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Abstract
Vietnam in recent years has seen increased interest and research into the lives of transgender people. However, the majority of these pieces of research stem from outsider observations of transgender people and transgender lives. While they aim to contribute to advocacy work and empowerment of transgender people, they nevertheless fail to explore the societal and cultural factors influencing the way transgender persons perform their bodily practices. There is also a distinct lack of exploration of the way in which transgender people view, create, and represent their own selves and their subjectivities in their own words. Seeking to contribute to filling this gap, this paper uses phenomenology and content analysis to examine the autobiography of the transgender singer and celebrity Nguyen Huong Giang as an example of Vietnamese transgender life writing. Huong Giang’s construction and representation of her own identity as a trans woman through her autobiography reveal discourses on gender and womanhood and femininity in the Vietnamese context. In turn, this provides critical insights into how Vietnamese society views the role of women within society and the family, and how trans women must also transform themselves to fit this role as part of their transition and survival, in order to be successfully considered a woman.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Bui, Representations of Transgender Persons.
2 Ibid.
3 Hoang, A Vietnamese Man.
4 Ibid.
5 Nguyen, Self-Portrait.
6 Kadar, Essays on Life Writing, 10.
7 Brien and Eades, Offshoot, 1.
8 Baker, “Queer Life Writing,” 161.
9 Prosser, Second skins, 4.
10 Whittle, “Where Did We Go Wrong?”, 195.
11 Ibid., xv.
12 Hausman, “Body, Technology, and Gender,” 337.
13 Ibid.
14 Brien and Eades, Offshoot, 7.
15 Ibid, 1.
16 Hoang, A Vietnamese Man, 12.
17 Nguyen, A Transition.
18 Nguyen, Self-portrait.
19 Nguyen, A Transition.
20 Cach Lai, Undertaking Breast Removal.
21 Nguyen, Stories of Tun.
22 Cach Lai, Undertaking Breast Removal.
23 Hausman, “Body, Technology, and Gender,” 337.
24 Bui, Representations of Transgender Persons, 50.
25 ForbesVietnam, Miss Queen International 2018.
26 SaigonDaily, Huong Giang Inspire LGBT Community.
27 Gia Tien and Phuong Vy, Huong Giang Crowned.
28 H. N., Most Influential Women.
29 Villegas et al., "Phenomenological Analysis," 441.
30 Ibid.
31 cited in Rodemeyer, Lou Sullivan Diaries, xiv.
32 Rubin, “Phenomenology as Method in Trans Studies,” 270.
33 Salamon, “Phenomenology,” 153.
34 Ibid, 153.
35 Ibid, 154.
36 Rodemeyer, Lou Sullivan Diaries, xvii.
37 Villegas et al., “Phenomenological Analysis,” 410.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Connell, “Transsexual Women and Feminist Thought.”
41 Forsyth and Copes, Encyclopedia of Social Deviance, 740.
42 Bui, Representations of Transgender Persons, 59–60.
43 Nguyen, Self-Portrait, 27.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid., 34.
46 Ibid., 29.
47 Ibid., 53.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid., 76.
50 Pham et al., “Aspiration to be myself”, unpaged.
51 Nguyen, Self-Portrait, 56, 57.
52 Ibid., 59.
53 Bui, Representations of Transgender Persons, 60.
54 Ibid., 8.
55 Schafer, “Notions of Vietnamese Womanhood,” 150.
56 Ibid., 147.
57 Ibid.
58 Ngo, “Four Feminine Virtues.”
59 Nguyen, Self-Portrait, 29.
60 Ibid., 50.
61 Ibid., 27.
62 Ibid., 47.
63 Ibid., 59.
64 Ibid., 63.
65 Johnson, Transnormativity, 466.
66 Yavorsky et al., “Doing Fear,” 511.
67 Ibid, 2.
68 Connell, “Transsexual Women and Feminist Thought,” 865.
69 Nguyen, Self-Portrait, 25.
70 Ibid., 57.
71 Ibid., 13.
72 Connell, “Transsexual Women and Feminist Thought,” 864.
73 Hoang, A Vietnamese Man, 58.
74 Nguyen, Self-Portrait, 30, 31, 58.
75 Connell, “Transsexual Women and Feminist Thought,” 868.
76 Nguyen, Self-Portrait, 18.
77 Ibid., 29.
78 Ibid., 29–30.
79 Ibid., 30.
80 Ibid., 31.
81 Ibid., 53.
82 Ibid., 59.
83 Muñoz, Disidentifications, 5.
84 Nguyen, Self-Portrait, 53.
85 Ibid., 61.
86 Ibid.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid., 62.
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid.
91 Ibid., 68.
92 Ibid.
93 Connell, “Transsexual Women and Feminist Thought,” 864.
94 Nguyen, Self-Portrait, 65.
95 Ibid, 60.
96 Ibid., 67.
97 Ibid., 72.
98 Ibid., 74.
99 Ibid., 75.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Anh Nguyen Hoang
Anh Nguyen Hoang holds a Master of Gender and Women’s Studies from Flinders University, where his study focused on transgender and gender issues. His research interest focuses much on Vietnamese transgender persons’ experience of living by applying auto-ethnography. Discourses around gender and society construction and their impacts on transgender persons’ lives are also one of his areas of study.
Xuan Hien Nguyen
Xuan Hien Nguyen holds a Master of International Development from Flinders University, where her study focused on gender development. Her research interests include gender discourse and the construction of gender and their effects on the prevention of violence against women.
Hoa Bui
Hoa Bui is an independent researcher on gender and disability issues. She has carried out research on gender in media, sexual harassment, and gender-based violence against women and girls, including those living with disabilities. She holds a Master’s in Gender and Women Studies from the Flinders University.