One of the goals of the documentary We to Me, and of the book it is based upon, The Bridge Generation: Spanning Wartime to Boomtime, is to encourage Vietnamese in different generations to talk with one another. In the past, the Bridge Generation members felt their own children did not want to hear their stories or understand the past, as it truly was. Instead, they saw the hardships of hunger and subsidy as more of a “vintage time period,” with interesting clothes and food. Perhaps the film will encourage them to learn more about the nuances of that time period.
But, perhaps the listening should go both ways. In the current chaos and upheaval of a novel virus affecting the world, of economic recession, and of protests at the killing of African Americans in the U.S., the young may have ideas that the older generations are not listening to. One young Vietnamese woman who attended university and now works in Canada has wrestled with the racisim she sees in the U.S. and wants desperately to talk to her parents about it. Her parents love her, want to understand her concerns, but are busy bringing the Vietnamese economy back to life. So now that she wants to be heard, she may learn what it felt like when her parents were not heard. Could this be another opportunity for creating bridges across generations, as well as between Vietnamese and Americans?