Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Jamey Davidsmeyer University of Illinois assistant professor in gender and women's studies and Asian American studies professor Mimi Thi Nguyen presented "Napalmed Girls Go to Washington City" Wednesday afternoon in the Bone Student Center.

In the presentation, "Napalmed Girls Go to Washington City." Mimi Thi Nguyen, assistant professor in gender and women's studies and Asian American studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, discussed how images and stories erase the historical reference of a subject.

Nguyen focused on the infamous 1972 photograph by Nick Ut of Kim Phuc, the young Vietnamese girl running naked down the highway with plumes of black napalm smoke behind her.

Nguyen describes Phuc's journey as a journey of forgiveness that began on Highway 1 and ended in Washington, D.C. at the Vietnam War Memorial in 1996.

The photo of Phuc shocked many people at the time because of its statement about the war, Nguyen said.

Nguyen argues the same photo is now being used as a statement of forgiveness.

"The image of war in Vietnam is now being made over as an affirmation of America," Nguyen said.

Phuc resurfaced in 1984, and since then she has been made into a gracious figure who forgives and loves America, Nguyen explained.

Nguyen cited several examples of the image of Phuc as a poster child for self-help instead of as a representation of war and its aftermath.

"A documentary about her life, 'The Road from Vietnam,' begins with her pain and ends with her showing thanksgiving and forgiveness to those who hurt her," Nguyen said.

Nguyen said Phuc's visit to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2000 was an "uplifting narrative that her suffering had a greater purpose."

Jade Bryant, a sophomore mass communication major, said she was surprised how Western culture imposes its ideals on other cultures.

"You are supposed to get over it when something bad happens to you, Kim [Phuc] probably feels bad about what happened to her, but that's not the image given," Bryant said.

Continued...

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