Past Wars, Present Wisdom: Negotiating for a Southeast Asian
American Vision through Memoir Writing and Reading July 21, 2011
July 21, 2011 Slide 2 Slide 3 Asian American Literature: A
Contested Ground Slide 4 Slide 5 Slide 6 Kien Nguyen, dentist and
writer Kien Nguyen, dentist and writer ( May 12, 1967, Nhatrang,
South Vietnam ) ( May 12, 1967, Nhatrang, South Vietnam ) The
Unwanted (2001, memoir) The Unwanted (2001, memoir) The Tapestries
(2002, novel) The Tapestries (2002, novel) Le Colonial (2004,
novel) Le Colonial (2004, novel) Slide 7 Plot: Book begins with a
prelude that describes Kiens 5-year-old-birthday party in 1972 at
the Nguyen Mansion. Fast forward to the fall of Saigon in 1975 and
back to his childhood of being ridiculed and insulted (school
parade marshal, Luu, three potatoes, half-breed, burnt-rice, little
muck, trash), and then the years of hardship, including being raped
by Lam, failed attempt to flee by boat, being jailed, and the
desperate preparation to flee. Mothers Relationships Mothers
Relationships An American civil engineer/Kiens father, left money,
enabling the mother to join a bank partnership enabling the mother
to join a bank partnership An American officer/Jimmys father, left
money, enabling the mother to build Nguyen Mansion the mother to
build Nguyen Mansion Nguyen Mansion: 3 stories, 24 rooms, at least
8 bedrooms, Western furniture, Sears catalog clothes, with gardener
Mr. Tran, one cook, Loan, plus two other maids catalog clothes,
with gardener Mr. Tran, one cook, Loan, plus two other maids A
Vietnamese guy/Be Tis father, called Lam; raped and impregnated the
familys maid and nanny, Loan; also raped Kien Cui Ba, the community
commander, Kims father, imposed himself on Kiens mother Slide 8
capitalist; corrupt counterrevoluntary
half-breed/burnt-rice/little/muck/trash victim of war and
communists rescued by America freedom-loving grateful to USA model
minority SYMPATHY Slide 9 The memory of Kim flooded my mindNow I
understood the price that I had to pay for my revenge. Whether Kim
forgave me or not, I had broken her physically and emotionally. I
was no better than Lam, or her father, or any other loathsome
creature that ever crossed my path. Worst of all, I had to live
with that knowledge. The Unwanted, page 322 The Unwanted, page 322
Slide 10 Slide 11 RIGHT AFTER THE VIETNAM WAR RIGHT AFTER THE
VIETNAM WAR Many Americans shunned the veterans upon their return
from the battlefield, treating them as visible symbols of Many
Americans shunned the veterans upon their return from the
battlefield, treating them as visible symbols of the Unites States
humiliating defeat in Vietnam. Refugees were unwelcome. 25 th
ANNIVERSARY/YEAR 2000 25 th ANNIVERSARY/YEAR 2000 Los Angeles
TimesThe Orange County RegisterTime The New York TimesThe San Diego
Union TribuneNewsweek The Washington PostThe San Jose Mercury News
American veteransVietnamese refugees the innocent and the might
heroesthe liberated and grateful refugees the loving family guysthe
anticommunist Model Minorities the friends and the rescuersin the
Land of the Free Slide 12 Directing attention away from the
geopolitical, military, and economic causes and the ongoing
devastation of the Vietnam War for the majority of Vietnamese
people. Underrepresenting many Vietnamese Americans whose life is
characterized by unstable, minimum-wage employment, welfare
dependency, and participation in the informal economy. Naturalizing
the great economic disparity between the two countries, depicting
the two economies as unconnected rather than mutually constituted.
Confirming the superiority of a white American middle-class way of
life and the righteousness of rescuing projects. Making Vietnamese
refugees become the featured evidence of the appropriateness and
even necessity of U.S. world hegemony. Slide 13 Slide 14 Slide 15
If you want to ever achieve happiness, dont dwell on the past.
Instead, start living. What is the point of obsessing over
something that has already happened, and that you cannot change?
Live! And be merry. Epilogue & Page 312 Slide 16 personal
healing healing for 50,000 Amerasian children healing for friends
as well as enemies healing for all or humanity how and when the
personal becomes the public how and when the singular can represent
the collective War produces no winner. I am the enemy you killed,
my friend. by Wilfred Owen develop views that are deeply rooted in
the past as well as the present, there and here, us and you enabled
to deliver not only sympathy but also EMPATHY
