The Refugees

The ao dai is a national garment of Vietnam, a long, dress-like silk tunic worn over silk trousers. It is mostly worn by women for formal or celebratory occasions, such as weddings, funerals, and holidays, though there is a male version that is occasionally worn for such occasions as well. In The Refugees, few characters wear ao dais; however, they are depicted in photographs of characters in the pre-war era, linking the garment to a nostalgic view of Vietnam’s pre-communist past. The ao dai’s cultural significance is illustrated by Mrs. Hoa and the narrator’s mother in “War Years.” After church one day, the narrator reflects, “Mrs. Hoa was dressed for­mal­ly, in an ao dai of mid­night vel­vet em­broi­dered with a gold­en lo­tus over the breast. It must have been un­bear­a­bly hot in sum­mer weath­er, but no per­spi­ra­tion showed on her tem­ples” (49). Besides wearing it for the formal occasion of the church service, wearing an ao dai shows Mrs. Hoa’s adherence to her culture’s customs and her unwillingness to let go of the past. In addition, its color, “midnight velvet,” shows the ao dai’s function as a status symbol. Younger and unmarried women typically wear white, while older and unmarried women wear varying pastel colors, such as the peach-colored ao dai the narrator’s mother wears to church. Darker colors are reserved for older, married women, usually women of status.

The ao dai was popularized abroad during French colonial occupation and later by Americans following the Vietnam War. Because it was intimately associated with Vietnamese femininity, it also became subject to Orientalist stereotyping and fetishizing. This is demonstrated in “Fatherland.” Phuong Ly works at a restaurant catering to tourists that requires staff to wear ao dais. The tourists come to see stereotypically “Oriental” sights, objectifying the Vietnamese people and reducing them to objects of entertainment. A pair of Australian tourists, for example, say about Phuong’s ao dai-clad coworkers, “They’re just like butterflies […] So delicate and tiny” (129). Phuong herself, “her slim and petite body sheathed in a golden, form­fitting ao dai,” is the subject of tourists’ photography, which she begins to find irritating and demeaning (129). While the ao dai has been fetishized by the West, one of its characteristic qualities is actually its modesty. This is in stark contrast to the lingerie that Phuong receives from Vivien, an immodest symbol of personal expression and sexual liberty.