Stories of War, Revolution, Flight, and New Beginnings
Edited by Sucheng ChanThe conflict that Americans call the "Vietnam War" was only one of many incursions into Vietnam by foreign powers. However, it has had a profound effect on the Vietnamese people who left their homeland in the years following the fall of Saigon in 1975. Collected here are 15 first-person narratives written by refugees who left Vietnam as children and later enrolled as students at the University of California, where they studied with the well-known scholar and teacher Sucheng Chan. She has provided a comprehensive introduction to their autobiographical accounts, which succinctly encompasses more than a thousand years of Vietnamese history. The volume concludes with a thorough bibliography and videography compiled by the editor. While the volume is designed specifically for today's college students, its compelling stories and useful history will appeal to all readers who want to know more about Vietnam and especially about the fates of children who emigrated to the U.S.
"Sucheng Chan has given us another gift of history! Moving away from the popular casting of Vietnamese refugees as objects of sympathy, The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation is bursting with riveting stories of lives that did emerge from and out of the ruins of war, and 'peace.'" —Yen Le Espiritu, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego
"The combination of first-person narratives with the historical overview provided by Chan as well as the bibliography make The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation very useful and quite distinct from other works. The process of teaching/learning and knowledge production that Chan describes is characteristic of the best in the Asian American Studies field, not only demonstrating why the field is important, but also how the documentation of lived experience by students with their families/communities generates new resources for research and academic curriculum/program development. Chan presents this process in a compelling, personal way; at the same time, she is implicitly modeling what should be the expected pedagogical practice in Asian American Studies." —Peter Kiang, Professor of Education and Director, Asian American Studies Program, University of Massachusetts Boston
"(T)he autobiographical accounts reveal key themes in the Vietnamese American experience and address important historiographical topics...this book contributes to refugee history, an important if understudied aspect of the immigrant experience. Includes a useful bibliography and videography. Highly recommended." —Choice
"Sucheng Chan’s groundbreaking book boldly addresses issues within American Studies that remain largely ignored or avoided. The book may focus on Vietnamese Americans, yet it poignantly and explicitly reflects upon Asian American Studies as a field of study. Chan addresses the field’s tensions between capitalism and Communism and between pedagogy and politics—all while highlighting the complexities of Vietnamese American experiences…The student-written narratives in the book are themselves a refreshing and unique approach for Vietnamese American Studies and Asian American Studies….This book will be valuable to both trained scholars and novice students of Vietnamese Americans." —The Journal of American Ethnic History
Asian American History and Culture
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