Though diaCRITICS focuses on the stories, art, and voices of the Southeast Asian diaspora, we can’t forget that we (or our parents) left its shores not too long ago.
For many in the Vietnamese diaspora, the great migration came after 1975, when Saigon fell and the war ended. We left on boats, and most of us never looked back. And if we did look back, it was with a mixture of homesickness and gratitude: homesick for a fallen nation, gratitude for not having to live under those “commies.” Yet Vietnam continued without us.
Streets were renamed. Buildings were raised. Economies were built. Children, who didn’t come of age during the War, were born.
Our special issue, Southeast Asia Now, aims to highlight current art and stories from the region. Looking at Vietnam, we have a consideration of the fiction of Lynh Bacardi, whose transgressive work has been targeted for its vulgarity and shocking nature. Still, as Nguyễn Thanh-Tâm argues, there’s more than meets the eye in Barcardi’s art. Speaking of fiction and censorship, we have Hiền Trang’s “This is not romance fiction” (translated by the author), a meta-fictional commentary that is as playful as it is affective. Meanwhile, poet Nhã Thuyên imagines” a roaming street vendor, shouting by night, mimicking the rap song of rat-killer sellers, playing in loops” as she investigates the links between the Vietnamese language and Vietnamese personhood.
Beyond Vietnam, we present a poem by Filipino writer May Morales Dolis (translated by Eric Abalajon), a short story by Indonesian writer AS Laksana (translated by Pamela Allen), and a review of a photography exhibition covering a vast expanse of Southeast Asia.
We hope to give readers a better sense of Southeast Asia literature and art today.
Eric Nguyen is the Editor in Chief of diaCRITICS.
