Exiled Memory, Memories of Exile:

Exiled Memory, Memories of Exile: Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Refugees in France and the United States after 1975

Columbia University School of Journalism

April 10th 2025

2025 will mark the 50th anniversary of the many events that transformed the South-east Asian Nation-States. On April 17th, the Communist Party of Kampuchea established the Khmers Rouges regime, which perpetrated a genocide in Cambodia. April 30th marked the “fall of Saigon” and the reunification of Vietnam. And on December 2nd, the Lao People's Democratic Republic was established when the king abdicated. These events forced hundreds of thousands of people into exile. Most of them built new lives in France and in the United States.

While the history of the wars - Vietnam war, Indochina war or civil wars - and the Cambodian genocide are well documented, and the period of exile has also attracted interest, the destinies of the refugees, their children and grand-children, 50 years after the political turmoil in the region, is less well known. Their experiences in France - the former colonial power - and in the United States - the former protagonist in the Vietnam War - bore many similarities, but were also very distinct.

While the ashes of the conflict fell on both countries, the traumas of these exile communities followed different paths.

In both countries, they are seen as upwardly-mobile groups whose economic status improved substantially in the past decades. By placing a high value on education and hard work, these communities are often hailed as successful examples of integration, or model minorities. They have also evolved, for the most part, hidden from public view. In the United States, the scars of war have shaped political affiliations: while first generation refugees tend to support Republicans because of their anti-communist stance, their children and grandchildren are leaning towards the democratic party, whose liberal values are more in line with theirs. In France, the generational contrast is not as sharp, but the lack of visibility of these exile communities and their descendants in the political, social, and – to some extent – cultural life of their adopted country raises important questions.

• What do the personal stories of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian exiles reveal about the obstacles they encountered and the strategies they developed to overcome them?
• How can “postmemory” help us understand the transmission of the traumas suffered by the first generation of exiles? How do these traumas shape the lives of their children and the challenges faced by their communities?
• How did political organizations set up in exile to fight against authoritarian regimes in South-east Asia evolve along the generations and the reopening of the countries?
• What do these testimonies reveal about the stories we tell ourselves about the conflicts that raged in Southeast Asia during that period and what is missing from those narratives?
• How can an exploration of individual exile destinies cast light on the responsibilities of foreign powers in the region and the silences that occluded them?

In order to shed light on these questions, we propose to create a transatlantic dialogue bringing together the voices of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian exiles in France and the United States, as well as experts, activists and artists from both sides of the Atlantic.

PROGRAM

2:00 pm – 2:15 pm

Welcoming Remarks

Duy Linh Tu, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia School of Journalism

2:15 pm – 3:45 pm

Panel 1

Memory: Comparing the Transmission of Collective Memory among Southeast Asian Refugees in the US and in France.

The experience of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees in France and the US bore many similarities, but were also distinct in many ways.

How did the experience of war and the memories it formed among generations of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian exiles shape their political identities? How do these political leanings play out across generations in France and the US? How were the stories of the Vietnam war, Indochina war, and the Cambodian genocide told initially? How did those narratives evolve within families and communities? What is their relative presence (or absence) within “official memory” and in public spaces?

Moderator: Duy Linh Tu, Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia School of Journalism

Panelists:

Ombeline Bois, PhD student in history, Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 University

Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia, Columbia University

Hélène Le Bail, Researcher in political science, CNRS, CERI Sciences Po Paris

Khatharya Um, Associate Dean, Associate Professor, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, UC Berkeley

3:45 pm – 4:40 pm

Screening of short video testimonies of Southeast Asian refugees and their descendants (directed by “Du Mékong à La Marne”, France)

4:40 pm - 5:00 pm

Break

5:00 pm – 6:20 pm

Panel 2

Postmemory: Transmission, Narratives, and Artistic Expressions of Trauma

Postmemory – the complex, often subconscious, transmission of trauma across generations – is an increasingly well-documented phenomenon.

How did the traumas experienced by the first generation of exiles manifest themselves in the lives of their descendants? What new incarnations did these traumas take in the narratives and life stories of younger generations of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian exiles? How can art and literature offer new pathways to articulate, shape, and give voice to transgenerational trauma?

Moderator: Emmanuel Kattan

Panelists:

Fabien Truong, Sociologist, filmmaker, and writer

Kalyanee Mam, Filmmaker

Krysada Phounsiri, Poet, Photographer, Dancer, Multimedia Artist

6:20 pm – 7:15 pm

Reception

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Lecture Hall, 3rd floor, Pulitzer Hall, 2950 Broadway, New York, United States