Man leaves US life to work in remote Vietnamese mountains

Before 2008 Tien had been living in California with only a vague idea of Vietnam, occasionally hearing his parents and neighbours mention it.

The man, born in 1988, knew it as the S-shaped country where his parents were born and which had experienced long wars before gaining independence. “But that information felt like studying world history because I didn’t feel any connection or bond,” he says.

In university, Tien’s Vietnamese teacher, Nguyen Ngoc Nga, explained the significance of his name, sparking off curiosity about his homeland.

He had felt a strong desire to learn Vietnamese for the first time in his life and enrolled in a beginners’ class. In 2008 his family returned to Vietnam for the first time in over 30 years, and he accompanied them.

Seeing his father’s tears when meeting relatives and his mother’s joy when talking about her former home, Tien felt a strange sense of belonging.

He vaguely sensed that the “Vietnamese blood flowing within him couldn’t be changed by geographical distance,” but he also felt regret for not being able to communicate well due to his limited Vietnamese.

After graduating with a degree in biological engineering, Tien spent over four years working in community development investment in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In this role, he worked on projects providing livelihoods for Vietnamese fishermen affected by Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He also founded VEGGI, an agricultural cooperative producing clean vegetables, tofu and soy milk for restaurants and supermarkets in Louisiana.

Vietnamese-American Daniel Nguyen Hoai Tien has resided in Vietnam for 10 years. Photo by VnExpress/ Quynh Nguyen

In 2012 Tien returned to Vietnam for a second time as a member of a U.S. advisory team on sustainable development of the Mekong Delta. Though his stay was brief, it was enough for him to develop a fondness for the place.

After that Tien was determined to return to Vietnam. He hired an international student from Hanoi to teach him Vietnamese and researched Vietnamese culture online, realising that each word had multiple layers of meaning depending on the context.

In 2014 he left for Vietnam, a decision that met with resistance from his parents, who were concerned about his adjustment, and criticism from relatives for leaving a high-paying job.

Tien returned alone to Vietnam and began to work in sustainable agricultural development in the Mekong Delta for a salary of VND7 million(US$276.63) per month, just 5% of his income in the U.S.

Two years later he joined a community project in the highlands focused on land and environmental resources management. This project assessed land and forest allocation and provided advice to the National Assembly on forest protection laws.

This experience allowed Tien to interact with various ethnic groups, gaining insight into their beliefs, cultures and customs and Vietnam’s biodiversity.

During the time he was living with local communities, he saw indigenous crops disappear and many farmers focus on quantity rather than adding value. He aimed to work with mountain communities to develop distinctive products that could represent Vietnam on the global market.

Besides sourcing seeds from research institutions, he spent months traversing remote mountainous regions in northern Dien Bien and Lao Cai provinces to collect local corn varieties for research and propagation.

Tien also collaborated with farming communities in remote areas of the northwest and Central Highlands, where people rely on their farms but struggle to find markets. He invested in infrastructure, built processing facilities and hired local workers.

Daniel Nguyen Hoai Tien on a 2018 field trip in Lao Cai province, working on restoring indigenous plant varieties. Photo courtesy of Tien

By 2018 he had established a chain of subsistence agricultural products, ensuring high-quality output and fair compensation for farmers.

In the early days of his company, Tien met Ly May Chan, a 70-year-old Red Dao woman from Ta Phin, a remote village in Sapa, Lao Cai, who was eager to find markets for local produce.

“Tien is determined to create livelihoods for Vietnamese farmers to escape poverty. It is rare to find someone like him,” Chan says.

Tien’s first products with her group were gin and whisky distilled from corn and fermented herbs for the domestic market. Two years later their brand, Song Cai Distillery, began exporting to North America, Asia and Europe.

Alongside corn wine, he produced Red Dao herbal liquors and experimented with fermented products made from the sim fruit, which is abundant in the northwestern mountains, and rice.

After 8 years of working with farmers, Tien has established three or four cooperative models for growing indigenous crops such as corn, mac khen and sticky rice with communities in the north and Central Highlands.

They involve working with 80-100 households and hiring four or five workers. “I want to collaborate with locals and show them how to rely on land and indigenous plants for their livelihood,” Tien says.

His initial goal was to fully integrate and be recognised as a Vietnamese citizen. Over time, this goal has developed into a broader commitment to contribute to his homeland, regardless of where he might be from or hold citizenship, he says.

Daniel Nguyen Hoai Tien and local villagers collect medicinal herbs during a 2018 field trip in Lao Cai. Photo courtesy of Tien

In March 2024 Tien was one of 100 outstanding Vietnamese and people of Vietnamese descent globally to participate in the 2024 Vietnam Global Leaders Forum organised by AVSE Global in Paris.

Over a decade the 36-year-old has grown fond of Vietnam with its human connections like experiencing kindness from strangers during difficulties, celebrating Tet at the country’s northernmost point, participating in local customs, and witnessing solidarity during natural disasters.

He now understands his parents’ values and the significance of family meals, Lunar New Year (Tet) celebrations and the principle of remembering one’s origins or simply the desire for children to settle down early.

Having become proficient in Vietnamese, he now uses the language to converse with family, finding it “warm and deeply moving.” “I regret not returning to Vietnam sooner. But I know that seeking my roots was never a mistake.”