I am Kathy Mai-Ly Chung. I am the child of Vietnamese immigrants who escaped Vietnam by boats. I’m “Kathy” in school and during work. I’m called “Mai-Ly” by friends, family, and my church community. They are two distinctly different names, one Western, that fits the soil I was born on, while the other is from my family’s homeland, a bittersweet reminder of our origins and what could have been. Strangely enough, I don’t prefer one or another. Both names are me. I am Kathy Mai-Ly Chung and I am an American born Vietnamese woman and the child of Southern Vietnamese immigrants. I live a middle-class life provided by my parents. I am a Christian. I am an artist. As a practicing Baptist Christian I attend a predominantly Vietnamese church. All my life, despite being American, I was surrounded by Vietnamese family and friends who mostly looked and had similar beliefs that I was raised with. I even speak Vietnamese from time to time (not very well, mind you). In a way, I grew up in a safe bubble. My public education is another story. From kindergarten through high school, I was surrounded by peers who looked nothing like me and who had different beliefs, were in groups apart from my own, and different cultural values. My memories of the time spent with these diverse peoples and being with my Vietnamese church family are both significant to me as a future educator and practicing artist. “Meet the Masters,” may or may not ring a bell in your head. It was a program introducing elementary school kids to “master” artists from the last few centuries. It was my first exposure to art in general. After each presentation, we made art based on the artist and their techniques. I don’t remember any artists that weren’t from the Western world. In 6th grade, I discovered Japanese graphic novels, also known as “manga.” I immersed myself in this world of action, melodrama, thick action lines, big shiny eyes, and impossible hair. A lot of my art then and even now, expresses a love for this style. But I wasn’t very good. And I still have a long way to go. My journey of artistic pursuit is one I want to share with students and be part of the diverse array of creative influences in their lives. From my own experiences, I would not be here today as an artist if I had not been influenced by people of different walks of life. Art for me, is a gateway to exploring my American and Vietnamese identity and the future classrooms I will teach will be that gateway for a multicultural generation.
Art is intimidating, no matter what culture you are from. My dream classroom is a safe place with plenty of materials for students to freely use and explore without feeling disadvantaged because of perceived lack of ability or the inability to have materials in the first place. The world of art, as students will quickly learn, is not one composed of one single voice, but from a choir that rings throughout the world, both past, present, and the future. In terms of multicultural education, for the art classroom, my goal is to make sure my content is diversified, and not just in terms of what kind of projects I will assign students; rather, what I will need to focus on is the content of the project, not just what needs to be done to make an original piece. I want to teach students art how to make art look good, but I also need to design a curriculum where they can find or explore their identities freely and that is by introducing them to artists outside of the Western hemisphere. Art is much more than just the Renaissance, or Greco-Roman masterpieces. There’s the art of the holiday, Day of the Dead, Central Asia textile patterns, and yes, Japanese manga. There is art in all spheres of not just the world, but our very lives; political, religious, LGBTQ, functional, non-functional, all of what we see and/or feel is art. This is the world I want to expose to students.
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This video was really fascinating to me because I was lucky enough to have a supportive art teacher in high school and later helpful professors and instructors in the Art Department of CSULB. If anything, I kept seeing and hearing stories of crazy strict art teachers (similar to the teacher described in the video) who would put their students down if they did not adhere to the lessons or try to explore their own creativity during class time.
So if anything, when I entered college, I approached professors with apprehension. I would follow instructions and my sketchbook would be used for my anime/manga styled art which I would never dream of showing my teachers. In essence, any art that was personal or showed my preferences for drawing in a limited style was not to be shown to anyone save for friends and maybe family. Showing personal art to any teacher felt like I was opening myself up to critique that would end up making me dislike art and discourage me from pursuing any other form of creativity. But that way of thinking (being stubborn and not open to critique) ironically did hinder my ability to broaden and improve my skills. It wasn't until I took a basic drawing course where my instructor, happened to see one of my sketches of a character I drew in anime style that I was showing to a classmate. I nervously let him see what I drew, but instead of scolding me for daring to have anime art next to my still life drawings and studies, the teacher complimented me and told me to keep it up. I think that was instrumental along with other factors, in me continuing to draw in my favorite style, but to also seek other forms of art and not just limit myself. In the end I think that's what a good art teacher is supposed to do; they should encourage a students' ability, point them on the right path and resources, and even if a student won't pursue an art career, still cultivate their creativity so that it can be applied to other parts of their lives. |
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