When in Ho Chi Minh City, I wasn't even aware there were Chinese there. Our two young guides looks Chinese; one said he had Chinese ancestry but I don't think he considers himself one. Nevertheless, I should have known there are Chinese there; after all, I was always aware of the fact that the Hong Kong actor Ray Lui Leung-wai who achieved fame when he co-starred with Chow Yuen Fatt in the 1980 Hong Kong television series The Bund, was born in Vietnam. A Vietnamese of Chinese descent wrote that the Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City do not mingle with the Vietnamese and his grandmother who had been there for decades could not even speak the language. The Chinese there live in their own community, have their own temples and schools, shops and restaurants where Cantonese is the lingua franca. In Ho Chi Minh City, the Chinese are concentrated on the west bank of the Saigon River in a place called Chợ Lớn. Chợ Lớn which is considered the largest Chinatown in the world by area is the birthplace of the Hong Kong actor.
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