[NQV] SF visit: 8/31/96 (4)

[Anonymous Poster <anon@saigon.com>]

Saturday 8/31/96

(continued)

The workshop on "Queer & Vietnamese: a matter of membership" was
in two parts.  First came the customary self-introductions, which,
in the wake of some palpable tension about "confidentiality" (and
its corresponding sense of defensive DISTRUST), rolled by rather
meaninglessly brief and uninformative, despite Alex's exemplary
start au contraire: most people didn't say much more than first
name and place of residence (and even as vaguely characterized as
at the level of states rather cities!)  Then Alex good-humouredly
proposed a "game" in which people were given 2 pieces of paper and
encouraged to jot down -- anonymously, of course -- their thoughts
about ethnic and sexual identities.  The samples were collected,
redistributed and read aloud in ramdom anonymous order by different
people.  Alex and Clayton (I suppose that it's quite alright to
mention by name the co-chair of GVA, who was also a facilitator
of a workshop later during the day) would record the gist of the
responses on the board.  The exercise was quite thoughtful and
productive (as it cleverly sidestepped this fruitless issue of
confidentiality), but due to time constraints, it came off as
rather superficially vague and repetitive since most people had
no time to go beyond a one-liner characterization of sweepingly
broad issues.  But nonetheless the value of the exercise was in
stimulating thinking (which would hopefullly continue beyond the
conference itself) and to initiate an exchange of ideas no matter
how modest as a start.  Moreover, this first part was but a warm
up to the second part which entailed greater cooperation in the
small-grouped discussion.

Here are two quick lists of the responses I managed to jot down --
though I might have missed a few quick one-liners (to save time, the
facilitators didn't even write them all out but simply check off similar
responses) -- in either Vietnamese or English as the case might be.

Sexual Identity:
- gay: love men physically & emotionally
- ddo^`ng ti'nh luye^'n a'i: thi'ch co' quan he^. ti`nh du.c vo+'i
ngu+o+`i ddo^`ng pha'i
- ddo^`ng ti'nh: co' nhie^`u ti`nh ca?m cho pha'i nam
- gay: dictionary definition
- gay: find sexual attraction in men
- queer: don't want to be restricted by set categories
- gay: born and accepting it that way
- gay: relationship with men
- gay: love men
- gay: like/love men
- gay/bi/queer: don't care for labels
- gay: sex with men
- queer: don't care to be categorized by convention
- gay: sex with men, but not as often as I should!
- gay: love men

Ethnic Identity:
- Vietnamese: has Vietnamese soul
- Chinese-Viet: great-grandparents from China
- Vietnamese: born/raised/acculturated in a Viet family
- Viet: thi'ch no'i, nghe chuye^.n, ddi a(n, ddi cho+i, vo+'i
ba.n VN; ye^u thi'ch phong tu.c va(n ho'a VN
- Vietnamese: born from Viet parents, hold Viet beliefs
- Vietnamese: born in Vietnam, raised in US, holding American
values
- Asian/Asian-American/Viet-Laotian: depends on who's asking
- Vietnamese: born in Vietnam, Viet parents; but live in America
and call it home
- Vietnamese: born in Vietnam by Chinese parents
- Viet: sinh o+? VN, thi'ch a^m nha.c sa'ch ba'o va(n ho'a VN
- Vietnamese: born by Viet parents
- Viet-American: Americanized but want to get back to Viet roots
- Viet-American: identify with Viet-American community

(to be continued)


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