Exploring Rice Theory

This visual poetry series called rice plants don’t belong in a land of prairies, is about my personal experiences with cultural alterity as a second-generation Vietnamese-Canadian. It consists of 3 main poems, before the rice plant becomes, bánh mì is the epitome of me, and please don’t cry over spilled rice. Each poem highlights a narrative on the topic of self-discovery and understanding what it means to be a Vietnamese person from Canada.

The first poem examines the parallel between the cultural history of rice polishing and its relationship to skin colour, and how they derived from classism and colorism. The second poem explores my many struggles with identity, influenced by both my Eastern and Western heritage. One of these struggles is manifested in the final poem, where I express my need to belong to a place that I can always call home.