203: The bloody history of Saigon's Dragon Clan

From the old man at the next table and the restaurant owner, Li Qinghe heard a tearful history of Vietnam's two periods of expelling the Chinese people.

There were two periods in total. The first period was when North Vietnam completely occupied South Vietnam. At that time, many descendants of the Chinese people were doing business there, so most of the wealthy people fled Vietnam.

Just as the owner said, he and his two older brothers were sent to America by their family, and each person's boat ticket cost eight taels of gold.

They first took a boat to a small island in Malaysia, and then waited there for an American ship to come and take them to America.

The wealthy left, but all the immense wealth they had accumulated before was left behind on this land.

Those who had assets abroad were fine, but those without assets could only struggle at the bottom of society after leaving, and wealth and opportunities would not come again as they had in Vietnam.

Just like the restaurant owner, after he and his two older brothers arrived in America, they first worked as laborers in San Francisco for two years.

Later, the three brothers discussed it and went south to Los Angeles to make a living.

They worked in various industries. Later, the brothers saved a little money and opened a shop in Los Angeles, relying on their ancestral craftsmanship.

After many years of struggle, they finally had some money again, and at this time, the domestic situation in Vietnam had also stabilized relatively.

The three brothers then returned to Vietnam together to look for their parents. Fortunately, although their home was completely bare, their parents were still alive, but their physical condition had become very poor.

After discussion, the youngest brother, the restaurant owner, stayed in Vietnam to take care of his parents and reopen the family's lamb hotpot restaurant.

The lamb hotpot restaurant owner was considered lucky; his family could still scrape together money to escape.

However, the Chinese people who had no money could only be forced to stay here. In addition to being discriminated against and suppressed by the authorities during the unification of North and South Vietnam, they suffered many subsequent suppressions.

The second period was during the years when Vietnam and China were at war, and the lives of the Chinese people throughout Vietnam became even more difficult.

It wasn't until the 1990s, when relations between Vietnam and China normalized, that things improved slightly.

And speaking of this, many elderly diners in the restaurant joined the discussion and complained.

These Chinese people who are now over fifty or sixty years old all attended Chinese Language Schools, which primarily taught Chinese language, with supplementary Vietnamese for daily communication.

So Li Qinghe found that they all spoke Mandarin, and they spoke it quite well.

Everyone was complaining that the entire Vietnam had previously completely banned Chinese characters and materials.

Vietnamese public security would run into the homes of Chinese people and search indiscriminately, taking anyone away if they found anything with Chinese characters.

So at that time, the Chinese people in Saigon tore up and burned all their Chinese books and letters at home.

In this environment, the entire Southern Vietnam originally had hundreds of Chinese Language Schools and 40,000 to 50,000 students.

Under the suppression of the authorities, Chinese Language Schools were closed, and students were expelled from schools.

Only now have a few scattered Chinese-Vietnamese bilingual schools opened.

Now, among the grandchildren of these people, very few can speak Chinese language, and many can barely speak Cantonese.

They communicate in Vietnamese at home, and a clear cultural gap has emerged.

And this point is most pronounced in Southeast Asia in Vietnam, followed by Thailand.

As for the Chinese people in Thailand, that's another story, which Li Qinghe will share slowly when he goes to Thailand for some fun.

"Young man, you should have seen it when you came over. District 5 should theoretically belong to Chinatown, but you don't see many Chinese signs on the streets here, nor do you see the iconic grand archway of Chinatown..."

After being reminded by these uncles and elders, Li Qinghe thought back, and indeed, all along the way, the streets and alleys were basically Vietnamese signs, with very few Chinese characters on them.

It turns out that Vietnam has a regulation targeting the Chinese people: for businesses, on shop signs, the Vietnamese Latin script must be larger than the Chinese characters, and the Chinese characters can only be in the corner.

Finally, these older people all mocked themselves, saying that as the ninth-ranked minority group in Vietnam, the Chinese people still enjoyed preferential treatment.

Everyone enjoyed a very special privilege: they did not need to serve in the military.

In plain terms, it means they don't trust this ethnic group, and correspondingly, the Chinese people are not allowed to enter government service.

That is, to completely exclude the Chinese people from appearing in Vietnam's power structures.

This is also due to cultural gaps and educational restrictions.

Among the existing Chinese people in Saigon, most are groups with low cultural levels. Throughout Vietnam, the proportion of Chinese people admitted to universities is far lower than other ethnic groups.

Therefore, for Zhang Meiqi to be admitted to Ho Chi Minh National University, she must absolutely be among the best of the best students.

A group of middle-aged and elderly people all lamented that now that China is strong, their living environment has improved slightly, but the Vietnamese government's vigilance against the Chinese people has not relaxed at all.

What's more interesting is that in genetic tests of Vietnamese people, genes from China are the second largest gene in the body, and in the genes of people in northern Vietnam, Chinese genes account for as much as 40%.

And in some individual genetic tests, Chinese genes account for 20% - 70%, and even some individuals account for 90% of the genes.

The Kinh people, the main ethnic group of Vietnam, trace their origins to a mixed Chinese-Vietnamese genetic group, but now they have completely evolved into a population with the characteristics of an ungrateful wolf.

Therefore, all countries in Southeast Asia have wealthy Chinese businessmen, but only Vietnam has no such presence. The only real estate magnate who emerged now has to pay hundreds of billions of US dollars to save her life.

"Alright, alright, everyone quickly return to your seats to eat, and let A-Qi eat with her boyfriend. A-He, try my lamb belly hotpot, a recipe from hundreds of years ago, only my family in all of Vietnam can offer this taste."

Looking at the group of diners who were still lingering, the owner smiled and urged everyone to return to their seats to eat, then told Li Qinghe to try his family's lamb belly hotpot.

At this time, Zhang Meiqi had already served a bowl of lamb belly hotpot for Li Qinghe and placed it in front of him to cool.

Li Qinghe first took a spoonful of soup. He felt the soup was rich in flavor, smooth and mellow on the palate, and had a faint medicinal taste; this was clearly a medicinal dish.

The lamb belly was stewed very tender and flavorful. Besides fried tofu skin, it also had water chestnuts, sugarcane, carrots, and perilla leaves.

The other dishes were also very flavorful. The golden sand chicken cartilage was stir-fried with chicken cartilage coated in egg, which was good with rice, and probably also good with alcohol.

The pickled cabbage and pork stomach reminded Li Qinghe of the taste he had in Yangcheng during his student days.

As for the grilled lamb udders, Li Qinghe initially thought it was lamb milk, but it turned out to be actual lamb udders when served. Well, that's quite something.

Since he ordered it, he had to try it. The owner explained that it was a part of the lamb's udder, crispy in texture, and quite tasty.

The fried shrimp rings were decent; their taste completely depended on the frying time. Crispy on the outside, with crunchy shrimp inside, as long as they weren't over-fried, the taste wouldn't be bad.

The grilled duck tongue and fried tofu were also good, and with the special dipping sauce, the taste was excellent.

Li Qinghe asked the owner for two more bowls of rice, but Zhang Meiqi gave him half a bowl.

The hot weather tends to suppress appetite, which is why Vietnamese girls are generally not too heavy.

The pickled cabbage and pork stomach that Li Qinghe ordered served very well to stimulate the appetite at this time.

"Brother Qinghe, you're so tall, is it because you can eat so much?"

Zhang Meiqi watched Li Qinghe methodically clear all the food on the table, a look of surprise in her eyes.

"Young man, how was it? To your taste?"

The owner saw Li Qinghe finish eating and came over to inquire about the taste with concern.

Li Qinghe smiled and showed the empty plates and casserole: "Boss, you see, I almost ate the plates too."

That one sentence made everyone around laugh.

The bill was nearly 1.2 million vietnamese dong, but the owner only charged 600,000 vietnamese dong, almost a 50% discount.

Bidding farewell to the enthusiastic owner and other diners, Li Qinghe followed Zhang Meiqi out of the shop.

"Brother Qinghe, I'll take you to see some of the most distinctive places in District 5: Binh Tay Market, Thien Hau Temple, and Guangdong Assembly Hall."