We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kate ToUyen Vu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kate ToUyen, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
It’s been a long journey that has really stemmed from a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance. My purpose I feel, is to help nurture and provide space for the younger generation of API, more specifically, Vietnamese creatives through creative arts to help heal generational traumas and bridge divides in our community. However, the realization of that didn’t come until the last few years. As a Vietnamese-American child of immigrants, I grew up feeling very disconnected to my own culture and heritage mostly because I was raised in an external environment (school, public spaces, etc) that Americanized me. I watched American tv shows and films, and spoke English because I was born and raised in America; being culturally Vietnamese came secondary. My parents spent a great deal of effort trying to help me embrace my roots by enrolling me into Vietnamese language school every Sunday, speaking Vietnamese to me, providing Vietnamese foods to eat everyday, and educating me on where they came from, partially because they didn’t want their customs and traditions to be forgotten in a new country and partially because they wanted me to be proud to be Vietnamese. The sad reality was, I wasn’t. I hated going to Vietnamese language school, I hated watching Vietnamese programming, and I absolutely hated Vietnamese food. I so desperately wanted to be white and be like my white counterparts because that’s what was “cool” and “accepted” growing up. Food, shockingly, was the thing that bridged that gap for me later in my college years. I had moved to England for study abroad and was desperately in need of better tasting food after a few months of eating traditional British food, and for some reason I had a hankering for good Vietnamese pho. I found the one Vietnamese restaurant in all of London at that time and sat down to order. An older Vietnamese gentleman took my order and asked if I wanted the beef pho with all the fixings (bean sprouts, greens, green onions, meat, etc). I was too embarrassed to ask him to make my “usual” order of just noodles and broth so I hastily said yes. I sat there for those 30 minutes and dove into that bowl and I never looked back. It opened my eyes to everything I was missing, especially in terms of flavour and over the next few years, I went on a journey of discovering Asian food like never before. And in that discovery, I started connecting with my parents over food – it brought us closer and we started communicating more over the origins of a dish, cooking together, and trying restaurants together. This, in turn, brought me closer to my culture and heritage and I found a great deal of disconnect between dual identity immigrant children and their parents and grandparents. Through that, I found that the best way to spark conversations on taboo topics (mental health, dreams vs reality, LGBTQIA) and generational traumas was through creative arts as well as a way of preserving our culture where younger generations would view it as cool and feel proud.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a Vietnamese-American actor. More recently, I have a beautiful short film with an all Vietnamese-American cast written and directed by Theone Ly coming out in the next few months called, “A Lone Lost Soul.” It’s a heartfelt film that explores the complexity of generational immigrant relationships between a father and his daughter through the fantasy and mysticality of the vibrance of Vietnamese culture. Additionally, I am working on an upcoming project that explores the journey of self-discovery, the complexities of family dynamics in immigrant families (tradition vs modern), and celebrates the courage to live authentically while embracing both cultural heritage and personal truth, with writer/producer Nerris Nassiri. We’ll be looking for a lot of new and upcoming talent for this project so any dancers, singers, and actors are more than welcome to apply or reach out!
Professionally, I founded a nonprofit organization called The Vietnamese Creatives Collective that I run alongside some amazing individuals – Jacquelyn Do, Britney Huynh, Duy Nguyen-Amigo, and Dorsey nguyen. Our mission has always been to cultivate community by providing a space for API creatives, particularly Vietnamese creatives, to connect, network, and grow. Much of our work is centered on providing opportunities and resources to the community so that they can collaborate on creative projects or other methods of creative expression, gain mentorships and experience, and most importantly, feel that creative arts are a viable career path by learning from professionals from their community who are working in fields they are interested in. Our biggest belief is that through building and connecting community and sharing our stories through art, we celebrate the richness of our culture and work towards bridging and healing from generational divide(s) that we experience within the community.
We often collaborate with other API and Vietnamese organizations, most recently at our Lunar New Year Event where we worked with Little Saigon TV to host a countdown that included Vietnamese-American artists from all creative mediums (spoken word, stand-up comedy, singers, dancers, etc) to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. Additionally, we host several events throughout the year that are free to the community and are focused on a specific avenue of creativity, meant to provide on-hand learning and resources. Our last educational event, Reel Voices: Amplifying Vietnamese Stories and Representation on Screen, included two dynamic skill-building workshops (Intro to Directing and Intro to Acting) and a panel discussion to explore the power of cinematic storytelling in representing and celebrating Vietnamese culture. It was in partnership with Phoenix Eye Productions and Prestigious Powerhouse and free to all community members interested in starting a career in acting, directing, or other avenues of filmmaking and on-screen storytelling. We have many upcoming events coming soon that are open to all. Please visit our website: thevietcreatives.com or our Instagram: @thevietcreatives to learn more about future events.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think genuine connection, empathy, and community were the three most impactful things in my journey. Connecting with people on a one-on-one basis is really powerful – getting to know someone personally and connecting on shared values and ideas is really important. Having empathy goes hand in hand with that – everyone’s journeys are different, but nevertheless important. It’s easy to quickly judge someone or agree with the general consensus, but taking the time to understand and connect will help you refrain how you approach everything. Lastly, having a community of people who will have your back and support you is so vital – they will be the ones to lift you up when you are down and champion you forward.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
We are always looking for like-minded individuals or organizations that resonate with our mission and passion to serve the Vietnamese community to collaborate with. Please send us a message through our website (thevietcreatives.com) or through our Instagram (@thevietcreatives) and we are happy to chat!
Contact Info:
- Website: thevietcreatives.com
- Instagram: @katefleurs / @thevietcreatives
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088082541238
Image Credits
Vu Phan EJ Valeros Trang Vo Dorsey Nguyen VietQMedia Alyssa Deocampo
