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Cindy Toh Mei Li,10

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About Cindy Toh

Cindy is a 9-year-old who frequents Tak Takut Kids Club daily. Despite the challenges of growing up in a single-parent household where her Vietnamese mother understands very little English and shuttles between two jobs, Cindy finds her way to remain an articulate and imaginative child.

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Featured Caregiver:

Mother, Nguyen Ngoc Thi Hien​

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Dish of Choice:

Fish sauce chicken wing

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Have a listen to Cindy's reflection in this journey of documenting her mother cooking chicken wings or read on in the transcript below.

Interview with Cindy
00:00 / 04:46

Shiyun: Is there something you would like to tell our listeners?

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Cindy: Like… What kind?

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Shiyun: Maybe you can share your experiences doing this project.

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Cindy: My kitchen is kinda squeezy, so I kinda had to like… squeeze everywhere. (laughs)

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Shiyun: You mentioned something during the process that I remember very clearly. You said that your mum is so fast in doing everything.

Cindy: Yes. When I’m hungry, she cooks very fast like chicken and rice. When I told her when I’m hungry and I want ramen, she made the ramen in like 5 seconds and I was like, “heh”.

 

Shiyun: Do you feel like you always have to catch up with her?

 

Cindy: Sometimes.

 

Shiyun: But you’re like the opposite. 

Cindy: Even if I have a family in the future, I think I will be a slow mother (Shiyun laughs) because I have so many chores to do for my kids.

 

Shiyun: Yeah you might probably ask them to do everything.

 

Cindy: Well I might not have a family, I might have a youtube channel.

 

Shiyun: So the youtube channel is your family?

 

Cindy: For my subscribers, right. (laughs)

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Shiyun: Have you taken photographs of your mom?

 

Cindy: When I was young.

 

Shiyun: When you were younger? Not now anymore?

 

Cindy: I think I was around 3 or 4.

 

Shiyun: Do you think about having photo albums?

 

Cindy: My mum… I don’t know. To me, is no.

 

Shiyun: To you, is no? So photo albums are not very important to you?

Cindy: Well, I think my mum is… I’m not sure yet. I don’t know her very well.

 

Shiyun: You don’t know your mum very well?

 

Cindy: Me and my mom don’t know each other very well, because I speak a lot of english and she gets confused by most of ‘em.

 

Shiyun: Oh okay… confused with most of what you are saying?

Cindy: Because when she goes somewhere and meets people who speaks english to her, she’s like...... This is why when she goes around, she always brings me around, just in case someone needed to speak English to her.

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Shiyun: Can you tell us a bit more about your mother?

 

Cindy: She has two jobs, one early in the morning, and another in the middle PM. Yesterday, I waited so long for my mum because she haven’t like, even come home, so me and my dad waited for her until the morning.

 

Shiyun: Was she working?

 

Cindy: Very late.

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Shiyun: So both of you couldn’t quite communicate that much, because she speaks Vietnamese and Chinese.

 

Cindy: Yeah, a little bit of Chinese.

 

Shiyun: A little bit of Chinese, and you speak a little bit of Vietnamese and English.

 

Cindy: Yes.

 

Shiyun: How do you think in the future, both of you can communicate? Do you think about such things?

 

Cindy: I tried learning more Vietnamese, sometimes my mum and my grandma speak to me in Vietnamese. Some of them I understand, some of them, I don’t know yet

Shiyun: How is it like growing up as a Chinese Vietnamese?

 

Cindy: I don’t think I’m a Chinese. I feel more like a English child

 

Shiyun: You feel like you’re an English child?

 

Cindy: Because I was born here, so I speak a lot of English, to English people.

 

Shiyun: If there were one day you could spend with your family, where would you want to bring them to?

Cindy: A vacation, where they could stop working and rest.

 

Shiyun: Where would that be?

 

Cindy: I think I will try to bring them to Hawaii, try to let them speak English a little bit more.

 

Shiyun: Where would you want to bring them to again?

 

Cindy: Hawaii.

 

Shiyun: Oh, wow. So that they can speak more English?

 

Cindy: Well, try.

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This project was completed in 2022. Photography mentored by Larry Toh.

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