White handkerchief, a small and seemingly insignificant square of fabric, exerts in Viet Nam an astounding emotional power over people from generation to generation.
For many decades of war, Vietnamese women were on all fronts. Those who remained behind gave a white handkerchief to their fiancé who left for war, as a sign of love and fidelity. Some of them retrieved it, red with blood, a mute symbol of a body that they could no longer hug. Meanwhile, under bombardments and screaming fighter jets, the fighter women in the jungle embroidered a handkerchief each spring, hoping to give it one day to a prince charming. Then war ended, the handkerchiefs turned yellow, but the spinsters always keep them like little sparks in the darkness of their sorrow.
Wherever I go, I take my own stories with me. Here is a little story in the great history book of my home country. This series is my personal homage to all the Vietnamese women whose youth has been stolen by the long war. It's my way of telling the past. War is far away but we’ll never forget it.
