Tag: Joseph Cao

Hyphenated Identity

Last month, during the height of the election campaign, I saw plenty of signage for local board seats. Many hybrid names (Vietnamese-American) which tell me two things: second-generation immigrants are now politically active, yet they still want to keep those last names, to serve as bridges to the old world.

Old World–New World.

I know both very well. I travel back and forth lately, observing, taking it all in.

The good, the bad and the ugly. Both sides now.

For example: here in the US, I drive by 24-hr Emergency Pet Clinic every day.

But I also know that a lot of people, not pets, are homeless (including the newly added Post-Sandy Tent City). The best piece on the American Dream went awry was already portrayed by Ben Kingsley in The House of Sand and Fog (Iranian big-shot bought an illegally repossessed house, just to end up losing his life along with it).

Meanwhile, in VN, everybody tries to move to the city centre, where there hardly are any space left unless a storm, almost as strong as Sandy, knocked down a few more trees.

The US got junk yards (industrial waste). Vietnam got grave yards (Agent Orange). Both got people “mooning” although for a very different reason.

Back to hybrid identity. So we came, we saw, and we campaign (not conquer).

Good for them.

John Nguyen, Joseph Cao etc…

May their descendants prosper in this land of milk and honey. When elected, don’t forget to put people above pet. I fear that by the time they drop those last names for let’s say Joseph Smith,  they will also have acquired a taste for fast cars and fast food.

And perhaps 24-hr gym, 24-hr Donut  Town and 24-hr Emergency Pet Clinic.

It all makes sense after living here for a while. But to any foreigner who has just arrived, America certainly is a peculiar place, worthy of year-long culture shock (this was verbatim from a Filippino immigrant whose lingerie line finally distributed by Target, making her a millionaire).

Before you know it, they pledge Allegiance to the Flag, and drop those hard-to-pronounce first names. Voila! We are all American. One Nation under God, withstand against all enemies, foreign or domestic (mostly foreign, so watch out. Adapt quickly and just say “to go” when asked: FOR HERE OR TO GO?).

Gatsby in China Beach

I thought the USS New York was cool until I read about ex-refugee came back as US Naval Commander in China Beach.

http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=58579&heading=Asia

Same waters, similar vessels, but context and crew have changed.

Just like what we read today about a school teacher walking students on a day field trip to former East Germany.

What used to shed blood is now a no-sweat endeavor.

All you need is Love (Beatles) and the rest will take care of itself.

As of this edit, I would like to congratulate House Representative Joseph Cao on his historic Health Care vote.

I would love to project this good will into the future, and see if we can visualize pass Future Shock.

Year 2020. Open source and open collaboration will have been the norm (just like Open border in Berlin or Open Seas in China Beach).

EU-N-America-Asia will already have been the new pipeline of talent infrastructure, NAFTA gone horizontal, with combined resource and market.

Many N American professors (many of them had their origins somewhere else to begin with) will hold online classes for Chinese students via Tele-lectures.

(Back in 1981, my Marketing professor, Jim Engel, kept hopping on the plane to go teach in Singapore. I should have seen it coming).

Movies get watched on watches (Spectator Gadgets).

20/20, the TV magazine show, will be accessible in the USC Film School Archive by robot. My two daughters, Aimy and Maily, will be dropping  off their Amerasian or South Amerasian children for me to baby sit.

2020, the year Re-globalization takes off: trains, planes, automobiles, and of course, ships (for supply chain containers to be loaded at the Alameda Corridor). While proponents and opponents of re-globalization continue their debates, companies which try to evade the health care mandate will continue to seek off-shored “health havens”, just as they did with tax havens.

Companies like Lifan, maker of motorbikes, will outsource more of its manufacturing to secondary markets such as Vietnam (already did). Vietnamese diaspora will supply the talent and know-how. Like their Chinese-American counterparts, they will serve as bridges, not in terms of culture and language, but in challenging us with a different mindset and thought leadership (Net Neutrality). And they will in turn uphold and sustain new benchmarks in social concerns and environmental concerns e.g. bamboo housing, solar energy, nano materials.

One thing I am sure is that the USS New York will still proudly chart the heroic waters, and many more Vietnamese Americans will try out  various roles, beyond the traditional “model minorities” fields such as pharmacy, engineering and accounting. More will be in TV announcing, film directing (Powder Blue), US House Representative, and even US Navy. See, it’s not an individualistic culture .The community just wait for one early adopter to test the waters, than the rest will join in. I . I am sure the Commander did his dad proud. Who wouldn’t? Journey at seas is exhaustive. But when it exhibits the best of humanity and good will, it makes the traveling worthwhile. The Navy certainly earns points these days and that’s the best PR one can buy (It’s on NPR and ABC Person of the Week).

Gatsby is back in China Beach, just a ship hop away from his former home in Hue, in daddy’s navy-white.

The Tale of Kieu couldn’t find a better contemporary equivalent.

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