A collage that recognizes many events, memories, and efforts of the Vietnamese community in San Diego and hope to inspire many more.
Refugees help shape many aspects in the community, such as diversity, economic, history and culture, especially the Vietnamese refugee community in San Diego. US imperialism has a significant impact on the Vietnamese community by using militarism to influence the Vietnamese through their occupation. The military further their occupation in Southern California with Camp Pendleton, where many Vietnamese communities and families started out with and being held in as refugees.
The Vietnamese communities as refugees are changing the idea of a refugee, where they are resilient through many struggles that throws at them such as losing their identity as a nation or moving to a different country for the sake of their life, their family and their freedom despite the risk of losing their lives. We are all known well of the pictures from the Vietnam War, where the US media depicted an image that the US is the savior of the refugees as through immigration porn, but they never discuss or proposed a way that Vietnamese refugees are actually more resilient through many problems and tackle many issues regarding their living conditions and status. The Vietnamese refugees try their best effort with assimilation, adapting, rebuilding their life, maintaining their culture over the years and have successfully done it with their sheer determination and perseverance.
The US government perspective pushes for the ideology that they saved them from communism and the refugee needs to become the best citizen they can be to repay the US government. This ideology works because of the advertisement and the public images that the government shows the citizens that the US has “We-Win-Even-When-We-Lose” Syndrome, where the US wins at the choice to interfere and rescue the Vietnamese refugees and that sees them doing better in the US than Vietnam. The Vietnamese American community is also under the influence of Model Minority Myth to accept many stereotypes that can negatively influence them, even though they are struggling. Where at the same time, the outside people see the US as a nation of opportunity and the military took credit for the refugee’s success, instead of the refugee’s effort.
The Vietnamese American community in San Diego have been and currently trying their best to continue and honor their culture and history. There have been many amazing murals and street arts by artists to help preserve their identity such that we see from the picture and around San Diego. In addition, over the years, the Vietnamese Refugees in San Diego have built themselves a community through many aspects such as food like Mien Trung Restaurant or Saigon Coffee. They also develop their religious identity such as Catholics churches and their Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement in San Diego as well that support their youth. The legacy of a refugee community can be shown through projects, events, foods, recognition, arts that can help create such a vibrant space and community that truly reflect their home.
The Vietnamese American community doesn't just make up of the refugees and their children, people from around the country are also coming to San Diego for education and connecting with Vietnamese Culture through many means such as Vietnamese Student Association at UC San Diego or San Diego State University. Students are participating and supporting their local pageant and San Diego Tết Festival, continuing the legacy that the Vietnamese Refugees have built in a celebration of Vietnamese culture all together. From the presentation of Dr. Thúy Võ Đặng, there are many different ways that the community can preserves the memories and culture, such as archival work, oral history, murals, books, audio recordings, notebooks, community events and more. Memories and archival works are necessary for a culture because it roots us to where we are and fills in the gaps that we might lose through trauma and war. The community can only truly be as vibrant and expressive as their community members contribute and help together build the community that they have. The community has grown so much over the years since the displacement of refugees, in which the communities need to continue to develop and recognize any efforts that any individuals or groups put out that can highlight or support the community. Without recognition, there is no hope for the future and the potential that a community can strive for in the future.
Artist Statement:
The name of the art piece is “To More Bubbles of Hope”. I want to recognize the efforts that the Vietnamese Refugee community has made and want to give a positive outlook in the future where hope can help transform many ideas that future generations can create that preserve history, create new traditions and bring a new perspective to the community. From my college, I want to give the image of the origins of the Vietnamese Refugee community, which is the boat, where we are called “Boat People”. I believe that by remembering the roots of your origins, you learn to recognize the efforts that our ancestors have done for the community and learn from it in order to improve in the future. At the same time, we are looking at the amazing progress the Vietnamese Refugees have made over the years of celebration and commemoration. The bubbles idea is a different outlook in life, a bit childish and more genuine, where it is represented through a child blowing out many bubbles that represent the progresses and events that the communities have created for themselves and for future generations. As time goes by, there will be more bubbles of Hope along with many ideas and dreams that are created by current generations and passed down to future generations with the sole purpose of keeping our culture alive and remembering its history and origins.
I use Canva as the website that creates the backgrounds along with bubbles. I have managed to find many pictures that represent the Vietnamese community in San Diego through many platforms such as websites, facebook, instagram, google maps. I would like to give credits to Sin Lee Food Market, Thao Huynh French with her mural, Miss Vietnam San Diego, Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement, Đoàn Thiếu Nhi Thánh Thể Kitô Vua, Liên Đoàn San Diego, The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Mien Trung Restaurant, Saigon Coffee, Vietnamese Federation of San Diego, The San Diego Union Tribune, KPBS, Vietnamese Student Association at UC San Diego and San Diego State University with the contribution of the collage.
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