Looking at the rugged faces of the family, they seemed unlike the idea of the mighty, arrogant northern neighbours looming large in the Vietnamese people’s psyche.
On my way to Binh Duong, the epicentre of the riots on Wednesday, I drove past empty factories daubed with anti-Chinese slogans. Some were being cleaned up, but for most of the sites, the shattered glass and evidence of looting remained.
There were no signs of fresh unrest, but fear remained palpably in the air. Most Chinese workers have fled the country. By the time I meet Jacko Chou, the general director of Wei Lung Printing and Packaging, in his looted office, I had been sent dozens of photos of violence sent by angry Chinese people to my phone.
Chou said he wasn’t cleaning up his factory because of a protest widely expected to be planned for Sunday. He said he would keeps his gates open, in case looters return. “There is no point in keeping them out, they are too many of them,” he said, but soon he ended our conversation. “You better go, it’s getting dark.”