Chouatong Mouavangsou - Week 6

Week 6

In Transnationalizing Viet Nam, by Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde, she talks about the Vietnamese diasporic community. Often times, the term diaspora evokes positive connotations, however sometimes this may not be the case (1-2). Sometimes, the community away from home and the host country may have hostile and negative attitudes about one another (2). “Such is the case with Viet Nam and its diaspora,” (2). The result of this is a disconnection and separation of one’s community due to its ideologies. This disconnection greatly impacts the Vietnamese American youth as they try to navigate their lives and try to acculturate to the U.S. culture (11). The result of this? Many Vietnamese American youths growing up with self-esteem and identity issues as they try to understand their own history and place in the world. As these Vietnamese American youths try to speak to their parents and elders of the community, most of the time, they are ignored and their voices go unheard and lost behind the silence given to them. Silence is a blessing, but also a curse. And when one asks to understand a situation, but is greeted with silence, that makes a person feel invalidated. There are Vietnamese American youths who are trying to understand their stories and trying to reclaim it as their own, however that’s only possible if their parents and the elders of their community are willing to make the youth understand. Nowadays, most of the time, Vietnamese American parents and elders tell their young they have it so lucky and they should be grateful that they’re here. But how can their young truly understand the situation, if all they here is that they should be grateful for coming here? If all the Vietnamese American youths hear that repeatedly over and over without truly understand why, how can the youth be expected to understand without knowing? How can their parents and elders expect their young to understand if they themselves aren’t willing to explain? How can the young understand their parent’s stories if the parent’s themselves aren’t willing to tell about it?



White, V. (2012, April 1) Vietnamese Youth Image, [Photograph]
http://media.namx.org/images/editorial/2012/03/0329/v_white_vietteens/v_white_vietteens_500x279.jpg