HOF086: Phan Ni Tan

Phan Ni Tan is now a well-known composer, but in the early 1970s he was an army lieutenant who had close brushes with death in the battlefields in Vietnam. In 1975, he was sent to a re-education camp in the jungle. Two years into his captivity, Phan came up with an escape plan that involved hiding under a truck chassis and hanging on to the frame for dear life during 24 hours as the truck wound its way toward the former Saigon.

He lived in hiding for two years, sleeping in the tree canopy in city parks or beneath the covered platforms in the markets. His family eventually helped arrange his escape by boat, which took him to the Laem Sing refugee camp in Chantaburi, Thailand and then to Canada, where he was sponsored by the Harmony United Church in Brantford, Ontario.