review of thu le

this is going to be a mild rant about a review I saw about the "Grave of Thu Le" by Catherine Cole. The review started by saying that there were only a few Vietnamese writers that were not known outside their communities and that Vietnam had not captured the "literary imagination" the way Indonesia had after "Turtle Beach". Well the first claim is erroneous people have studied my work and David Chiem's at secondary and tertiary levels. The second claim is dubious. What is the "literary imagination"? Is it only when non-Asian mostly White authors write about the exotic location and it is mainstream successful that it is captured? This review was by Druscilla Mojewska in the Monthly of July.

identifying as asian-australian

I've been discussing the on line journal idea with Tom and Tseen and both of them mentioned that there may be artists that would not label their work or see their work fitting in to the Asian-Australian niche/category or whatever you would call it. I guess I think about Quan Yeomans who is Vietnamese-Australian and Regurgitator is a mainstream band. I'm so used to being labelled a Vietnamese-Australian writer that I've internalised it somewhat. Also in my work it often has a Vietnamese protaganist or issues involved. It didn't used to be like this, I had written some science fiction and fantasy work in my late teens that didn't involve ethnicity. Anyhow it's something new to think about.
I just read from Margaret Atwood's Negotiating the Dead and she says once you are a known writer then you cannot be invisible anymore. People stick labels on you and maybe project masks on to you that you cannot remove. That's maybe where my politicisation comes from in a way, I have only had to question my identity in regards to my face as a public writer when I am asked questions about it frequently. I also think it might be why authors have second novel syndrome they have to overcome whatever is projected onto them from the first novel and try and become invisible again to write the second book (if this is possible).

saving face and an on line idea

Today i'm thinking of starting up an on line journal for us Asian Australians. Suzie Lee has already started a site for multimedia and arts where people can post up stuff which I'm looking forward to looking at. I'm looking at I guess a bit more conventional literary journal so we don't have to wait for the special issues of journals to post our work up there. I'd also like to add to the sense of community that the meet ups already have and have a forum where people can post responses to the articles, and opinions etc. I've been conferring with Tom and Tseen on this- more about this later when it becomes more concrete.

I saw "Saving Face" a Chinese-American Chinese-American Chick Flick about a girl whose mother moves in with her and her ongoing relationship with a gorgeous dancer and how she has to hide it (trying not to spoil it for anyone here). It was fluffy and non challenging but I thought it was great that such a film was made and got distributed.

I've been looking at other Asian-Canadian and Asian-American websites and what they have been doing and it all looks so great...At the AA symposium Evelyn Lee ( I think it was) talked about how in the next 30-50 years we could formalise AA studies within the academe starting with a single subject etc. She also talked about the dangers of it too. Just looking at what gets funded with the two main grants bodies here it's almost like you have to fit a certain paradigm to even get started and you lose your artistic diversity and freedom (ie having to fit into definitions like literary, having to be a legal organisation etc). I think the AA growth here has been really organic and I'd hate to see it lose that.

writing life

I have decided to take an early redundancy from my work thanks to the Voluntary Student Union legislation and apply for a scholarship to try and write and study full time. Also thinking of applying for fellowships overseas with the support of my lovely partner. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time I have always had a day job or a respectable study path (in psychology) and now it feels like a bit of a gamble.

Yesterday I went to my first Children Of the Dragon workshop for a little while. I'm one of the contributing writers to this project which is looking at Vietnamese-Australian youth at the 30th anniversary of the community being here and where it might go next. The people in this project are energetic and most seem committed to the community and see themselves in thirty years doing something for it. I wonder whether this obligation to do something for the community is prevalent amongst Vietnamese because they are relatively new, the concept of nghia, or do all ethnic communities feel this obligation? One of the challenges popping up in this project is the perception that what we are portraying is too negative. We only refer to drugs once, and not to gangs at all- however we portray a lot of intergenerational conflict and PTSD. We cannot candy coat what is in the community though and I actually think our portrayal is very gentle. The burden of trying to be representative is weighing on the director and it strikes me as being a bit unfair- no one Australian Anglo production is ever expected to be representative of its culture.

back from Varuna

I've just come back from Varuna Writers Centre where I spent a week reflecting and writing. I also started the interviews for my Phd. I interviewed Binh Duy Ta who wrote the play Monkey Mother about identity, community and home. He emphasised the importance of language for him in establishing identity, as his English gets better he feels his Australian side becomes more pronounced. He also mentioned that a friend of his with better English found it hard to integrate into Australian culture- so it's not everything.
My own identity was heavily influenced by language or lack of it (I don't speak Vietnamese)- I have felt that I was just Australian for a very long time and then rediscovered my Vietnamese side when my grandfather died and I was introduced to Vietnamese Buddhism and its rituals. So now I identify as Vietnamese-Australian and sometimes I come across these things in my psyche that my non Vietnamese acquaintances describe as Asian- such as my propensity for silence and introversion.

visible ink

Today I saw a Visible Ink reading- the compilation put together by RMIT writing students. I was at RMIT in 1996 and from my classes a handful have had novels published. Margaret Bearman and Maria Hyland were in my classes with excellent novels with second ones to come.
Today it was poetry and I saw Angela Costi and Tom Cho read. Angela Costi was lyrical, with arresting images, and Tom was his usual sardonic humourous self.
Today I'd thought I'd write a little about writing process. Ursula Le Guin says that stories have to come to you, that she has moments or little whiles of silences before they come- which other writers might call writers block. She has a fantastic inspirational book out called The wave of the mind which contains some essays about writing and reading.
I have had writers block. Robert McKee says the answer is research. Julia Cameron calls it creative U turns. Nathalie Goldman suggests writing your way out of such spaces.
I think I have had to gain insight into what I write about. Why am I writing? Why am I writing such a story? What is it that I can give that is new and revealing?
I'm working on two projects at the moment. Dream Mapping about a survivor of a shooting who has a psychotic episode for the Australia Council Grant I have, and Digging up the bones for my Phd. Both have moments of silence in them, and I wonder how to express this in a novel.
Critical self reflection periods for all my characters occur when they are alone.
I worry sometimes that these books are too much internal monologue, not enough external world. But that is what the novel you could argue is all about.

banana split

Maybe banana split is a better description than banana, it allows for extra fillings with a cherry on top!
To explain my identity a little more, I see myself as Vietnamese Australian, or Australian of Vietnamese origin which is sort of clunky. I don't speak Vietnamese and I was born in Australia so would be counted as generation 2.
Some of my acquaintances have argued that I'm not Asian at all- but these are people who don't know me very well. It has been argued that language is the main vehicle of culture but I disagree with this- I have been exposed to plenty of Vietnamese customs and sensibility being explained (or not explained) to me in English.
For instance I somehow inherited family obligation and female self sacrifice and guilt without Vietnamese language. One could argue that this is the conditioning of most women but I'm not so sure- I'd like to think that I've outgrown and shed the notion of sacrificing myself.
Is there such a thing as Vietnameseness? Mandy Thomas would say there is. As a point of national pride the Vietnamese national character includes resistance to other cultures such as Chinese or American.
I think that there is a unique "vietnameseness" but I don't know how different it is to Chineseness for instance. This is what I'm going to look for in my research.

a beginners blog

This is my first blog. I was inspired by Tom Cho's blog on his transition to being a man.
I have yet to define the purpose of this blog. A public memory space for people to hear my thoughts on - writing process - being Vietnamese-Australian and a banana identity- and so people can read my thoughts without having to load it all on my website hoapham.net

So to start off today- I had an interesting conversation with a researcher who is looking at pho and identity. Why pho? If you don't know it's a noodle dish from Vietnam of beef broth and rice noodles. I think she was less interested in talking to me than talking to my parents.

Which is a shame because I could have talked to her about identity, in particular Vietnamese identity in Australia. I'm writing my thesis on this as relates to Vietnamese-Australian artists such as authors and playwrights like myself.

I use the word banana identity very loosely here. I am yellow on the outside and mostly white on the inside. But the more I look inwards the more I identify a yellow streak running in there somewhere.

More on this tomorrow- when I have more time.