Creativity in a Vietnamese American Boy
It just didn’t make any sense, I repeatedly thought to myself as I sat in my dorm room, unable to make significant progress in my Game Design Workshop class. In this class, we are tasked with making board games with next to no constraints. It is an assignment with unlimited possibilities and it feels as though I am staring into a never ending abyss when I attempt to get started. It’s not like there are clear instructions telling me where to start from. Yet, my fellow classmates and friends are effortlessly crafting up unique ideas; ideas which seemed impossible to me.
The lack of creative thinking was prevalent throughout my entire life. All my life it was drilled into my head to do well in academics and my studies. The procedural STEM subjects came easy to me and gave me enough validation to simply cruise by the English and arts subjects. I could do well in specific subjects so why would I ever need to explore the realm of creativity? In my writing classes I could easily write until the rubric is satisfied. Earning an A in orchestra didn’t call for expressive musicality, only playing the right notes. My parents would give me validation only if I provided excellent academic results. Exploring my creative side would only take away effort and energy from my other methods of validation.
This mindset was indoctrinated in me through the nature of Vietnamese culture. The dynamic between parent and child within Vietnamese culture is much like the dynamic described by Paulo Freire between students and teachers in the “banking” of education. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire describes the “banking” model where “the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing” and how it “minimizes students’ creative power”. This dynamic of an all knowing parent and an incompetent child becomes an overwhelmingly oppressive force against the mind of the child. The minds of nearly all children are curious and endless but making a child feel incompetent will prevent them from reaching their potential. So often do Vietnamese parents crush the free-thinking mind of their own children in a fit of rage during arguments. Traditional Vietnamese born parents hate nothing more than being questioned and challenged; Vietnamese parents must always be the correct one.
Thus, when I disagreed or challenged the teachings my parents would attempt to force into me, I would only receive constant yelling and physical punishment. “Don’t do that Antonio”, “Do well in math and science only”, and “Never do this” were frequent ways my parents passed their teachings to me. Whenever I asked “why?” or didn’t fully agree, my parents erupted with anger distinctively shouting “your job as a child is to listen, not argue.” It was never worth it to try and think for myself. The end result would always be suffering for me. The curious nature of other Vietnamese children and I only causes us to get punished and disciplined. This occurs so frequently in a Vietnamese child’s life to the point the child truly believes it is their only choice to comply and obey. To the child, compliance and obedience is their only way to live.
The effect of our “banking” parenting method on creativity becomes even more evident especially when looking at the industries Vietnamese Americans work in. According to the article Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States by Aaron Terrazas and Cristina Batog, nearly one third of the Vietnamese-born American population over the age of 16 work services, manufacturing, installation, and repair jobs. The majority of our culture’s adults work in industries that leave little-to-no room for independent thinking or creative applications. One of the most common occupations for Vietnamese women is working as a nail technician. Majority of these technicians are not working with creative freedom on the clients they are working on. They are simply fulfilling an order the client wants, almost as if they are a nail decorating robot. Similarly, Vietnamese men who work in repairs or manufacturing are fulfilling other people’s wants and needs. The jobs Vietnamese Americans work simply do not call for the use of creativity or independent thinking, and over time it seeps from them to their children.
For example, my father works as a tailor and my mother works as a card dealer in a casino. Both of my parents’ jobs align with the stereotype of Vietnamese American working in repair and services. When they come home after work, they are unable to take part in the games my siblings and I play such as Charades!. My parents genuinely could not comprehend the point of the game or even think independently enough to take part in it, so they almost always prefer to do something else entirely. A movie is always more enjoyable for my parents and my siblings and I are forced to watch alongside them if we want to bond with them. Even at home where my parents have the freedom to do as they please, they are indoctrinated by their careers and possibly even their own parents to choose the activities that call for the least amount of creative and independent thinking.
As seen in the connection between me and my parents, Vietnamese culture is oppressive against creative and independent thinking. Everyone from the parents to the children are victims of this repeating cycle of creative hindrance. In the article Generational Trauma and Breaking the Cycle by Lauren Philipps, she states that “the person’s experiences as a child impact their decisions as an adult”. In the context of Vietnamese culture, the oppression against creative thinking is cyclical. My parents are war refugees and had to constantly focus on survival; it is obvious there was no room to nurture their creative thinking. But with that, their childhood trauma seeps into their parenting and my own creative thinking feels as though they are being suffocated by my parent’s teaching and lifestyle. If I fail to fight against my parent’s lifestyle, I will too fall victim to this vicious cycle within our culture.
It is important to note that this time is the perfect time for all those who are part of Vietnamese culture to break the cycle and nurture their creative minds. Only recently, in the start of 2021, there has been a growing creative renaissance in Saigon. Young artists in creative industries such as fashion and music are on the rise to disrupt our cyclical anti-creative culture. I took a blind leap of faith into video game development. My parents and culture may have never helped me nurture the skills to thrive in this industry but I intend to join the movement in making our culture more creative.
Works Cited
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum, 1968.
Philipps, Laurie. “Generational Trauma and Breaking the Cycle.” NeuroHealth Arlington Heights, NeuroHealth Arlington Heights, 10 Dec. 2021, https://neurohealthah.com/blog/what-is-generational-trauma/#:~:text=Generational%20trauma%20starts%20with%20an,relationship%20with%20an%20abusive%20spouse.
Terrazas, Aaron, and Cristina Batog. “Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States.” Migrationpolicy.org, 23 Sept. 2010, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/vietnamese-immigrants-united-states-2008#14.
