Shy ‘Shining Star’ From Asia Ascends in Her New Land

She hides her shyness with giggles, rolling her soft brown eyes behind a sheaf of math papers. Her father, sitting with her on the couch in their small living room, prods her to be more cooperative and then chides her in their native language.

“She’s just very shy sometimes,” says Chinh Xuan Vu, who fought for nine excruciating years to bring his daughter and wife to the United States from Vietnam.

It was nearly two years ago that Anh Chi Vu and her mother, Chau Bui, stepped off an airplane on a humid night at John Wayne Airport and into the arms of a frail man hooked to a portable oxygen tank.

A family had been reunited, ending years of unrealized hopes and anguish. Now Anh Chi excels as a young pianist, recently scoring high in a national contest. She does well academically in school, and her teacher at a Garden Grove elementary school calls her “a shining star,” a “special student.”

She is partial to pink, oversized sweaters and stretch pants and multicolored sneakers that make fashion statements. “The Cosby Show” is her favorite television viewing. All the trappings of American adolescence are apparent.

But Anh Chi, now 12, also remembers “how scared I was” the night of Aug. 18, 1986, when she was reunited with the father she did not remember and had not seen since she was an infant.

Stuffed animals were thrust at her as she descended from the plane. Television lights spotlighted her exhausted and bewildered face after 18 hours of flights that finally ended with her kissing her father for the first time since he had fled their homeland in 1977.

The boat that Vu and 15 other people sailed out of Vietnam that spring developed mechanical problems almost immediately. Their food became contaminated, and they survived for 27 days with only small rations of water until a Korean fishing boat rescued them.

Late that year, Vu reached Orange County, where three of his brothers had relocated. He found a job as an electronics technician and began the long battle to bring his wife and child to the United States.

Long letters were exchanged. A dozen times Chau Bui tried to escape Vietnam. Twice she was jailed. Chau Bui also was prohibited from working as a schoolteacher.

There was infrequent correspondence between Vu and his family, but he was never able to speak with his wife or their child.

Then his health began to deteriorate, and Vu was forced to resign his job. Asthma, a heart condition and other respiratory ailments had reduced him to a shell. A lung was removed. He lived alone on $1,200-a-month disability payments, $500 of which was used to pay for his constant supply of oxygen.

But he still struggled to get his family here, and in 1986, with the help of the U.S. government and Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), his wife and daughter were allowed to leave Vietnam.

The Hanoi government, long reluctant to allow them to emigrate, relented when American authorities provided evidence that Vu was disabled and that his health would continue to deteriorate if he were not reunited with his family.

Now, in the comfort of the family’s neat, two-bedroom apartment in Garden Grove, Vu looks much younger than he did two years ago, and he is given to perpetual boyish grins. His health is still fragile, but he is at peace with the world and the demons he fought for nine years.

‘A Lot of Adjustment’

“It took a lot of adjustment, but we are finally a family. I had fought so long, even with myself,” Vu said. “Physically, I am not too good. But mentally, I am fine. They really boost my spirits. My depression and anger (were) so great for a long time.”

Chau Bui, a small, smiling woman in designer jeans, sits between her husband and daughter. She reads and writes English fluently but still struggles in speaking “because I was taught English by the French, and I make a lot of mistakes.”

She is learning to be a beautician. After two more months of school, she will begin a new career if she can pass a state exam. Chau Bui has adjusted well to American life.

“I like it here very much because we can do what we want,” she said. “In Vietnam, I lost everything. But I never gave up hope. I always thought we would make it some day.”

Although admitting that she still misses friends in Vietnam, Anh Chi has made tremendous strides in America. At 12, she is an accomplished pianist and an A and B student, despite the fact that less than two years ago she spoke no English.

Vicky Paxton, her teacher at Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School since she arrived in this country, said Anh Chi is at her grade level in most subjects and well ahead in math.

Confidence in Pupil

“She’s just a little bit behind in English, but she’ll make that up soon,” the teacher said.

“Anh Chi is, well, like a shining star,” Paxton said. “I got her when she knew no English. But she has really made great progress.”

Paxton said that Anh Chi, who begins junior high school in the fall, is beginning to lose her shyness and is prone to causing minor disruptions in class. “But I think that is good. She’s just very special,” Paxton added.

Last year, the teacher said, Anh Chi had to be prodded and coaxed to participate in class. Recently, she volunteered without hesitation to play the piano in the school’s talent show.

Paxton said part of the reason for Anh Chi’s accelerated development is her father’s influence. Two years ago, before she and her mother arrived, Vu said he was going to provide piano lessons for his daughter and help her learn English quickly.

“Her dad has helped out a lot,” Paxton said. “He has taken a big interest in her and has worked very hard with her. He took the English books from me and worked with her all last summer.”

Her father says that he provides only occasional guidance, and his daughter is now “pretty much on her own.”

Beneath the shyness and the serious attention she gives to her piano and academic studies, Anh Chi is very much a little girl about to blossom.

She has grown and is a bit gangly. She still thinks “boys are stupid.” And she contradicts her parents with the sassiness of any American youngster on the threshold of becoming an all-knowing teen-ager.

Her mother says Anh Chi’s favorite subject is math, but the daughter quickly interjects, “ No , it’s not,” sighing in exasperation as she explains that she aspires to be a doctor.

Later, after several minutes of pleading, Anh Chi acquiesces and does a quick turn on the piano. She chooses a Beethoven sonatina for the 5-minute concert.

Anh Chi began taking piano lessons in Vietnam four years ago and has continued once-weekly sessions here under Myle Nguyen, a private piano teacher. Last month, Anh Chi scored superior marks in the National Piano Playing Auditions U.S.A., an organization that sets standards for amateur pianists and conducts yearly auditions to determine students’ capabilities.

Nguyen said that, to qualify for the auditions, Anh Chi had to learn by heart at least 10 difficult classical pieces, “and that’s very hard for anybody. I’m very proud of her. She’s very diligent.”

The judge’s comment on her score card read: “An excellent audition. You’ve worked hard and it showed.”