Main Piece

There were 2 sisters whose parents died, they were orphans. So one day, this generous Vietnamese opera singer finds them and brings them home to raise them like his children. He taught them how to sing and dance. They grew up and became very beautiful girls who sang and dance. The village loved them for their amazing talents! But…in the next village, there was a rich man who was very cruel. One day, the father went on a business trip and asked the girls if they wanted anything from his trip.

The older girl said, “I want white ballet slippers with golden thread and embroidery.”

The younger girl said, “I want a pink slipper with golden embroidery.”

While their father was away, the rich old man tried to kidnap the sisters. They fought and fought but they both got kidnapped. But the older sister didn’t want to be raped by the man, so she jumped in the pond and she died. The younger sister saw her jump and jumper after her older sister into the pond and they both died in the lake. The father came back and couldn’t find the girls so he went to the lake and cried. At the lake, he saw round, beautiful green leaves as big as the hat his daughters used to wear. Then there was one with white petals and one with pink petals but both with golden pistils, and those were the girls.”

Context

My grandma would tell me stories like this when I was little. It would usually be while we were baking, eating, or when she was playing with me. My grandma moved to the U.S. from Vietnam during the war so she knows a lot of stories that her parents and grandparents used to tell her.

Notes

There are a lot of different aspects of this story related to Vietnamese culture. One being comparing girls to flowers, loving and caring for your family like how the man took the two girls under his wing, and the bond of family going so deep that even the two sisters die together. It also explains why some lotuses have pink flowers and some have white flowers.