ASIA AM 10W Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Vietnamese Americans, Propublica, Asian Americans
16 May 2018
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Department
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Professor
Credits are given to the guest speakers.
Bad Vietnamese American Narrative in Little Saigon
●Roadmap: “How do dominant narratives shape vietnamese American history? What are
the consequences of that for the present day and future?”
●What is the typical narrative of Vietnamese American: anti-communist, Catholic,
republican and conservative, high education (doctor, pharmacist etc.), healthy women,
women only date with white men etc.
●Frameworks & concepts
○Yen Le Espiritu—“Good Refugee”: enthusiastically embrace US culture and
assimilate
○Mini Thi Nguyen—the “Gift” of freedom: Refugees are obligated to be grateful to
the countries that accept them
○Phuong Tran Nguyen: collective memory, which influences regular actions
Cases of Bad Refugees
●Hi-Tek Video Store incidence (Jan-March 1999)
○Mr.Tran put up a poster of the flag of Communist Vietnam (freedom of speech),
which triggers people to protest
○“Down with Communism” “Go back to Vietnam”
○Community tried to change Mr.Tran from a bad refugee to good refugee by
placing the South Vietnam flag over him
●F.O.B. II: Art Speaks exhibit (Jan 2009)
○Show the diversity on the topics of sex, refugee history, politics, and aesthetics
etc., intend for open discourse
○Triggers protest; the show was turned down
○Art speaks for the silenced: supposed to be free from census; however, the flag
that usually represents a symbol of freedom and democracy becomes a symbol
of censorship when people defaced the art exhibits with the flag
●Sister Cities (Jan 2015)
○Sister city: symbolic cultural exchange; Riverside-Vietnam city relationship;
protest about sympathizing with a communist country which violates human
rights; counter-protest also happened
○Council was asked to cancel the relationship
○The idea that good refugee parents should make their children grateful and good
●Terror in Little Saigon by Propublica & Frontline
○Vietnamese journalists were murdered
○This speech is not free, no discourse of these murdered journalists until later
Thoughts to think about
●How can we not create trauma? How can we heal the community?
●“What do we forget by remembering? What do we forget to remember?”
(De)constructing Asian American Student Experiences
●Background: how do students participate in the college experience?
○Campus culture and climate
○Take advantage of resources and opportunities e.g. Bruin Day
○Be involved in and active e.g. extracurriculars
●“How involved is too involved?”
○How many hours of extracurriculars (clubs, religion, working, not leisure)?
●Student organizations
○Benefits: how they help you? -make friends and connections etc.
○Potential consequences: go beyond 20 hours → potential harm to health and
academics
●Who earn degrees?
○Researchers only make decisions and look at those majorities
○Who are excluded (hidden narrative): Southeast Asian etc.
●[Book] Asians in the Ivory Tower
○Ivory tower: white education institutions which look down upon technical
vocational schools, community colleges etc.
●Asian American Racial Triangulation
○Racial hierarchy: Asian Americans seen as foreigners and outsiders
●Filipinos-Living in liminality
○Liminality: crossing border between one side and the other side
○Filipinos:
■A high school separates Chinese students and Filipinos students, Chinese
“behave better, more likely to go to college”, Filipinos the opposite
■Model minority myth
■Filipinos as multi identity individuals e.g. gender roles and students
○Ethnic group membership
■Extracurricular activities with ethnic-group specific clubs
■A way of fostering identity and belonging, more likely to feel as a part of
the campus
●Filipinx Mental Health
○Most suicide rate, most seek help
○Extracurricular activities (your role is more than just student)
○Student Burnout: exhaustion, distancing, psychological duress, separate yourself
from university
■Methodological differences: grassroots organizations
Document Summary
What are the consequences of that for the present day and future? . What is the typical narrative of vietnamese american: anti-communist, catholic, republican and conservative, high education (doctor, pharmacist etc. ), healthy women, women only date with white men etc. Yen le espiritu good refugee : enthusiastically embrace us culture and assimilate. Mini thi nguyen the gift of freedom: refugees are obligated to be grateful to the countries that accept them. Phuong tran nguyen: collective memory, which influences regular actions. Mr. tran put up a poster of the flag of communist vietnam (freedom of speech), which triggers people to protest. Down with communism go back to vietnam . Community tried to change mr. tran from a bad refugee to good refugee by placing the south vietnam flag over him. Show the diversity on the topics of sex, refugee history, politics, and aesthetics etc. , intend for open discourse. Triggers protest; the show was turned down.
