Saturday, October 31, 2015

Korean Culture vs Vietnamese Culture



Julie Le
Week 7
ASA002 A01
10/31/2015

The article regarding Korean American youth mentions that Korean Americans get a sense of community and feeling like they’re part of the “homeland” through popular culture they share. I think this is really interesting because the article about Chau Huynh is so different. For a while, any association with Vietnam was considered a communist-loving action so reading that Korean Americans are able to connect with their homeland through media is so different from the Vietnamese American community. It made me think of how much of a privilege different minority groups have over each other although we are oppressed under the Model Minority Myth. Although now, communication with Vietnam isn’t as protested against, it’s still difficult to be able to express an opinion without receiving mass protest like the situation with Chau Huynh. By sharing a common culture like KPOP or KDramas, Korean Americans are able to feel connected to their “homeland” whereas for Vietnamese Americans it’s hard to be able to feel a sense of community with Vietnam because of the fear of Communism. It leaves Vietnamese Americans in a constant state of feeling out of place because they don’t have a “homeland” to feel connected to.


So my question is: How long will it take to be able to discuss Vietnamese culture without any hints towards communism being assumed? Will we even be able to reach that point since Vietnamese and Korean history are so different?





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