Woman Of The World Toi Mulligan Integrates Chinese, Vietnamese Traditions In Spokane

Imagine her confusion as a child.

The daughter of Chinese parents, Toi Tang grew up in South Vietnam, a country historically in conflict with China.

The Vietnamese made fun of her name, her family, her appearance.

The Chinese never quite accepted her either. They treated her like a foreigner.

“It was hard to identify myself,” said Tang, now known as Toi Mulligan. “I had one foot in one culture and one foot in another.”

Caught between two worlds, she was determined to bring them together - to take the best from both cultures and combine them into her own.

She now lives the two traditions in Spokane.

As hundreds of area Chinese and Vietnamese Americans celebrate the lunar new year today, Mulligan does her own version: She pays homage to her Chinese ancestors at an altar at home, but worships with the Vietnamese at Minh-Dang-Quang Buddhist Temple.

“I feel blessed because I live in the cultures of the world,” said Mulligan, who has become an American citizen.

For the Chinese and Vietnamese, the lunar new year is bigger than all the holidays put together. Known as “Tet Nguyen Dan” to the Vietnamese and “Shun Nin” to the Chinese, the Year of the Tiger starts today with prayers and offerings of fruit to the dead.

In Spokane, a city with about 1,000 native Chinese and 3,000 Vietnamese, the holiday is usually celebrated privately in homes or at small gatherings in area restaurants.

Mulligan, 55, prepares for the new year by putting up red paper on doors with “good luck” or “good health” written in Chinese. She puts flowers and tangerines on the altar and burns incense to Quan Yin, the goddess of mercy, and Quan Kung, the god of honesty.

She serves Chinese meals that include noodles to represent longevity, tomatoes for wealth, meat and fish to symbolize abundance. She gives her son a traditional red envelope filled with money.

At the temple on North Regal, Mulligan joins the Vietnamese Buddhists to celebrate Tet.

The gold altar there is covered with colorful flowers and incense as a Buddhist monk chants prayers.

The congregation prays for their dead relatives, world peace and prosperity. They ask for good health and greet each other with “I hope you live until you’re 100.” They also eat vegetarian food after the service.

Some of the Vietnamese traditions actually come from the Chinese, explained Sylva Lamb, a temple member. Their practices were influenced by the Chinese, who either invaded Vietnam or moved there to escape China’s Communist government.

Still, differences exist - from the types of food they eat to the gods they pray to. Mulligan was Confucian until she started attending the temple. Now, she’s Buddhist.

But she’s able to integrate the two cultures almost naturally, Lamb said. “It’s hard to figure out where the Chinese ends and the Vietnamese begins.”

For Mulligan, who is also fluent in French because of France’s occupation of Vietnam, combining the various traditions is vital to who she is.

“The celebrations give me an identity,” Mulligan said. “You can’t forget your origin. It gives you confidence and helps you know who you are.”

Mulligan’s family ended up in Vietnam because of her mother’s father. He was a magician for a traveling circus and fell in love with a Vietnamese woman. They married but raised Mulligan’s mother with Chinese traditions. Mulligan’s father, who was also Chinese, moved to Saigon because he was persecuted by the Communists in China.

She immigrated alone to the United States in 1972. She was a 30-year-old secretary and feared the results of America’s withdrawal from Vietnam.

She later married Phil Mulligan, a sergeant in the Air Force whom she met in Saigon during the war. Because of Phil’s military duty, the couple found themselves living all over the country, as well as in England and Spain.

Now an interpreter and owner of the Gilted Lily flower shop in north Spokane, Toi Mulligan spends many hours a week translating for Chinese and Vietnamese residents.

Because of her multicultural background, she’s made it a point to speak on behalf of all people - regardless of their race or country of origin.

“Everyone has discrimination in their heart,” she said. “We don’t have to convince people (about accepting all cultures) but we have to respect our differences.”

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