River of Ten Thousand Springs
by Mien-Thuy Tran

 
 
“Even when still living on my fatherland, I embrace a deep feeling of exile. Like that of the boatmen - refugee who had to flee the country by sea in the wartime.”
 
National identity within each individual is inexplicable. No one is Vietnamese by themselves. We are placed in a predetermined socio-cultural framework. The strong collision with surrounding cultures, foreign imports, and the relentless fluctuations of history have diluted the Vietnamese identity, making it an unknown concept.
 
River of Ten Thousand Springs is an inquiry into Vietnamese national identity and its paradoxicality: what makes Vietnamese people Vietnamese, apart from social interactions and collective belief which is vulnerable? Are we able to know who we are, while our origin is built from unverifiable myths and oral history?
 
 
Mien-Thuy Tran lives and works in Da Lat, Vietnam.
To view more of Mien-Thuy Tran's work, please visit her website.