Phuc Bui

Artist Phung Huynh (Vietnamese American, born 1977)

Date2020

MediumCotton fabric and embroidery thread

DimensionsFramed: 14 x 17 x 1 1/4 in. (35.6 x 43.2 x 3.2 cm) Unframed: 10 x 13 1/4 in. (25.4 x 33.7 cm)

ClassificationsTextile

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Escalette Endowment

Object number2023.14.1

Label Text"Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen is the name of a Vietnamese-American student who attended Laney College in Oakland in 2020. Her math professor, Matthew Hubbard refused to call her by her name and insisted that she use an Anglicized name. He told her that it sounded insulting in his language, and that if he were a student in her country, he would change it. The situation escalated to his stubborn refusal to call Phuc Bui by her name, to her reminder on how to pronounce it, and finally to his outrageous declaration that her name sounded like “fuck boy” and that he would never say her name. Phuc Bui filed a complaint with the college’s Title IX office, and the professor was placed on administrative leave. Although he eventually issued an apology, the damage was done. These attacks deeply marginalize AAPI and immigrant communities and uphold the association of American identity with whiteness and English as a first language.

My name is Phung, which means phoenix, a mythical bird that rises from its own ashes after the end of a life cycle. It was given to me by my grandfather who survived the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia alongside my father. My mother and I were born in Vietnam, and as a family, we were war refugees and resettled in the United States in the late 1970s. For refugees, who unlike immigrants, did not choose to abandon their homelands in order to survive, displacement and assimilation are intense disruptions on so many levels. As a child, I was told my name sounded weird and un-American and that I should change it. I would go to gift shops and find many souvenirs with English names, but could never find mine. I wanted to make work to recognize folks with unanglicized names and to honor their choice to keep their names." - Phung Huynh

Status

On view

Location