Response to “Creating Identity, Defining Culture, and Making History”

Bee Lee

Section 2

Week 7

Response to “Creating Identity, Defining Culture, and Making History”

       In this week’s reading, “Creating Identity, Defining Culture, and Making History from an Art Exhibit: ‘Unfinished Story: A Tribute to My Mothers,’” Valverde discusses how Huynh Chau’s artwork caused a controversy within the Vietnamese diaspora. Although this is a sensitive topic to many, I believe viewers have misunderstood Chau’s representation of the artwork. In this case, Chau created her artwork through expressing her emotions and how she views her ethnic identity. However, many people, like the Nhuoi Viet Daily, disagree as they hold different interpretations. Chau grew up in a different environment where her family believed in communism. When she later marries her husband, who holds anticommunism beliefs, her views changed as she started to understand many Vietnamese American’s hardships. However, after displaying her artwork, it caused controversy. Valverde states how she believes that the “Vietnamese American community lives in a state of fear.” They believe that one day, all will forget the disaster that they faced. That one day, someone will forget about what has happened. That one day, one will forget one’s history, one’s experiences, and one’s sufferings. I too, can understand as my Hmong brothers and sisters hold the same beliefs and face the same situation as the Vietnamese Americans. My parents live every day in fear that one day, we will forget who we are. Now, art allows us to express our feelings and views on a certain subject. However, in this case, it represents the creation of an identity and defining of a culture. How might you express your identity, culture and history without causing a controversy within your diaspora?