Past Culture Shows

2020 | Unearth(ed): Một Tia Hy Vọng Culture Show 2020 Unearth(ed): Một Tia Hy Vọng explores themes of familial love, displacement and belonging, dynamic shifts in Vietnamese-American culture, and community resilience. Future day, 2050. The world is ravaged by war, disease, environmental degradation, and climate disasters. After a high magnitude earthquake hits the Bay Area,…

2019 | Colors of Us: Giữa Hai Khung Trời Our 40th annual Culture Show Colors of Us: Giữa Hai Khung Trời highlighted and explored the intersection of not only LGBTQ+ and Vietnamese American identities, but also those beyond, along with the family dynamics resulting from and contributing to the understandings of such identities. The show…

2018 | Hai Ngã Dòng Đời: Streams of Life Encompassing a unified theme of human rights and women empowerment, Hai Ngã Dòng Đời: Streams of Life examines social justice issues interwoven in the political and social fabric of contemporary Vietnam. The story revolves around two cousins on their journey through Vietnam as they not only immerse…

2017 | Fragments: Tìm Tiếng Nước Tôi Divided into two distinct naratives, Fragments: Tìm Tiếng Nước Tôi is a story about Vietnamese refugee and their children after the Vietnam War after the Fall of Saigon. Following the war, south Vietnam and its people sank into political and emotional turmoil. Many of them—stripped of their capital, hope,…

2016 | Bụi Đời: Dust of Life Set during the 1970s, Bụi Đời: Dust of Life follows the life of Đỗ Thanh Mai as an Amerasian or con lai in post-war Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, relationships between American soldiers and Vietnamese mothers resulted in a generation of Amerasians. Labeled by their roots in Vietnam…

2015: Con Gái – The Other Side Synopsis In July of 1857, Napoleon III proposed the invasion of Vietnam. Motivated by French capitalism and the desire to conquer Asian territories for overseas markets, the French attacked. In 1887, French Indochina was formed, consisting of most of Southeast Asia, including Annam, Tonkin, and Cochinchina. From 1897…

2014: Between the Lines | Ảo Ảnh Synopsis Mental illness is a difficult topic to discuss in many families and communities, causing it to be downplayed and ignored. However, ignoring it does not make it go away. Ảo Ảnh: Between the Lines opens the book on a woman named Jennifer and her story of mental…

2012: Stolen – Nụ Sen Trắng STOLEN deals with the issue of human trafficking, an issue that is hard to discuss, to accept, and to understand, but it is an issue that exists not only in Vietnamese culture, but in all cultures. The story begins with our white lotus Tuyết, a young girl living in…

2011: Echo | Âm Vang For the 2011 UC Berkeley Vietnamese Student Association Culture Show, we meet three Vietnamese youths living in the community of Versailles in New Orleans at the time leading up to and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. All three are at a crossroads of sorts, facing the greatest challenges of their…

2010: Our Life After | Sóng Gió Cuộc Đời Our Life After pays tribute to the Vietnamese refugees of the past 35 years. Given that 2010 marks the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, Cal VSA wanted to take this year’s show to honor the spirit, perseverance, and hope of this Vietnamese diaspora. Culture…