June 2012
4 posts
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Producing Inspirational Vietnamese Americans
TEDxSanJoseCA yielded Diep Vuong to talk about human trafficking. TEDxSanJoaquin brought in Vanessa Vo and LanVy Nguyen. It was seeing these Vietnamese Americans that prompted me to think about, how do we find more people like this? We started with a Vietnamese In Philanthropy Yearbook project to start tracking nonprofit organizations. And while we found very interesting people, it was another...
Jun 5th
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Pearl - First Night Alone →
Wrote this scene for my theater screenplay, Pearl. Sometime in 209 BC in Cổ Loa, in the ancient kingdom of Âu Lạc, in this scene, Zhong Shi (Vietnamese: Trọng Thủy), 15, and Mỵ Châu, 19, are alone together for the first time after their arranged marriage celebration. They’ve only met for the first time on their wedding day. They are husband and wife, and at the same time strangers.
Jun 4th
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Council Tree, ficus altissima
As I’m nurturing the CayDa Foundation, I decided to research into ficus plants. Cây đa normally refers to ficus benghalensis, commonly known as the banyan. But unfortunately the banyan is not suited to grow in my climate, Zone 9b. It prefers a more humid, subtropical to tropical climates (Zones 10 through 12). I was a little sad. But I did find a wonderful cousin, đa lông, ficus altissima,...
Jun 2nd
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Connections Between Vietnamese Flags and Salons
How interesting. I just realized that not only the red I chose for the Vietnamese flag (see “Who Decides the Colors of the Vietnamese Flag?”) was based on shellac processes in Southeast Asia, but that shellac is also used in nail polishes, one of the backbone industries of the Vietnamese American economy.
Jun 2nd