I Love Yous are For White People

The chapter begins with Su running toward the ocean alongside Pa, Ma, and sister Quy as the family flees Vietnam. A flashback provides a glimpse into Su’s life in the coastal city of Da Nang before the upheaval. His father, a respected businessman and draft-dodger who fought alongside the US, worried about being denounced to the Communists. Reeducation camps, torture, and even death awaited those who supported the South. With bullets flying, the family reaches the fishing boat taking them away from Vietnam. Ma comforts Su when he asks where they are going, telling him they will find a new home and that they will never return to this country. She gives him three tomatoes from their garden, a gift that reminds Su of Vu, a close friend who died falling down a flight of stairs.

The rickety boats making their way through the South China Sea are overburdened with people and supplies. Some passengers are wounded. Many are traumatized or seasick. A typhoon sinks one of the boats and nearly breaks the others apart. Pa leads the efforts to save them from sinking by bailing water from the hull with the other men and ordering passengers to throw all their belongings overboard, including their food supplies.