Pham, The Trung, a young artist, escaped from Vietnam in 1980 with his younger brother in a death-defying boat journey that finally ended at the Songkhla Refugee Camp in Thailand. There they were screened by Canadian authorities and sponsored by a family in Stratford, Ontario. In 1983, Pham was reunited with his girlfriend Thai, Ni Phan in Paris, where they were married. Pham sponsored Thai, and today they live in Toronto where each manages a small business. They have just had a second son. Recently Pham won a major public sculptural commission for a park in Ottawa, commemorating the Vietnamese boat people, titled "Escaped to Freedom."

Pham, The Trung as a young artist in Ho Chi Minh City, c. 1978
photo: courtesy of the Pham family

Pham, The Trung was a graduate of the Saigon National University of Art. After South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese communist regime in 1975, he was forced to work for the new government, drawing propoganda posters. Military draft was imminent. On the eve of the Vietnamese Tet (New Year) in 1980, Pham and his youngest brother imformed their family that they would set out after dinner -- for freedom.