Le Ly Hayslip

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Le Ly Hayslip (born December 19, 1949 as Phùng Thị Lệ Lý ) is a Vietnamese-American writer and philanthropist .

Early years

Phung Le Ly Hayslip was the youngest of 7 children in Ky La, today Xa Hao Qui, a village in central Vietnam , south of Da Nang . When she was 12 years old, American helicopters landed in her village for the first time. She later supported the Viet Cong . When she was 14, she was captured and tortured in a South Vietnamese prison . When she was released at 15, the Viet Cong considered her a spy for the South Vietnamese government and sentenced her to death . After the soldier who was supposed to execute her raped her, she escaped.

She fled to Sàigòn , where she and her mother worked as housekeepers for a wealthy Vietnamese family. She had to give up this position after she had an affair with her employer and became pregnant. Hayslip went with her mother to Da Nang . At the age of 16 she supported her mother and her baby by working on the black market, occasionally as a drug courier and once as a prostitute .

She later worked as an auxiliary nurse at Da Nang Hospital and began dating Americans. After several disappointing affairs, she met the American civil worker Ed Munro in 1969, whom she married. Although he was more than twice his age, she had another son from him. A year later she followed him to San Diego , California. When her husband died of emphysema in 1973 , Le Ly was a widow at the age of 24.

In 1974 she married Dennis Hayslip. But their second marriage was not a happy one. Dennis was a heavy drinker, had severe depression and tantrums. She had her third child. During the divorce war in 1982, Dennis was found dead in his van outside the school building. He had set up a trust fund through which Le Ly got money, and an insurance company paid the mortgage on the house. Le Ly invested the money in real estate, stocks and small businesses, which gave her a certain wealth.

Books

In her first book When heaven and earth changed places from 1989 she tells the story of her peaceful childhood and her youth, which was shaken by war. The non-linear narrative style alternates between describing her life as a child in Vietnam and her first return to Vietnam and her family in 1986. The two stories are interwoven, showing the cyclical nature of Hayslip's physical and emotional journey.

In her second biography, Child of war, woman of peace, from 1993, the same themes are continued in a more straightforward narrative style. When she settled in the USA during the last years of the Vietnam War , Hayslip had to cope with the foreign culture and had to come to terms with the fact that she could not return to her family and home country because she was viewed as a traitor there. She makes money through her tenacity and business skills. Finally, in 1988 she founded the East Meets West Foundation , an aid organization that aims to improve the health and living conditions of the Vietnamese. There are also programs to enable people to be self-sufficient. Her biography not only reveals her efforts and success in the US, but also her growing need to heal the pain that the Vietnam War caused in the US and Vietnam.

In 1999 she founded the second aid organization Global Village Foundation for humanitarian aid in Vietnam and other Asian countries. The focus of the work is on education and peacebuilding measures at the lowest level.

The 1993 film Between Heaven and Hell is based on her life. She has a supporting role in the film.

Awards

  • 1995 California State Assembly Award for her humanitarian activities and her contribution to international understanding.

literature

  • Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts: Born in Vietnam: A life story (Original title: When heaven and earth changed places ). Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-455-08434-6
  • Le Ly Hayslip, James Hayslip: Born in Vietnam - living in the USA: the life path of a brave woman (original title Child of war, woman of peace ). Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-07506-4

Filmography

Individual evidence

  1. National University of Singapore ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usp.nus.edu.sg
  2. East Meets West Foundation - Overview ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eastmeetswest.org
  3. ^ Global Village Foundation
  4. Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) - Open Forum Psychosocial Response to Disasters ( MS Word ; 463 kB)

Web links