exception for me. And Arnaud, I suppose.”
“I promise,” Khoi said, smiling. “Even Arnaud. Though he will most likely try to murder me at a chamber meeting before we get to that point.”
“He will not. He’s too lazy.”
“Fine, he will hire someone to kill me, then. But before I convince a new governor to pass the de Fabry law, we need to focus on how to make Indochine an economic power, how to export our products successfully, the very ones the French are robbing us of right now.”
“Like Nguyen silk. Paint the world green,” I said, running my fingers over his jackets.
“Silk, but not just,” he said, watching me. “Resources, but not just. We need to be ready to lead both economically and politically. Right now what do we have? Annamite puppets.”
“Not you,” I said. Khoi was in the chamber of representation of the people of Tonkin and part of the chamber of commerce which Arnaud led.
“Please,” he scoffed as I took one of his blazers from the hanger and put it around my shoulders. “You know as well as I do that the chamber of representation is toothless. We meet once a year and the French don’t even bother consulting us then. It’s an embarrassment. If Sinh hadn’t turned me into an anti-colonial, being a part of that group would have done the trick. And the chamber of commerce only half listens to me, and only because of certain connections,” he said, an amused smile on his face. He slipped the green jacket off my shoulders and put it on his.
“But you’re still part of both chambers.”
“Of course,” he said, looking for shoes that matched. “One, because that way I can remind Arnaud that I am younger and far more virile than him,” he said, grinning. “And two, because when the country is finally ours again, I will already be in a position to help push it the right way. Right now we are forbidden from having political parties. Anyone who tries to organize is followed by the secret police. We can’t even whisper the word independence, or organize without landing in prison.”
“I know all this,” I said, pointing to a pair of brown shoes. Khoi nodded and reached for them.
“Well, my father certainly needs to be reminded. He needs to see that we need more than silk.”
In labor practice, the Nguyens were already closer to a communist model than the punishing ways of the French. Khoi’s family knew the importance of keeping workers for the long term. Theirs was an industry where constant retraining of artisans and laborers was a financial burden. It was in their interest to build loyalty. The French, by contrast, and the Michelins especially, seemed convinced that profits came from spending very little. And the least always went to the workers.
“So, books?” I asked. “Is that next?” Last year Khoi had thrown a thick tome into his swimming pool while rather intoxicated to test the quality of the paper. Since then, he had invested a considerable sum into publishing. Linguistic nationalism was part of economic freedom, he said. Using the Quoc Ngu script. The money in publishing was going to increase tenfold in the coming years, he was sure of it, so why not become an investor, a backer of words, of ideas.
“Yes, books. Paper. But also mining. We’re already invested in Nouvelle-Calédonie, and now the rumor is that they’ve struck gold in Laos. We need to be part of that, too.”
“Gold? Really?” I said, laughing. “Is that what Sinh would want? Mining for gold? Is that going to further the global communist call?”
“It’s not like I personally want to fill my pockets with gold, Marcelle,” he said, taking a step away from me. “It’s for my family in the short term, and my country in the long. I can’t think about the global communist cause right now. I know that’s what Anne-Marie wants. What I imagine you want. The whole world turning together.”
“Of course. Any true communist desires that.”
“Well, I think we both know I’m not a true communist. I’m a true anti-colonial,” he said, calming down. “And right now, supporting the global cause does not support me or Indochine. I need to think about how we will feed ourselves after independence. I need to think about how I can help. I need to think bigger. For my family, and then for my people.”
“Sounds like something Jessie Lesage would say as she extols the benefits of capitalism,” I said, trying to keep the petulance