Walking off the plane in a white tuxedo and blue bowtie as he arrived in the U.S., 6-year-old Benji Vuong felt like he was going to be a superstar.
Vuong, born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1987, is the sole son in the family of five. Vuong and his family immigrated to Portland in the spring of 1993.
Vuong’s memories of Vietnam are fond but hazy. He remembers Saigon as unkempt but homey, with lots of small, makeshift homes, often topped with tin roofs.
“It would rain a lot,” he says. “It was a warm rain and we kids would run out and float paper boats in the gutters.”
A large part of life in Vietnam had to do with Vuong’s father’s occupation as a shaman, which made him an important member of the community.
“I remember mimicking him by making talismans and sticking them on coconut trees and palm trees with the other kids,” says Vuong, describing how he idolized his father.
In Portland,Vuong and his family moved in with their extended family who had already immigrated to Oregon. They lived in a neighborhood filled with Vietnamese immigrant families.
The rain in Portland reminded Vuong and the neighborhood kids of home. “We would make paper boats when it rained, and float them in the puddles,”says Vuong. “Just like we used to do in Vietnam.”
He started school in the fall of 1993. The early years were challenging as he did not speak English past the basics, yes and no and one through ten.
“I would try to latch on to the people who were fluent, and mimic those interactions to get by,” he says, remembering his coping strategies.
Language was not the only challenge at school, as some children picked on Vuong for wearing traditional Vietnamese clothing.
“I remember one of my first days, I think we wore something like that and the others made fun of me like, ‘Why are you wearing PJs to school?’” he says.
But his elementary school program helped to celebrate his heritage, with a Vietnamese teacher who tutored the children from Vietnam about their first language and culture.
“There is a saying in Vietnamese that, ‘tiếng việt còn, người việt còn,’ he says, “which translates loosely as, ‘So long as the language remains, the people remain.’ So what my parents wanted me to retain at minimum, is to speak the language.”
Vuong credits the Vietnamese program as one of the main reasons he still retains some level of reading and writing in Vietnamese.
At Benson High School, he became active in clubs such as Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA). Vuong graduated in a fast-track program from Benson High in 2005. That fall, he entered Portland State University with plans to go to med school.
College challenged his fundamental beliefs, as he was influenced by new, radical ideas. He joined many social and cultural groups, and became president of the Vietnamese Association (VSA). From VSA Voung became more heavily involved in protesting certain ideas and attending other organizations’ events.
Gradually Vuong no longer saw the medical industry for what he had once believed it to be. “Seeing how insurance dictated so much of the care that was given I began to see that it wasn’t a healthcare industry, it was a business industry,” he comments.
A transformative trip to Honduras with the Global Medical Brigade redirected Vuong’s career path. The student-led initiative aimed to provide essential medical services to various Central American countries. Vuong was responsible for documenting the journey and the community they served. The community had very little but Vuong recalls the children did not seem to notice as they found fun and games using bottle caps as soccer balls.
“Seeing the genuine innocence of underserved people made me think about my life choices, my career path, and what I wanted to do in medicine,” Vuong recalls.
For him, the trip revealed what he considered to be the elitist values and capitalistic gain that made up the U.S. medical industry.
“I couldn’t stand by something that didn’t align with my life values so I was lost for a while. I didn’t know what to do,” he says.
Following PSU, Vuong has recentered his life around his own core values. His Daoist convictions are among his most important guides, sculpting how he lives a minimalistic and peaceful existence. His father’s work as a spiritual leader had a long and lasting impact on his own beliefs.
“I inherited his spirituality,” says Vuong. “ I am very in touch with my spirituality but I am not a practitioner where I can do that for other people”
After his father passed away in 2016, Vuong stayed in Portland in order to take care of his mother, being the only sibling still in-state. He also continues to aid many of his aunts and uncles, who are not proficient in English, with paperwork and other tasks.
Currently Vuong is working at the World Forestry Center. With no strict career plan, he continues to live within the flow of life and will see where it takes him.
“The little things of living and breathing and having another day ahead of you is what I look forward to,” he explains.