Asian American and Sexuality

Ryan Ke

Section 1

Week 10

            The article, “Emergence of Queer Vietnamese America,” highlights the different sexualities present in the Vietnamese American community and explains how that identity shapes the Vietnamese American experience. Through ethnographic research, the article sheds light on three cases of coming out and how the integration of their sexuality and ethnicity affected them. While these three cases were all unique in their own ways, the bottom line was that their sexuality differentiated them from other Vietnamese Americans.

            What was most captivating about this article for me was the fact that it attempted to integrate individual’s sexual identity with their ethnicity. From my experience, sexuality is often a taboo topic for Asian American communities, and yet I see how it is so integral in one’s Asian American experience. To omit someone’s sexuality from his or her identity is to create a misrepresentation of that individual. I admire how this article is building a fuller and more complete picture of the Asian American experience of these individuals and those similar to them. Besides the Vietnamese American community, how does sexuality affect the experiences of other Asian American groups?