Hawker Dreams: A Vietnamese American in Singapore

by Oanh Ngo Usadi

Shining a brilliant light on expat life in Singapore, “Hawker Dreams” sweeps readers into the heart of the rule-abiding city-state where nearly a third of its six million inhabitants are foreigners, each with a story to tell.

The memoir is equal parts travelogue, family history, and cultural exploration. Oanh Usadi takes you on her journey of home and belonging through the prism of language, cuisine, and class. In the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic island where language plays a central role in shaping identities and forging connections “Hawker Dreams” is a celebration of the ties that bind us to a place, no matter where we call home.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

233 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 9, 2024

About the author

Oanh Ngo Usadi was born in Saì Gòn but grew up in an orchard in the Mekong Delta, where her family was exiled after the war. When she was eleven, the family escaped Việt Nam as part of the mass exodus of boat refugees. In 1984, they settled in a small Texas town where her father, the eternal entrepreneur, opened a bánh mì sandwich shop.

After working in consulting and having her own personal chef business, Oanh turned to writing. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, and elsewhere.

She has been featured in several podcasts including Voice of America, the Bookmonger, and Morphmom. She has also been a featured storyteller at The Moth Mainstage.

You can follow Oanh on Facebook, Twitter and the O&O Press website, OandOPress.com.

Reviews

[John Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it is odd that this book is categorized as ‘travel guide’. There is so much more to it. Yes, it has a concise review of modern Singapore history. It does touch on several of the island countries’ attractions and tourist destinations. And the author touches on many of Singapore’s peculiar laws. All helpful to anyone planning a visit. But I believe the real gems in the book are in the several underlying subtexts woven throughout it.
The most understandable of these are the challenges that the family faced assimilating into a foreign country and culture. Their move to Singapore was precipitated by her husband’s job transfer. She, her husband, and their reluctant teenage son packed up and in 2019 and off they went, leaving two college age daughters away at school. Ms. Usadi relates with disarming candor how the parents dealt with their homesick son’s resentment at having to leave behind a close circle of friends and shared interests.
The most fascinating part of Ms. Usadi’s story, where the book really stands out, are the descriptions of her interactions with the people she meets in Singapore. It is an incredibly diverse county, made even more so by a large population of foreign domestic workers from nearby countries, as well as foreign professionals from all over the world stationed there. Language differences are just the beginning of a bewildering mix of cultures, classes, and backgrounds. The fact that she is a college educated, Asian American professional, who emigrated with her family in the 1980’s from Viet Nam to America, provides her with a unique access to some facets of society, but frequently adds a layer of confusion and misconception to many of her initial exchanges with people. Preconceptions abound. She navigates these tricky waters with humor and sensitivity and no small amount of pluck! As stated earlier, her background allows her to identify with some of the people she meets, but also supplies her with an abundance of compassion and empathy towards everyone.
Ms. Usadi’s expertise lies in how she tells a story. She comes across humble, honest, and perceptive. It is easy for a reader to imagine sitting across a table, over coffee, engaged in a comfortable conversation with a favorite neighbor. Hawkers Dreams is a special book. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s has ever wondered what life is like outside their own limited set of experiences.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so atmospheric, and really put me into that place. Loved and am so glad that Usadi wrote another memoir.

[Judy Middleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m struggling to put into words how much Oanh’s story meant to me. In so many ways we are each unique with our different stories, yet in many ways we are the same. Her inspiring expat experience in Singapore told of teenage experiences the world over and I could identify with her heartache as uprooting her teenager was seen by him as the ultimate betrayal. What parent of a teen, even when moving 100 miles away, hasn’t experienced this?

Her honesty as she navigates a new nation and dives in to be a part of it endeared me to her and the food and wet market descriptions were mouth-watering and enlightening.

And who doesn’t love a Covid story thrown in, as if things were not crazy enough?

As soon as I finished this heartwarming and insightful story, told with humor and kindness I hopped over to Amazon and purchased the incredible story of her heart-stopping immigration from Vietnam to America: Of Monkey Bridges and Bahn Mi Sandwiches.

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Descriptive and engaging story of a Vietnamese American's expat experience in Singapore with her family. A detailed sense of life in Singapore is provided, along with the eventual impact of the COVID pandemic. The author's adventurous spirit allows her to experience life in a new location to its fullest. The prose is beautiful and thought provoking!

"The challenge is being humble in our insignificance but cognizant of our uniqueness."

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

**SPOILERS**

I like it because I was IN Singapore when I read it, and it's such an interesting perspective. She's racially, in Singapore culture, in the helper class, being from Vietnam. It was fascinating to see the way people reacted to her based on her outward appearance, treating her like a hired worker rather than an American expat homeowner with a college degree and everything. The neighbor asked her where she lived when he saw her cleaning out one of her garbage bins outside. She said, Here, and he said, Yes, but where do you live. Vendors gave her receipts to give to her employer. Walking around the city, people thought she was her husband's helper. Chinese people thought her teenage son was American, and expats thought he was Chinese.

Her origin story, of coming to the U.S. with her parents after the fall of Saigon, is such an interesting addition. I enjoyed all the history there since I was a teenager myself when it happened. The author had done her homework. She included Singapore and US history in her story, as well.

The more I write, the more I realize how much I liked this book. Her helping people learn English, giving her a reason to exist in Singapore, intrigued me. I think I got bored two-thirds of the way through. It was fascinating content, but skimmable. There was nothing to be curious about. We came home from Singapore, and I just didn't finish. The writing style was a little bland and didn't make me want to keep reading. I was satisfied with what I'd read and "really liked it." So 4 stars, not 3.

[Chris Walsh]

Moving to another country, or culture, is like wrestling. The place grabs you, you struggle with that for a little bit - not used to being held - then you grab the country back and it struggles with you. Eventually, if the grip one has is stronger than the other’s there’s a clear “winner” and “loser”. But if you are patient with each other then you learn the other’s style, preferences, quirks, and advantages, and a satisfying “draw” is reached. Would you think about going to live in a tiny, steamy tropical island nation and “wrestle” with a new set of circumstances that includes a pandemic? Well, Oanh Usadi would and did. Along with her willing husband, and less-convinced son, Oanh, in her latest book, is steeped in just such a new set of circumstances and responds with a solid and honest insight into a life with “Tofu Nazis”, pythons sharing her exercise space, the onslaught of COVID, and a potentially severe judiciary to remind us all that she’s not in any free-wheelin’ Kansas, any more, Dorothy. She’s there, also, writing to tell us that what you think you are is not what others have decided you are. But it can all work out. The life of an ex-pat Vietnamese American, and her family, off on an adventure might not be for you. But something very like it could well be. If you’re lucky!

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and I met the author and her son and some of Oahn's friends at a recent book club meeting. She is as genuine as she seems in the book. One additional reason I enjoyed the book is that I have been to Singapore and to Malaysia but quite some time ago, back in the late 90's and early 2000's. I didn't go as an expat which is clearly an experience.

For me the tone of the book was to share with us the expat experience uniquely from the perspective of the author and yet in a way that might teach us and take us along with her such as to the park each day for her photo taking of "the sweeper" or to the wet market or to buy fruit. Another interesting aspect is the description of the experience of thinking you will be landing in a place where you feel you fit in or that you will fit in quickly and finding something different and of having everything work out and learning something in the process. This experience happened to the author and to her family more than once. It may have happened to us therefore we can see the author's perspective and compare it to our own.

Recommend.

[Jill Robbertze · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Oanh has achieved exactly what she intended with this memoir. She really gives the reader an excellent idea of day to day life in Singapore, not only from the perspective of her own family as temporary residents, but also that of some of the number of other people that she befriended.
We learn something of this small island nation, the interesting buildings, parks and shopping as well as the amazing variety of food. (Which in many cases made me hungry !!)
There is also some interesting information about her early life in Vietnam, it's people and it's recent history.
"Is it possible to have room in one's heart for more than one homeland?" I can totally agree with the positive answer to this since I am an immigrant in Canada originally from South Africa and this ending had me feeling quite emotional !!!!

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about Oahn's life adapting to Singapore due to her husband's transfer there for a few years, disrupting their teenage son's life - Benny feels lost there and we feel Oanh's concern. I like how Oanh gives us Singapore everyday life for regular people, meeting the locals and the women there from other countries who work to send money back to their families. She finds "her people," fellow Vietnamese there, along with people from other Asian nations, but they are younger and different from her. They weather the Covid pandemic there, and finally after borders open up Oahn and her family can visit Vietnam, where Oahn finds her birth country has changed and she wonders where in the world she fits in. I did not realize this was a part 2 book and now I want to read how Oahn and her family escaped Vietnam and adapted to the U.S.

[Amy Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and enjoyable read. Beautiful fluid writing, self-deprecating humor, mouth-watering descriptions of international foods, and relatable stories of family life but in a very different setting. The book entertains while inspiring thoughts about the meaning of home, of family, of the differences between cultures but also the many things we all share. I also highly recommend Usadi's Of Monkey Bridges and Bahn Mi Sandwiches. And the author’s work appears in the latest collection from NPR’s The Moth - The Moth Presents: A Point of Beauty: True Stories of Holding On and Letting Go

[Karen Larkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an inspiring read. Looking at the world from a different perspective opens your eyes in many ways. I found myself connecting on so many levels. Oanh’s journey through childhood and motherhood in 3 different countries is very interesting and informative. She and her family continue to contribute to America in many valuable ways. There are lessons to be learned always.

[Eugenie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a well-written memoir of the author's life for the three years that she lived in Singapore. She reveals what she learned about herself and her family during this time as well as the culture of Singapore.

[Carolyn Gaziano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read

I thoroughly enjoyed reading of Oanh’s adventures and travails in Singapore. Her honesty allows you to really feel her journey. Funny and relatable, yet also thought provoking.