Ocean Vuong reflects on how queer identities intertwine with writing in his talk at Graham Chapel (Hannah Dorval | Staff Photographer)

More than 400 attendees filled Graham Chapel to hear author and poet Ocean Vuong speak about the intersection of writing and queer Asian American identity on April 2. The event was hosted by the Asian Multicultural Collective (AMC) in collaboration with SPECTRUM, Cross-Cultural Connections, and the Asian American Studies program. 

Vuong is a writer, photographer, and professor from Hartford, Connecticut. Known for his lyricism and autofictional style, Vuong’s writing has been featured on the New York Times best-seller list and won the American Book Award, the T.S. Eliot prize, and more. Despite his successes, Vuong refuses to be known as an author who portrays the minority experience. During the event he explained that he refutes the “stereotypical” belief that he writes about marginal groups. 

“You have to ask, well, marginal to whom?” Vuong said. “I am not marginal to myself. My family, my community, is not marginal to me. I put them in the center of the page. I’m writing about the center.”

Vuong shared that he was raised to see his story as central through the anecdotes told to him by his Vietnamese immigrant mother and grandmother. These stories were a form of power and agency among his family — a way to place importance on their own lives and stories. 

Throughout his talk, Vuong returned to the idea of identity and self-portrayal. He reminded listeners to focus on telling their own story, rather than correcting stereotypes.

“I would caution against always correcting the stereotype because you’re correcting a conversation that probably is rigged and stacked against you,” Vuong said. “The more powerful question is, what would you say? … If you could speak first, what would you speak? What would you say if you didn’t have to correct someone’s misunderstanding of you?”

Co-moderators of the event and previous presidents of AMC Sonal Churiwal and Subratha Araselvan shared that the organization had been working to bring Vuong to campus for over a year. They hoped that the event would speak to the complexities of the Asian American experience.

“Asian American identity is inherently political. There are so many different historical and contemporary political factors impacting the formation of Asian American identity,” Churiwal said. “We think it’s important to acknowledge the politicization of our identities and not just display Asian American identity as an aesthetic.”

When asked about the importance of storytelling in today’s political climate, Vuong reflected on the generations of writers before him who have written through times of struggle. He sees the role of the writer as central in documenting the emotional history of an era.

“It’s our turn, and our task is to make sense of it so that it’s felt,” Vuong said. “The history books can tell us what happened. The timeline can tell us what happened, but literature and poetry can tell us what it was like, how it felt to be alive.”

During his talk Vuong read an excerpt from his most recent book, “The Emperor of Gladness”. The novel follows the story of Hai, a teenage fast-food worker, and his relationship with his coworkers, addiction, and poverty. Vuong said he wanted to explore the relationships we build through the workforce, an idea he coined “circumstantial family.”

“So much of our time’s spent working to support the people we love — we stand with strangers we end up loving,” Vuong said. “There’s this kind of special space that’s very liminal but very true to work because there’s enough anonymity and enough kinship to say things to your co-workers that you might never say to your partner, your brother, your best friend, [or] your wife.”

Vuong discussed the craft elements he used while writing the novel. He explained his focus on creating work that lingers with readers, rather than attempting to “hook” them in.

“I think it’s actually much more interesting, and, even on a craft level, difficult to stay with a reader,” Vuong said. “How do you stay with a reader weeks later, when the book is done? Years later? Decades later? And I think to me, the most memorable works of literature are the ones that stay in us.”

Attendees said this was the power of Vuong’s literature. Senior Joanne Sung said that she first read Vuong’s work in high school and attended the event because she still remembered how much she enjoyed it. She added that the event held some of the same qualities of his writing.

“His speaking was very beautiful,” Sung said. “I felt like I was just listening to poetry.”

Churiwal added that the event was part of AMC’s broader educational programming on substance abuse education that included handing out mental health resource brochures at the event and tabling during Wellness Week, among other initiatives.

“We’re hoping that our event with Ocean Vuong is not a one-off event,” Churiwal said. “It can jumpstart broader conversations on campus about mental health, including substance addiction and other long-standing issues such as the need for more Asian American mental health care providers.”