Made In Vietnam

“MADE IN VIETNAM” is a visual exploration of my own Vietnamese-American identity as a progression of belonging and self, and as an echo of the larger Asian American experience. It embodies the discomfort of being in a place you inherently don’t belong as a product of immigrants and the complexities of maneuvering life in the U.S. through this lens, and ultimately explores the self-realization of culture within ourselves rather than being defined by our environment. - Sho Stewart

“MADE IN VIETNAM” is a visual exploration of my own Vietnamese American identity as a progression of belonging and self, and as an echo of the larger Asian American experience. The project is in three parts: The first scene embodies the discomfort of being in a place you inherently don’t belong; being raised in the U.S. as the daughter of an immigrant and lacking the culture and context of your people. The images for scene one are cold, lonely, and drenched in nostalgia. They are the most frozen of the sequence, a reflection of being stuck in the past; longing for a home that’s no longer home, or for younger generations like myself, never even was. The orchids are an offering to this nostalgia, a flower that is often found in many Vietnamese households and are used in Vietnamese funeral ceremonies to honor the dead.

Scene two begins to bridge the gap between culture and setting. Juxtapositions between past and present, subject and environment. There’s tenderness and curiosity, the plum and knife alluding to the universal asian love language and peace offering of cutting and sharing fruit, but still laced with a fear of the unknown–the defense and threat of misunderstanding. The images are still frozen, but they’re becoming more clear and in focus.

The third and final scene is where our subject finds clarity and self expression from the understanding that culture cannot be preserved in the past or a place, but comes from within and we choose how we carry it with us. In this final set of images, the ice has cracked, melted and she is emerging in full bloom. The styling is an original design by Chinese-Vietnamese American designer Yao Mei Jing from her collection, “Blooming Through Chaos.”