Clément Baloup’s Mémoires de Viet Kieu. Exploring the Vietnamese diaspora(s)

Abstract

In his tetralogy Mémoires de Viet Kieu, the graphic artist Clément Baloup reconstructs past – individual and collective – (his)stories and the retrieval of the memory of a stateless (South Vietnamese) community that has been scattered across different continents. Each volume deals with a different group. The use of diverse temporal and spatial experiences to recollect a complex diasporic experience has the effect of countering the image of the emblematic victim. The focus on different diasporic groups not only highlights how the immigrants’ experiences differ depending on the host country, but it also shows how this diasporic movement did not originate with the Vietnam War. It demonstrates that the centrifugal and centripetal forces that link the Vietnamese diasporic community are the direct consequences of different layers of colonialism, which extends well beyond America’s imperium. These “bandes dessinées” (BDs) explore the opportunity of imagining a community that is not coextensive with a nation-state. Transnational narratives of the Vietnamese diaspora reveal the interplay between memory and migration by investigating the migration of memories and memories of migration as well as their ethical/moral implications.