Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do. Essay 2 Prompt: How does a transnational perspec

Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do.
Essay 2 Prompt: How does a transnational perspective contribute to understanding the evolution of individual and collective identities and relationships, as reflected in the case of Vietnamese American families and their representation by Thi Bui in her graphic novel?
Background Considerations:
“By tracing Vietnamese Americans’ close links to homeland and to other diasporic communities around the world, (a transnational) approach open(s) up new directions for research on the complexities and ambiguities of identity, on changing international politics and global economy, and on the complicated politics of this community as it continue(s) to evolve. This approach…capture(s) the real and perceived power of Vietnamese Americans as intermediaries between their host country and their homeland, and between Vietnamese in Vietnam and various transnational forces.” (Ho-Peche, Vo and Vu, Towards a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community and Memory, Temple University Press under contract)
Although refugees and immigrants are often lumped together in common perception, refugees by UNHCR definition (1951) are people who were forced to flee their homelands due to well founded fears of political persecution. This contributes to strong orientations to places of origins, especially for first generation refugees, for whom resettlement in other countries is involuntary and hoped to be temporary. The violent trauma furthermore that refugees underwent, from re-education camps, torture and death to discrimination and PTSD, can drive a generational wedge within families, as second generation children cannot fully understand what their parents went through and how it shaped them. As Thi Bui reflects on her father, of whom she was terrified growing up, “to understand how my father became the way he was, I had to learn what happened to him as a little boy. It took a long time to learn the right questions to ask” (92). This means incorporating the US and Vietnam as places of significance in reconstructing a meaningful family storyline and understanding their connections. As Bui says, part of connecting and healing with her family required her to “see Vietnam as a real place, and not a symbol of something lost” (36).
Today Vietnamese Americans are concentrated in California (including San Diego, Los Angeles and Little Saigon in Orange County, as well as San Jose and the Bay Area), Texas (Houston), Washington (Seattle), and the Washington D.C. area (northern Virginia). Many moved to these areas after being initially resettled in more isolated cities and states. On the east coast there are large Vietnamese population concentrations in Philadelphia and Boston. Hartford has the 5th largest population of Vietnamese on the east coast. Since the end of the Cold War and the refugee crisis, many have chosen to visit Vietnam for short and long term stays. Returns by first generation Vietnamese are often accompanied by younger Vietnamese Americans, for many their first trip to Vietnam. On such trips many second generation VN-Americans meet relatives and learn about their family’s pre-immigration history, opening up further inquiries. Over time Vietnam has become more receptive to and familiar with overseas Vietnamese (Việt Kiều) returns. A key symbolic policy that reoriented the Vietnamese Communist Party’s official attitude was Politburo Resolution 36 in 2004 that affirmed overseas Vietnamese as an integral part of the nation, although its sincerity has been met with skepticism by some in the diaspora. Nonetheless there is a significant population of Vietnamese Americans living in Vietnam today, some of whom have even taken up dual citizenship, reflecting new transnational orientations that are often expressed in literary, filmic and other artistic productions. Thi Bui’s TBWCD is an example of creative transnational engagements by a new generation of Vietnamese Americans and diasporic Vietnamese.
Response Guidelines: As you consider what a transnational perspective on understanding evolving identity reflections and formations offers, you may link it to your own experiences and histories, juxtaposed against the content of Bui’s graphic novel. You are encouraged to also be creative in your response, which can be a standard written reflection and analysis, but might also take other forms such as your own graphic narrative, artwork, poem, or otherwise. Be as experimental (or not) as you like!