[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 23, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2988-S2989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO HANH THAI DUONG

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Hanh 
Thai Duong, a woman who epitomizes the American dream. Duong is the 
owner of a restaurant in my hometown of Louisville, KY, The Lemongrass 
Cafe.
  Duong's journey from Vietnam to America is a miraculous one. In 1979, 
when she was only 10 years old, the Vietnamese government told her 
family that they would be able to leave Vietnam because of her father's 
Chinese ancestry, but only if they gave up all of their possessions and 
paid a sum in gold to the Vietnamese government. They decided the trip 
would be worth the risk, so they left everything behind and boarded a 
fishing boat that took them to a new life in Hong Kong.
  A year later, with the help of a relative in Louisville and a number 
of Catholic charities, Duong and her family left Hong Kong for 
Kentucky. Duong's unwavering determination and a belief in the 
importance of an education, helped her work her way through the 
University of Louisville and earn a degree in finance and international 
business.

[[Page S2989]]

  After her parents retired, Duong followed in their footsteps and 
opened her own restaurant, The Lemongrass Cafe;, bringing a taste of 
her native land to her new home. I ask my colleagues in the Senate to 
recognize and pay tribute to this remarkable woman.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the article, ``Restaurant 
a testament to Vietnamese family's drive'' from The Courier-Journal, be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

          [From the Louisville Courier-Journal, Feb. 22, 2004]

          Restaurant a Testament to Vietnamese Family's Drive

                          (By Byron Crawford)

       The Lemongrass Cafe in Louisville's Highlands neighborhood 
     is more than a quaint oasis for Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese 
     cuisine. It is a monument to one Vietnamese family's appetite 
     for freedom and opportunity.
       The cafe's proprietor, Hanh Thai Duong, 34, was 10 years 
     old in 1979 when the Vietnamese government told her parents 
     that because of her father's Chinese ancestry the family 
     would be allowed to leave Vietnam--if they gave up all their 
     possessions and paid the government a sum in gold.
       ``You really leave empty-handed, but my mom and dad were 
     thinking for a better future for their children,'' Duong 
     said. ``My parents always said that the United States was the 
     land of opportunity. We left on a fishing boat for Hong 
     Kong.''
       Such voyages were treacherous. The boats were small and 
     often unsafe.
       The trips sometimes took weeks. Twenty to 30 passengers 
     jammed into tight quarters and often went days without food. 
     Pirates roamed the South China Sea, sometimes boarding the 
     fishing vessels, killing, raping and taking women and 
     children captives.
       ``We were lucky. It only took us four or five days to reach 
     Hong Kong, but my aunt and her twins did not get to Hong Kong 
     . . . for like a month or so, and one of the twins died of 
     hunger and they ended up burying her out at sea,'' Duong 
     said. ``As soon as my aunt stepped on the ground in Hong 
     Kong, she passed away, too.''
       Duong's baby sister was badly burned in an accident soon 
     after the fishing boat reached Hong Kong Harbor and was taken 
     to the mainland for treatment. The family lost track of the 
     child for months but finally found her in a refugee camp. 
     Duong's mother, not having seen the baby for months, did not 
     immediately recognize her.
       Another of Duong's aunts, who then lived in Louisville, 
     sponsored the family to immigrate in 1980, and they were 
     flown to America by Catholic Charities, which they later 
     repaid. Duong's father, Trung Thai, had owned a successful 
     grocery-supply business in Vietnam, and her mother, Nga, was 
     a good cook. They opened a small restaurant from which they 
     have since retired.
       Duong married at an early age but was determined to get an 
     education, and she worked her way through the University of 
     Louisville to earn a degree in finance and international 
     business. She and her husband, Edward Duong--who had twice 
     been captured while trying to leave Vietnam in violation of 
     government orders--later lived in New York City. But they 
     soon decided that they preferred Louisville, where 
     Edward Duong now works at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant.
       Hanh Duong's older brother and younger sister both earned 
     degrees from UofL and are working in business. Another sister 
     owns a nail salon and her youngest sister is working her way 
     through college.
       ``You think about your parents' sacrifice for you and you 
     don't want to fail,'' she said. ``You don't take things for 
     granted and you don't give up easily.''
       Duong has forgotten much of her early life in Vietnam, but 
     a few vivid memories remain: one of her parents running with 
     her for shelter as bombs exploded nearby, and her mother 
     being wounded by a stray bullet near their home in Saigon 
     (now known as Ho Chi Minh City).
       Today, Duong works hard in the Lemongrass Cafe, on 
     Bardstown Road to make happier memories for her children--a 
     daughter, Cheryl, 17, a senior at Male High School and a 
     Governor's Scholar who will enter the University of Kentucky 
     next fall, and a son, Nick, 9, a student at Greathouse/
     Shryock Traditional Elementary School. Many of their 
     grandmother's favorite recipes are helping to lure customers 
     to their mother's cafe.
       ``Other than the delicious food, I guess it was just the 
     simplicity of Lemongrass and the personality of Hanh that I 
     like about the place,'' said Jeannie Treitz, a frequent 
     customer.
       A few years ago, Hanh said, she took her children to 
     Vietnam to show them the country their parents and 
     grandparents had fled.
       ``They were raised here and they don't know how people have 
     to struggle in Vietnam,'' she said. ``I took them back so 
     they could understand that they have bundles of opportunities 
     here, and that they should work hard and never give up on 
     anything.''

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