Sparknotes The Bride Test

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang is a romance book that warms readers’ hearts while also teaching readers about Vietnamese culture. In The Bride Test, Khai and Esmeralda are introduced to readers. They are both Vietnamese, yet, Khai was born and lived most of his life in America. It is immediately mentioned that Khai has autism. Esmeralda was born and raised and had never been out of Vietnam. One day, Khai’s mom goes to Vietnam and makes Esmeralda a fascinating proposal that she couldn’t possibly turn down. Throughout the book, Esmeralda learns about Khai and how to make him feel comfortable and appreciated while also dealing with challenges herself. One of the biggest challenges Esmeralda faced was understanding how Khai felt and why he was acting

Universities generally did not teach about ASD. Most researchers in Vietnam were not interested in researching such a disorder. People viewed it quite negatively once they knew what it was and believed that autism was a “karmic demerit” and a ‘family problem” (Song Ha, Whittaker, et al.). Companies that did support Autism failed to provide adequate help and were not following “basic ethical standards” to help people with this disorder, they were uneducated on what autism was, because of this they performed intervention methods that were not supported by evidence and would’ve potentially caused harm to the patient. According to Cong Van Tran and Bahr Weiss, “...in Vietnam it has not been formally accepted as a form of disability in all relevant policy domains; i.e., it is recognized as an official disability within the health-care system but not within the educational or social service systems.” meaning that people were ignorant on the disorder and failed to provide information and help to parents and their children who were diagnosed with autism. Although times have changed and people have become more aware, in Vietnam, people still do not fully understand what autism is. Researchers are still discovering ways to help autistic people and inform themselves and other people about autism. Understanding the lack of knowledge that Vietnamese people have about autism leads readers to understand why Esmeralda does not know what the term “autism” is and why she is confused about why Khai has a “special” personality and specific rules for himself and other