Duat Vu
Region: Midwest
I am a first generation Vietnamese immigrant. My family was part of the wave of ‘boat people’ that escaped Vietnam after the war. The trip was a near-death experience. I was seven years old at the time.
I grew up in the west (Toronto, Canada), but I do not feel totally a westerner. My family was very traditional. Yet, neither do I feel fully Vietnamese.
My works express the conflicting emotions of these experiences: the feelings of isolation and displacement as a result of dual cultural influences; the ups and downs of cultural assimilation for a first generation child immigrant; and last, but not least, it is an attempt to make sense of the lasting psychological effects of the near-death experience and the Vietnam War. It was the war of my father’s generation, my childhood - a generational tragedy that still reverberates beneath my outlook on human existence.
![](https://nap-master.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/entry_thumb/public/VU-A.jpg?TfYy2uMzNFOg0nZMFXCgrHNnZoRafYmN&itok=dSyXxABd)
![](https://nap-master.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/styles/entry_thumb/public/VU-B.jpg?QyTJPhlym8Uatqj9Uxxv6D529kCjyalO&itok=uDJMc4a5)
![](https://www.newamericanpaintings.com/s3/files/styles/bio_cover_img/public/vu.jpg?itok=r0o_X_Z9)