Chau Thuy Huynh (Art Practice/Social Welfare Major)
“The Crane and Dragon: The Fusion of Vietnamese Mythologies and Culture in Art Forms”
Sponsor: Professor Katherine Sherwood, Art Practice
Project Description
Chau will be creating an art project that will encompass traditional Vietnamese culture through the mediums of drawing, sculpture, embroidery, and traditional American quilt-making. She will investigate the differences between Vietnamese and Chinese art and culture, while further examining Vietnamese mythologies to determine their true histories. Chau’s art project will include a 3’ X 3’ circular embroidery of the ancient Vietnamese drum as well as four 7’X5’ quilts that will illustrate Vietnamese history and culture using American “stitching” techniques and using as many different fabrics as possible. The foundation of Chau’s art project is a Vietnamese folk tale that describes the traditional Vietnamese drum as the first and only artifact that can positively show the Vietnamese are not Chinese. Indeed, Chau has chosen embroideries and quilt-making to show the distinct history and uniqueness of Vietnamese culture and heritage.
Scholar's Photo
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Chau stands in front of Van Mieu, Quoc Tu Giam, the first Confuci us University in Vietnam and one of the most famous places that people in Hanoi are proud to show off to visitors.
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Scholar's Journal
6/16/05
This morning, I went to Hanoi’s School of Fine Art to
see the Dean of the school, Mr. Luong Bach. I had
a long chat with him and he offered to put me at the
school’s guest house for 35 dollars per day. The room
had AC and was much bigger than the local rooms. Mr.
Luong Tieu Bach was very nice and humble. I asked if
he wanted to come to UC Berkeley someday and he
replied, “yes”. The Hanoi Art campus is bigger than
the one in Ho Chi Minh City. Actually, Mr. Bach was
a classmate of my mother back in the days when they
were art students.
After meeting Mr. Bach, I took a 20 mile bus ride north of Hanoi to visit a mason factory. At this factory, I observed a lacquer ware class that catered to international students that are living in Hanoi. I loved the class so much that I hope to be able to apply for a Fulbright scholarship and somehow to contribute to the lacquer ware industry in Vietnam. I also went to the Ethnology museum, which is mostly funded by the French. The museum is so beautiful, and I learned alot from the museum guide. I think this Ethnology museum is one of the most modern museums in Vietnam. I bought some books to do more research and I was shocked that the books are the most expensive in Vietnam at the cost of almost 60 US dollars per book. I got two books. I also went on a field trip with members of the Vietnamese Fine Art Association to visit the outskirts of Hanoi. We visited a ceramic village, which I enjoyed very much.
In Hanoi, I went to the Temple of Literature, Quoc Tu
Giam which was the first Confucius University of Viet
Nam and was built during the Ly Dynasty of the 11th
century. This temple represents the culture and
ideology of the Vietnamese people, which is strongly
influenced by Chinese Confucianism. I like to
think that the Vietnamese are uniquely different from the
Chinese, but I found that since they were dominated for more than a thousand years by the Chinese, there are many similar customs between the Vietnamese and Chinese.I hope to showcase the uniqueness of the Vietnamese culture, but I will include the Chinese influence as well because Vietnamese and Chinese cultures are intertwined.
