The biannual Cornell Voices on Vietnam Speakers’ Series is delighted to announce our second event, featuring journalist, essayist and short-story writer Nhã Ca (Trần Thu Vân). A leading literary figure in South Vietnam’s Second Republic (1967-1975), Nhã Ca played a prominent role in Saigon’s burgeoning print media scene. Though largely neglected in conventional scholarly accounts of the Vietnam War, South Vietnam’s raucous and at times relatively free press offers a unique window into a society fraught with ambivalence towards both the Northern and Southern Vietnamese governments, the burdens of American intervention, and the spiraling civilian cost of prolonging the war. Nhã Ca will share her experiences as an author and journalist during this turbulent time. 

She will also discuss “Giải khăn sô cho Huế,” her riveting account of the 1968 communist massacre in the city of Huế during the Tết Offensive, a seminal but long-overlooked event in English-language accounts of the Vietnam War.  “Giải khăn sô cho Huế” has recently been translated as “Mourning Headband for Huế” by Olga Dror [Indiana University Press, 2014], who will also be opening the proceedings with a short presentation.  Finally, we will be hosting a dinner and film screening of Land of Sorrows (Đất Khổ), a 1973 film based on Mourning Headband for Huế, at the Kahin Center at 6:30pm.

All are welcome to join!