Toward the Construction of the Transpacific Vietnamese American Studies

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K00435
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02030:English literature and literature in the English language-related
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: ASO Takashi 早稲田大学, 国際学術院, 教授 (80286434)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: ヴェトナム戦争 / ヴェトナム系難民 / アジア系アメリカ / アメリカ大衆文化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, my purpose was to focus on the transpacific Vietnamese American movement in the field of art and literature in order to clarify the ethics of what is known as hybrid culture. In particular, I focused on the culture of Vietnamese refugee artists and writers living in the United States. Their works represent both differences and similarities between American culture and that of Vietnam, thereby embodying diverse ideas born out of the collisions and negotiations of the two different cultures. These artists and writers articulate positive values of the transpacific reformation of traditional cultures. In this research, I analyzed their narratives, cultural memories of the war, histories of the transpacific migration. As a result of the study, I published books and articles, among which is inclulded "Little Saigon," the first comprehensive book in Japan on the topic of the formation and development of Vietnamese American culture at the turn of the twentieth-first century.

Free Research Field

現代アメリカ文化・文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で取り上げる太平洋横断的な文化形成は、ヴェトナム系アメリカ人芸術家だけではなく、環太平洋地域で活動する多くのアジア系芸術家によって、さらにはグローバルに活躍する各国の芸術家によって共有される脱領域的な文化・芸術現象のひとつである。また、ヴェトナム戦争を起因に生まれた難民コミュニティと、そこにおける文化・芸術の生成を対象とする本研究は、中近東・東ヨーロッパを中心に政治・経済的理由から難民が増加する現在、グローバル化時代の文化研究の実践例として、今後起きうる事象を予見するものである。よって、本研究がもつ文化・社会的意義は大きく、関連分野への波及効果も期待される。