Blog Post 7:What can As Am Lit/History teach us?

Summing up my time in this class, I find that I can relate back to many literature pieces we examined. A vast amount of them have touched me on a personal level or at least opened my mind to what it was like to be Asian American during the most severe discriminatory times in history. However, two poems really gained my full attention. For one, "Beetle on a String" in Bold Words brought me into deep thought as I continued to reread the poem over and over again. From examination, I concluded that the passage was telling a story of what it meant for many immigrants first coming to the U.S. as they struggled with acceptance and leaving their past life behind; but also it could have told a story for what it was like for Vince Gotera, the author, to try and adjust to moving to the Philippines after leaving his home in America. I think what I like most about this poem is that I can't seem to choose which story the author is trying to get the reader to understand. In my second literature piece, "A Conservative View", really struck home as I couldn't stop comparing the mother in the story to my own mother. Every word in this poem seemed to exemplify my mothers attitude entirely. In the second stanza of the poem, Cathy Song recalls her mother saying "We do not spoil our children" (Bold Words 108). This quote continuously reminisces in my head as I remember the countless times growing up, and hearing my mom say the same exact thing to me. She would always refer back to how so many American children take advantage of their fortunes in this day and age. Implying, she didn't want me to grow up as that kind of child. I also remember, just like Cathy's mother, her favorite expression was also "no need" as my mom often said this whenever I would tag along to shop with her at the Westfield mall in Vancouver, or if we were eating at any given restaurant and I happened to want a little something extra for dessert, like a Hot-Fudge-Sunday to top of a delicious meal. In many ways, this poem reflected perfectly my home life and what it was like for me growing up with a refugee for a mother.

The one historical event that I pertained to most would be the events that lead up to the migration of Vietnamese and Laos refugees to countries like Canada and the United States. Upon examining this passage in Takaki, I felt a strong connection from line to line as I was able to relate nearly the entire reading to what a lot of my moms-side of my family had gone through in 1975. I found myself getting goosebumps as I read further and further while the hairs on the back of my neck took a standing upright position. It seemed amazing to me, that what I was reading about, in such a profoundly educated novel full of historical events, had actually portrayed an exact reflection of my families story. In Takaki a refugee exclaims, " I was afraid of the killings when the communists came to town"(pg 451), being a constant fear that many South Vietnamese faced after overhearing the war had been lost, and a sole reason for their escapes to protective foreign countries. This was my Grandpas thoughts when he made the decision to leave in a hurry with his family as a method of fleeing the newly formed Communist-run Vietnam. During the process of settling in their new country, Assimilation became apparent as many Vietnamese struggled to adapt and fit in with the dominant race of America, including member's of my own family. Prospectively, during the same time period of refugees converting to American ways, Interest Convergence was heavily prevalent. Americans had to treat the South Vietnamese entering the boarders of the U.S. as companions and different from other Asian Americans because they were allies in the war against communism. However, although Vietnamese were granted special treatment, that was not always the case as many struggled with racialized verbal abuse, including my grandparents as it caused issues for them and trying to maintain steady jobs.

These examples of literature and the historical piece on Vietnam all have greatly impacted my own life or ,if not, that of my ancestors in some way. From this class I have learned how cruel discrimination is, and how brutally relevant differential racialization was at certain moments in history. I have also broadened my knowledge on various cultures as a whole, and come to have nothing but the upmost respect for them. But most importantly, I have answered questions about my own self and come to embrace my Asian culture. I have come to understand a little more of who I am and where I come from, with the acceptance that I am a Vietnamese American and proudly stand by it.