#notebook 3

[dip-into-the-vintage-gf-rp]

[feministic-aesthetic-blog]

Drift.

In this analysis on the object of my mother’s photo, I will be focusing on the context of my mother’s refugee story, while also incorporating my father’s refugee story to compare and contrast. This will be in order to illustrate the relation between the effects war and the presence of a patriarchal institution within war.

There are many similarities between my mother’s and father’s refugee stories. They were both second wave “boat refugees” of Vietnam, which means that they left Vietnam during the late 1970s when the communist regime took full control of the country, and when common people were fleeing their war torn nation. They also fled to the sea in small, severely overcrowded fishing boats, which were never meant to carry the weight of hundreds of fleeing refugees. The images from public records printed below depict just how dangerous the conditions were, as well as the bravery of people (like my parents) who did whatever they could to create better lives for themselves, and their families. While most, if not all refugees, left for these same reasons, the circumstances and time of escape could certainly be tied to how the gender roles of the nation affect how and when men and women took refuge.

In a sense, the presence of patriarchal institutions in Vietnam contributed to the way children were forced to quickly become adults in their corrupt nation. Boys especially took the brunt of the circumstances of war, since they were all expected to posses the strength and masculinity associated with becoming a soldier. Many boys, like my father, were thus forced to leave Vietnam as soon as they could before they could possibly be drafted into the army. Unlike my mother, my father did not have the comfort of being able to escape with his whole family, since he lived in what is now called Ho Chi Minh City, so he had a higher chance of becoming drafted. For months on end, he would be fending for himself, whether it was on the overcrowded boat, or on a refugee internment camp on a remote island in Malaysia. Luckily for my mother, she did not have to face a possible draft because she was simply a girl. Like many other women in nations with patriarchal institutions installed within, the women of Vietnam were not expected to fight in the war, since the residual ideologies of the female gender role dictates that women do not carry the same physical strength that men are born with, and that their efforts are better spent carrying out domestic duties, such as creating more soldiers for the army. Interestingly enough, my mother and her younger sister were almost left behind when my grandparents made plans for them and their sons to flee the nation. Again, this was because my mom and her sister did not face the threat of the draft, whereas her brothers were more likely to be taken and primed to become soldiers. However, my grandmother loved her daughters far too much to just leave them behind, so they were able to devise a plan where everyone was able to successfully make their way to their new home in America, land of the free.  

Common conditions of Vietnamese boat people. Photo credits in the links below.

Sources & Photo Credits:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/vietnam-war/vietnamese-boat-people/

https://ethnomed.org/culture/vietnamese/vietnamese-cultural-profile

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/refugee-crisis-son-of-vietnamese-boat-people-shares-story-of-how-britain-treated-asylum-seekers-in-10493316.html

http://vrroom.naa.gov.au/print/?ID=19170

[booksavor]

Softly excerpt

“Whatever you do, do it with a light touch. Be like the breeze coming off the mountains, soft, silent, going the way you’re supposed to go; no one the wiser. The wind that howls always get noticed, but the soft breeze gets by.” — Louie – Notes on a Philosophy Forming, Notebook 3

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[lauracritter]

It's beautiful (& astonishing) to me how struggle, tempered with familiarity, can turn to fondness.  Bitterness mulled becomes bittersweetness.