Saturday, April 30, 2005

30 years since the end of the "American War"

The first 30 years were devoted to survival. Who knows what the next 30 years will bring.  That seems to be the question for Vietnamese Americans, especially for the youth, today.  What are the issues facing us now, opposed to having to literally survive and create our own identity within American society?  


2 comments:

Lan said...

I'm glad you bring this up. I was just thinking about this very subject last night. Past survival is identity, IMO. The faster we come to a dynamic equilibrium about what it means to be Vietnamese-American, the faster that we can mobilize as a political force.

I think what I'm saying is that Vietnamese-Americans need to step out of the shadow of this supposed "Pan-Asian-American" identity and to take their own stand. Our experience cannot be represented in lump sum with the Chinese and Japanese-Americans. We have experienced history differently and now is the time to explore that discourse - one not dominated by an Amero-centric view of tragic loss in warfare. I'd really like to see this begin with literature and film - a new generation of voices that are not dominated by the memory of war.

Just my two cents. Thanks for posting this. ^_^

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