Sponsors: Weatherhead East Asian Institute and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University

Description:

Engagement with contemporary artists, authors, and other public figures is key to understanding East Asian society and culture. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai represents one of the most celebrated new Vietnamese authors today, whose work is gaining enormous recognition for her successful translation of Vietnamese literary aesthetics, philosophy, and experience into the English language. This event is a rare opportunity to discuss her award-winning novel, The Mountains Sing , as well as her unique perspective as a cosmopolitan Vietnamese writer and journalist, working in multiple languages, and in multiple societies. She represents a new, transnational kind of intellectual, one that reflects an increasingly global East Asia. We believe that this event will be of immense value for all scholars of modern East Asia, as well as scholars of East Asian diasporic communities, Vietnamese literature, culture, and history.

Ms Nguyễn’s work will be then discussed in a casual format by Marie Myung-Ok Lee (CSER) and Yến Vũ (Weatherhead East Asian Institute & EALAC). Drs. Lee and Vũ are uniquely situated to discuss the significance of Nguyễn Thị Quế Mai’s work. Dr. Lee is an expert in Asian American literature, as well as a celebrated author focusing on the Korean American experience in her own right, while Dr. Vũ focuses on diasporic Vietnamese literature in her own research. The event will be facilitated by Dr. John Phan.

Speakers:

Nguyễn Thị Quế Mai, author of The Mountains Sing

Marie Myung-ok Lee, CSER, Columbia University

Yen Vu, EALAC/WEAI, Columbia University

John Phan, EALAC/WEAI, Columbia University

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