Vietnamese-American chef Christine Ha met with her fans in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday at an event where she shared her real-life experiences and how she overcame her tumultuous journey.

The event, held by the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City in collaboration with the Center for Disability and Development, aimed to direct positive energy from Ha’s story to those who need it.

She was born in 1979 to Vietnamese parents in California. 

In 2004, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and gradually started losing her vision.

Ha is the first blind contestant of the American competitive cooking reality television series MasterChef and became the winner of its third season in 2012.

She published her cookbook Recipes from My Home Kitchen with Vietnamese food recipes one year later.

Ha is currently running three restaurants in the U.S..

At the event on Monday at the American Center under the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City in District 1, Ha not only encouraged people with her positive messages about life, but also touched the hearts of the listeners with her spirit of self-love and acceptance of hard circumstances, thereby turning it into motivation.

“When I started losing my vision, people always asked me if I was angry or how long I stayed sad,” Ha recalled her own experience when an audience member asked her about the self-victimization feeling of people with disabilities. 

“I was definitely sad, it was not easy. I don’t feel like I was ever angry or questioning why it was happening to me or that it was unfair. 

“It’s really about how you play the hand that you’re dealt. So I think for me, I chose not to victimize myself, I just figured vision loss was something that just happened to happen to me. 

“I could either give up on life, but I realized that the earth keeps rotating, the sun still rises, the sun still sets. So I could either give up or I could figure out, okay, how I can still change my life or the way I view life to make my life still feel purposeful in spite of the vision loss. 

“And that’s the decision I chose to make.”

The achievements Ha has made, she said, result from a journey of small steps and her appreciating each of them.

“Look back at your small achievements and what you’ve been able to accomplish day by day, hour by hour even, and you’ll realize that you are achieving small goals slowly,” Ha told her audience.

“It’s okay because the small goals that you reach will lead to bigger things, and to more self-confidence.

“And then the more confidence you have, I think the less fear you have to take greater risks in life.

“Always the biggest rewards in life come from the greatest risks.”

When asked about self-limiting beliefs, Ha answered that limitations are not always bad.

“I think limitations are something we try to always view as negative,” she said.

“But I think limitations are sometimes a way for the world to tell us it’s not time or we’re not ready or this is not the right path for you to take and I think that’s okay. 

“You should listen to the limitations as well.

“I was always taught to deliver more and more and be an overachiever, and a perfectionist, and that leads to a lot of pressure on myself. 

“But I think sometimes you have to limit yourself to preserve your mental health and your emotional health, and I think it’s okay to say no to things.

“I think in some ways it’s okay to limit yourself if you don’t feel emotionally or mentally or physically ready for a challenge, that’s perfectly okay.”

According to the restaurateur, it is really about ‘a balance’ and people should listen to their intuition to say what they really want to do, whether they are ready for something or not. 

Ha also told her audience the story behind one of her most significant core life values.

“It is turning better today than you were yesterday,” she shared.

“How I came up with that core value was actually during the time I was competing on MasterChef.

“Every day I would go into the kitchen or the studio to film, and I wouldn’t know what challenge we had that day for cooking. 

“And of course being visually impaired, I never knew how anyone else was also doing at their station or what ingredients my co-contestants decided to use. 

“So I realized after a while that I felt like I really wasn’t competing with anyone else. 

“I was really just competing against myself or the version of myself the day before. So I felt like the only way I could succeed was I went into that kitchen every day and became a better cook or a better person than the day I was before. 

“That core value has stuck with me throughout the last 10 plus years.”

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Old artifacts are not only valuable, but also a keepsake for many families. Many people would be extremely sad if an artifact was damaged for some reason. In such cases, they may eventually find their way to an expert like Nguyen Khac Duy.

Ten years ago, the man, now 34, who lives in Sa Dec City in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, returned to his hometown after completing his military service and assisted his family business in trading artifacts.

Noticing that the supply of artifacts was dwindling over time, Duy thought of finding solutions to repair damaged items, which would allow his family to sustain their business for a long time to come.

Giving old things a second life

In the early days of trying to repair damaged artifacts, Duy’s lack of confidence meant he only fixed his own artifacts for fear of further harming customers’ precious items. 

However, after some time, as the artifacts he repaired became more common, more and more collectors came to ask him to help them mend their damaged pieces.

“To repair broken artifacts requires many phases. The first is mixing the glue to stick on the lost part of the piece,” Duy explained.

“Only when the glue has dried can I begin to restore the shape of the lost or broken parts.

“In the next stage, I use a sander and sandpaper to remove the preserved glue and make the glued parts look like the original state.

“In the next step, I cover the attached part with paint and trace the patterns of the lost section.

“In the final stage, a layer of paint is applied to protect the pasted part and make it match the rest of the artifact.”

While some people think Duy’s work is easy when they see the artifacts that can be restored to normalcy after a few steps, the man said it is a time-consuming process that requires a lot of attention and patience.

According to him, every single step in repairing a valuable broken artifact is equally important. Mixing the glue, for instance, entails an appropriate amount so that the broken parts stick well to one another and do not fall out easily when physical forces act on them.

It is also necessary to be gentle when brushing with the sandpaper so that the solid parts can be polished smooth and in the best condition.

According to Duy, the step of mixing colors is the most time-consuming, as he has to try to find the color that is most similar to the original. 

The only way is to mix the colors little by little until he has the one that suits his needs. His experience has been that when the paint goes from wet to dry, it can change into a different color and then he has to start all over again.

Depending on the damage to the artifact, Duy would need a day or more to fix it. Each of the old or antique objects has its own interesting story, which always reminds Duy of fond memories.

“There was a customer who brought me a vase dating back to the 19th century that was completely broken. The artifact did not seem to have its original spirit when you looked at it at the time. When I was able to restore it to its original state, I could give it a second life. When they received the repaired artifact later, they thanked me and presented me with many gifts,” Duy recalled.

Duy said he regrets seeing the broken or damaged artifacts, so he often thinks of finding ways to restore them. He is happy that he can make a small contribution to protecting the ever-shrinking world of artifacts by returning them to their original state.

“I am so happy to be able to return the damaged artifact to its initial values, both emotionally and physically. An intact artifact shows its own spirit, which also benefits the owner when it is exchanged or sold,” said Duy.

Promotion of timeless values

Looking at the artifacts repaired by Duy, it is hard to imagine that they were damaged in the past. The way Duy takes care of the ancient artifacts shows a great passion that drives him to do this extremely specialized work.

“I take the damaged objects from the customers and do my job. Then, when I look at them after they have been perfectly mended, I feel like I have overcome another challenge,” he said.

“As you know, no two things are identical. For example, today I have to repair a bowl that is broken in two, and tomorrow a kettle with a shattered spout. It is the customers that make me train myself to cope with the different requirements, so I do not feel bored.”

In fact, few people know how many skills an expert like Duy must have to give an antique a second life. As a case in point, chemical knowledge is needed to mix the chemical ingredients in the reshaping and color design phase.

Moreover, such experts must be artistically talented to redraw the lost patterns or details, and they must have archeological understanding to create the ‘color of time’ which resembles that of the past. All these requirements make the number of experts in this field shrink over time.

“To do this job, you have to be patient, skilled, and esthetic,” Duy said.

“If you do not have any of those, it will be difficult for you to do it. For instance, you have to be patient when waiting for the glue to dry, which I often have to give up because of failure.

“I suffered many failures before I was successful. For example, in the color mixing phase, I never succeeded in combining the color the first time. Instead, I tried many times, adjusting a little each time until I had the color I wanted. Often, I tried almost ten times and failed until I had a color that was most similar to the original.”

Duy recounted that local authorities had offered him the opportunity to hold events at his home for visitors, hoping to promote the local tourism industry. 

But the expert admitted that he easily loses concentration when working in front of crowds. Besides, cleaning the artifacts raises so much dust that it may not be good for health. Therefore, Duy has temporarily declined this offer.

However, he still spends time greeting people and explaining what his special job entails to anyone interested. In fact, the pundit also wants to pass on the ancient value that lies in the old items.

“I am always honest in my work. When I took the damaged artifacts from the customers, I told them that I could restore the objects to their original condition, not perfectly, but about 80-90 percent,” Duy said.

“Fortunately, the customers eventually accepted the artifacts I repaired, although the fixed objects may not look like the originals. Besides, I suppose I work in the culture sector, hoping to preserve the old values and convey them to the people of today.”

According to him, today’s market for artifacts is quite complicated, so many people refuse to accept the process of mending or repairing.

“Also, sometimes repairing is used to cheat others and turn a damaged antiquity into a valuable one. I always remember to keep my soul pure, light, and enthusiastic in my daily work,” he said.

Refusal to help cheaters

Q.T., a collector of ancient artifacts who lives in Sa Dec City, speaks highly of Duy.

“Duy is an admirable person because he is so honest and says only what he knows,” T. said.

“When he repairs a damaged artifact, he only takes the amount of money that corresponds to his work instead of paying attention to the owner and the value of the object.”

“He has frankly refused to take orders from people who wanted to make fake items to earn illegal profits.”

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