This essay examines the controversial stories and implications of two memorials built in March 2005 by former boat people from Vietnam on Pulau Bidong (Malaysia) and on Pulau Galang (Indonesia) to commemorate the refugee exodus that ensued after the end of the Vietnam War (April 1975). Tracing the histories and analyzing the contents of these objects, this essay not only illuminates the intertwining social, cultural, political, economic, moral, and spiritual dimensions of contemporary diasporic Vietnamese commemorative practices, but also explains how and why these commemorative practices are entangled in local, national, international, and transnational dynamics and therefore have multilateral impacts.
Keywords:
boat people,
Pulau Bidong,
Pulau Galang,
commemoration,
gratitude,
memorials,
Vietnamese diaspora
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2012
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