Trinh T. Minh-ha
Le Ly Hayslip
Le Ly Hayslip was born in 1949 in the small village of Ky La, near Da Nang Vietnam. After years of hardship and war, Hayslip was finally able to escape Vietnam. At 21 she married an American and in 1970 they left for the United States. As an author, Le Ly Hayslip is best known for the writings of her two memoirs. Her fist memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places was published in 1989. Hayslip’s memoir is about her story of survival during the Vietnam War, and experiences of returning home to Vietnam after sixteen years in the United States. Her second memoir Child of War Woman of Peace was published in 1993. This memoir is Hayslip’s story after her emigration to the United States. In 1993 Oliver Stone directed the film, Heaven and Earth. This film is based off the two memoirs written by Hayslip.
Apart from witting, Hayslip is involved in an effort to heal the wounds of her native homeland, Vietnam. In 1988 Hayslip founded the East Meets West Foundation. The foundation is responsible for starting pediatric clinics, dental clinics, and construction of safe villages for at risk children. Today the foundation continues to expand its humanitarian efforts throughout Vietnam.
Additional information on Le Ly Hayslip is available at:
Heaven and Earth
Vietnamese born Trinh T. Minh-ha has an impressive collection of books and articles she has published, films she has directed, and she is even a composer. She is currently a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. However, she has taught both domestically and abroad at Cornell, San Francisco State, Harvard, University of Illinois, the National Conservatory of Music in Senegal, and the University of Japan to name a few. Trinh T. Minh-ha is best known around the globe for her studies in feminism and postcolonial theory.
A professor in Women’s Studies and Rhetoric at UC, Berkeley, her feminist courses focus on themes of politics, arts, and postcolonial theory. In film studies analyze the use of individuality, the voice, Third World Film, and theory. She has directed six full-length films that include most recently The Fourth Dimension in 2001, A Tale of Love, Shoot for the Contents, Surname Viet Given Name Nam, Naked Spaces, and her first film Reassemblage in 1982. She is currently working on her next film, Night Passage.
Additional information on Trinh T. Minh-ha is avaiable at:
Trinh T. Minh-ha’s UC Berkeley Page
Interview with Trinh T. Minh-ha
Mai Neng Moua was born May 5, 1974 in Laos. After her father was killed in the war her mother worked to get Mai and her two brothers to the United States to live. In 1981 they emigrated here and were originally placed in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but in ’87 moved to St. Paul, Minnesota to settle. Moua attended college at St. Olaf in Northfield, MN and studied writing and literature. When diagnosed with end-stage renal disease she tried to look to other Hmong writers for inspiration, but found none. This lack of Hmong voices led to Moua’s first great publishing.
Moua is the editor of a Hmong literary journal called Paj Ntaub Voice which is a journal comprised with writings and art from Hmong-Americans. She has also edited and contributed a few pieces to an anthology, Bamboo Among the Oaks, also a collection of Hmong writers. Moua works very hard to make sure that Hmong-Americans are telling their stories. A new generation of Hmong people is making a new life in this country and it is important that their stories are told and can be understood by their people as well as other Americans.
Additional information on Mai Neng Moua and Hmong Americans is available at:
A Day in the Working Life – article
