Is War Over After It’s Over?
For the art conscious and curious
“Are we Chinese?” Bui demanded of his dad.
When Bui was 20, a tall ladder he climbed led to the secret: Behind a small pair of curtains on top of the family shrine stood Kuan Ti (the Chinese general, “god of war”, the symbol of justice). His dad told him they must worship their ancestors in private. The world must not know their ethnic identity.
“WHY!!!?” So the young Bui bottled up his anger for 20 years…
His ancestors escaped to Vietnam from the Fukien Province when Manchurians invaded China proper in the 1600s. Bui’s Chinese ancestors were not invaders. They were refugees. [excerpt]
Go ahead, finish the short story linked below. I’ll wait.
In a perfect world, all seeds blossom into goodness. But our world is faulted by humans. Burdens fetter generations unless we willingly abandon them.
Bui Cong Khanh’s epic artwork Dislocate, shortlisted for the Benesse Prize, reveals unfaltering love from nature and the seeds of ambiguity humans sow. Sometimes in the most unexpected ways.
Sometimes, spring happens all year round — or not?
(Prompted by Ravyne Hawke’s April theme of Sowing Seeds)
© Pseu Pending (Seu) 2022
