My contribution to this book is a short interview series accompanied by two types of portraits of individuals of Vietnamese descent living in Berlin: one of the person themselves, along with a few objects they associate with Vietnam, each photographed separately. I am deeply grateful to all the participants for sharing these personal stories about their lives with me, and to the book’s editor Kien Nghi Ha for inviting and encouraging me to contribute.
Originally conceived as part of a longer-term documentary project, this series presents a focused snapshot of the Vietnamese diaspora in Berlin. The interviewees, ranging in age from their 20s to 40s and with diverse personal connections to Vietnam, were all asked the same set of intentionally simple questions. This consistent, formulaic format helps create a comparative framework, making it easier to identify recurring themes and subtle differences across individual experiences.
The simplicity of the questions serves multiple purposes: it encourages more candid, direct responses without the influence of complex prompts, creates a more comfortable interview environment that puts participants at ease, and makes the process more accessible to potential future participants with varying levels of language proficiency. This approach allows personal insights to emerge naturally while ensuring consistency across the series. Additionally, the straightforward format facilitates more efficient analysis and identification of patterns across responses, helping to reveal shared experiences and unique perspectives within the community.
Asiatische Deutsche – Vietnamesische Diaspora and Beyond is a collection of essays, interviews, and visual works that examines the experiences of Asian communities in Germany, with a focus on the Vietnamese diaspora. It explores themes of migration, identity, and cultural belonging in the German context. First published in 2012 and then again in 2021 as an extended version, by Assoziation A. An excerpt from this series also appeared in the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s online dossier, Asian Germany – Asiatische Diaspora in Deutschland.
