Tom Berg/OC Register
Professor of Asian American studies Linda Trinh Vo was recently named one of Orange County Register’s OC’s Most Influential 2015. As a co-curator of the exhibit called “Vietnamese Focus: Generations of Stories,”Vo has brought to Orange County a unique way to tell the stories of the refugees. In the exhibit, oral histories, photographs and artifacts are on display for all who want to learn about the journey of thousands to America.
UCI Professor of Asian American Studies Linda Trinh Vo was named one of Orange County Register’s 100 Most Influential. (Photo: http://sites.uci.edu/vaohp)
As a young girl, Vo lived in a thatched hut in the Mekong Delta, with no plumbing, no electricity and dirt floors. Her family came to California in 1979, and her mom ran a small Asian market in a rundown strip mall in the Inland Empire. She studied UC San Diego and majored in Asian American Studies, hoping to put Vietnamese Americans on the map.
In 2000, Vo came to UCI and immediately began collecting personal stories – stories that couldn’t be found in any history book.
She dreamed of creating an oral history project, but it wasn’t until 2011 that she found the backing. Her original goal was 100 interviews. The Vietnamese American Oral History Project at UCI now has more than 300 interviews, with more than 150 available online.
In 2015, Vo teamed up with UCI colleagues Tram Le and Thuy Vo Dang to publish the book “Vietnamese in Orange County.” Then the Orange County Parks caleld and asked if Vo could put together an exhibit that reflected the county’s diversity wanted an exhibit that reflected the county’s diversity. The only caveat was the time frame– they had six months to get it done.
Vo and co-curator Tram Le spent four months working around the clock to create an exhibit with posters, panels, historic photographs from the Register and elsewhere, videos, art displays, memorials, diaries, clothes and other memorabilia from migrants and refugees.
After the exhibit ends in February, Vo plans to take it on the road, to galleries, universities and museums around the nation.
To read more, click here:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/says-697067-exhibit-vietnamese.html
