Bài đánh giá các khía cạnh của văn hóa trong bộ phim tài liệu Daughter from DanangIntercultural Material: DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, Directed by Gail Dolgin and Vicente FrancoWith the fast pace of globalization, every nation and region are integrating with one another in all facets of life. Apart from the advantages it has produced so far, integration could pose some problems related to intercultural communication. Intercultural competence, therefore, becomes a paramount and interesting study. In this analysis, I am going to explore the intercultural issues in three correlative concepts: Language, Individualism versus Collectivism, Culture Shock in the documentary Daughter from Danang, directed by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco.At the end of Vietnam War, the United States government launched Operation Babylift to send thousands of VietnameseAmerican (or Amerasian) children to the United States for adoption. There is a rumor that if anyone had racially mixed children both the mother and children would be killed. Consequently, thousands of Vietnamese mother had to give up their mixedrace children.The documentary tells a true story of a Vietnamese family in which the daughter called “Hiep” is racially mixed. Mrs. Hiep’s mother, Mai Thi Kim, had already had three children with her husband Do Huu Vinh (Mitchell, 2002). After Do Huu Vinh joined Viet Cong force to “fight for the country”, Do Thi Kim had to work in an American military troop for the sake of her family. In 1968, she gave birth to Hiep as a result of her forced relationship with an American Soldier. At the age of seven, Hiep was brought out of Vietnam in the Operation Babylift and was put in orphanage Holt Adoption Agency. Since 1975, Hiep or Heidi and her birthmother had had no contact with each other.
Trang 1Name: Nguyen Xuan Khanh
Class: 13E19
ID No.: 13041044
Writing Assignment Intercultural Material: DAUGHTER FROM DANANG,
Directed by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco
With the fast pace of globalization, every nation and region are integrating with one another in all facets of life Apart from the advantages it has produced so far, integration could pose some problems related to intercultural communication Intercultural competence, therefore, becomes a paramount and interesting study In this analysis, I am going to explore the intercultural issues in three correlative concepts: Language, Individualism versus Collectivism, Culture Shock in the
documentary Daughter from Danang, directed by Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco.
At the end of Vietnam War, the United States government launched Operation Babylift to send
thousands of Vietnamese-American (or Amerasian) children to the United States for adoption There is a rumor that if anyone had racially mixed children both the mother and children would
be killed Consequently, thousands of Vietnamese mother had to give up their mixed-race children
The documentary tells a true story of a Vietnamese family in which the daughter called
“Hiep” is racially mixed Mrs Hiep’s mother, Mai Thi Kim, had already had three children with her husband Do Huu Vinh (Mitchell, 2002) After Do Huu Vinh joined Viet Cong force to “fight for the country”, Do Thi Kim had to work in an American military troop for the sake of her family In 1968, she gave birth to Hiep as a result of her forced relationship with an American
Soldier At the age of seven, Hiep was brought out of Vietnam in the Operation Babylift and was
put in orphanage Holt Adoption Agency Since 1975, Hiep or Heidi and her birthmother had had
no contact with each other
Mrs Kim have constantly been finding her daughter’s news while Heidi is eventually adopted
by Ann Neville It is not until Heidi is abandoned by her adoptive mother that Heidi starts to contact Holt Adoption Agency to search for her birthmother with a view to pursuing unconditional love Eventually, they hear from each other after a twenty-two-year separation
Trang 2Accompanied by a Vietnamese-American journalist Tran Tuong Nhu, Heidi returns to her birthplace for assembly
Throughout the film Hiep meets her birthmother, stepfather, and half-siblings, and other members of extended family In early days of the visit, they are very happy and healing of the reunion However, intercultural problems that they encounter gradually bring their happiness down Their meeting and relationship finally ends in sorrow
The material analysis explores the intercultural issues in three correlative concepts: Language, Individualism versus Collectivism, Culture Shock.
1. Language, Ethnic Group Identity and Dominance
Language is one of the tools that make human being different from other living creatures It not only functions as conveying messages or being the medium of communication for human society, but is also of great importance in identifying members with a particular group Language can shape people’s thinking patterns and powerfully affect how they experience the world and in doing so, contribute to the differences among societies (Koester & Lustig, 2010, p.186)
When Heidi and other Amerasian children are sent to the U.S, they cannot speak any English They have to go to private school to learn English In class, they start with “Good morning”,
“How are you?-I’m fine, thank you” Twenty-two years pass, and then Heidi admits that she cannot speak any Vietnamese In America particularly, where people are in favor of verbal messages and “words are considered very important” (Koester & Lustig, 2010, p.235), language
is one means of survival Language helps people to participate in conversations, education, politics, and to work in their professions Their ethnic group is identified with language because
it partially shape their beliefs, values, patterns of thinking In the case of Heidi, she now is 100 percent American, not Vietnamese for the fact that she cannot speak any Vietnamese although she is believed to proficient in Vietnamese at the age of seven
During the early time in Vietnam, Hiep is willing to be taught to speak some Vietnamese words and phrases such as “mẹ”, “má”, “con thương mẹ”, “em thương chị”, “xin phép” With those common words, Hiep is able to express her love to her birthmother and her relatives, and to feel convergent If the new comer wish to use the native’s language behaviors when he or she is exposed to a country, then it means he or she wants to be considered an in-group member, who is
Trang 3similar to and has a harmonious contact with others (Gallois, Giles, Jones, C.Cargile, & Ota,
1995, pp.115-147)
2. Individualism and Collectivism
People are always put in a relationship with a larger group of individuals in which they have
to contact with other to survive However, people’s view on individual autonomy are different In terms of culture, if a person is in favor of independence and uniqueness, they are individualistic;
if he or she tends to be interdependent and conforming, this person is collectivistic Therefore,
the opposition between individualism and collectivism lies in the question to what extent people depend upon themselves or upon groups? (Koester & Lustig, 2010, p 117).
It can be seen that the documentary depicts quite clearly the difference between American and Vietnamese culture regarding individualism and collectivism Since early age, the mixed-race orphans are taught to eat on their own According to Heide, in America, she has to sleep alone although she “cries and cries” in the night She “grew up not have a bunch of affection or touch”
In her twenties, Heidi was (Myron W.Lustig, 2010) (Myron W.Lustig, 2010)abandoned by her adoptive mother on the grounds that she came home ten minutes late From the perspective of American people, this abandonment is normal Even if Heidi did not make the mistake, her adoptive mother could leave her alone In the United States, where individualistic culture is high, mature people are expected to be independent and are free to lead their own life They tend to live for themselves and create their uniqueness Koester and Lustig (2010) point out that individualistic people make decisions based on their own point of view, what they do is for self, not for a group
However, the situation turns reverse when Heidi arrived to Vietnam The collectivistic society
is shot in detail Not only her relatives but also the neighbors welcome Hiep Her birthmother, Mrs Mai Thi, is extremely blessed with the reunion: “I’m very happy”, “I love you very much” She is constantly kissing Hiep’s cheek and hugging her She stays with her daughter 24 over 24
“I spent the night in my room, with my mother, she hasn’t left me so far”, says Hiep Mrs Mai Thi brings her daughter to the market, to the place Hiep used to live and then worship her ancestors Her extended family often gather and have a reunion party The siblings and relatives all wish to show their love to Hiep by hugs, smiles, talks, so on The Vietnamese in particular value the best for the group before they think of themselves In turn, it is necessary for the group
Trang 4to value individual’s benefit (Koester & Lustig, 2010, p 117) They are people-oriented This culture explains why Mrs Mai Thi is so loyal to her child year after year; she wants to cover all affection that Hiep has lacked during their isolation “I will not let Hiep leave any longer”, Mrs Mai Thi says She is dying to take care of Hiep although she worries about her family’s poverty
3 Confrontation between Individualism and Collectivism Lead to Culture Shock
The happiness of Hiep and her relatives cannot last long as she hardly interprets the difference
in ways of thinking and perceiving situations Consequently, she encounters culture shock During her visit, she cannot cope with this phenomenon
According to Koester and Lustig (2010), culture shock arises when people face a number of changes and new concepts but they are not able to classify what is happening due to a change in living environment As result of the confusion, they response negatively to the new context without any awareness of in-group members’ thoughts
In the early days, Hiep feels that the reunion lives up to her expectations, which is “I always want the feeling someone would love me, no matter what” Hiep adjusts to her Vietnamese family: gathers with her extended family in party, speaks some Vietnamese She keeps close to her mother She provides her siblings with some money for party However, the positive and blissful emotion fades away and replaced with unpleasant one She cannot imagine how life it would be here, it contradicts America: the household facilities, the beliefs With the meticulous care from her mother, Hiep feels suffocated “I just want to step back and say wow it is not what I’d pictured” Sitting in a bench, she confides she knows her sister is living in poverty so she offer her family some money to “help them out”, however, sister Hien asks Hiep for money another twice so that her kids can go to school, she can find a job Hiep is so frustrated at this pledge, finds it very rude to her The journalist Tran Tuong Nhu explains that it is a common knowledge in Vietnam that the person who is overseas is the person who saves the family and families those who have that will be more prosperous, they are very upfront about money
In this case, the culture is resulted from the misinterpretation between Hiep-individualistic person and her Vietnamese family who are in favor of individualism Growing up in American, she values independence, privacy, and the ‘I” She lives for today and future, not for the past She does not accept to live for the sake of anyone else: “I came here not for helping anyone but to be reunited.” From her perspective, she feels she is being exploited while she does not have
Trang 5obligation to offer money to her mother On the other hand, because Vietnamese people consider Hiep to be an in-group member, Hiep is under obligation to offer help The culture shock reaches
a wrenching climax in the farewell when the half-brother politely requests her for monthly financial support Hiep cannot say anything but gets disgusted Culture shock forces her to return
to the U.S soon
Throughout the documentary, we can observe that language barriers and cultural differences contributes to the culture shock that a person is likely to encounter when they are exposed to a new country The unsuccessful interpersonal communication between an Amerasian and a group
of Vietnamese partly caused by language They hardly understand each other though efforts to learn other’s language have been made English and Vietnamese identify Heidi and her relatives with American culture and Vietnamese culture respectively We cannot judge who is right and who is wrong because they have different point of views on individual autonomy They have their own reasons to behave the way they behave
Another thing is that culture shock is associated with the U-curve hypothesis of cultural
adaptation in a very minor aspect The happiness goes down until it reaches the bottom of the U
No positive feelings are developed afterwards It is presumably because of limited time of exposure Seven-day stay cannot make every person in that family interpret each member’s culture
The documentary not only describes the sadness of post-war but also provides some lessons and insights into intercultural competence We should learn from people of other cultures Because culture is no right or wrong, we should not jump to the conclusion immediately Instead,
we should have a deeper understanding of what is happening, stand in other’s position to make interpretation Even if when we cannot still elaborate the inner problems, it is advisable for us to
be tolerant and wait for the clarification In particular, once people come to another country, they should prepare some cultural background knowledge of the destination in advance Moreover,
we should share our culture with others for interpersonal communication
References
Dolgin, G., & Franco, V (Directors) (2002) Daughter from Danang [Motion picture] United
States: Sunshine Sara Ludder
Trang 6Gallois, C., Giles, H., Jones, E., Cargile, A.C., & Ota, H (1995) Intercultural communication theory Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 115-147
Koester, J., & Lustig, M.W (2010) Intercultural competence (6th ed.) Boston, United States: Pearson Education, Inc
Mitchell, E (2002 March 23) Film festival review; Danang round trip, sad all the way The
New York Times Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?
res=9807E2D61F38F930A15750C0A9649C8B63