VAALA’s “F.O.B. II: Art Speaks” exhibit in Santa Ana was featured in the L.A. Times here, and the Times story prompted a call for (what else?) more protests of art.
And don’t say the Bolsavik didn’t warn you.
The Bolsavik did predict here that the exhibit would be this year’s hottest event.
Calling the exhibit “extraordinary in this historically anti-communist community,” the Times’ My-Thuan Tran quoted some of the organizers of the show like so:
“We felt this prevailing fear around the Vietnamese community after the foot bath incident,” said Tram Le, one of the curators. “I felt the community was on this slippery slope, that we were not progressing toward having open dialogue and being more tolerant of different political viewpoints.”
The group hopes to change the mood in Little Saigon through art.
“I think that we were trying to confront that fear head on,” said Mariam Lam, a UC Riverside assistant professor of literature and cultural studies, and board member of the art group. “We are trying to say that the community should be a safe space for people, even protesters.”
The idea of free speech apparently didn’t sit well with some people, and they were particular ticked at this art work by Long Beach City College professor Brian Doan, as shown on the L.A. Times’ web site:
In the photo on the wall, that woman’s shirt is the current flag of Vietnam. That bust on the credenza is the bust of Ho Chi Minh, the communist leader who’s been dead for 40 years but whose images are still taboo in Little Saigon.
So a group calling itself the “Thanh Nien Co Vang” (Yellow Flag Youth) is taking to the telephones and email, and calling for people to come out for a protest.
The Thanh Niên Cờ Vàng is no neophyte in the protest business. They have been one of the most ardent and regular people coming to demonstrate outside China’s consulate in Los Angeles over the Chinese occupation of the Spratlys and the Paracels, two archipelagos claimed by many countries including Vietnam.
*** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE ***
Click here for the Thanh Niên Cờ Vàng‘s call-out for protest (in Vietnamese). The call-out is in a Word document email attachment with a name intended to convey some sort of urgency: “SOS.doc.“
It says, and the Bolsavik quotes in translation, “Knowing that this is a Free country, the organizers can show what they want, but that does not mean they can do what they want.”
I thought it was strange that the L.A. Times did NOT mention the name of the gallery.
Will Van Tran and Janet Nguyen visit this exhibit – or otherwise lend their support to it? I doubt it. No huevos!
Shame on those anti free-speech protesters. They should get a life.
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/01/new-vietnamese-art-exhibit-in-santa-ana-features-commie-flag/
No Arturo, we are going to only have high class mexican cholos from your neighborhood visiting this art gallery. We will imprint their zip codes on their forehead for free.
Yeah, definitely Janet doesn’t have huevos but yours is defective due to prolong drug use. Go ahead blame your godfather burro.
Voltaire defined the freedom of speech (of expressions of ideas):
I disapprove what you say (express) but I fight so that you can say it.
Art is more excited with viet news…….why?
Well he needs take a break from his own low spirited SA neighbor news….. more graffiti, more drunks and dui’s on the loose and yes, the highest unemployment rate in the county.
You wish you were born viet ……Arturo!
Art, instead of using jose s. name….. why don’t you change your name on the driver’s license to some good viet name?
Who knows, you might get elected next time.
I don’t know what protest might accomplish ….. but I pray to see freedom restored in vietnam soon.
hey jung kim, “you pray to see freedom restored in vietnam”-? how about some freedom here in america from the communist filth that has come here and has “dug in” like you? if you dont like whats going on in vietnam go over there and fight and give your life just like all the beaners you yourself have attacked here on this blog who went over there to fight so your useless ass could come here to america and spew your shit. you’re a disgrace to your race but worse than that you’re a disgrace to your country. you should go back to vietnam where there are no mexicans and where you belong. and please take tan nguyen with you.
Jose,
Well said. Jung is no freedom fighter. He is a rude and disgusting coward.
so are you art.
All it takes is one racist word toward any ethnic group ( Latino, Asian, African American, or Caucasian), your thousand words for Vietnamese community is totally destroyed. Vietnamese community DO NOT tolerate racism, clear and simple.
One can always challenge other’s ideas and actions as individuals; However, blanket statements toward any specific community insults us all.
Country First,
Really? You might want to run that by Tan Nguyen and Van Tran. The latter has been reliably anti-Latino. And Tan wrote that awful letter…
Jose S,
Still upset over my previous support for Janet Nguyen? You need to let that go. No blogger in Orange County has scrutinized her as closely as I have over the past few months.
no thats not it at all art i said that because you talk out your ass for one and i didnt like being banned from your blog. but after all you are the king of your blog just like pulido is king of santa ana. you rule your little “kingdoms” and dont allow for others to correct you or speak out against you. pretty cowardly if you ask me but i think it’s stupid that you would think that is was your involvement with that commie filth janet that pissed me off. i have watched her numerous times on the supervisors televised meetings and in interviews and it’s pretty clear to see she’s a dunce. the only thing missing is her big red dunce hat. you’re supposed to be an educated man art why couldnt you see through it? forget about her not backing you for your run against bustamante, she’s had many questionable actions but none bigger that when she went to moran street to gobble down roast pig with the very cancer that has infected our community. even then you defended her. pathetic. and country first, there is much racism in the viet community and it’s very much tolerated. just like the viet community tolerates out of control communists who want to shut everything down because it “offends” them.
jose.s ….mexican wannabe and Arturo Pedroza…viet wannabe why don’t you two guys get hooked up one day and share the intimate moments as the proud members of the loser’s association?
Artuor Pedroza is the one who calls anti- latino to all other races in his blog. He has severe mental disorder falsely believing everyone is out there to rape latino race. Cinco de Mayo every day!
Art Pedroza is known as political prostitute…. “give me your endorsement on my campaign trail otherwise I am going to rip you apart on my orange blog with all my fictional imagenations”!
Dirty male prostitute for sure!
hey jung kim, at least both of us use our real names why dont you? and quit spitting out random comments three at a time.
Is your name jose solorio …according to your real mom?
jose. s., “I know your name is not jose”…said your gene shared dad.
jose s. your name is Arturo de Perrito.
A bust of former communist leader Ho Chi Minh is tantamount to a slap in the face.
People would sometimes think and quite proud of themselves as someone who is very talented and well informed of things as they now so happen to stand firm and well at certain positions. Unfortunately, this isn’t so much about freedom of speech, but is a lack of deep understanding the larger historical and cultural landscape of the Vietnamese community. Responsibility goes out the window in direct proportion to the level of ignorance.
Everyone who were victims of communist brutality, suffered injuries to their human core at certain degree. Even to this day, there are many people still grapple with a mixture of fear, sadness, anger, incomprehension, and loss. And not everyone would insist on going to have an open dialogue, not everyone would think that such a dialogue will secure liberty and democracy for the less fortunate Vietnamese at homeland.
The term F.O.B. reminds many Vietnamese refugees a life that once desperately, aimlessly floated on water. And, as long as we still exist above ground, we are obviously very vulnerable to the consequences of our own action and cultivated decision. Even so, many soon forgotten what already considered as the past, living the comforting life, Full Of Baloney.
Mr. XYZ,
I am seriously thinking about this issue, and appreciate your opinion.
I would like you to consider the following point to refine your approach.
1. “A slap in the face” is applied only to those who STANDS in front of the photo. If you mean this artwork is offensive to the Vietnamese refugee community, then a different verbal metaphor should depict a clearer image of OPPRESSION. Admission to the exhibit is voluntary.
2. You might have to explain why you dismiss this exhibit is a freedom of speech ( a very important principle for many others ).
3. Why do you think The author of the artwork lacks deep understanding of larger historical and cultural landscape. The author is a Vietnamese art teacher. From which frame of reference are you proposing he should take ?
4. You express a position of not advocating dialogue for democracy for Vietnam. As principle of democracy, you are perfectly entitled to your opinion; however, would other people be entitled to their opinion as well.
Democracy is competition and appeal of ideas. I support your right to express your opposition; However, we have to respect the limits beyond which our effort would be interpreted as suppression of freedom, which would result more damages to our cause, in the general public opinion.
5. I agree with you that many have forgotten about the VIETNAM war, 65% of Vietnamese in Vietnam were born after 1975, they have only one version of history. I remember in 1975-1979 period, most Vietnamese refugees in America blamed the fall of Saigon on the sudden collapse of the Saigon military leadership. Is this a thinking you really want the Vietnamese community to relive ?
SOS: cờ máu và hình hồ tặc lại xuất hiện tại thủ đô tị nạn người VN
Ngày 9-18 tháng 1, 2009 ở VAALA Center (1600 N. Broadway, Santa Ana – CA , 92706) có triển lãm tranh tại thủ đô tị nạn người VN tại Little Saigon. Theo như hình ảnh thấy được trong trang nhà LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-vietarts10-2009jan10,0,7044678.story) thi buổi triển lãm này có triển lảm hình bán thân HCM & cờ máu (cờ đỏ sao vàng) của csVN. Và cũng theo LA Times & FOBII (ban tổ chức) press release trên trang nhà của Radio VNCR (http://www.radiovncr.com/Portals/1/Docs/FOBII-Press%20Release-FINAL-Vietnamese.doc), thi 1 trong 50 nghệ sĩ của buổi triển lãm là Huỳnh Thủy Châu là người đã từng đem lại sóng gió đến cộng đồng tị nạn cộng sảnVN với bức tranh dùng cờ Vàng 3 sọc đỏ thiêng liêng của dân tộc Việt Nam làm nền của chậu rửa chân (đã được đăng trên tờ báo xuân 2008 của nhật báo ngời Việt).
Xét rằng, (1) HCM cùng tập đoàn độc đảng csVN là tội đồ của dân tộc VN, chúng đả từng bán đất dâng biển cho quan thầy Trung Cộng, (2) mang lại sư băng hoại cho xã hội VN. (3) Cờ đỏ sao vàng của csVn không phải là cờ quốc gia mà là của tập đoàn đảng csVN, đại diện cho sự khát máu đã nhuộm đầy máu của đồng bào VN chúng ta. (3) Hiện tại, csVN lại dâng thêm đất thêm biển cho Tàu cộng & không ngừng đàn áp dã man thanh niên sinh viên quốc nội vì lòng yêu nước của họ, và cũng không ngừng cướp đất, cướp nhà của tôn giáo & người dân vô tội để tư lợi cho mình.
Biết rằng, đây là xứ Tự Do, BTC có quyền triển lảm những gì họ muốn, nhưng không phải họ muốn làm gì thì làm. Không thể vì quyền tự do của mình mà làm tổn hại người khác, những hình ảnh này cũng là 1 cái gai độc trong cơ thể người quốc gia tị nạn cs. Chẳng lẻ BTC triển lãm không biết chuyện 53 ngày đêm biểu tình chống Trần Trường treo hình Hồ tặc ở Bolsa cách đây 10 năm? Chẳng lẻ họ muốn gây thêm sóng gió & chống đối cộng đồng tị nạn chúng ta?
Vì thời gian cấp bách & cũng không thể làm ngơ trước sự văn hóa vận 1 chiều – nghị quyết 36 của csVN, TNCV xin tất cả các quí đại điện cộng đồng, tôn giáo, các nghị viên dân cử đại diện cho cộng đồng tị nạn csVN, thanh niên sinh viên cùng quí đồng hương hảy bỏ qua sự bất đồng ý kiến & dị biệt để cùng nhau chống lại sự tuyên truyền độc hại cho con em chúng ta do csVN tổ chức. Chúng ta phải thẳng tay vạch mặt & tẩy chay những tên ăn cơm quốc gia mà thờ ma cộng sản nàỵ củng như cuộc triễm lãm hồ tặc & cờ máu không thể triển lãm ở thủ đô tị nạn cs chúng ta.
Kính chào đoàn kết,
Thanh Niên Cờ Vàng
In my humble opinion, if the Vietnamese community wants to have a civilized dialogue with one another, it will just have to shoot all the loudmouth (and possibly commie-in-disguise) anti-communist activists.
@ Thanh Nien Co Vang.
may em con nho , khong biet la tu ” Kinh Chao Doan ket ” la tu cua cong san ha ma sao dam su dung vay .
May em phai viet la ” Doan ket va tran trong kinh chao” moi dung chu . Dung co dai dot ma xai tu cua Cs .
Xet rang day la xu so cua tu do, moi nguoi dan co quyen bay to quan diem cua minh.
Xet rang, khong phai tat ca moi nguoi Viet trong cong dong deu hua theo danh nhung nguoi khong dong y voi minh, do la hanh dong ho do va ap buc nguoi khac
Toi, mot nguoi Viet den dat nuoc nay tu nam 1975 de tim tu do, va luon tran trong quyen tu do do
Toi phan doi nhung hanh dong ca vu lap mieng em, va keo be lu de bop mieng nguoi khac cua nhung ke xach dong, keu goi bieu tinh, dung nhung loi le ha cap, tho tuc, thieu van hoa de ma ly nhung nguoi khong di theo duong loi mot chieu cua minh.
Nhieu nguoi trong nhom xach dong bieu tinh da phat bieu la “…thay soi mau khi nhin la co mau hay hinh ho chi minh”, nhung sao quy vi do khong thay soi mau khi ve Viet Nam du lich, thay la co mau va hinh ho chi minh nhan nhan khap noi, ma chi thay soi mau khi da ve lai My. That la mot thai do dao duc gia va re tien
Xin hoan nghenh viec lam cua VAALA, cua Viet Weekly, de cong dong co tieng noi da nguyen.
The other works of photographer Brian Doan
The Book Project The Forgotten Ones Concludes with $10,488.30 Donated to Organizations Helping the Vietnamese refugees
WESTMINSTER – Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) and photographer Brian Doan have concluded the book project The Forgotten Ones. The project has raised $12,238.30 since the book was published in February of 2005.
From the total funding of $12, 238.30,the amount of $7988.30 was donated to the Vietnamese Community in the Philippines) in August 2005 to help the refugees with transportation from Palawan to Manila in order to complete the interview process before resettling in a third country. Funding of $2500 was donated to VOICE (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for the Conscience Empowerment) to help the refugees resettle in the new country. Funding of $1500 was donated to Brian Doan to continue his photography project “Vietnamese Diaspora.” The remaining $250 was given to VAALA’s book project “Nghệ Thuật Tạo Hình Việt Nam Hiện Đại”” (The Contemporary Visual Art of Viet Nam) by Huynh Huu Uy, which will be published at the end of this calendar year.
The Forgotten Ones was published to document a historical phenomenon of the Vietnamese refugee period and to raise public awareness on the limbo situation of the last refugees. The 110-page book featuring 30 black and white photographs reflects the life of the refugees in the Palawan Camp. The book also contains many facts about the boat people experience compiled by Mr. Richard H. Sindt. At the time of the book’s release, about 2000 people were waiting hopelessly in the Philippines to resettle in a third country. Through his lens, Brian Doan documented the mental as well as the physical exhaustion of the refugees. “I am very pleased to see that the book The Forgotten Ones has a very happy ending; a majority of ‘the forgotten ones’ has now resettled in a third country after years of being stateless,” Doan says. “I hope they are getting a lot of help and will have a better life to compensate for what they have been through,” concluding, “Once again, I’d like to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the sponsors of the book project.”
Lawyer/activist Hoi Trinh later sent the book to many officials in Canada and the U.S. when he was trying to lobby for the refugees to resettle in a third country. “[This book] has helped in showing the bureaucrats in Canberra, Ottawa, and Washington D.C. what statelessness means and what they can do to help, resulting in some 2000 Vietnamese refugee lives being rescued and now safely resettled in the West,” Hoi Trinh explains. He adds, “But to this day, it should still serve as a reminder that there are over one hundred Vietnamese families left in limbo and broken after nearly 20 years of statelessness in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines.”
In order to publish The Forgotten Ones, VAALA and Brian Doan have received donations from these following sponsors: Mr & Mrs. Phát Bùi, Mimi Studio, Ms. Tracy Anh Trâm Phạm, Dr. Nguyễn Văn Hưng & Ms. Quỳnh Hương, Người Việt Daily News, Ms. Roxanne Chow, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc, Ms. Hạnh Nguyễn, Mr. Đinh Quang Tuyền, kicon.com, and Lê Đình Điểu Foundation. “We would also like to specially thank the two journalists Dương Phục and Vũ Thanh Thủy and Mr. Nam Lộc for their great support in making our book signing a success in Houston,” insisted Ysa Le, VAALA’s Executive Director.
Brian Doan is an artist and photographer based in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from the University of Colorado in Denver and his MFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. He is an assistant professor of photography at Long Beach City College. Doan’s work has been exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Photography in Riverside, California, the International Center of Photography in New York, the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City, Mexico, the Victoria & Albert Museums in London, the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, and the Milan Triennale. He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including those from the California Council for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Fellowship in the Humanities.
Founded in 1991 by a group of Vietnamese American journalists, artists and friends, Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) is a community-based, non-profit organization that promotes and enriches arts and culture by, for, and about the Vietnamese communities. VAALA has organized numerous cultural events such as art exhibitions, book fairs, book signings, recitals, plays, lectures, the biennial Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF), the biennial Cinema Symposium, the annual Children’s Moon Festival Art Contest and year-round art and music classes. VAALA recently developed the smART Program, which offers free art workshops for non-profit youth organizations in the Orange County and Los Angeles areas.
and today, VAALA is benefiting communist government’s interest by promoting Ho Chi Minh and communist flag under the name of art project./display.
They should share the bill with communist government for this exhibit.
Stop sticking communist hat on people you do not agree with. Many of us do not agree with them, However, calling them names is our biggest problem.
Calling them name would distort the problem from a normal divergence of thoughts of Vietnamese people on how to reconcile with our own past to a black-or-white ideological command.
Calling them names is actually an act of handing over our own scholarly accomplished individuals to the other side, who just are too eager to exploit our internal strife.
Calling them names is the main reason we have been losing the younger generations for the past 30 years.
Remember younger generation have better knowledge of the world than older folks.
Calling them names divides us into thousand pieces of frustration and dissolution.
Politics in Vietnamese community is a politics of division and subtraction.
Politics in general American community is a politics of addition, that is the reason why democracy thrives, but not within the Vietnamese community
Who is helping the communist ?
Ngo Ky would be the first on my list.
Country First’s wisdoms are highly appreciated.
Maybe the Viets’ politics stemmed from a culture of stupid exclusion, i.e., if our enemy uses something as a symbol, then we will never use that thing. Since our enemy used the red color for their flag, we now don’t like the red color anymore. Our enemy sent their students to USC, then we should not send our children to USC. Our enemy pretends to respect freedom of expression, then we should suppress that freedom of expression right away! The list of exclusion is long but I’ll cut it short right here: Our enemy includes everyone, inside VN as well as oversea, then we should EXCLUDE everyone whom our enemy includes!!!
Wake up, all Vietnamese who still have some thinking! We are marching into our enemy’s trap! When we try to suppress our most valuable human right, our right to freedom of expression, we are dehumanizing ourselves to become our own enemy!
A good reminder is appropriate here, “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” -Noam Chomsky
Jose S.
You are not banned currently at my blog. We dismissed our previous webmaster a few months ago and unbanned everyone.
Let freedom live!
Our Viet friends should learn this lesson too. Censorship is un-American. It is the Commie way.
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/01/van-tran-and-the-trannies-fan-protest-fires-in-santa-ana/
Art Pedroza yeah… any restriction is bad in cholo culture so just make babies left and right and let the state take care of them.
Cinco de Mayo everyday with corona for Art.
There are ways to stimulate dialog about Viet identity and politics without bludgeoning people with Ho images and other knee-jerk “art.” Real artists would have the creativity to accomplish more sophisticated and truly valuable communication.
By the way, only the government and its agencies can censor speech and expression. Private citizens protesting another citizen’s speech is called the marketplace of ideas. Protests of Don Imus’ “nappy headed hos” remark, resulting in his being fired from the radio station where he was working, is one example of the marketplace of ideas at work — and working to evolve a nation.
There is something wrong when African Americans who protest hateful/harmful/disrespectful expressions are (rightly) not labeled “people who censors speech,” but if Viet Americans protest hateful/harmful/disrespectful expressions, they are (wrongly) accused of being censors of free speech.