The Invisible Citizens of Hong Kong: Art and Stories of Vietnamese Boatpeople (Bordertown Thinker)

On May 3, 1975, Hong Kong received its first cohort of 3,743 Vietnamese boatpeople, the beginning of a twenty-five-year chain of events developing within the larger context of forced migration in the modern world. This book intertwines historical archives with personal drawings created by Vietnamese people detained in Hong Kong camps. A work of collective memory with a human face, the text shows how artistic expression, interpretation, and analysis can help traumatized souls to heal while compelling society to confront a past that has vanished without any trace of reflection. By unraveling this history, the book seeks to inspire new, conscious review and re-interpretation of the past to elicit new insight and meaning.