A personal journal

Tuan Tran's Journal

A Vietnamese-American Experience

Overcome anger through kindness,
wickedness through goodness,
selfishness through charity,
and falsehood through truthfulness.

— Siddhartha

The Story of a Boat Refugee

The author escaped Vietnam by boat at fourteen, in 1975. This website is a collection of personal reflections on meditation, identity, immigration, history, and the human search for understanding. Drawing from lived experience shaped by war, cultural transition, and contemplative practice, these writings explore awareness, belonging, and meaning in an increasingly complex world.

This work is offered simply as a reflection. If it is of use to anyone who encounters it, then that is enough.

Topics on this website

Memoir Vietnam War Childhood Growing up in Saigon, the fall of South Vietnam, and fleeing as a boat refugee at age 14. Memoir Refugee Experience A teenage refugee's arrival in America — assimilation, racism, loss of identity, and awakening. Journey Coming Home Returning to Ho Chi Minh City in 2001 — a Viet Kieu's confrontation with the homeland. Education Teaching in Vietnam A Viet Kieu educator's experience — discrimination, identity, and the classroom. Practice Meditation Reflections on mindfulness, Vipassanā, and contemplative life. Practice Tai Chi The art of moving meditation and inner stillness. Health Diabetes Lifestyle Managing diabetes safely through diet, movement, and awareness. Essays My Other Writings On civil rights, civil disobedience, and voting. History Then the Americans Came Excerpted from the book Then the Americans Came by Martha Hess. History Bertrand Russell Tribunal Historical documentation of the international war crimes inquiry. Poetry Songbirds Still Sing Haiku by Tuan Tran. Poetry Archive The Collected Haiku by Tuan Tran. Memoir The Road Home A Memoir in Haibun by Tuan Tran.