Ginger Post

America’s war in Vietnam is over. But the scars of that war remain with many Asian Americans who were sent there. More than 60,000 Asian Americans served in the United States armed forces during the Vietnam War. Many who lived through this lost war in Southeast Asian still suffer silently from post traumatic stress disorder. But there are others willing to speak out about the conditions that they, as Americans of Asian ancestry, experienced in Vietnam. New York-born Lieutenant Lily Lee (Adams), now of Mill Valley, California nursed wounded American soldiers and worked in triage for a year in Cu Chi. Her story in American Nurse chronicles one Asian American woman’s wartime experience and presents the reasons behind her decision to serve in a war against an Asian people. She tells of her time in Vietnam, what she saw, what she felt, her attitudes towards war and the racism that Asian Americans suffered in Vietnam and the United States.

American Nurse is an innovative departure from the traditional news and public affairs oriented way of telling a television documentary story. The documentary is first of a four part series on Asian Americans in Vietnam.

Praise for American Nurse: “In each film, Chan uses original footage of the Vietnam War to complement the interviews that were completed in Mill Valley and Hayward, California. Post production began in 1992 with the first production American Nurse completed in 1992 and aired on Seattle’s PBS station KCTS, in 1993. In American Nurse, Lily Lee Adams recounts how her nursing skills kept many American soldiers, who sometimes flocked to her surgery tent in Cu Chi, alive. Her life as a combat nurse, especially her work in triage reveals some of the stresses associated with her experience in Vietnam. As she recounts, “it was a technical decision, not a personal one” when it came to deciding who could be operated on. As an Asian American, Adams is cognizant of how growing up in the United States shaped her radicalised views of the Vietnamese and their ‘peculiarities.’” Joane Nagel, University of Kansas, Asian Affairs: An American Review, 2007.

Praise for the series: “Asian Americans and Vietnam, is a remarkable collection of four documentaries that chronicle the collective memories of Asian American Vietnam Wear veterans during their years in Vietnam and after their return to the United States. Chan has not only chronicled the militarization of race and gender, but has also exposed a previously obscure part of the American war in Vietnam that is important to see and remember.” Joane Nagel, University of Kansas, Asian Affairs: An American Review, 2007.

Airings: PBS, KCTS-TV, Channel 9 Seattle, 1993, Military Channel, Washington, D.C., 1994

Screenings: Hiroshima Film & Video Festival, 1993, Asian Cinevision, Asian American Video Festival, New York, 1993, American Museum of Natural History, New York, 1993, Olympia Film Festival, 1992, Documentaries Northwest, 1992

Permanent Collections: University of Toronto, John P. Robarts Library, East Asian Library, 2010; University of Toronto, John P. Robarts Library, The Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library, 2010; University of Ontario Institute of Technology Undergraduate Library, 2009; Nanyang Technological University, Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore, 2000; University of Washington, Seattle, Henry Suzzalo Library, 1999

Original compositions: Patricia Faith. Interviewer: Wei Djao. Production, Lian Chan. Duration: 29:23

The final film documentary of the 4 part series, Asian Americans and Vietnam was completed in February 2007. “Lily Goes Home” chronicles the life and times of combat nurse, Lt. Lily Lee Adams as she returns to the Oakland after more than a year in Cu Chi, Vietnam.

Others in the series: “Sweet Heat” 1998 profiles journalist, Don Lau and soldier Cole Lew as they recount their lives in Vietnam as members of the U.S. military. “The Insanity of It All” 2002 tells the story of Don Lau and Cole Lew as they readjust to civilian life after stationed in Vietnam.

To order a copy of American Nurse or the 4 part series, email: order@gingerpost.com

Tony Chan is one of the first Asian Canadians to combine a career as a television journalist and independent filmmaker while educating people in film production and digital journalism and writing books and many essays. In 1984, Chan was selected by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to participate in its famous Yonge Street television producer’s course in Toronto. He was one of only eight people from 850 applications selected in this elite program for journalists of color. The others were George Boyd, Jarie Brodie, Dan David, David Lam, Deepa Mehta, Claire Prieto, and Paul Winn.

After the course, Tony worked as a supper hour television reporter at CBC Edmonton, Saskatoon, Calgary, and as a host of The Canadians at CBC Regina. From his stint at CBC, he took a job in Hong Kong as senior producer, television journalist, and anchor of Focus at the Pearl channel, Television Broadcasts Limited in 1986. Following that, Chan produced and directed works on the Vietnam War and the Asian Diaspora in Canada and the United States. Before working in Hong Kong, he produced and directed the original Chinese cafes: Chinese Cafes in Rural Saskatchewan (1985), which spawned many imitators. His filmography includes his work in Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States.

See Tony Chan’s Filmography.