As previously scheduled, the organizers of VAALA‘s “FOB II: Art Speaks” exhibit held a panel discussion. Titled “Slant or Slander?: Community, art, and media coverage,” the panel instead got entangled in arguments over freedom of expression and a photograph that includes images of the current Vietnamese flag and a bust of Ho Chi Minh (read here).
One audience member, Bui Kim Thành (standing and speaking in the picture – see also here) drew hearty applause when she managed to spontaneously give in one breath a description of the government of Vietnam as, and the Bolsavik paraphrases from memory: “the hoodlum terrorist atheist barbaric hooligan mafia communist VC.”
While she’s at it, Mrs Thành also said that President Bush had been conned by the “terrorist mafia communist Nguyen Tan Dung” the Vietnamese prime minister.
Cal State Fullerton journalism professor and panelist Jeff Brody at one point cited social science studies showing that people’s tolerance of differing viewpoints tends to depend on three factors: education, religious devotion, and age. According to these studies, conducted starting in the 1950s, the highly educated tend to be most tolerant, the highly religious tend to be least tolerant, and the degree of tolerance tends to decrease with age. Not sure why he brought it up, but that made some members of the audience really unhappy.
In the picture, that’s Brody in the light blue shirt listening to protestor and fellow panelist Trong Doan (read here) in the dark blue shirt.
One audience member took Ham Tran (seated at left) to task, asking the director of Journey from the Fall (in Vietnamese: Vượt Sóng) how he could side with the display of communist symbols after making his movie which spoke so deeply to the South Vietnamese experience. Tran in his response almost said that he’d been back to Vietnam several times after Journey was out, but danced right around that fact.
So on and so forth. A dialogue thus was had, but mostly people just said their pieces and talked right past each other.
No surprise there. Communication is a learned skill, and this community is just beginning to practice peacefully discussing differences of political opinions.
And so sparks flew. But, as far as fireworks go, it was mild, by Bolsavikland standards.
Later in the evening, one right-winger named Rambo Pham (see his picture here) sent out an email claiming that a protest would take place at 10am on Monday morning; that’s today. In the email, Pham called the exhibit organizers the “sh*t-carriers for the mafia communists.”
*** UPDATE *** UPDATE *** UPDATE ***
No protests on Monday morning. Apparently people are regrouping and trying again for Saturday morning.
Andre Vu,
Thank you for telling the story. It is a story that can be told by many families. My entire family on my mother side were buried alive by communists during the Tet Mau Than of 1968. You would think I would want to ban Brian Doan’s photograph, but I don’t. The communists’ brutality do not justify our hatred and censorship of freedom. If you don’t like something, don’t look at it, don’t buy it, don’t read it, don’t listen to it. Controlling what other people say or exhibit is exactly what communists do.
Good morning and thank you Andre for sharing our dark chapter..
And that s what make Communism and human integrity non-mixable, they re just plain animals, and you can tell from all my posts the bitterness of living through that regime.
The fact that this “kid” Brian Doan s only 40 tells you he was a 5-6 years old puppy when we lost the South….I don t think he ever had to jump through hoops to look for food, wearing clothes made out of rice bags, seeing your sisters dying away in his arms from malnutrition, mommy had to work from 4 am till dark just to earn maybe half a cup of rice to feed 6 persons, and anything edibel that doesn t kill ya will be consumed……Communists will turn back time to the stone age and sub-human life style. Nobody here in America ever understand what a person can do to fight hunger. And you think this great artist Brian Doan ever witness or experienced how they toss his family up in a no-man land to live?..And at the same time you must sing and dance to the “great Ho chi Minh”?..Freedom of Speech the Communist way i guess.
I left the country on a 30 footer boat with 200 plus on board, 1 month and several pirate visits later, the group down size to about 40, without the Cap Anamur?.I d ve been like other millions on the sea floor…..Anybody beside combat soldiers ever see in real life how human flesh react to a VC AK47 round?..And anyone ever heard a machette slice through a person s neck?..Or the cracking noise of a crushed skull when the hammers decide to swing your way?..And those killed are your relatives?..The Cambodians survivals might know what i meant under Polpot regime. And now we should forgive and forget those killers and just play and dance with them?..
And like Michael Burr, we all know he s no Communist, but he himself for sure haven t gone through what some 50 thousands of his dead comrades had…He s an English teacher remember?.
So Mr Michael Burr?..You might be a US Veterant, but please don t say you repesent other survived combatants.
And the same goes for our Viet folks here, there s a big huge gigantic difference between economic immigrants and political refugees, days and nights there guys……
Once again, thank you Andre..Anyway, hell with these dyptich art craps, you wanna really relax your mind after a hard day at work?..May i suggest Thomas Kincade ” The end of a perfect day” painting?..Someday, maybe next century, we might have a painter or artist like him.
One more thing…..All those punk chicks who runs this VAALA doesn t know jack about Communists…And they are more like immigrants, not refugees.
Joseph,
The topic used to look so clear cut, but as more people voice the same message, I wonder if I had missed their point. While we live in the United States and enjoy our endless freedom, does that allow the few individuals the insensitivity to shock the community?
Yeah, I lucked out came here with no trauma and could care less about communists and all the fear. Does that mean that I should be so callous to walk up to a fellow Viet and remind him/her of his/her emotional scar? I am protected legally but is it morally correct to disregard the feelings of others?
Does this mean that I should not talk about VN topics altogether? Or should I finesse the topic to deliver the same point?
PS. I am not attacking Mr. Brian Doan at all, only speaking in generality.
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