[Week 7] (Re)drawing the Self through the Future of Viet Nam

Leslie Do
ASA 2, Dr. Valverde
TA: Josh Watkins, Section: A01
1st November 2015

(Re)drawing the Self through the Future of Viet Nam

             As the first child of Southern Vietnamese refugees, I've always used my extremely future-oriented personality, my locus of control, unbreakable focus on new possibilities,  and my willingness to immediately move forward from grievances to adapt, excel, and thrive in new social environments. Although my own parents express their raw hatred and aversion for Vietnamese communism and the current state of Viet Nam, I am more interested (emotionally and intellectually) in how the cultural, economic, anthropological, and political future of Viet Nam will change the future and lives of Vietnamese overseas, because I want to be a part of Viet Nam's future. Just like Huynh Chau, I am an artist who constantly (re)constructs, synthesize, and (re)connect representations of the relationship between overseas Vietnamese (in the US) and post-war Viet Nam in my artistic visions and imaginations. I am aware that staunchly anti-communist members of the Vietnamese community protested against Chau's exhibitions to censure and suppress their socio-cultural, representational power of the Vietnam diaspora and Viet Nam (Valverde, 2012, 42.) Yet, after viewing her "Pedicure Basin," I still feel inspired by Chau's deeply-rooted empathy for the Southern Vietnamese struggle in her artwork, which embodies closure from the Viet Nam War and spiritual healing through rethinking Vietnamese refugees' shared origins with the current state of Viet Nam.

Question

How will future narratives and sentiments of Viet Nam within Vietnamese diasporic art production change as Viet Nam's economic development and future progresses and the relationship between Viet Nam and Viet Kieu evolves?

Citation 

Valverde, Kieu. "Creating Identity, Defining Culture, and Making History from an Art Exhibit." Transnationalizing Viet Nam: Community, Culture, and Politics in the Diaspora. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2012. 42. Print.

A Collection of Thematic Artwork of the "Future of Viet Nam"