Week 6_Kelly Wang_ASA 114

Professor Valverde’s chapter highlights Chau Huynh’s life and motivation behind her artwork. Valverde gives further insight into how cultural struggles develop, specifically among the Vietnamese American community: “Cultural production, and very importantly, the media outlets that disseminate and validate the works, then, become the focus for shaping the political, cultural, and social landscape for relatively recent immigrant groups like Vietnamese Americans” (Valverde, 92). Stuart Hall’s reading tackles defining exactly what cultural identity means as well as how it is relevant to the African diaspora. According to Hall, cultural identity can be defined in two ways: (1) “one true self” or “one people”, and (2) “what we really are” or “what we have really become”. Professor Valverde argues how “New environment of creation and discontent has allowed new struggles for voice and representation within the Vietnamese American community to emerge” (Valverde, 92). New identities are formed when there are cultural identity conflicts and a divide among communities. Ethnic studies introduces counter-storytelling, which gives a voice to the marginalized whose stories have been silenced by the majoritarian stories (ASA 189D). The importance of the art that is produced amidst these cultural identity struggles is that art expresses the stories that cannot necessarily be put into words quite yet. 

In bringing both readings from this week together, the Stuart Hall reading, Hall states “Identity is not as transparent or unproblematic as we think” which can be directly tied back to the cultural identity conflict among the Vietnamese Americans highlighted in the Valverde reading. Identity is in fact not transparent at all and very problematic given the divide it can bring to communities when there is a disagreement in what people believe should be the “single cultural identity”. Relating the readings back to the concept of the Asian diaspora, Professor Valverde expresses how “The controversy around Chau’s installation and the Nguoi Viet Daily shows the continued efforts of certain Vietnamese Americans to produce their own reality away from the home country” (Valverde, 100). The reading exhibits the Vietnamese American community with conflicting feelings of displacement, which includes multiple ideas of home and choice, or lack of choice, of a home. ‘Producing their own reality away from the home country’ is leading to the creation of new, shared hybrid cultures. Relating to our own personal experiences, we can examine the pan-Asian identity in America as well as question if there is a divide among the community. For example, we can discuss how the model minority myth affects the Asian-American community and what cultural identity conflicts this myth may be creating among the Asian-Americans that may not necessarily fall under the model minority narrative.