'My Husband was also a Refugee': Cross-Cultural Love in the Postwar Narratives of Vietnamese Women

This article explores the representation of cross-cultural love in the postwar narratives of Vietnamese women. The end of the Vietnam War in 1975 and Vietnam’s reunification under a communist regime led to one of the most visible diasporas of the late twentieth century, in which more than two million Vietnamese left their homeland in order to seek refuge overseas. The main countries of resettlement were the United States, Australia, Canada and France. Vietnamese women in Australia who chose to marry outside their culture constitute a minority not only within the diaspora but also within Australian society and the Vietnamese Australian community. In contrast to the largely negative representations of cross-cultural relationships in novels and memoirs of colonial and wartime Vietnam, these women’s accounts highlight underlying commonalities between themselves and their European partners such as a shared understanding of political asylum or war. The narratives of these women illustrate cross-cultural rencontres that were made possible by the refugee or migration experience, and that signify a distinct shift in the representation of exogamous relationships for Vietnamese women. Oral history provides these women with the opportunity to narrate not only the self but also the interaction between the self and the other, and to frame and structure their experiences of intermarriage in a positive light. Cet article explore la représentation de l’amour interculturel dans les récits de l’après-guerre des femmes vietnamiennes. La fin de la guerre du Vietnam en 1975 et la réunification du Vietnam sous un régime communiste mena à une des diasporas les plus visibles de la fin du vingtième siècle, pendant laquelle plus de deux millions de Vietnamiens quittèrent leur pays pour se réfugier à l’étranger. Les pays principaux de réinstallation furent les Etats-Unis, l’Australie, le Canada et la France. Les femmes vietnamiennes en Australie qui ont choisi de se marier à l’extérieur de leur culture constituent une minorité non seulement dans la diaspora mais aussi en Australie ainsi que la communité vietnamienne en Australie. Contrairement à la représentation largement négative des relations interculturelles dans les romans et les mémoires du Vietnam colonial et en temps de guerre, les récits de ces femmes surlignent les points communs entre elles et leurs compagnons européens telle une compréhension mutuelle de l’asile politique ou de la guerre. Les récits de ces femmes illustrent des rencontres interculturelles rendues possible par l’expérience d’être réfugié ou migrant, et qui signalent un changement net de position dans la représentation des relations exogames concernant les femmes vietnamiennes. L’histoire orale permet à ces femmes de raconter non seulement le moi mais aussi l’interaction entre le moi et l’autre, et de structurer et d’encadrer leurs expériences de mariage interculturel de manière positive

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P < 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men

Between East and West

As a subject of research, Vietnamese Francophone literature has remained relatively unexplored. There are only two major works, and a number of articles, on the subject. The two works, both theses which appeared in 1982, are Jack A. Yeager's The Vietnamese Novel in French, a general overview of the Vietnamese Francophone novel, and a thesis by Nguyen Hong Nhiem on the writer Pham Van Ky. My purpose in this thesis is to focus on four primary themes which particularly distinguish the Vietnamese Francophone novel, and to analyse a number of novels in the light of these four themes. I will examine sixteen novels by twelve writers. The earliest is Bà-Dâm, published in 1930, and the latest Retour à la saison des pluies, published in 1990. The first theme is the influence of the Vietnamese classic, the Kim-Van-Kieu, on these modern novels. The second theme is the portrayal of women, the double colonization of women within a colonial and post-colonial context. I will contrast a woman writer, Ly Thu Ho, with a prominent male writer, Pham Van Ky. The third theme is the nature of interracial relationships, in particular between Vietnamese men and Frenchwomen. The last theme is alienation: alienation within the self and within one's environment. The novels are the writers' individual response to the dilemma of being Vietnamese writing in French. In examining them, one must move beyond the concept of a conflict between East and West. The novels reveal the influence of both East and West. They are an amalgamation of Eastern and Western elements: philosophical, cultural, and literary. They express an interplay of both thoughts and words across cultures.</p

Vietnamese women: narratives of cross-cultural marriage

In one of the most substantive and visible diasporas of the late twentieth century, more than two million Vietnamese left their homeland after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 and made new lives for themselves overseas. The majority resettled in the United States, Australia, Canada, and France, but Vietnamese communities were established in countries as diverse as Israel and Norway. Based on an oral history project conducted in Australia between 2005 and 2008, this article explores the narratives of four Vietnamese women who have intermarried with non-Vietnamese men. The contexts for these marriages range from Asia in the 1960s to Australia in the 1990s. The four women are differentiated in terms of generation, class, and level of education, but all are shaped by the history and legacy of their family and country. Their lives in Vietnam were conducted against a background of political unrest and war, and all have been subjected to displacement or migration, and experienced profound loss in the shape of the loss of homeland. The author explores the representation of cross-cultural relationships in Vietnamese literary culture before examining the women\u27s narratives in detail and focusing on two central questions: firstly, what do their portrayals of cross-cultural marriage reveal about their relationship with the past and with memory? And secondly, to what extent does their choice of a non-Vietnamese partner reflect a desire to distance themselves from their past and their history, and to seek a degree of separation from circulating discourses of grief and traumatic loss in a Vietnamese environment? Image: Danghongphuc / flick

Combination of inflammatory and vascular markers in the febrile phase of dengue is associated with more severe outcomes

BACKGROUND: Early identification of severe dengue patients is important regarding patient management and resource allocation. We investigated the association of 10 biomarkers (VCAM-1, SDC-1, Ang-2, IL-8, IP-10, IL-1RA, sCD163, sTREM-1, ferritin, CRP) with the development of severe/moderate dengue (S/MD). METHODS: We performed a nested case-control study from a multi-country study. A total of 281 S/MD and 556 uncomplicated dengue cases were included. RESULTS: On days 1–3 from symptom onset, higher levels of any biomarker increased the risk of developing S/MD. When assessing together, SDC-1 and IL-1RA were stable, while IP-10 changed the association from positive to negative; others showed weaker associations. The best combinations associated with S/MD comprised IL-1RA, Ang-2, IL-8, ferritin, IP-10, and SDC-1 for children, and SDC-1, IL-8, ferritin, sTREM-1, IL-1RA, IP-10, and sCD163 for adults. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings assist the development of biomarker panels for clinical use and could improve triage and risk prediction in dengue patients. FUNDING: This study was supported by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-281803 IDAMS), the WHO, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Combination of inflammatory and vascular markers in the febrile phase of dengue is associated with more severe outcomes

Early identification of severe dengue patients is important regarding patient management and resource allocation. We investigated the association of 10 biomarkers (VCAM-1, SDC-1, Ang-2, IL-8, IP-10, IL-1RA, sCD163, sTREM-1, ferritin, CRP) with the development of severe/moderate dengue (S/MD). We performed a nested case-control study from a multi-country study. A total of 281 S/MD and 556 uncomplicated dengue cases were included. On days 1-3 from symptom onset, higher levels of any biomarker increased the risk of developing S/MD. When assessing together, SDC-1 and IL-1RA were stable, while IP-10 changed the association from positive to negative; others showed weaker associations. The best combinations associated with S/MD comprised IL-1RA, Ang-2, IL-8, ferritin, IP-10, and SDC-1 for children, and SDC-1, IL-8, ferritin, sTREM-1, IL-1RA, IP-10, and sCD163 for adults. Our findings assist the development of biomarker panels for clinical use and could improve triage and risk prediction in dengue patients. This study was supported by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-281803 IDAMS), the WHO, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The value of open-source clinical science in pandemic response: lessons from ISARIC

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