Hoa Pham is an award-winning author. Her novels include Vixen and Quicksilver. She also dabbles in theatre with her play Silence published by Currency Press in 2010. Hoa edits Peril – an online magazine focussing on Asian Australian issues. She is studying a Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Western Sydney.
I have just sat in an exam room, an invigilation exercise, and the Year 12 students were doing a paper linked by the theme of “Belonging”. Having taught Engish, long ago, for nine years, I read over the paper. Within it was an interview with you and it touched me. I have spent the last thirty years teaching students of Viet backgrounds, working closely with them on oral histories and helping them explore new identities. I knew I wanted to contact you, thank you for your honesty and wish you well in your explorations, with words and more. The search is of extreme importance.
Now I wonder how my newly arriving African community will respond in their new land.
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Dear Madam,
My name is Bui Thuy Hanh, a student in National University of Singapore. I am doing a research about Asians in Australia, particularly in multiculturalism and racism. I wish to do an interview with you through e-mail since you are a professional in Asians in Australia. Please consider my request.
I am looking forward to hearing favourable response from you soon. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Bui Thuy Hanh
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Hi,
I read your play ‘Silence’ and have decided to use it for a University presentation on contemporary Australian Drama. I’m looking at how Australian plays reflect the Australian identity.I think that plays like your’s are important since they show how different cultures live and exist within Australia. I was wondering whether you were inspired by any Australian drama/art/culture in creating your play, or was your main focus on portraying Vietnamese stories and tradition to an Australian audience?
Thanks, ‘Silence’ is a wonderful play!
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Hoa Reply:
June 1st, 2012 at 9:42 am
Hi Robert
More the latter-I wanted to put Vietnamese-Australian women’s stories on stage since it had not been done before.
Hoa
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Hi,
You mentioned in an interview in Tall Poppies edited by Alice Pung, that you associated race with childhood sexual abuse. I am writing a short story directly about this at the moment and would love to find a comparative work, did you toch this theme in any of your published or unpublished work?
Ajita
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Hoa Reply:
January 12th, 2013 at 10:20 am
My play Silence which is published by Currency Press deals with childhood sexual abuse as a result of transgenerational trauma- in this case war trauma from the Vietnam/American War.
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Thanks for your reply above. I cannot find a copy anywhere as i live regionally. Is there any ebook/pdf version i could buy or have access to? Would very much appreciate this as my short story deal with exactly this, but it is intergenerational trauma caused by Australia’s colonisation.
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