A principal character in the stage musical, Miss Saigon (1989), Kim, is an orphan.

Miss Saigon opens with Kim, 17 years old and from a rural area, beginning her first day as a bar girl. She is taunted by the other girls and women because she is inexperienced.

A US soldier, Chris, falls in love with Kim—and she with him—but Chris returns to the US without her.