Fish Sauce by Anhthao Bui

Fish Sauce by Anhthao Bui
Fish Sauce is realistic fiction, and Anhthao’s second anthology collection.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

MY BEAUTIFUL MOTHERLAND





VIETNAM SOVEREIGNTY OVER HOANG SA &TRUONG SA ISLANDS
Sovereignty
Saigon Times Magazine
12-2-04

Hoang Sa (Paracel Islands) comprise more than 30 islands that are coral reefs and shoals. They are at 15.45 degrees to 17.15 North and 111 degrees to 113 East on an area of 16,000 sq km in the East Sea, 120 nautical miles (1 nautical mile=1.852 km) off Ly Son Island in Quang Ngai Province of Vietnam and 140 nautical miles off Hainan Island of China. The land surface area of Hoang Sa is about 10 sq km. The largest island, Phu Lam, has an area of 1.2 sq km.

Under the Nguyen Dynasty, Hoang Sa belonged to Quang Ngai District, Quang Nam Province. In 1938, they were part of Thua Thien Province. In 1961, they were named Dinh Hai Commune and were part of Hoa Vang District in Quang Nam Province. They became an island district of the centrally run city Danang under a Government's decision issued on November 23, 1996.

Hoang Sa, together with Truong Sa (Spratly) islands, is part of Vietnam's territory. In the early 17th century the Nguyen lords set up an army made up of locals from Quang Ngai District to gather goods and tools left aboard stranded ships in Hoang Sa and exploit precious marine resources. These activities continued until the 20th century and were recorded in many historical documents such as Toan tap Thien nam tu lo do thu (1686), Phu bien tap luc (1776), Lich trieu hien chuong loai chi, Dai Nam thuc luc tien bien, Dai Nam thuc luc chinh bien (1844), Dai Nam nhat thong chi (1910) and Quoc trieu chinh bien toan yeu. The Nguyen lords also sent men to Hoang Sa to conduct surveys, erect milestones and stelae and grow trees.

With the exploitation of resources in the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa across the centuries, the Nguyen Dynasty exercised its sovereignty over the two island groups practically and legally. The sovereignty seemed to be undisputable until the 20th century. Meanwhile, China's maps and historical records do not have evidence of Chinese sovereignty over the two islands. Even the Hai luc (1842) states: "Van ly Truong Sa comprise shoals spreading several thousand miles on the sea that are the outer border of An Nam."

In 1907, China began to eye Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. In May 1909, it sent three gun ships to break into some islands in Hoang Sa. In 1921, the South China government decided to merge Hoang Sa, which they called Tay Sa, into Hainan Island. The move sparked a territorial dispute over Hoang Sa with the French colonial ruler of Vietnam at that time, and later over Truong Sa in 1930. In 1935, China claimed its territory included four groups of islands in the East Sea.

In 1939, Japan took over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa from France and turned them into navy bases. However, a conference between the U.S., Britain and China in Cairo in November 1943 ruled that Japan must return the Chinese territories it occupied. The Potsdam conference in August 1945 between the U.S., Britain, China and Russia ruled that the Cairo declaration must be observed. It should be noted that the Chinese territories that Japan had occupied and must return to China included Manchuria, Taiwan and Pescadores (Penghu) Islands. Hoang Sa and Truong Sa were not mentioned.

China, however, continued to claim sovereignty over the two islands in one way or another in 1947, 1950 and 1951. At the conference for redefinition of the borders of countries after World War II held in San Francisco in 1951 with the participation of 51 countries, 46 voted against the motion to return Hoang Sa and Truong Sa to China, only three supported the motion.

In 1956, China sent troops to occupy a group of islands east of Hoang Sa, taking advantage of the situation where French forces had to withdraw from Vietnam and the Vietnamese Government had yet to take over the islands and consolidate forces there.

In 1974, China occupied some more islands of Hoang Sa which were controlled by the Saigon regime. Nguyen Van Thieu, then president of the regime, asked for American intervention. However, the U.S. ignored the plea, as it did not want to take the risk of protecting the territory of a country that it had to give up.

In 1988, China again mobilized air and navy forces to occupy six areas in Truong Sa. The issue became more complicated in 1992 when China signed a contract with Crestone allowing the American company to explore for and exploit oil in a block of 25,500 sq km on Vietnam's continental shelf that is 84 nautical miles from the base line of Vietnam and 570 miles from Hainan Island.

Vietnam continues to assert its sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa islands. Its policy is to resolve the territorial dispute peacefully through negotiation.


Gen. Lý Thường Kiệt (1077 A.D.)
http://paracelspratlyislands.blogspot.com/2008/01/vietnams-sovereignty-over-hoang-sa.html


Sông núi nước Nam, vua Nam ở
Rành rành định phận tại sách trời.
Cớ sao lũ giặc sang xâm phạm,
Chúng bay sẽ bị đánh tơi bời


Over Mountains and Rivers of the South,
reigns the Emperor of the South,
As it stands written forever in the Book of Heaven.
How dare those barbarians invade our land?
Your armies, without pity, will be annihilated.


南 國 山 河 南 帝 居
截 然 定 分 在 天 書
如 何 逆 虜 來 侵 犯
汝 等 行 看 取 敗 虛

Sur les monts et les fleuves du Sud,
règne l'Empereur du Sud.
Ainsi en a décidé à jamais le Céleste Livre.
Comment, vous les barbares, osez-vous envahir notre sol?
Vos hordes, sans pitié, seront anéanties!


แผ่นดินเวียตนาม กษัตริย์เวียตนามทรงอยู่
เขตแดนถูกกำหนดชัดเจนโดยสวรรค์
เหตุไฉน ศัตรูจึงมารุกล้ำ
พวกมึงจะถูกตีอย่างย่อยยับ


Das Land Vietnam, wo sein König bleibt.
Das is offensichtlich im Heiligen Buch zugeteilt.
Warum haben die Eindringlinge es überschritten?
Euch wird eine brutale Niederlage beigebracht!



베트남 강산에는 베트남 왕이 산다.
그것은 바로 하늘의 뜻에 따른 운명이다.
그런데 왜 너희 원수들은 이곳을 차지하러 오는가.
너희들은 패배해서 쫓겨나갈 것이다.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

OCTOBER THIRTEENTH







October thirteenth, ninety sixty something
That gloomy night
Mother Nature enraged
She poured her anger to the earth

A first faint cry
Lost into the explosion of thunderstorms
Flood overflowed the seashore

The newborn was abandoned

Friday, August 15, 2008

DEAR ANNE FRANK







Dear Anne Frank,

I just finished reading your diary. I love it very much. Your diary makes me cry. Actually, I read the book when I was a little girl, but I did not remember why I loved your book until now. First, I admire you, Anne. You are brave. I cannot imagine how my life would be during two years of separation from society in a small space. Perhaps I would commit suicide. Second, I find myself in your character. We have many things in common. We love nature and aesthetics; you liked writing and wished to be a famous writer. Your wish was granted; your book was translated into many languages. I love writing and wish to be a famous writer too. However, unlike you, I am confused about my ability. Failure engulfs me in an ocean of depressed mud and an inferiority complex. I try to escape from the inferiority complex and the depression, but I am not successful. I fight against my enemies every minute. I am so exhausted and wish to die, but I have no choice. I am cowardly; I dare not commit suicide because I know before my breath stops, I may suffer tremendous physical pain. Oh, I am scared because I hate pain. I do not know why I cannot give up my goal. The more I suffer darkness, the more I wish to write. I write for myself. I want to improve my writing skill.
Many people have admired me and said that I was talented, smart, and remarkable. However, I was confused about my ability. If I was really talented or smart, I should be successful and not fall into failures.
Like you, I am so lonely among my family. My mother and my siblings love me very much; they are jealous of people whom I am close. However, they never know that they accidentally push me down into the canyon of dolor because of their poisonous language and their mean judgments.
Also, we have the same hobbies; we like literature and history.
I am bipolar. Two different characters are in this person: Anhthao in writing and Anhthao in a real life.
Anne Frank & Anhthao Bui

Dear Anne Frank,
I just finished reading your diary. I love it very much. Your diary makes me cry. Actually, I read the book when I was a little girl, but I did not remember why I loved your book until now. First, I admire you, Anne. You are brave. I cannot imagine how my life would be during two years of separation from society in a small space. Perhaps I would commit suicide. Second, I find myself in your character. We have many things in common. We love nature and aesthetics; you like writing and wish to be a famous writer. Your wish is granted; your book is translated into many languages. I love writing and wish to be a famous writer too. However, unlike you, I am confused about my ability. Failure engulfs me in an ocean of depressed mud and an inferiority complex. I try to escape from the inferiority complex and the depression, but I am not successful. I fight against my enemies every minute. I am so exhausted and wish to die, but I have no choice. I am cowardly; I dare not commit suicide because I know before my breath stops, I may suffer tremendous physical pain. Oh, I am scared because I hate pain. I do not know why I cannot give up my goal. The more I suffer darkness, the more I wish to write. I write for myself. I want to improve my writing skill.
Many people have admired me and said that I was talented, smart, and remarkable. However, I was confused about my ability. If I was really talented or smart, I should be successful and not fall into failures.
Like you, I am so lonely among my family. My mother and my siblings love me very much; they are jealous of people whom I am close. However, they never know that they accidentally push me down into the canyon of dolor because of their poisonous language and their mean judgments.
Also, we have the same hobbies; we like literature and history.
I am bipolar. Two different characters are in this person: Anhthao in writing and Anhthao in a real life.




Saturday, August 2, 2008

MOTIVATION






I was an English major at San Jose State University. I love reading and writing. However, as an ESL student, I struggled with some English courses. I did not talk much in the classroom and I made some English grammartical errors. Thus, I was confused and frustrated about my ability. Professor Mitchell understood and encouraged me to pursue my dream. Once, when professor Mitchell came to the classroom, she said, “Class, we are proud to have a famous poet in our class.”
Theresa was curious, “Really? Who is he or she?”
Students were surprised, “Who? May we know the poet’s name?”
Professor Mitchell smiled and said, “Anhthao Bui is her name. Her poetry is chosen to publish in the anthology,'The Best Poems and Poets of 2003.' She also gets the Diversity Award of the Humanity Department.”
Students looked at me and yelled, “Wow, no wonder! Are you a poet, Anhthao?"
Angela, my best friend, nodded, “Yep, she is. Her poetry is beautiful. I read her poetry when I took the English 132, the Creative Writing Course.”
Professor Mitchell suggested, “Anhthao, could you share with us your poetry?”
I was shy. My face turned red. With a soft and trembling voice, I told her, “Yes, Professor. I would like to share with you the poem, “Haikus I”
I stood up and tried to read loudly and slowly, “Haikus I”
Among foreigners
Differ from languages, cultures
I'm blind, deaf, and dumb

Melancholy tears
Fall on Shakespeare's masterpieces
Cloud men's loneliness

Anguish eats my flesh
Solitude swallows my blood
Fear hacks me to death

I am a phoenix
Death, rebirth, a life cycle
Crawl on a new path

When I finished the poem, class paused a few seconds, and then students burst into applause and praise.
“Wow, Anhthao!”
“So powerful!”
“So unique!”
“You’re talented, Anhthao."

Professor Mitchell told me, “ Anhthao, tell us about your poetry. Why did you write it?”
I was touched. My eyes were wet. I murmured, “Thank you so much for your praise. One early morning, when I got up, I saw white spots tears on the Shakespeare’s black book cover, so I wrote the poem to describe my emotion and my depression. I like haiku because of its simplicity. However, a haiku is not enough to convey a full message, which I want to express, so I tie some haiku into a bunch of poetry and call it “haikus.” My haikus is different from the traditional haiku. Each traditional haiku becomes a stanza in the haikus.
Bobby uttered, “Wow! Anhthao, you are creative.”
Professor Mitchell told us, “ Anhthao was an ESL student. She has lived in America for six years. She loves literature and wishes to be a Vietnamese-American writer. She often makes grammartical errors when she writes, but I like her ideas. Her thoughts are deep. She is very quiet in class. I want you to help her.”
Lina showed her admiration, “You’re remarkable, Anhthao. English literature is very difficult.”
Jo Ann confessed, “I cannot write beautiful poetry like yours.”
Pamela added, “Poetry is your gift, Anhthao.”
Prof. Mitchell agreed with Pamela, “Indeed, she is! Don’t give up, Anhthao. You only have three more classes. Your writing is fine. We understand you.”
Angela offered, “I volunteer to help Anhthao correct her English grammartical errors.”
I appreciated Angela, “Thank you, Angela.”
I asked, “May I read one more poem?”
Prof. Mitchell agreed, “It’s fine, Anhthao.”
I read, “ In Debt
I owe my father a sperm
I owe my mother an egg
I owe my country a yellow skin
I owe America my freedom
I owe my professors
My knowledge
What did I do for the debt?
Nothing!
What should I do?
What should I do?
Never enough.

Cesar told me, “I love your poetry, Anhthao.”
Richard commended, “You did many things. You are successful. You almost receive your Bachelor’s degree.”
Kyle added, “You got many accomplishments.”
I told them, “ I promise not to give up my dream and will apply the English Master’s Program. I know I will cope with difficulties and hardships. However, I do not have the right to give up because of your trust and your care for me, my dear professor and friends.”
Prof. Mitchell encouraged me, “You will be successful, Anhthao.”

SJSU, Spring 2003

Friday, August 1, 2008

Haiku 48


Admiring Nature
Poetry muscle working
Describe its beauty

Haiku 47



Nature circulates
Fall, winter, summer, and spring
Life cycle courses

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

BLUE SKY



Its nature
Is blue
If it blurs, blue is endless

Saturday, July 26, 2008

CREATIVITY by Anhthao Bui


To bloom a creative garden, I must lose myself and turn my blue into fertile dirt. Creativity needs fertilizer and good care. Creativity likes blue and gloom. I nurture my aesthetics and feed it with my blood, flesh, and vigor. Creative trees are greedy suckers. They violently suck my live maroon with joy. Creativity is bacteria to live in my cells. They undermine my brain, heart, and control system.
Artists are those who have imbalanced psyche and suffer their long life depression. Artists are crazy people who live in their imagination. Artists are the poorest people in the world who long for love and wish to understand. Artists are valiant heroes who fight against their vexing enemies in each breath. Artists skillfully use their own weapons and shields to protect themselves from their self-humiliation.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

YELLOW FLOWER'S PHOTOS






YELLOW FLOWER
A BOOK OF POETRY by ANHTHAO BUI

PART VI AMERICA

“This is America: ...- a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”
George Bush, “Acceptance Speech” August 18. 1988


PART VII FAMILY

“All happy families are like one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

PART VIII STUDENTS

“Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
John Cotton Dana

PART IX DEATH

Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus”

PART X MISCELLANEOUS

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

Saturday, July 12, 2008

YELLOW FLOWER by Anhthao Bui






YELLOW FLOWER

Author: Anhthao Bui
Paperback: 104 pages
Publisher: AuthorHouse (July 12, 2007)
Language: English
6x9 softcover
ISBN-10: 143432297
ISBN-13: 978-1-4343-2279-1
Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.3 inches
Yellow Flower is available at amazon.com, barnesandnobles.com, borders.com, target.com, wallmart.com, and your local bookstores


Yellow Flower is a poetry collection marking her 11- year marathon toward the publications of her own literature. With almost 60 poems, Yellow Flower reveals Bui’s secret life of inner struggles and conflicts—love, patriotism, anger, regret, and self-doubt. Although pain and sorrow are the major themes, some positive poems are full of hope and appreciation toward the United States and its people.
Yellow Flower is the book for those who are seeking to read emotional poetry.
Anhthao wishes to dedicate Yellow Flower to the celebration marking San Jose State University's 150th anniversary.
ANHTHAO BUI
Anhthao Bui had lived in Saigon, Vietnam before she migrated to San Jose, California in late 1996. She started learning English as a Second Language at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose in the fall of 1997. She transferred to San Jose State University in the fall of 2000, and graduated in May 2004. Anhthao Bui earned her bachelor of arts in English.
Ms. Bui's background is multicultural and includes education in French, Vietnamese, Buddhism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Communism, and Western Civilization.
Anhthao Bui continued her education at National University in San Jose in June 2005, but soon discontinued her pursuits for her personal reason.

INTRODUCTION

Anhthao Bui cautiously entered my classroom of Steinbeck students, English 167. She had launched into an English major at San Jose State, a typically determined move by this Vietnamese immigrant, a woman with a mission. “I fell down the first time I was assigned to the English War/Considering I was an ordinary hero without armor,” she writes in a poem about her confrontations with language. Indeed, for anyone who knows Anhthao, her struggles to master and teach the English language have had the classical dignity of this poem that describes her assault. But Anhthao rearmed herself again and again, earning a degree, finding a job. She wrote for her classes, and she wrote for herself:

Collecting last breaths
Growing in obscurity
Conquering the ruin

A yellow flower
Emerges in a deep jungle
Radiates the world

Like that flower—and the title of this collection—Anhthao radiantly emerges here as a poet of great promise. This collection is characterized by the honesty which is always hers, “My poetry is written in/Tears and blood.” As she traces her passions and admits her loneliness or sense of failure, she reveals, if briefly, her interior landscapes. And the poems change moods frequently, as she ranges over a broad poetic field: love, death, university libraries, family, job, America. What is revealed in these poems is an immigrant’s appreciation of this complex country: the dream seems more tangible when a newcomer embraces it, and American leaders more profound when seen through her eyes. Poignantly, her poems bear the stamp of her reading as an English major, both in epigraphs and in this, one of the loveliest in the collection, a Whitmanesque reflection.

NATURE

A pair of white breasts
A pair of black breasts
A pair of small breasts
A pair of big breasts
A pair of short breasts
A pair of long breasts
A pair of firm breasts
A pair of wrinkled breasts
Bathe in the same spring
Blocked by many rocks
And green trees
What kind of women are they?
They are not shameful
When men see their naked bodies
They do not fear danger
In a deep jungle

Anhthao’s poems bear the deep stamp of her gratitude and boundless generosity of spirit.

Susan Shillinglaw, Professor
Department of English and Comparative Literature
San Jose State University

YELLOW FLOWER





YELLOW FLOWER

Author: Anhthao Bui
Paperback: 104 pages
Publisher: AuthorHouse (July 12, 2007)
Language: English
6x9 softcover
ISBN-10: 143432297
ISBN-13: 978-1-4343-2279-1
Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.3 inches
Yellow Flower is available at amazon.com, barnesandnobles.com, borders.com, target.com, wallmart.com, and your local bookstores.

Yellow Flower is a poetry collection marking her 11- year marathon toward the publications of her own literature. With almost 60 poems, Yellow Flower reveals Bui’s secret life of inner struggles and conflicts—love, patriotism, anger, regret, and self-doubt. Although pain and sorrow are the major themes, some positive poems are full of hope and appreciation toward the United States and its people.
Yellow Flower is the book for those who are seeking to read emotional poetry.
Anhthao wishes to dedicate Yellow Flower to the celebration marking San Jose State University's 150th anniversary.
INTRODUCTION

Anhthao Bui cautiously entered my classroom of Steinbeck students, English 167. She had launched into an English major at San Jose State, a typically determined move by this Vietnamese immigrant, a woman with a mission. “I fell down the first time I was assigned to the English War/Considering I was an ordinary hero without armor,” she writes in a poem about her confrontations with language. Indeed, for anyone who knows Anhthao, her struggles to master and teach the English language have had the classical dignity of this poem that describes her assault. But Anhthao rearmed herself again and again, earning a degree, finding a job. She wrote for her classes, and she wrote for herself:

Collecting last breaths
Growing in obscurity
Conquering the ruin

A yellow flower
Emerges in a deep jungle
Radiates the world

Like that flower—and the title of this collection—Anhthao radiantly emerges here as a poet of great promise. This collection is characterized by the honesty which is always hers, “My poetry is written in/Tears and blood.” As she traces her passions and admits her loneliness or sense of failure, she reveals, if briefly, her interior landscapes. And the poems change moods frequently, as she ranges over a broad poetic field: love, death, university libraries, family, job, America. What is revealed in these poems is an immigrant’s appreciation of this complex country: the dream seems more tangible when a newcomer embraces it, and American leaders more profound when seen through her eyes. Poignantly, her poems bear the stamp of her reading as an English major, both in epigraphs and in this, one of the loveliest in the collection, a Whitmanesque reflection.

NATURE

A pair of white breasts
A pair of black breasts
A pair of small breasts
A pair of big breasts
A pair of short breasts
A pair of long breasts
A pair of firm breasts
A pair of wrinkled breasts
Bathe in the same spring
Blocked by many rocks
And green trees
What kind of women are they?
They are not shameful
When men see their naked bodies
They do not fear danger
In a deep jungle

Anhthao’s poems bear the deep stamp of her gratitude and boundless generosity of spirit.

Shillinglaw, Susan, Professor
Department of English and Comparative Literature
San Jose State University


PART I MUSE

“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
Emily Dickinson

Poetry is the shortest way to express myself

Poetry is the bridge to connect society and me



PART II CONFLICT

“Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.”
Benjamin Franklin



PART III LOSS

“Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss,
But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.”
Shakespeare, Henry VI, part III (V, IV)


PART IV LOVE

I am two fools, I know,
For loving, and for saying so
In whining poetry.
John Donne, “The Triple Fool”


PART V KNOWLEDGE


“Every one of us gets through the tough times because somebody is there, standing in the gap to close it for us.”
Oprah Winfrey,


PART VI AMERICA

“This is America: ...- a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”
George Bush, “Acceptance Speech” August 18. 1988




PART VII FAMILY

“All happy families are like one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina



PART VII FAMILY

“All happy families are like one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina


PART IX DEATH

Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus”



PART X MISCELLANEOUS

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt








QUOTES by Anhthao Bui

MY QUOTES

“I am a precious maple hiding in a deep jungle.”

“The Unites States is a mirror, which reflects a Vietnamese spirit.”

“Technology serves my creativity.”

“Life is short; achieve my goals first.”

“Education makes me humble.”

“Knowledge gives me strength and confidence.”

“Writers are the loneliest creatures in their own world.”

“The artists’ hearts are hypersensitive like musical instruments.”

“Diligence supersedes slow learning.”

“Nothing is easy.”

“My success is paid off with tones of failures.”

“The battle between God and me never ends.”

“Give me a chance, I will give you the world.”

“If I want to succeed, I must lock my ego in a drawer.”

“Be on the alert for other’s mistakes that might be mine.”

“Do not let my mood interfere in my task, but let it flourish in my writing.”

“When I look in a mirror once, I might look in my conscience hundreds of times.”

“While I may look in a mirror once, I might look in my conscience hundreds of times.”

“Wearing alien writing shoes, I am traveling over the oceans and walking through the jungles to taste the spicy New World.”

“Playing piano measures my brain’s work and my anxiety.”

“I start reaching my literary goal with total enthusiasm and end it with sour tears and bitter thorns.”

“Learning piano teaches me patience.”

“A nude body is God’s incarnation.”

“Nude photos bring you back to nature.”

“Sex is a token of love.”

“A popular person may accept society’s strict judgments.”

“Throwing in a popular world, one may accept society’s strict judgments and face intense scrutiny.”

“ True understanding between individuals does not derive from their academic degrees, their social hierarchies, nor their prosperous levels, but it is the equal of their universal knowledge and their diplomatic conducts.”

“Each individual is a mysterious island and an interesting book, which I want to discover.”

“True love respects each other.”

“Watching a talent teacher is as delighted as eying Leonard de Vinci’s Mona Lisa.”

“Forgiving is easier than forgetting.”

“When I do good deed, I would like people to call me, “Ms. Bui,” who is the youngest child of my parents. However, when I do evils, I want people to criticize Anhthao, an independent individual, who lacks her father’s teaching in early childhood and who is a wild bush growing among natural prairie.”

“The more I experience discrimination, the more I wish to write.”

“Silence is the most powerful act to confuse the opponents.”

“Individual’s identity and attitude create one’s fate.”

“People show their jealousy and inferior complex by castigating one another.”

“Failure ignites my success’s flaming determination in the United States.