Annie Xiong - Week 5 Blog

The reading “Nothing Ever Dies,” relates to major issues affecting the SEA American community such as the re-narration of Vietnam War that is discussed in ASA 150E class. Despite its involvement in the Vietnam War and its involvement with the United States, South Korea put its effort into re-narrating its history 40 years ago. This is an issue because it is not right to re-narrate any history and avoid what had happened 40 years ago just because it seems like it is the right thing to do. It is unfair for the future generations to come to not know their real history.

One current event outside of class that relates to this week's theme is the Hmong Story 40 Exhibit. One of the purposes of this exhibit is to showcase the untold stories of Hmong folks during and after the Secret War that drastically affected them. The reason why this week’s theme and the Hmong 40 Exhibit connects to one another because both the Koreans and the Hmong's stories are not told in textbook. Their stories and narration are hidden and over time, they are slowly being narrated because of not having any hard record of their histories. In addition, the Koreans created a War Memorial, similarly to the Hmong 40 Exhibit, to commemorate actors and soldiers, as well as preserving its history. Overall, both the Hmong and Koreans’ goal is to education future generations that does not know their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents' history despite the good and the bad experiences.

Question: Do you agree with all these narration of other ethnics that revolve around the Vietnam War?

Sources:
Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War. 2016. Viet Thanh Nguyen.
http://blogs.egusd.net/tortalks/2015/05/06/hmong-story-40-exhibit-preview-launch-sacramento/