SOAS Research Online

Abstract

French and American cinema has portrayed Viet Nam and the Vietnamese in narratives which, broadly-speaking, are reflective of French and American ideologies. The Vietnamese, in these productions, have generally been presented as the object, and not as the subject. However, since the 1980s, an interesting and significant cinematic counter-narrative to the Western idea of Viet Nam has been constructed. This is because the Vietnamese diaspora in France and in the United States has started making films about its own experiences of French colonial rule, the Vietnamese-American conflict, the Vietnamese Communist regime, exilic journeys, contemporary Viet Nam, and the generational conflicts among the Vietnamese diaspora. The identities of the diasporic Vietnamese- particularly the younger generations- have, inevitably, been strongly shaped by these themes, but, at the same time, are also clearly influenced by the culture and values of the new country. The thesis demonstrates how diasporic Vietnamese film makers construct narratives which clearly express hybridized identity: their output presents both aspects of a traditional Western discourse and, significantly, elements not seen in American and French productions.