What We All Long For

Chapter 2 picks up with Tuyen shortly after the subway scene in Chapter 1. Tuyen and the others have returned home, and Tuyen waits up for her brother, Binh, who is bringing food and money from their parents. The latter will not visit her apartment themselves in protest. Binh criticizes her for living a “starving artist” life and the two trade barbs.

Binh then turns the conversation serious and asks her to open the store for him, as he is planning to fly to Thailand to search for their long-lost older brother, Quy. Tuyen is opposed to the plan; she believes he should leave it alone rather than risk further disappointing them. They agree to disagree, and Binh departs.

Tuyen returns to her apartment, “a mess of wood rails and tree stumps, twigs and rope” and other “debris” (14) that she had found or taken illicitly. Tuyen’s apartment doubles as her artist studio, and the current mess is due to her plans to build a lubaio. Her plan is to reclaim the old idea of the town signpost: “At the planned installation […] she would have the