EXCERPT FROM DAUGHTERS OF THE RIVER HUONG Trích từ truyện sáng tạo

FROM PART THREE OF 
DAUGHTERS OF THE RIVER HUONG

CHAPTER FOUR

A WAY HOMEWARD 

Đang hoàn chỉnh

A WISH IN THE MORNING, FOR THE FUTURE -- NGUYỆN TRONG MAI SÁNG, NGUYỆN CHO MAI SAU

VISUAL POETRY Tranh thơ: 

PUBLICATIONS OF WENDY NICOLE NN DUONG - Bài viết và tác phẩm đã xuất bản

WENDY NICOLE DUONG

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Published  Interdisciplinary and Law Reviews:

 1.  Revisiting the Build-Operate-Transfer Structure for International Infrastructure Building: A Critique of International Economic Development in Lesser Developed Nations, in “International Business Law in the 21st Century: Challenges and Issues in East Asia,”ed. (National Chengchi University’s College of Law, 2011 International Business Transactions conference). 

2.    The Southeast Asian Story and its Forgotten “Prisoners of Conscience”:  Some Proposed Measures to Combat Human Trafficking,   9 SEATTLE JOURNAL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, Issue 2. 679 (Spring/Summer 2011) (solicited article) (special issue).

3.    Ghetto’ing Workers With Hi-Tech:  Exploring Regulatory Solutions for the Effect of Artificial Intelligence on “Third World” Foreign Direct Investment, 21 Temple International & Comparative Law Journal, No. 20, 101 (2008) (book length).

4.      Effect of Artificial Intelligence on the Pattern of Foreign Direct Investment in the Third World: A Possible Reversal of Trend, Denver Journal of Int’l Law & Policy (Summer 2008) (printed speech).

5.    Following the Path of Oil: The Law of the Sea or RealPolitik – What Good Does Law Do in the South China Sea Territorial Conflicts?, 30 Fordham International Law Journal, No. 4, 1098  (April 2007) (special issue) (book length).

6.       Law is Law and Art is Art and Shall the Two Ever Meet?  Law and Literature: The Comparative Creative Processes, 15 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, No. 1, 1 (2005) (lead article).

            7.      Partnership with Monarchs – Two Case Studies: Case Two – Partnerships with Monarchs in the Development of Energy Resources: Dissecting an Independent Power Project and Re-Evaluating the Role of Multilateral and Project Financing in the International Energy Sector, 26 U. Pa. J. Int’l Econ. L. 69 (2005) (book length).

8.      Partnership with Monarchs – Two Case Studies: Case One – Partnerships with Monarchs in the Search for Oil: Unveiling and Re-Examining the Patterns of “Third World” Economic Development in the Petroleum Sector, 25 U. Pa. J. Int’l Econ. L. 1171 (2004) (lead article) (book length).

9.      Gender Equality and Women’s Issues in Vietnam: The Vietnamese Woman – Warrior and Poet, 10 Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal 191 (2001) (lead article) (book length).

Trade Articles and Essays:

10.    The Practice of Teaching Law: The Why is More Important Than the How, University of Denver College of Law Alumni Magazine 18 (2003).

11.    The Magic of Digital Signatures in the New Age of Global-E-Commerce, 15 Texas Transnational Law Quarterly No. 2, 26 (April 2001).

12.       The Long Saga of the Spratlys Islands: An Overview of the Territorial Disputes Among Vietnam, China, and Other ASEAN Nations in the South China Sea, 13 Texas Transnational Law Quarterly 26 (November 1997).

13.   The Long Saga of the Spratly Islands “Elongated Sandbanks”: Overview of the Territorial Disputes Among Vietnam, China, and other ASEAN Nations in the South China Sea, Currents [South Texas College of Law] 47 (Summer 1997).

14.  Bankruptcy law comes into force in Vietnam, International Financial Law review 33 (April 1994).

15.   Vietnam’s Move to the Market: New Business Bankruptcy Law, 16 East Asian Executive Reports No. 4, 7 (Apr. 15, 1994).

Scholarly works in progress  

(on SSRN Social Sciences Research Network):

           

            16.  From Puccini’s Madam Butterfly To The Statue Of The Awaiting Wife In North Vietnam: Courtroom, Board Room, and Classroom -- Where Is Portia In The Vietnamese American Experience?

17.   Using Poison to Treat Poison as an Antidote in the Post-Enron Era:  Stimulating Corporate Self-Compliance with the Self-Evaluative Privilege Applicable to Employers’ Internal Investigation of Discrimination Claims. 

18.  Extraterritorial Effect of U.S. Anti-discrimination in Employment Law:  Re-examining the Goals and Policies Behind the Citizenship Nexus and the Reality of U.S.-based Multinational Corporations’ Global Workforce.

19.    Thirty Five Years after the Fall of Saigon:  The Common Place of Law in the Uncommon World of Vietnamese Immigrants –- The Vietnam War Refought in A  Massachusetts Federal Courthouse.

           

20.   Law and Society in a Developing Economy: the Case of Vietnam in the 21^st Century (“Law & Society” research based on U.S. Fulbright Core Program lectureship).

Novels and Creative Writing:

21.    Daughters of the River Huong (historical literary fiction) (Ravenyard Ltd independent Publishing, 1^st edition 2005; AmazonEncore 2d edition 2011).

22. Mimi and Her Mirror (historical literary fiction) (AmazonEncore 2011) (winner of International Book Award, multicultural fiction).

23.  Postcards from Nam (historical literary fiction) (AmazonEncore 2011) (finalist, International Book Award, multicultural fiction).

24.        Book of the Seven Dreams (textbook on creative writing and Vietnamese cultural studies) (RobbieDean Independent Press 2012)

25.    Love, Life and Exile:  One Woman’s World (collection of poetry and poetic prose, paintings and photography, to be published)

                 Creative Fiction in Vietnamese

     TÁC PHẨM SÁNG TẠO BẰNG TIẾNG VIỆT: 

1.  Con Gái Của Sông Hương, bản dịch của Dr. Linh Chan Brown (2005)

2.  Bưu Thiếp Của Nam, bản dịch của Giáo Sư Đoàn Khoách Thanh Tâm (Văn Mới 2010)

3.   Chín Chữ Của Nàng, tập truyện (Văn Mới 2005)

4.   Mùi Hương Quế, tập truyện (Văn Nghệ 1999)

A TRIBUTE TO MIMI: LITERARY CRITIQUE OF POSTCARDS FROM NAM Vinh danh nhân vật Mimi: Bài phân tích văn chương về tiểu thuyết "Bưu Thiếp Của Nam"

ESSAYS Nghị luận biên khảo, LITERARY CRITIQUES Phê bình và phân tích văn chương: 
NOTE FROM EDITOR:  The following typifies a literary critique, written by G.B.A Nash, pen name of an international lawyer whose undergraduate degree is in history and comparative literature.
Bài viết sau đây tượng trưng cho thể loại phân tích văn chương của tác giả G.B.A. Nash, là bút danh của một luật sư quốc tế tốt nghiệp ngành lịch sử và văn chương đối chiếu (ngoa`i chuye^n mo^n ve^` luật). Ba?n di.ch o pha^`n cuo^'i cu?a mu.c na`y. 

***

A Tribute to Mimi — POSTCRIPT to “Postcards from Nam,” 

a novella by Uyen Nicole Duong

by G.B.A. Nash  first published: December 1, 2010; vietthuc.org; vietbang.com  The novelist’ s journey and the burden of cultures I got to know Mimi when her creator was struggling with an epic manuscript that was far too long.  Mimi was born in the classic subconscious journey of novel writing that Robert Olen Butler advocates in his creative writing class. She was not planned, nor structured. She emerges as her creator submerges.  Nowadays, no one wrote like Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which, in today’s standards, would not be successful or even readable. Not to mention the fact that the attention span of readers of the 21st century is measured by the size of the computer screen and how quickly links can be clicked and browsed.  Yet, in the end, Postcards from Nam became a novella of fewer than 100 pages double-spaced.  It is truly a novella in the count of words. Yet, it tells stories that are epic in the Vietnam experience: from lives in a small alley of pre-communist Saigon in the 1960s, to the very unique and contrasting personal characteristics of a young boy and a young girl of that era, all the way to the 1975 life-about-face, and a harsh, gruesome escape at sea, the sufferings of Vietnamese boat people, to the contemporary life of a female lawyer in the Capital City of America and her search homeward, embedding the conflicts in the lives of first-generation immigrants unknown to outsiders – all the complication of human beings spanning over a century.  The first question I ask is why the novella begins with a very detailed description of where Mimi lives. The Parc Royale?  How is it relevant or even necessary to what we are about to see?  In novel writing, one either narrates, describes, or interprets. I suppose this speaks for the 3 fundamental methods of story-writing:  narration, description, and interpretation.  Butler, the novelist-teacher, will certainly tell us that the key to effective creative writing lies not in narration but in description. “Showing, not telling” is our motto. Barthes and Foucault, the incomprehensible theorists that no one is supposed to understand, tell us something else (perhaps what we think they may be telling us, because they are supposed to be not so understandable):  self-interpretation is a taboo, because the author is supposed to be dead, in order for readers to be born.    Yet, in the end, to make it all in fewer than 100 pages double-spaced, our Mimi narrated and interpreted, as she (and her world) were described by her creator.  Somehow, Mimi’s creator did all three to give us the story in fewer than 100 pages.  A story within a story within a story in the novella form.  Parc Royale is important to Mimi in her journey to re-meet her “Nam,” such that the descriptive method has to be up for grab, because what we see at Parc Royale becomes the textual backdrop upon which we find our Mimi.  Parc Royale is the constructed work of an architect, who purposely creates an illusion.  The apartment complex is supposed to be an imitation of the South of France, yet it lies in the heart of hot and humid Houston, Texas.  We know then at the beginning of the novella that nothing in Mimi’s world has been real.  It is all an imitation of something else, very far removed from her authentic Vietnamese childhood.  The postcards become the linkage between fragments of lives that have been broken, segregated and separated, into compartments, drawers, and blanket folds (as Mimi tells us).  Nothing that is so disconnected can be real, just like the phoniness of Parc Royale. The postcards, therefore, constitute the only reality, if reality means continuation and re-connection of many pieces of life.  The need to be back in touch with that reality – the only reality against the artificial Parc Royale scenery – foreshadows our Mimi’s return to her search for Nam.

POSTCARDS FROM NAM BOOK-SIGNING IN WASHINGTON D.C. TƯỜNG THUẬT BUỔI KÝ SÁCH Ở HOA THỊNH ĐỐN 2010

EVENTS Tường thuật:
Giới thiệu “Postcards From Nam” tại Nhà Việt Nam
Posted on November 22, 2009 by VLAC

“Postcards from Nam” một tác phẩm mới nhất của nhà văn Dương Như Nguyện, giáo sư Luật tại trường đại học Denver, đã được trang trọng giới thiệu tại Nhà Việt Nam ngày 22/11/2009 vừa qua, và đã quy tụ được một số đông giới yêu văn chương tại vùng Hoa Thịnh Đốn.



Buổi ra mắt “Postcards fromNam” đã được tổ chức và hỗ trợ bởi Nhà Việt Nam, Câu Lạc Bộ Văn Học Nghệ Thuật vùng HTĐ, Nguyệt San Kỷ Nguyên Mới, Gia Đình Cựu Nữ Sinh Trưng Vương vùng HTĐ, thân hữu của nhà văn Dương Như Nguyện, và dịch giả Nguyễn Thị Thanh Tâm.

Sau phần nghi lễ chào quốc kỳ VNCH, bà Kiều Thu đã giới thiệu về thân thế tác giả Dương Như Nguyện, một bạn đồng môn của bà trong những ngày còn theo học tại trường nữ trung học Trưng Vương. Kế tiếp nhà văn Dương Như Nguyện đã nói về những sinh hoạt của bà trong những năm qua, và nêu lý do vì sao bà đã sáng tác “Postcards From Nam”. Bà Thanh Trúc, Radio Free Asia đã giới thiệu về tác phẩm.








Phần nói chuyện và tiếng hát Dương Như Nguyện hấp dẫn, lôi cuốn đã khiến khán giả ở lại nghe tới phút chót. Tất cả sách đã được tiêu thụ hết. Khách chậm chân đành phải chờ tái bản trong những ngày tới.

Tuo`ng thua^.t cu?a ba'o Ky? Nguye^n Mo'i:  Click READ MORE below.

RAVENSYARD'S INTERVIEW OF UYEN NICOLE DUONG (Phỏng vấn)

The Vietnamese translation of this interview is available at the end of this post.
Ba?n di.ch tie^'ng Vie^.t o? phia' duo'i pha^`n tie^'ng Anh trong mu.c na`y.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR OF 

DAUGHTERS OF THE RIVER HUONG

CONDUCTED BY RAVENSYARD LTD, ORIGINAL PUBLISHER OF 

DAUGHTERS OF THE RIVER HUONG

SOURCE:  ravensyard.com
published 2005

RY: How did you come to write “Daughters of the River Huong”?

Duong:  We can call  the novel, “River Huong.”  I’m not sure anyone – even the writer – can fully understand all the sources for a writer’s creative energy.  The themes that were at work for me included my mother’s hometown, the city of Hue, and the native people from the extinct Kingdom of Champa.

My mother is from Hue, and of course she has played an important part in my creative life since childhood.

All Vietnam veterans who served in Vietnam, I imagine, would remember Hue and the battle there during the TET offensive in 1968. Hue was an imperial city, and represented the past glory of the independent Vietnam before French colonialism. Control of Hue was very important and one of the reasons why the battle in 1968 was so intense. I know many American veterans of the Vietnam War remember Hue. One time at a social gathering at a filmmaker's home (Mr. Oliver Stone) in California, I was introduced to a Vietnam vet and when he found out my mother came from Hue, all he wanted to talk about was the battle for the imperial city. In a way, this made me sad that my mother's hometown was associated only with the bloodshed of war in the minds of the American public. For that reason, I want to bring Hue and its motif into my novel.

The River Huong, commonly known among tourists as the Perfume River, is the landmark of Hue. It is associated with the beautiful and romantic women of Vietnam. It also has historic significance independent from the famous battle. One of the last Vietnamese monarchs, together with two mandarin strategists, plotted a revolt against the French protectorate government during his boat trips on the Perfume River. Of course, it was unsuccessful and the young king was exiled. Hue and its River Huong are also associated with the past kingdom of Champa, which annexed into Vietnam as of the 15th century. I have always been interested in the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia, including the Champa heritage. In 1991, a Vietnamese friend of mine, a psychologist who had studied Carl Jung, told me I looked more like a Cham woman than a Vietnamese. This gave me the idea to pursue a creative urge. I conceived the novel during the same year.

Initially, I began work on an epic novel called "The Queens of Champa." Later, I wrote a short story called "The Young Woman Who Practiced Singing," and a non-fiction piece called "Coffins of Cinnamon." These three works evolved as I worked on them into one body of work, which was about 1,000 pages long. The main theme was  the fall of South  Vietnam and its effect upon South Vietnamese  – my characters.  Knowing that the work would be extremely difficult to market at that length, I contacted Sandra Djikstra, the famous literary agent, for an opinion. She told  me that she would like to have a manuscript that resembled the formula of  Memoire of a Geisha.  I then decided that perhaps I did not need a literary agent as much as I  need to follow my instinct.  So I rewrote the work and broke it down into three pieces: a trilogy. The first of the trilogy was “Daughters of the River Huong."  The other two pieces are also ready to be marketed.

LES PAROLES TO SIR WHO GOES TO PARIS

POETRY--ENGLISH Thơ Anh ngữ:

UYEN NICOLE DUONG copyright 2000 

_____________________________

Leave your door open tonight, ‘cause I will creep in

I’ll talk to your heartbeat

Tales of the affair between Paris and L’Indochine

I’ll breathe onto your heart memories of girlhood

and paint onto your mind images of what I once saw

of my beloved Paris

so when you roam the city of love, city of lights, city of revolution,

nurturer of the misfit, the rejected, the vagabonde

You will see what I saw and embrace my soul

to find unison

in my beloved Paris

and when the morning sun paints shadow upon your face,

Le depart, by sir who goes to Paris

Je t’ai apporte des bonbons, du chocolat, du croissant, et du fromage

Tout le monde fait ca ici

in my beloved Paris

I once tiptoed along the bank of La Seine, seeing lovers’ embrace

wishing I could grow up so fast to make love to you

I once rolled upon the wet leaves of Le Jardin de Luxembourg,

longing for womanhood when these leaves would turn into your caress

I once peeped inside the boutiques de Champs Elysees

imagining me in ligerie, high heels, and a Dior hat, devenir ton amante

That time never came, and somehow the affair of Paris and L’Indochine

turned into gunshots, guillotines, airlift and evacuation

Somewhere between Paris and L’Indochine, I lie

stoic and silent

awaiting you, still

Grandmere, from the soil of Southeast Asia I can still hear you cry

Maman, agee et gentille, still talking of everlasting love

Et toi, ma tante, tata, you and the glory of your Vietnamese opera stage

Wake up, the women of the East, from tomb, bed, stage, and dream

and tell me, how many years has it been since I left your womb?

If I am to hear the footsteps of love, why does it come so late?

Quand, qui, and comment dire

ce grand amour qui me dechire

So, sir who goes to Paris, tear the sky of Paris for me,

rage over the horizon of L’Isle de France

and rush, rush to me

grab, feel, and taste

and leave nothing unsaid

Rush, rush against time

horseman, boxer, L’avocat, conseil, man of the world

run up the steps of Sacre Coeur

bow to divinity, and love me full as though tomorrow would soon be Apocalypse

down to Monmartre, capture my colors in the artist’s eyes

and find, too, the house of Dalida, upon her breath I sing

Besame, besame mucho

trace for me the steps of Josephine Baker, upon her feet I dance

Samba samba samba comme le mambo mambo la

Reach for Notre Dame’s Rose Window and picture Esmeralda through Quasimodo’s longing

Stroll through L’arc de Triomphe, triumph, please, triumph over me

in the golden sunshine of Paris (sparkling like les cheuveux blonds of the Sorbonne girls), you reign over me

like love itself

back to Quartier Latin, follow the church bells of St. Germains des Pres,

gather for me, sir, pieces of my girlhood

catch Buddha’s statue in the house of the Vietnamese ladies of Pigalle

on the cleavage of Moulin Rouge dancers

glance inside Sartre’s cafe, Deux Magots, where life and hell are both here, Huit Clos No Exit

and move on, my love, reviens, reviens, and blind yourself unto me once more, in me love’s no exit

But when the moon hangs over La Tour Eiffel

When all lights die out on Le Theatre de Moliere

Out on L’avenue de L’Opera, the affair between Paris and L’Indochine has ended

you return to L’Hotel Parisien, alone, sir who has gone to Paris

Look, look, my love

somewhere in a dark alley, at the end of a long and narrow corridor,

I may be lying, hopeless and breathless,

Lips apart, limbs abandoned

lusting love, loving lust

awaiting you, still

Viens, viens, mon amour, vite et tout de suite

Come to me, with cuffs, feather, bonds and bondage

to complete my being

and rewrite for me

girlhood from its beginning

UYEN NICLOE DUONG copyright 2000, 2002

FIRST PUBLISHED:

· THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467),
the magazine of Literature & Literature-in-translation.

VOLUME 5 DOUBLE ISSUE WINTER 2003 - SPRING 2004

Pensive, marker & enamel on paper, DNN C2010

CONTACT - Liên lạc

CONTACT Liên lạc

Wendy Nicole NN Duong (Nhu-Nguyen)  wendynicolennduong@post.harvard.edu

HOME PAGE INTRODUCTION NHA` VÀ LỜI GIỚI THIỆU

CONTENT: 

House of Duong Nhu-Nguyen represents the works of Wendy (Uyen) Nicole NN Duong, ne'e Duong Nhu Nguyen (UND, WND, DNN), her friends, and colleagues.  The work products found here are in Vietnamese, English, and occasionally in a third language with translation to English. 

For various subjects of interest, please consult the list of labels and click on the categor(ies) of your choice.  The label chosen will lead you to the various pieces of work/items within that category, arranged in alphabetical order.  


Edited and  maintained by Wendy and her friends, House of Duong Nhu-Nguyen is one of the blogs designed to serve Vietnamese American thoughts and creativity, seeking to enrich Vietnamese American lives, from past to future, from hardship to achievements, from losses to gains. We invite contributions and voices from readers, authors, and scholars of all disciplines and fields -- all those who share our dedication to the development of thoughts and creativity, toward the goal of serving humanity. 

Please see copyright notation and liability disclaimer in the Blog's announcement at the end of this display.

House is also an archive of items or information from selected sources, and articles that have been written about Wendy (Uyen) Nicole Duong aka Duong Nhu-Nguyen and her works, circulated in the public domain or already published elsewhere.  In that regard, we choose not to edit these articles or items, in order to maintain their authenticity. Accordingly, one may find some duplication, and we ask for your indulgence of such imperfection.  

NO^.I DUNG: 

Nhà của Dương Như-Nguyện gồm có những tác phẩm của DNN, đồng nghiệp và bạn hữu (hai ngôn ngữ Anh,Việt). a

Muo^'n cho.n lu.a no^.i dung, xin xem danh mu.c cu?a "labels," o? co^.t be^n pha?i, hoa.c  o? pha^`n duo'i cu?a Blog na`y, va cho.n de^` ta`i thi'ch ho.p. Trong mo^~i "label," se~ co' danh mu.c ca'c ta'c pha^?m (ca'c "posts") duo.c sa('p da(.t theo thu' tu cu?a ma^~u tu. alphabet.  

Đây là nơi chốn của tư tưởng và sáng tạo Việt Mỹ, nhằm mục đích làm đẹp và phong phú hóa đời sống người Mỹ gốc Việt, từ quá khứ đến tương lai, từ mất mát đến thành công.  Chúng tôi đón nhận tư tưởng và sáng tạo trong nhiều ngôn ngữ (Anh,Việt hoặc tiếng thứ ba nếu có bản dịch tiếng Anh), tư` tất cả những ai  cu`ng chia xẻ quan điểm và tiếng nói:  dồn trái tim cũng như trí tuệ vào sự phát triển tư tưởng và sáng tạo, cho mục đích nhân bản lấy con người làm chính.   

Xin lưu ý lời ngỏ về bản quyền trước tác phía dưới.

Nhà cũng là kho chứa và nơi tập trung những tài liệu và bài viết nói về Dương Như Nguyện và tác phẩm của bà, đã được lưu hành. Vì thế, sẽ có ít nhiều lập đi lập lại vì chúng tôi không muốn sửa đổi những bài viết đã có sa~n hay da~ xua^'t hie^.n  ở các môi trường khác.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF WND 

AND THE VOICE OF THIS BLOG: 

Please see the announcements on the right-hand side of this Blog. 

For decades, WND has not participated in the blog community or social media as a matter of personal choice.  Further, novels and creative works must be separated from the private world of authors.  However, throughout the years, there has been periodic harassment, violation of intellectual property, distortion, disinformation, and mis-information about her life and works by individuals in her ethnic community, known and unknown, many of whom use labels of "culture," "media," and "communication."  This Blog serves to dismiss any such malicious and misleading efforts, by providing a forum for, and rendering authenticity to, the voice of WND.  

In addition, the internet and cyberspace mark a new era in which the voice of the individual can create direct impact and, hence, can contribute to society more greatly now than ever, in the marketplace of ideas.  Among such impact is the direct communication of the value and benefit of multiculturalism and diversity; the promotion of humanity, love, compassion; the pursuit and exchange of knowledge and opinions; as well as the expression of diverse yet balanced viewpoints that create understanding and transcend the obstacles of cultural borders. Those are the core values of DNN.  

A former judge, law professor of 11 years, U.S. Fulbright Scholar and creative writer, Wendy (Ng.Uye^n) is known as the first Vietnamese American to join the U.S. judiciary, at a time when Vietnamese American lawyers were a new breed to the profession. Yet, she made a choice not to  pursue a judicial career to its fullest potential.  All her life, Wendy has also ardently pursued the arts for self-improvement, and became a published writer after she turned 40, without the help of a literary agent.  Now over 50, she is still trying in the literary art.  

Accordingly, in this Blog, one does not find a stereotypical lawyer, professor,  or a  former judge.  Instead, one finds the aspiration of a multi-faceted woman who believes that a woman should embrace her identity as a woman first, before taking on other professional identities that conform her to society's expectations.  In the end, the woman does not give up her choice of values, her responsibility for consequences and rewards, and, first and foremost, her independent thinking, freedom of expression, as well as her spirit of community and public service. This Blog affirms this message. 

In the Vietnamese culture, House has symbolic meanings.  It is the place of origin and the foundation of a person -- what has been  passed on as strength and identity.  Wendy believes in the diversity and cross-cultural experience of her life.  She came to America in 1975 three days before  the fall of Saigon.  She does not forget her cultural roots or the meaning of freedom.   

"While the pictorial description of me in this Blog may present the image of a "poster child," there is another reality that I wish to establish.  I have suffered, in ways that cannot be expressed publicly.  I have blundered and must live with my mistakes. I am self-made and achieved due to education and my own efforts. I am proud of who and what I am, and where I have been. My family history is marked by our ardent and endless pursuit of  understanding, compassion, knowledge, and education.  In my case, I am also committed to creativity, self-expression, liberty, and justice.  We are two times political refugees from Vietnam, 1954 and 1975.  These are the choices we made. We have started our lives all over again more than once, with nothing but a shirt on our back.  We are grateful for what makes us what we are today.   I am imperfect and this Blog is imperfect, but I have always tried my best with what I knew at the time.  The beauty of life is never in the destination, but always in the journey we've made and are still pursuing, with all of our mind, heart and soul."

CHỦ TRƯƠNG VÀ THƯ NGỎ:

Từ trước đến giờ, DNN không có chủ trương đi vào thế giới của mạng lưới.  Tra'i la.i, ba` chu' tro.ng dde^'n vie^.c ba?o ve^. ddo`i so^'ng rie^ng, va` ta'c pha^?m sa'ng ta.o pha?i rie^ng bie^.t ta'ch ro`i kho?i ta'c gia?.  Tuy nhiên, trong nhie^`u na(m, đã có nhiều vi phạm bản quyền, xuyên tạc, pha' ro^'i,  cũng như ác ý của những cá nhân muo.n danh nghi~a hay dấu mặt trong môi trường truyền thông, làm sai lạc và bóp méo cái nhìn và nhận thức của quần chúng, nha^'t la` do^`ng huong, về con người và chủ trương của DNN. Trong khi đó, kỷ nguyên mới của xã hội toàn cầu đòi hỏi sự nối kết giữa các cá nhân và văn hoá. Vì thế, nhu cầu cần yếu cho tiếng nói và những biểu tượng của nền tảng đa văn hoá (Vie^.t-My~; Do^ng-Ta^y) cần phải được diễn tả và lưu trữ để giữ vững tích cách trung thực của tiếng nói cá nhân, vi cá nhân đóng góp vào xã hội, nha^'t la` trong khi khung cảnh của môi trường truyền thông đã thay đổi theo kỹ thuật, công nghệ, và nhu~ng bie^'n chuye^?n của thế giới hiện đại.

Là cựu thẩm phán, giáo sư luật trong 11 năm, học giả Fulbright và người làm thơ viết văn, DNN không quên ý nghĩa của tự do cũng như tuổi thơ và quá khứ của mình -- một cô gái trẻ đến Mỹ năm 1975 vừa lúc Saigon sụp đổ, thuộc thế hệ đầu tiên tốt nghiệp đại học và đi vào ngành luật ở Mỹ sau khi chiến tranh Việt Nam chấm dứt. Là một trong những phụ nữ tiền phong gốc Việt, DNN đã tự` bỏ nhiều cơ hội trong ngành luật để theo đuổi "những con đường thiên lý " nha(`m trau do^`i ba?n tha^n trong nghệ thuật sáng tạo, và ở tuổi trên 50, ba` vẫn còn tiếp tục.

Nhu~ng hi`nh a?nh o? dda^y co' the^? la`m ca'c ba.n nghi~ ra(`ng DNN co' mo^.t cuo^.c so^'ng may ma('n.  Kho^ng pha?i the^'.  To^i da~ pha?i chie^'n dda^'u, pha?i hy sinh va chi.u ddu).ng nhu~ng ddie^`u ke'm may ma('n trong cuo^.c so^'ng.  Sinh truo?ng trong gia di`nh gia'o chu'c thanh ba^`n, to^i dda~ pha?i gi`n giu~ va(n ho'a ba?n tha^n va truye^`n tho^'ng da^n to^.c trong nhu~ng hoa`n ca?nh kho' kha(n nha^'t ma` nguo`i ngoa`i kho^ng bie^'t.  Gia ddi`nh to^i dda~ pha?i di cu) ty. na.n 2 la^`n, tu` 2 ba`n tay tra('ng. Chu'ng to^i chi? tro^ng mong va`o ho.c va^'n dde^? tie^'n tha^n.  To^i tu). la^.p va` tu). kie^'m cho^~ ddu'ng trong xa~ ho^.i dda^`y ra^~y can.nh tranh cu?a My~ Quo^'c, trong nhu~ng nga`nh da`nh rie^ng cho dda`n o^ng ba?n xu)', o? nhu~ng tho)`i ddie^?m ma` khuo^n ma(.t phu. nu)~ Vie^.t Nam chu)a he^` dduo.c xua^'t hie^.n.   Nhu~ng gi` to^i ta.o dduo.c nga`y ho^m nay la` do chi'nh su'c lu'.c va dda^`u o'c to^i la`m ne^n, kho^ng co' su. huo'ng da^~n cu?a nguo`i ddi truo'c.  To^i cu~ng dda~ chi.u ddu.ng ra^'t nhie^`u ma^'t ma't thie^.t tho`i vi` thie^'u su. da^~n da't va ha^.u thua^~n cu?a mo^i truo`ng chung quanh.

Nhà là nơi chốn của yên bình, nghỉ ngơi, tâm tư, và tâm huyết. Nhà rất quan trọng trong văn hoá Việt Nam: "Cái nhà là nhà của ta, ông phó ông cha lập ra..."  Nhà là căn bản, nguồn cội, và cá tính, trở thành cái gốc cho mình đu'ng để đưa tiếng nói (the podium in life). Trong ý nghĩa do', ở đây, quý vị sẽ nhìn thấy hình ảnh, cuộc đời, và sự phóng khoáng trong tư tưởng của một phụ nữ độc lập và tự lập (self-made), luo^n luo^n đi theo viễn ảnh của mình.  Quý vị sẽ không nha^'t thie^'t pha?i ti`m thấy hình ảnh đóng khuôn cổ hủ, thụ động của một cựu thẩm phán hay giáo sư luật, mà trái lại quý vi. sẽ nhi`n thấy chân dung của một phụ nữ sáng tạo, cấp tiến, theo đuổi tri thức và sự độc lập của tư tưởng, cổ võ cho phụ nữ được trung thành với bản chất của mình trước khi chịu áp lực của xã hội để biến mình thành một thực the^? khác.  Trong khi a^'y, nguo`i phu. nu~ vẫn pha?i luôn luôn giữ gin giáo dục bản thân, trau chuốt tiêu chuẩn đạo đức va nha^n ca'ch nha^'t qua'n của chính mình đặt ra cho cá nhân và tập thể, sau khi đã hấp thụ và cân nha('c tính chất tươi đẹp của nền tảng đa văn hoá.

Đó là chủ trương của DNN. Kết quả của hai nền văn hoá Đông Tây. Tie^'ng no'i cu?a Nha`.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 Chúc Mừng Năm Mới