What Vietnamese cultural traditions would have been continued for a French Vietnamese family?
Caroline Hatton: The most important Vietnamese holiday is Têt, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. It’s on the same date as the Chinese New Year, but of course the Vietnamese don’t call it that. A Vietnamese family in 1960s France might have celebrated it, or not, or it might have started celebrating it when the kids were eight, ten, or twelve years old, after the parents had had some years to first adapt to life in France, or as Asian goods became available in Paris. Véro and Philippe’s experience of Têt (not described in the book) might have included pink plum and bright yellow forsythia blossoms all around the apartment, an altar to honor deceased ancestors, party foods and happy banter for days, lucky money, and watching grownups play Vietnamese card games. As kids in 1960s France, Véro and Philippe might have seen customs shift from one generation to the next. If their grandparents had visited from South Vietnam, their grandmother might have dressed every day in a traditional tunic ove
