man michael and that maybe you where where do you see yourself in canadian literature i dont know. I i still dont see myself as a writer because a writer has to be. Mr they they think more you know and i dont think so what i only enjoy what you know what i am the way. To me its such a privilege to sit down and find the right word thats it i can spend the whole day just to try to find one word and that would be an accomplishment for me and so a moment i dont know a writer has to be like this and i dont know in my ever reach him to he isnt troubled by what others think of her she enjoys trying out new things shes been a lawyer. Owned a restaurant and become a bestselling novelist shes even written a cookbook which she also presented in berlin with a cooking class. This is great cuisine to see things flower. Well there was more than roasted flour there were vietnamese style pork meatballs. And the air was thick with the smell of spices roasted nuts and kim to ace delicious homemade sources. She didnt just make it look easy it really was easy and the results were delicious kim to a has received several awards for her cookbook which also contain stories from her family life in class 2 she showed how cooking and eating can bring people together there was chatter and laughter and occasionally explanations from kim to reign. Also plays a large role in her novels where its used to seduce to comfort and to celebrate she says the vietnamese people eating is about much more than sustenance its an attitude to life as she learned in her Early Childhood in saigon. My cousins parents would base their choice of what to buy on the color of a fruit or the purview of a spice or simply according to the whim of the moment the food they brought home was always surrounded by a festive aura a sense of decadence and thrill they didnt fresh over the empty rice china kitchen or the palms we were supposed to learn by heart they just wanted us to stuff ourselves on mangoes to bite into fruition make the juice hurt spinning around and around like tops to the music of the doors tar Michel Sardou the beatles or cat stevens. Youre right that you like your family your lie on foot to express your feelings what do you cook for friend who is really suffering what do you call when. You happy oh i think the same. Its the fresh rolls because in vietnamese food is really. Particular for its. And romas we eat a lot of fresh herbs just really yeah you dont cook before they just put on the table and for the fresh rolls you put the leaves in the role you have maybe 6 or 7 times different kinds in there so every bite is different the 1st the 1st by the 1st perfume perfume that you you have is at the level of the lips right and then when you chew you have a different cocktail and when you swallow you have a whole opening up and everybody is different because you can never have this the same intensity in each leaf and the same amount of leaves and all so each lie is a new experience right at the end its like its almost like a garden in your mouth so if you sat that will make you happy and if youre happy then you explore things you float. Always in. Canadian food and have a similar effect not yes yes i know that you will laugh but its called but there she was and theres a layer of mince minced beef corn and mashed potatoes it seems very simple but its more comforting its something i hear a lot of it over and over and its quite heavy because it was invented for the people who work on the railroad when you eat that you know you see you stay strong for a long time so i dont need that much strength from food so but when i eat but this you know its always like a huge piece i can never stop. Came to me is very much at home in canada but vietnam is also an integral part of her. If you ask me if i was a chameleon all of vietnamese i would say i am both i dont have to choose the same socalled you know 30 percent of your mean 70 no im 100 percent on both especially because i would say ive eaten too much cheese and bacon now im big enough to sit on 2 chairs and not at the crack of the chairs you know and so i would say that i understand the immigrant. Poster of our position because i have been one but i have also become of fully to me when you know i i dont know i consider myself a very often i forget that you can tell that not a white person. On readings of your books you speak publicly about your past or what do you experience as as a refugee does your success help you to raise awareness about the reality of we have a reference race i hope i hope i have had the chance to be invited to many events where i speak and and im always you know happy when theres one person in the room who would come up to me and say youve changed my view on the refrigerator you know on how we see with fijis and thats the whole purpose you know of yeah of me speaking because very you know when do you give a microphone to a refreshing never very rarely or when we talk about immigrants or refrigerate we talk as a about them as a group theres no story theres no name theres no age theres nothing right theres one history to each of them its like a big group and as a human person you know our brain we cannot relate to. The whole group we have to relate to one person at a time so i guess i am that person that you know who has the microphone and so i try to speak for all of us. I hope that im doing you know the job fairly well. So yeah i try to take responsibility basically of this privilege to have a chip view where i can speak about that experience for life in saigon a flight from viet nam her marriage to a canadian came to his personal experience a service by sister characters in all 3 of her novels can you imagine to write a novel that has no connection to your personal life. Right now i cant i have so much to say still about the people that ive met and really my only objective when i write is to share what i find beautiful and the humans you know around me and so i dont even have enough time to write about the things i know so. Maybe once the better i finish that than our will imagine you know science Science Fiction on some different planets but right now just the people around me are already so fascinating and amazing i dont need to go anywhere really and so maybe thats why its so close to me youve change your profession so often is there any challenge you still want to achieve i hope i hope there are more out there and there are many things i havent done im so yes absolutely ive just last friday ive just accepted. A mandate that was way beyond my you know abilities and it was outside of my comfort zone but i accepted it for that very reason that i would learn something so absolutely yes what should know i would love to be an astronaut. But i think im too old back. Oh yeah oh on model i think im too short ill never get to be of all. Thank you very much it wasnt my place it was a better book than a. It seems unlikely they came to me to run out of material anytime soon and through the storytelling she will continue to act as a voice for others. The feel of a small u. S. Town in some instrument approach to a u. S. Marine base in europe. It was established during the era of dictator franco and became an enclave of freedom. Folks remember the good old days and amusing. I used to enjoy in there you. Didnt roll. Through steam and spunky jokes. Oh. Lots of it coming. To link to news from africa and the world story link to exceptional stories and discussions from the news as easy and while website deputed comes to pick up join us on facebook j w for god. Whatever we begin to the day were looking for to get out of syria to an atmosphere and the increase of the temperature. 21st you have to start down by starting to decrease the amount of c o 2 for them so now this is actually not a hard problem that just takes will power over there are very important economic interests to all and all the lot of coal will own a lot of oil that are doing Everything Possible to make sure this doesnt happen you know we have to fight them by trendy 50 will be well on the way to grow a lot of the renewable saltier brand im optimistic that. Were not totally and say this piece of. The world is getting more soon. Morse its just a feast among the problems. The global 3000. 00 talks would seem of british researchers who take a more optimistic view. While it is not always a good point but its much much faster than it was a hot dog is the root. Getting better. As i close to 3000. 00 special report. Starts aug 19th on g. W. This is g. W. News live from berlin hong kong residents stand up against Gang Violence protesters are gathering on the scene where organized gangs attacked prodemocracy demonstrators there defying a police ban on the protests well check in live with our correspondents as you can see he is on the scene also coming up President Trump gets