In Matters of Betel and Areca (Chuyện trầu cau) chronicles the physical divorce of Vietnamese immigrants from their motherland and the consequent uprooting of their former live's mise-en-scène. Derived from the Vietnamese phrase wherein the chewing of areca nut initiates matrimonial negotiations, the collection allegorizes this sacred custom to question the intimate engagements immigrants hold with the cultural memorabilia they carry along as cadavers of a past life forsaken.