Welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service, with me, Anishka

Matanadawati.

Today, I'm telling you the story of how one woman went from movie star to cleaning chicken

coops in Canada and then back to a movie star.

It's early 1974 and actress Q Chin is wrapping up her latest film on location in Singapore.

Her days are filled with learning lines, costume fittings and movie star makeup.

She was one of the most recognisable actresses in East Asia.

Life was fantastic.

Until

In the middle of shooting, I hear that Saigon, my country, is about to fall into communist.

I see from the airport to the street that's so panic everywhere with packed people looking

for a way out, looking for each other.

An item home and every morning, wake up to learn that another piece of land in the south

have been fallen to communist.

Back in Vietnam, all QQ do will sit and watch, as the country she knew and loved, changed

into something unrecognizable.

She wondered if returning home was the right decision and started looking for ways out of

the country.

Lucky for her, she had friends in high places who got her a seat on the last flight out

of Vietnam.

I just sit all the way at the back of the plane in front of the toilet and I didn't even

have a chance to ask him where the plane would go and to my surprise, the plane landed

...