about the sisters
thanh
Winning top prizes at Lycée Marie Curie, Thanh dons black pajamas and joins the resistance in the jungle in 1950. She takes her gift for, and love of, French and English and applies it to a career as a translator and diplomat.
She serves as aide to Mme Nguyen Thi Binh, foreign minister of the National Liberation Front at the Paris Peace Talks. Her assignments span Hanoi during the period of U.S. bombings and New York City as part of Vietnam’s delegation to the U.N.
Thanh (left) with her siblings Trang and Minh. Inscription from Thanh to author in Sept. 1995: "This is a very old and very precious photograph."
The High Commissioner of France in Indochina selects Thanh as the best student at her level for distinguished study and behavior: a prestigious regional award.
Thanh also receives the Award for Excellence and Honor Roll Award from the minister of education in South Vietnam. At the same time as she shines academically, her political activities draw the less public attention of the committee on discipline.
In early 1950, Thanh invites her friend Xuan to Tet (Lunar New Year) in a letter alluding to the end of their youth together at lycée and the impending changes in their lives.
Thanh (right), with Trang, after they join the maquis in May 1950.
Thanh in 1989, revisiting the area southwest of Saigon where she had joined the maquis decades earlier.
Thanh, in mauve ao dai (3rd from right), with Trang and other Sisters celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Day of Students. (Jan. 9, 2000.)
Thanh in a photo she inscribed to the author with this message: "Grandmother with grandson, whose name means 'the equitable,' a quality which is being appreciated these days. Ho Chi Minh City, October 19, 1992."
trang
Trang, also a prize-winning student at Lycée Marie Curie, joins Thanh in the resistance in 1950. After the 1954 Geneva Accords, dividing Vietnam into north and south awaiting elections to be held by 1956, she remains in Saigon and works undercover as a liaison for the resistance.
She is arrested and jailed for nine months, after which she asks her mother and sister to take care of her daughter. For her sacrifice, Trang is given the chance to study at the Tchaikovsky Institute in Moscow. She becomes Vietnam’s first woman orchestra conductor.
Trang (left) with Sen and Le An in the courtyard of Lycée Marie Curie, c. 1948.
Under the auspices of the High Commission of France in Indochina, a "Distribution Solennelle des Prix" takes place at Lycée Marie Curie on July 9, 1949. On page 37, receiving the Prix d'Excellence and Prix de Tableau d'Honneur: Trang ("Lucie").
Trang (far right) marching in a demonstration in Jan. 1950 with Mme Ourgaud, a lycée professor supportive of students protesting the French administration.
Trang (left), with Thanh, after joining the resistance in 1950.
Trang conducts the Ho Chi Minh City symphony orchestra.
Trang (right), with siblings Minh behind and Thanh to her left.
Trang (left), with sibling Thanh, in Saigon in 1990—40 years after they joined the resistance together.
Trang (right), with her mother and author Patricia Norland in the Binh family compound (Saigon, 1989).
minh
An excellent student, Minh is determined to prove “indigenous” girls can study just as well, if not better, than their French classmates. After graduating, she remains at the family compound in Saigon, takes care of her parents, and pursues her studies—all while finding ways to support the resistance.
She welcomes liaison agents to the home, arranges supplies for combatants in the jungle, and develops networks of teachers and intellectuals sympathetic to the revolution.
In July 1949, the Lycée Marie Curie awards ceremony booklet lists Minh ("Cecile") second under "Prix de Tableau d'Honneur" (Honor Roll).
In addition to awards in classes including history and geography, “Cécile” earns honorable mention as first in her Vietnamese language class (Lycée Marie Curie, 1948-49).
Minh (right), with siblings Trang (center) and Thanh in 1950.
Minh (holding accordion) at Lycée Marie Curie in 1985, accompanied by a group including Tuyen (far left, silver ao dai), Sen (red ao dai), and Xuan, Le An, Thanh, and Oanh (right side of photo, from left to right).
Minh (left), with Thanh (center) and Trang in Ho Chi Minh City on Jan. 9, 2000, commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the "National Day of High School Pupils and Students."
Minh at her beloved piano in the Binh family compound (downtown Ho Chi Minh City, 2011 ).
Minh (left) welcomes Tuyen and the author (not pictured) to the Binh family compound in June 2017.
Minh in ao dai for a family portrait shared with the author in 2017.
le an
Admiring her father’s choice to give up a comfortable life to fight the French, Le An leaves behind her mother and their grand villa to perform in an artistic troupe serving military units and youth groups during the war. “The theme of our work” in the troupe, she recalls, “was revolution.”
She survives performing for soldiers stationed in perilous places, including the Seventeenth Parallel, which separated Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Republic of Vietnam (after the 1954 Geneva Accords) and became the target of heavy bombing.
Le An as a young girl sporting a French-style beret in Saigon.
Le An (left), next to Trang (ponytail) and Sen in front of the Lycée Marie Curie infirmary (Dec. 22, 1948).
Le An in black pajamas participating in the resistance (July 7, 1950).
Le An holds up a certificate in the commune of Vinh Linh, Quang Tri province. She recalls heavy bombing because the bridge in Vinh Linh was on the frontier of the 17th Parallel (demarcating North and South Vietnam after the 1954 Geneva Accords).
Le An (left), with members of the artistic troupe that performed for the military in numerous locations.
While on the move with her artistic troupe performing for soldiers, Le An relaxes in a hammock in southern Laos in 1971.
Le An with some of the Saigon Sisters at Lycée Marie Curie in 1985. Seated (left to right): Thanh, Le An, Xuan, Oanh, Minh, and Sen. Standing: Tuyen (second from left) and three other friends.
At a reunion in 1989, Le An and Thanh look over the black-and-white photos and souvenirs that Le An has preserved in an old tin box.
As Le An and Thanh reminisce about the resistance, Le An shows the author how she used to wind her scarf over her head to fight the sun.
SEN
Sen’s father had become a naturalized Frenchman to solidify a stable future for his children. Sen dislikes politics but empathizes deeply with the suffering of her people under the French. After lycée, she goes into the resistance and teaches peasant women to read.
While life in the jungle camps is hard—whether facing the threat of French bombing raids or her fear of leeches—Sen finds the resistance helps form her youth and forge her character. She returns to Saigon to care for her ailing mother. Sen and her husband stay in Saigon, determinedly finding ways to work “directly for the people.”
Sen (front, second from right), nicknamed "beauty queen" by her friends, with Le An (front, far right), Trang (front left, in dark skirt), and literature teacher Mme Ourgaud (back, center), c. 1948.
Lycée Marie Curie report card on "Suzanne" (1948-49). In a class of 29, Sen places first in geography, natural sciences, and English.
Sen and her friend go "Catinater" (strolling down Saigon's main boulevard, rue Catinat) with a "surveillante" from Lycée Marie Curie, Mme Egère, c. 1949.
Sen in 1970 at the opening of her "petit salon de beauté" in Cholon: "Physical appearance influences a person's spirits; throughout the bad situations I've survived in life, I always tried to take good care of myself."
In 1989, Sen demonstrates how she and the other Saigon Sisters would pen home-made leaflets with anti-French slogans. On a "palette" of white paste, they would write in dark purple ink and use onion-skin paper to draw as many copies as possible per inking.
Sen's husband Nhieu, who studied at John Hopkins University, takes the author on a tour of one of his factories making medicines at affordable prices.
Sen and her husband Nhieu at home (1996).
Sen and her husband Nhieu with the author at a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City (2010).
TUYEN
Tuyen comes from a family made famous by her brother Luu Huu Phuoc, who, along with close friends like Tran Van Khe, composes and performs songs and plays that impel students to leave the classroom and rise up against colonialism. Tuyen recalls that because of her brother’s music, which inspired many Saigon students, “the revolution had more of a chance to succeed.”
Tuyen remains in Saigon to take care of her mother, juggling obligations to family and the revolution. After 1975, Tuyen tries to build a better society while she and her family face a series of stresses and challenges in the aftermath of reunification.
Tuyen, fourth from left, marches in a demonstration with respected teacher Mme Ourgaud (Jan. 1950).
Tuyen, "Nicole," is a recipient of the Honor Roll Awards given by the minister of education of South Vietnam. The program for the July 9, 1949 award ceremony at Lycée Marie Curie also lists Tuyen for honorable mention as a student of Vietnamese language.
Tuyen (far left), with some of the Saigon Sisters and other former classmates at Lycée Marie Curie in 1985. At such gatherings, Thanh recalls, Tuyen would sing as "our nightingale.”
Tuyen (right) and Le An at a friend's home in Ho Chi Minh City (1989).
The author, cassette recorder in hand, interviews Tuyen in 1990 at Mme Tuong's home—the place where, in 1981, all nine Sisters had come together for the first time since lycée, to commemorate the death anniversary of Mme Tuong’s daughter Suong.
In 2010, Tuyen (center) stands with Minh (left), Trang (right), and another friend. Seated (left to right) are Thanh, Lien An, Oanh, Xuan, the author, Le An, and another friend.
Tuyen, an avid traveler and explorer, enjoys a retirement trip to Dalat, an old French hill station, in 2012.
Tuyen visits the author at Tien's apartment in Ho Chi Minh City in 2017. (Tien, a friend of the Sisters, graciously invited the author to live in Tien's home in 1989-1990 while the author interviewed the Sisters.)
LIEN AN
Born into a rich, francophone family, Lien An resents expectations that women should stay at home and have nothing to do with politics. Along with her friends at Lycée Marie Curie, she rebels against French colonialism and feels “united in being drawn to a society of equality and justice.”
In 1954, she answers the call of the government in Hanoi, taking a boat north and expecting to return to Saigon within two years when elections are held. It will be another twenty years before she returns and extends her teaching career at a renowned lycée in the heart of Saigon.
In the program for the Lycée Marie Curie awards ceremony in 1949, Lien An ("Simone," listed here by family name "Ho Thi") gains honorable mention in Vietnamese language and history.
Lien An (left) with Le An, being interviewed at the beautifully decorated home of Mme Tuong in 1989.
The Saigon Sisters gather in the room the author rents from Tien in 1989. Left to right: Tuyen, Xuan, Oanh, Minh, Thanh, Lien An, and Tien (seated); Trang and Sen (standing).
Lien An in 1994 at one of Saigon's famous high schools, Le Quy Don, where she had served as headmistress from 1977 to 1986. In the late 1940s, several of the Saigon Sisters would walk from Lycée Marie Curie to this school—known then as Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat—to attend upper-level classes.
Lien An sits at one of the old wooden school desks in a Le Quy Don classroom (1994).
Lien An (left) is coaxed out of retirement to direct a small school, Truong Tuong Lai—"School of the Future"—for children with handicaps (1994).
"Truong Tuong Lai" is set up in a house; Lien An's office is in what had been the garage (1994).
XUAN
At Lycée Marie Curie, Xuan reads Tolstoy and Chekhov and learns about the American Declaration of Independence; she comes to believe that liberty, equality, and fraternity should be for her people, too. Rejecting a life of wealth and privilege, in 1949 Xuan attends a course with the resistance in the jungle.
When Xuan returns to Saigon, her family, fearing for her safety, sends her to study abroad. Living in London, serendipity reunites Xuan with an acquaintance from the resistance. Together, they return to Saigon in 1956; faced with “a dictatorial regime whose injustice the people had to bear daily,” they lead double lives and once again find themselves fighting for a better life for their people.
Xuan, born in 1930, and her father, whose family held land along the Cambodian border: "He loved to farm and checked his crops daily, riding his horse in jodhpurs and knee high leather boots."
In 1938, when Xuan is seven years old, her father sends her to "the best French school available”—St. Paul's de Chartres in Saigon, a boarding school run by French and Vietnamese nuns. Xuan is in front of Sister Thérèse (standing by window on right).
In 1950, Xuan is sent by her father to study abroad in safety; she departs Saigon by boat, traveling on a French Indochinese passport issued in Saigon on May 31, 1950.
While living in Surrey-Guildford, Xuan's "Certificate of Registration" lists her nationality as French and her "Previous Nationality" as Vietnamese.
In 1953 and 1954, Xuan passes rigorous portions of the Royal College of Music exams, equipping her for a lifetime career in teaching piano.
Xuan and Lau, after marrying in England in 1952, return to Saigon. They are pictured here, with Xuan's father in the middle, on the occasion of the opening of a bank (c. 1960).
Xuan shares her stories with the author in 1990 at Mme Tuong's home.
Xuan in a quiet, contemplative moment at Mme Tuong's home (1990).
Xuan (right) with Oanh in 1994. The two share a love of flowers and plants, often exchanging them at holidays and other gatherings.
Xuan and her husband Lau, at their home in Ho Chi Minh City in 1994, are considered "the" love story among the Saigon Sisters.
Xuan (center) spends several years in Dalat after her husband passes. Here, she is standing among the flowers and plants in her lush, expansive garden, accompanied by her friend Tien, Tien's husband Phuoc, and the author (2011).
OANH
The daughter of a benevolent father and unconventional mother, Oanh takes pride in being Vietnamese but does not have a strong political consciousness. Her wealthy parents want her to study in France; instead, through a Belgian priest, Oanh learns about scholarships to study social work in the United States.
Unlike most Vietnamese students she meets in the United States, Oanh returns to Saigon to apply her degree to help young women affected by the social upheaval of the 1954 Geneva Accords. As one of few trained social workers in Saigon, Oanh devotes the next several decades to helping those—especially young people and women—beleaguered by post-war trauma and turmoil.
Oanh (left) and her sister Cut go "Catinater," a popular pastime of strolling down Saigon's premier avenue to see and be seen (c. 1948). Oanh notes the French black Renault on the left.
Oanh (right) and "eldest sister" in front of Lutèce Café, the entrance to "Passage Eden" theater across from the Continental Hotel, which offered a "favorite sidewalk café for chatting—part of 'Radio Catinat'" (c. 1950).
Scores for Oanh ("Lucie") in her class of sixteen at Lycée Marie Curie, 1948-49. Coming in first in philosophy, physics, and math, Oanh ranks sixth in "Annamite," taught by Mlle Lanh, who describes Oanh as a "bonne élève" (good student).
In May of 1951, Oanh (center) is welcomed by Sister Theodine (left), the President of Viterbo College. Oanh is accompanied by Miss Louise Gerardy of Crossroads Student Center in Chicago.
Oanh (not pictured) writes: "Yearly summer meeting of Vietnamese Catholic Students Association in the suburbs of Chicago. Of the group, only two others and I are presently in Vietnam" (c. 1952).
Oanh wins the 1953-54 Catholic School Press Association contest on creativity with her essay, "Getting Back to the Roots." The contest was a response to a pastoral letter criticizing a lack of creativity among American Catholics, deploring "mechanical brides" programmed by ads.
Oanh's official transcript from the University of the Philippines, where she graduated June 7, 1972, with a Master’s of Community Development.
Oanh practices tai chi in a park in Ho Chi Minh City (1989).
Oanh relaxes in her small, simple home on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City (1994).
Lien An, Oanh, Tuyen, and Le An (seated, left to right) and Minh (standing) enjoy a dinner together in Ho Chi Minh City (1994).
Oanh (right) and Trang pore over albums and other souvenirs at a reunion in 1989.
Oanh passed away on May 1, 2009. This photo was given to family, friends, and social work colleagues at the service held in a building across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City.
the sisters reunited
After graduating and taking different paths in 1950, the Saigon Sisters meet again in 1981 at the death ceremony of their childhood friend Suong. Pictured is Suong's altar at the home of her mother, Mme Tuong, who becomes a surrogate mother to the Sisters and hosts many gatherings in her art-infused home.
Mme Tuong (right), pictured with her daughter Suong in 1949, as the two—along with Mme Tuong's husband, a doctor—provide aid in makeshift tents to individuals wounded when anti-French riots erupt in fires and violence in downtown Saigon.
Mme Tuong's living room, replete with ceramics, flowers, paintings, and pottery-lined shelves. Front row (left to right): Xuan, longtime friend Tien, and Thanh. Back row (left to right): Sen, Minh, Lien An, Le An, and Thanh.
Mme Tuong (back right) delights in hosting friends. Front row (left to right): Le An, Oanh, Xuan, and longtime friend Tien. Back row (left to right): Lien An, Sen, a friend, and Tuyen.
Mme Tuong welcomes eight of the Saigon Sisters to her home near Tan Son Nhat Airport. Front row (left to right): Le An, Lien An, Mme Tuong, Tuyen, and Oanh. Back row (left to right): Thanh, Xuan, Minh, and Trang.
Mme Tuong (just off left edge of picture) sits at the head of a food-laden table, next to Thanh (left, with a gleam in her glasses), Minh, a friend, Sen's husband Nhieu, and Xuan's husband Lau.
Thanh, Le An, Lien An, and longtime friend Tien stand together in the driveway of Mme Tuong's home (1989).
In 1990, eight of the Sisters (all but Le An) gather in a room the author rents from the Sisters' longtime friend Tien. Seated (left to right): Tuyen, Xuan, Oanh, Minh, Thanh, Lien An, and Tien. Standing (left to right): Trang and Sen.
The Sisters gather with friends and family at Le An's house in 1998. Seated (left to right): Sen's son, Le An, Thanh, and Tuyen. Standing (left to right): longtime friend Tien, Lien An, Xuan, Oanh, a friend, Minh, Trang, and two more friends.
Gathering on Jan. 9, 2000 to honor the 50th anniversary of the National Day of High School Students: Le An and Minh (left, in white ao dais), Xuan (orange ao dai), Thanh (purple ao dai), and Trang (black ao dai).
In 2011, the author takes a picture while attending a lunch with some of the Sisters. Left to right: Minh, Sen, Le An, Lien An, a friend, and Tuyen.
the sisters’ saigon
(photographs taken during the author’s visit with the Sisters in 1989)
In 1918, the French built Lycée Marie Curie in Saigon, the capital of the colony of Cochinchina. All the Sisters attended the lycée, some as boarding students and others as day students who walked or bicycled to campus.
To protect against the sun, the lycée features colonnades, tall ceilings, thick walls, and a courtyard strewn with tall trees. Lycée Marie Curie is the only high school in the city to retain its original name.
Notre Dame Cathedral was completed in 1880 with materials imported from France, including the ochre-hued bricks from Toulouse. Here, motorbikes and bicycles stream past on the street once named rue Catinat (now Đường Đồng Khởi), which the Sisters had promenaded down when it was Saigon's "place to be seen."
Across from Notre Dame Cathedral stood the Sûreté Général, French colonial security police. Several Sisters recall being held in the building's courtyard after participating in a student demonstration. (This building has since been demolished.)
Further down rue Catinat (now Đường Đồng Khởi) is a large square in which two renowned hotels face each other: the Caravelle, pictured, where American journalists often stayed while reporting the war, and the Continental, where Graham Greene began writing “The Quiet American.”
Between the Caravelle and Continental stands the French-built opera house where the Saigon Sisters attended concerts and plays in the 1940s. Drawing on Vietnam’s long history of resistance, the music and performances of Tuyen’s brother, Luu Huu Phuoc, and his friend Tran Van Khe inspired students to rebel against the French.
The French allowed Gia Long Palace (now a museum) to be used by leaders of the State of Vietnam, including Tran Van Huu, who on January 9, 1950 ordered police to clamp down on anti-French student protests. His order resulted in the death of Tran Van On, a decisive moment in the Sisters' political awakening.
Xuan plays tennis on a court once reserved solely for elites, behind Gia Long Palace.
Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat, later renamed Le Quy Don, was Lycée Marie Curie’s counterpart for boys. Several Sisters attended upper-level classes here when they were students, and Lien An served as headmistress here from 1977 to 1986.
The Cercle Sportif was the premier sports club for colonial society elites, gaining notoriety for a large outdoor pool opened in 1933. Thanh recalls that a pool she used was called Neptune.
The Convent of Saint Paul, run by French and Vietnamese nuns, where Xuan schooled for four years in the late 1930s. Once a large complex, only parts of the campus remain.