Vietnamese Feminism on the American Table

A girl holding chopsticks sitting at a table with American-style food - a metaphorical arrangement for the clash of Eastern and Western cultures - is the way Juliet - a young Vietnamese singer and songwriter (currently living in New York, USA) presents her identity with strong feminist nuances, in a place where she is actively integrating but still determined to preserve her Vietnamese identity.

Juliet (real name Diem Quynh) started writing her first song at the age of 14 (2014). At the age of 15, this girl born in 2000 left Hanoi for the US, where she witnessed firsthand the appeal of Western culture and the so-called "American dream" in the minds of romantic young people.

Vietnamese girl at American style dining table. DUC VIET

While studying graphic design at Savannah College of Art and Design, she fell in love with making music and quickly became a fixture in New York's small venues and her Indie community and on Spotify with over 30,000 monthly listeners for releases in 2023.

In the same year, the single Good Luck in Chicago landed her on the cover of Spotify's Fresh Finds Vietnam playlist and a spot on Equal Global and a collaboration with the famous fashion brand Brandy Melville... As a "bookworm", Juliet often draws inspiration from famous literary or artistic works, from which she draws out stories intertwined with her own experiences, blurring the line between reality and fiction. American Child , for example, is Inspired by F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby , it's about the disillusionment with the American dream reflected in modern dating culture: it's too fast, too much, and meaningless.

Influenced by narrative musicians like Billy Joel and Taylor Swift, Juliet seeks to present her view of the world through the small details of life. HA TRAN

To emphasize the message, Juliet uses a pillow disguised as her emotionless partner. A dining table filled with American food serves as a metaphor for American society, and the girl holds chopsticks to represent her Asian identity, her difference, and her awkward position in this society.

Vietnamese girl “reclaims” colonial rooms

Influenced by narrative musicians like Billy Joel and Taylor Swift, she seeks to present her view of the world through the small details of life: the way we walk home, the lies we tell, the habits we cling to, the confusion we can fall into... As a visual designer, Juliet often serves as the creative director of her music videos. Her latest work, I Know It All , is a hand-animated video consisting of over 200 frames that Juliet drew herself in two weeks. I Know It All depicts the end of a bad relationship, where many women are trapped and find it difficult to leave because they are weighed down by patriarchal ideas about women's roles, duties and sacrifices, as well as the guilt of being abandoned. Juliet writes with the hope that one day, the characters in her stories will have the courage and opportunity to leave.

How Vietnamese girls “reclaim” colonial rooms. TRUONG THANH TRA MY

Last Time in New York is inspired by the famous paintings of Henri Matisse, depicting beautiful women inside beautiful rooms, who are actually prostitutes from the French colonies in North Africa. As an artist from a country that was also a French colony, Juliet sets out on a journey to "reclaim" these rooms. The video focuses on Matisse's interior design, but Juliet fills it with objects that were once familiar in the daily lives of Vietnamese people: graffiti walls, calendars, Literature and Arts Magazines, 1980s televisions... Most recently, on March 14, Juliet will release the single Any other way. The video will present a scene that is both familiar and strange: a girl setting up Vietnamese food stalls - plastic chairs, aluminum trays - to eat Western food in the middle of a New York subway station. A metaphor to help the audience understand the feeling of alienation of many Vietnamese people living abroad, wanting to integrate into American society but always looking for things that can only be found in their homeland.

Juliet's appearance in "Any other way", scheduled to be released on March 14. HA TRAN

"I like to weave storylines into my songs: each song is a little novel in itself, with characters, settings, climaxes, and lessons learned. But books are only a small part of what inspires my music today. Lately, I've been writing about America and myself. I came to America when I was 15. There was no culture shock, but there was a lot to learn. It was 2016, and my schoolmates were discussing the presidential election. This was my first lesson in how to read the minds of Americans. How do Americans view women? How do Americans view Asian women? What role do they think I have in their society?... In my music, I talk about taking indifference for granted ( Nice kiss ), investing emotionally in someone who is superficial to you ( American child ), and being disillusioned when you realize you're not important to others ( Last time in New York ). While this is written from a romantic perspective, it is a metaphor for Asian women investing the rest of their lives in a Western world that more or less disregards the labor of Asian women. I believe that Vietnamese women's identity should not be bound by any limits, especially those in Western cultural perceptions. The definition of femininity is up to each woman to decide for herself. I believe that diversity and freedom of expression is how we will escape gender stereotypes."

"I believe that Vietnamese women's identity should not be bound by any limits, especially the limits of Western cultural perception."./.

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