Thi Bùi’s graphic novel, The Best We Could Do, offers an illustrative perspective that reflects on the gap between first and second generations of Vietnamese Americans. Bùi questions the distance that she has with her parents in which her reflections delve into the traumatic history of war and escaping Vietnam as refugees. Through the process of understanding ancestry, Bùi breaks down the barriers she has with her parents and herself. She begins to see why her parents are the

With intense and raw emotions, Lily Hoang transforms her work, A Bestiary, through the contemporary form of writing, using non-fictional experiences and fairy tales. The revival of fairy tales and myths adds to the multitude of diverse perspectives, which challenges the reader’s insight and understanding of the female gender role and Asian identity. Hoang is not afraid to make herself vulnerable in which she skillfully connects to the reader, revealing the anxieties of the se

Read part one of this article, "Part 1 - Challenging the Stereotype: Do Vietnamese People Eat Dogs?" here. Vietnamese people are often cast into a number of stereotypes. This often prevents meaningful interactions with those that do not know them. In Andrew Lam's Birds of Paradise Lost, a collection of short stories, the protagonist in the story "Yacht People" challenges the stereotype that Vietnamese people eat dogs by turning the narrative into a parody: How are you doing t

The relationship between the canine and the Vietnamese is not a simple one. Not all Vietnamese embrace dog meat, and not all Vietnamese regard their dogs as companions. In Vietnam, those who consume dog meat often try to compartmentalize their feelings toward dogs, just as Westerners who eat meat might try to compartmentalize their feelings toward livestock—particularly small livestock, such as chickens. In the United States, urban poultry keeping, or backyard chickens, has b