When Rotary Meets Saigon: A Story of War, Flavour and Vietnamese Adventure
Mystery Civil Servant Cultural explorer who moved to Ho Chi Minh City alone at 22, lived in Vietnam for nearly six years speaking fluent Vietnamese, and later served there again as a civil servant
Taipei Tagala Rotary Club has long been committed to migrant workers, new immigrants and second-generation communities. This time, we are hosting a knowledge luncheon full of stories, history — and the flavours of Vietnam.
Our special guest is a mystery storyteller. She moved to Ho Chi Minh City alone at 22, lived in Vietnam for nearly six years and became fluent in Vietnamese; after returning to Taiwan and joining the civil service, she was later posted to Vietnam again. Rather than reciting dry policy, she will draw on lived experience to bring Vietnamese culture and daily life to the table.
Lunch is at Ming Ji Vietnamese Restaurant — a place with its own story stretching across Taiwan and Vietnam. The founder's father was a diplomat who barely made it back to Taiwan when Saigon fell in 1975; the restaurant, established in 1999, honours his father and carries on the cooking his Hanoi mother passed down.
Highlights
- What does a Taiwanese woman who moved to Ho Chi Minh City alone see in Vietnam?
- Unexpected connections between Taiwan and Vietnam — food, language, everyday life
- How war and displacement became the founding story of a Vietnamese restaurant