Watch a special event with modern Vietnam experts, Tuan Hoang and Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox. They seek to flesh out Vietnamese experiences of decolonization and the Cold War, including their exposure to American culture before and during direct intervention of the U.S. in the Vietnam War.

Writers, Kao Kalia Yang, Bryan Thao Worra and Thavisouk Phrasavath will reflect on their work before joining a larger conversation with the audience. The program presents a critical but engaging exploration of the role of memory, experience and imagination in each author's writings against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, global migration, refugees, the diaspora, and life in America. The talk will locate Lao and Hmong Americans as part of the larger American story, featuring voices not often highlighted at the Library of Congress.

This webinar introduces the extensive southeast Asian collections available in the Asian Reading Room and other research centers at the Library of Congress. Learn about the unique collection of items the Library contains with over 370,000 titles consisting of southeast Asian books, newspapers, periodicals, films and more.

Written by Cindy Morgan and Navy veteran Kimberly Mitchell, "Precious Pearl" tells the story of Mitchell, who was found as a baby on the roadside, clinging to the body of her deceased mother during the Vietnam War. A South Vietnamese Marine carried her to the Sacred Heart Orphanage in Da Nang, where she was adopted by a U.S. Airman and brought back to Wisconsin from where she dedicated her life to service.

Chum Ngek was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004. He is both an artist and a teacher known for his performing ability on the roneat, a 21-keyed xylophone. Born in Battambang Province, Chum came to this country in the early 1980s with a wave of Cambodian refugees and has served as a musical and educational leader of his community ever since. At the age of ten, he began learning the repertoire of the major Khmer musical genres, spanning classical and folk traditions. In addition, he learned the music of the kong (gongs), khimm (hammered dulcimer), sampho (two-faced drum) and tror (bowed fiddle). Soon his repertoire was so vast that many people were asking him to teach, and at age 18 he was recognized as a Krou (master teacher). National Heritage Fellow Sam Ang Sam points out that because he is acknowledged as the source for Cambodian music, Chum is frequently called on to conduct music workshops across the continent. Still, he continues to serve his more immediate community, as he teaches in the Washington, DC, area for the Cambodian Buddhist Society and the Cambodian American Heritage organization.

In a lecture on border demarcation as Siam (Thailand) came under increasing colonial pressure in the late 19th century, Harold Meinheit focused on James McCarthy, superintendent of Siam's Royal Survey Department and his efforts to map the country, and the relationship between the science of mapping, the wielding of power and the creation of borders.
Harold E. Meinheit is a former foreign service officer in the U.S. State Department with extensive experience in Southeast Asia. He has devoted much time to research and writing on early maps of Southeast Asia.

Kim Thúy discussed "Vi" and "Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen: Simple Recipes from My Many Mothers" at the 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

Singaporean American novelist Kevin Kwan discussed his satirical novels "Crazy Rich Asians," "China Rich Girlfriend" and "Rich People Problems" along with the box office hit "Crazy Rich Asians," the screenplay based on the 2013 novel.

Mark Bowden discusses "Huê 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam" at the 2018 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

Virgilio S. Almario discussed what Filipino culture means and what Philippine society values, cherishes and protects. He explored the evolution of the Filipino culture and society, which are influenced and shaped by myths, legends and folktales, especially in pre-colonial times. Drawing on symbols and artifacts in Filipino historical and literary texts, Almario discussed the importance for the Filipinos to reimagine and rediscover themselves and their heritage for a strong cultural identity. He will conclude with an analysis of the future of the Filipino culture and literature with a thought-provoking question: Are folk narratives vestiges of an irrelevant past, or wisdom for surviving the modern world? The event was co-sponsored with Sentro Rizal Washington DC and the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines.

In recent years, several dalang (shadow masters) in both Bali and Java have presented reinterpreted shadow puppet performances of ancient Indonesian texts as part of considering religious pluralism and tolerance. It is within these texts, produced between 1100 and 1400 A.D. by the Javanese Hindu-Buddhist sages Mpu Kunturan and Mpu Tantular, that the Indonesian national motto bhineka tunggal ika (unity in diversity) first appeared. Cosponsored with the Indonesian Embassy, Education and Culture Section.

The Cambodian-American Heritage Dancers and Chum Ngek Ensemble present a program of classical Khmer dance and music from the Cambodian court repertoire.

Roswell Encina gave the keynote address for the Library's celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Panel discussion on the role of music in supporting servicemembers and veterans from the Vietnam era through the present. Cosponsored in association with the Department of Defense Vietnam 50th Anniversary Commemoration Committee. Part of Bibliodiscotheque, a series of programs at the Library of Congress that explores the legacy and impact of disco on popular culture since the 1970s.

The Cambodian-American Heritage Dancers and Chum Ngek Ensemble discussed their art and history.

Author and poet Jon Pineda discussed the Filipino American experience within the context of his work.

Writer Viet Thanh Nguyen read from his new novel, "The Sympathizer," and participated in a moderated discussion with Mimi Khùc of the University of Maryland.

Poet/essayist Jee Leong Koh, playwright/translator Jeremy Tiang, and writer/editor Frank Stewart read from "Starry Island: New Writing from Singapore" as part of a series of contemporary literature from Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas from MANOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing.

Viet Thanh Nguyen discusses "The Sympathizer" at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

Christian G. Appy discusses 'American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity' as part of a special presentation on the human side of war at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

John Riordan discusses 'They Are All My Family: A Daring Rescue in the Chaos of Saigon's Fall' at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

Christopher J. Lee discusses his research on the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, Indonesia, building upon work done for his editing of the book "Making a World after Empire: The Bandung Moment and Its Political Afterlives."

Lien-Hang Nguyen, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky, specializes in the study of the United States in the world, focusing on Southeast Asia during the Cold War. Her new book is "Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam." Nguyen is currently working on a book that explores the role of gender, people's diplomacy and transnational networks of antiwar activism during the Vietnam War era that draws on multi-archival research in Vietnam, the United States and Europe.

Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET/PBS), Senator Chuck Hagel and his brother, Professor Tom Hagel, donate hours of original interview and related materials to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. This event kicked-off the Veterans History Project's Vietnam Veterans Collections Initiative.

Filipino-American poet Eileen Tabios reads from her work, followed by a moderated discussion.

The importation of tropical products from the Caribbean and the Pacific accompanied the growth of American industrial development in the early twentieth century. While the new demand for tropical fruits, woods, and products dramatically altered tropical ecosystems and contributed to food shortages in what is today called the "global south," it also encouraged the development of an ethic of natural resource management and conservation. By focusing on the work of American agricultural scientists, foresters, and chemists during the U.S. occupation of the Philippines (1898-1936), Theresa Ventura shows how science was integral to the emergence of the United States as a world power; the influence of Philippine knowledge on environmental and nutritional knowledge; and the often devastating impact of conservation and land management programs on indigenous communities.

The Library of Congress Asian Division and the Asian Division Friends Society host a program marking the launch of the Asian Ambassador Lecture Series. Ambassador Chan Heng Chee is featured as the guest speaker. Chan Heng Chee took up her appointment as Singapore's Ambassador to the United States in July 1996.

In the years following the Vietnam War, more than 1 million refugees fled the war-ravaged countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Those who took to the ocean in small, overcrowded ships were dubbed the "boat people." Many perished on the seas, some at the hands of pirates, while others took refuge in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Indonesia. By the late 1970s and 1980s, the United States, Canada and other nations accepted many of those who survived the refugee camps. Scholars, community leaders and former refugees discussed the topic in four sessions: "Historical Background," "Exodus," "Rescue and Hospitality" and "Remembering Who We Are and Where We Have Been." Senator James Webb (D-Va.) delivered the opening keynote address.

In the years following the Vietnam War, more than 1 million refugees fled the war-ravaged countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Those who took to the ocean in small, overcrowded ships were dubbed the "boat people." Many perished on the seas, some at the hands of pirates, while others took refuge in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Indonesia. By the late 1970s and 1980s, the United States, Canada and other nations accepted many of those who survived the refugee camps. Rep. Joseph Q. Cao (R- La.) was the luncheon keynote speaker.

In the years following the Vietnam War, more than 1 million refugees fled the war-ravaged countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Those who took to the ocean in small, overcrowded ships were dubbed the "boat people." Many perished on the seas, some at the hands of pirates, while others took refuge in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Indonesia. By the late 1970s and 1980s, the United States, Canada and other nations accepted many of those who survived the refugee camps. Scholars, community leaders and former refugees discussed the topic in four sessions: "Historical Background," "Exodus," "Rescue and Hospitality," and "Remembering Who We Are and Where We Have Been."

For more than a decade literary works by Vietnamese veterans and civilians have been published in the United States. These can be classified into various groups: those written by North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese, communists and anti-communists, Vietnamese living in Vietnam and Vietnamese-Americans. In all these categories -- which are themselves fluid -- the one common thread is the Vietnam/American war and its aftermath. In fact this thread reaches back in time to a historical and cultural memory of Viyt Nam as a land constantly under attack and at war. In a poem titled "Conclusion" Nguyyn Bynh Khiem (1491-1585) wrote: "Will there be peace again, as in the old times?/Be sorry for both sides: they keep on fighting./Brooks of blood everywhere, avalanches of bones./Terror sends the fish to the bottom, the birds to the thickets./What good does it do anyone?" Written in the 16th century, these lines reverberate in the context of 20th century carnage. Themes such as the love of one's land, the horrors of war, life in re-education camps, the travails of being a refugee and exile in the U.S. run through the writings. The lecture looks at the politics of translation and publication within U.S. academia. It also examines the reconfigurations of the Vietnam/American War within certain U.S. and Vietnamese contexts and competing memories created by this body of writing.

Anthropologist Ruth Fredman Cernea discusses the Jewish experience in the land of Burma in a lecture titled "Almost Englishmen: Baghdadi Jews in British Burma." For more than a century, Jews from the Middle East--the Baghdadis--formed vibrant communities throughout Southeast Asia. Linked across the miles by tradition, family and economic ties, ideologically the Baghdadis existed between two promised lands: the religious ideal of Jerusalem and the political promise of England. Like other minorities in the complex society that was British India, the Baghdadis gradually refashioned their lifestyles and aspirations on the British model.

A multi-cultural program of Philippine and Burmese dance, along with a martial arts lecture and demonstration by Master Jhoon Rhee, culminated the Library's celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The event was sponsored by the Office of Workforce Diversity, the Office of the Librarian, LC Asian American Association and Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Planning Committee.

The Natasinh Dancers and Musicians performed Lao music and dance from Iowa, another in the Homegrown Concert Series sponsored by the American Folklife Center. The Lao Natasinh Dance Troupe of Iowa, based in Des Moines, is a group of Lao dancers and musicians trained in the Natasinh style of performance--the traditional forms, techniques and character of performing arts taught at the Ecole National de Musique et Danse Laotien (founded in Vientiane in 1956 to preserve Lao music and dance traditions). The genre includes court music for royal ceremonies and the classical dance-drama based on the Ramayana, the Hindu epic that depicts the life and struggles of the Buddha, as well as music and dance performed for social and ritual occasions. In the early 1980s, the Natasinh Dancers and Musicians resettled in Des Moines, Iowa, thanks to Iowa's Refugee Resettlement Program and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk Arts, which enabled the group to tour the region and the U.S. The main purpose of the Natasinh Troupe is to teach and entertain at Lao Buddhist celebrations and to pass their skills on to young dancers and musicians in the Des Moines Lao community. The Troupe was featured at the 2001 Festival of Iowa Folklife, the Iowa Folklife and Prairie Voices Institute, the Culture Cafe (Des Moines Playhouse), at the 25th Anniversary of Freedom for the Peoples of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, at several state and multi-state Midwest folklife festivals, and at the 2005 National Governors' Conference in Des Moines.

The Asian Division of the Library of Congress held a daylong symposium on author Carlos Bulosan, titled "America Is in the Heart for the 21st Century." Bulosan depicted the early Filipino migrant experience in the United States and is best known for his book "America Is in the Heart." The Library, in conjunction with the Asian Division Friends Society (ADFS), coordinated the program as a centennial project to commemorate the first-wave migration to Hawaii by Filipino nationals. Our Own Voice, an online literary journal for Filipinos in the diaspora, is the ADFS's partner in the project to reintroduce the writings of Bulosan to the public.

The Asian Division of the Library of Congress held a daylong symposium on author Carlos Bulosan, titled "America Is in the Heart for the 21st Century." Bulosan depicted the early Filipino migrant experience in the United States and is best known for his book "America Is in the Heart." The Library, in conjunction with the Asian Division Friends Society (ADFS), coordinated the program as a centennial project to commemorate the first-wave migration to Hawaii by Filipino nationals. Our Own Voice, an online literary journal for Filipinos in the diaspora, is the ADFS's partner in the project to reintroduce the writings of Bulosan to the public.

Author John Perkins discussed his book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" in a program sponsored by the Science, Technology and Business Division. In his book, Perkins describes his experiences as an economist of an international consulting firm whose job was to persuade strategically important developing countries, such as Panama and Indonesia, to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and then to ensure that the lucrative projects were contracted out to U.S. corporations. According to Perkins, when it became impossible to repay these huge debts, the United States government, the World Bank or U.S.-influenced aid agencies would step in and place the countries in a trusteeship of sorts, dictating their spending budgets and other policies. Although Perkins has drawn enthusiastic audiences on the lecture circuit, and his book has met with commercial success, he has drawn critics, among them the U.S. Department of State, which has taken issue with some of his assertions.

Shirley Geok-Lin Lim is an acclaimed poet, novelist and critic who in 1969 immigrated to the United States from Malaysia and in1973 earned her Ph.D. in English and American literature from Brandeis University. Her works include her first book of poetry, "Crossing the Peninsula and Other Poems," which was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, and her most recent, "Joss and Gold." She has taught both in the United States and abroad, and is currently a professor of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she lives.

verett Alvarez was the first American aviator shot down over North Vietnam and was held as a prisoner of war for eight and a half years. He went on to serve as deputy director of the Peace Corps, deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration, vice president for government services with the Hospital Corporation of America and currently serves as chair of the VA CARES Commission. He co-authored two books: "Chained Eagle," with Anthony S. Pitch, about his captivity; and "Code of Conduct/An Inspirational Story of Self-Healing by the Famed Ex-POW and War Hero," with Samuel Schreiner, about his return and life afterward. He lives in Rockville, Md.