Andrew Lam’s book, Perfume Dreams: Reflection on the Vietnamese Diaspora, is a collection of personal essays that documents Lam’s quest and struggle in finding the right identity as a Vietnamese American. At the age of 11, Lam fled with his family to America, during the ending years of the Vietnam War, as war refugees. This sudden exposure to a new environment, tore Lam’s past perception of who he was , created the identity dilemma that Lam struggled through his lifetime. Throughout the book, Lam’s essays reflect his ever changing perception of his personal identity and emphasized greatly on how his family and peers sculptured his identity of self, which also brings forth Lam’s own understanding of duties, obligations, and expectations that each generation of an immigrant family have. From the beginning to the end of the
…show more content…
Yet, through Lam’s experiences, his associations of his struggle with the culture clash seemed problematic and questionable. Which, consequently raises the question: can the emphasis of differences within two cultures by an immigrant, rather identifying than the similarities of values and social norms, create unneeded barriers in finding the right identity? Growing up in a traditional, Vietnamese family that held strong roots in the Confucian value of filial piety, Lam’s coming to America and exposure to the Western ideals quickly allowed him to recognizes the differences of each culture. For instance, Lam recalls that in Vietnam, morning farewells to his parents consisted of him showing obedience by bowing down; yet the American way was to simply mumble a goodbye (Lam 25). In Vietnam, children were told by their parents what they
Yet, through Lam’s experiences, his associations of his struggle with the culture clash seemed problematic and questionable. Which, consequently raises the question: can the emphasis of differences within two cultures by an immigrant, rather identifying than the similarities of values and social norms, create unneeded barriers in finding the right identity? Growing up in a traditional, Vietnamese family that held strong roots in the Confucian value of filial piety, Lam’s coming to America and exposure to the Western ideals quickly allowed him to recognizes the differences of each culture. For instance, Lam recalls that in Vietnam, morning farewells to his parents consisted of him showing obedience by bowing down; yet the American way was to simply mumble a goodbye (Lam 25). In Vietnam, children were told by their parents what they