The Two Trung Sisters

If you could have chosen to be named after somebody famous, who would you have chosen? Would you choose a superstar athlete? Or a popular musician? Or a Hollywood movie star? Well, in my case, I chose neither. In fact, I chose a pair women who are known by only few in the world. They are two national heroines in Vietnam, dubbed "Hai Ba Trung" or the "Two Trung Sisters." There are two main reasons for my choice: First of all, my name, Anhthu or Anh Thu, in Vietnamese, means heroine. And the second reason is that I truly admire these two women for their courage, determination, morality, and great accomplishments.
In the beginning of the first century, there lived two daughters of a powerful lord named Trung Trac and Trung Nhi. The name Trung means loyalty to one's country or king, and that was what the Trung sisters demonstrated when the country of Vietnam sent out a cry for help. …