Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Vietnam Veterans Memorial • The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national war memorial in Washington, D.C. It honors members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War and who died in service or are still unaccounted for. • Its construction and related issues have been the source of controversies, some of which have resulted in additions to the memorial complex. The memorial currently consists of three separate parts: the Three Soldiers statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which is the best-known part of the memorial.

Considerate, Thoughtful • 1. Empathy (613): why the chronological order in name listing makes sense in this case; • The power of projecting one's personality into (and so fully comprehending) the object of contemplation. OED

Empathyan encounter between the self and the other • 1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. • 2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.

Empathy and Sympathy • are relationships based on Shared Emotions & Understanding. Empathy is understood as the ability to mutually experience the thoughts, emotions, and direct experience of others without them being directly communicated intentionally. • Sympathy is a feeling of care and understanding for suffering beings. • Both have similar usage but differ in their emotional meaning.

Empathy vs. sympathy • The ability to co-experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions, or experience of another without them being communicated directly by the individual • The ability to understand and to support the emotional situation or experience of another being with compassion and sensitivity

Relationship • empathy • Friends, Family, Community • I can empathize with how aggrieved you must be at the loss of your beloved. • sympathy • Poor and less fortunate • I offer my sympathy at the loss of your loved one.

Empathy vs. sympathy • Imagine thoughts of person you feel sympathetic for. • Feel sorry for; Feel pity for; Feel bad for someone • There is a fine line between sympathy and a patronizing attitude;

Principles for architectural designs • The Wall/Memorial is blended in as part of the landscape instead of asserting its dominant presence regardless its environment: one end points at the Lincoln Memorial, and the other points at the Washington Monument; together, they make up a trilogy—the self becoming part of the other or wise versa; • Pay attention to interrelations;

Importance of compromise • Where to put an American flag? • Where it is necessary to add some statues and sculpture pieces to express veterans’ feelings; • The wisdom of American politics is to compromise, not to prevail;

Political vs. Apolitical approach • Though Maya Lin adopted an apolitical approach, her design makes a strong statement regarding whether we should glorify the war or value lost lives; • This is a consequential claim that is made of empathy, logos, ethos, and pathos 9617-619);

Creative Criticism • Art in general is a form of reasoning; • It is a form of creative criticism; • It contains structured information, message and meaning; • Argument is an act of empathy (613); • See notes on FM 13_Argument

The Memorial Wall, 1982designed by Maya Lin, made up of two black granite walls 246 feet 9 inches (75 m) long.

Maya LinOctober 5, 1959 - • In 1981, at age 21 and while still an undergraduate, Lin won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, beating out 1,420 other competition submissions. The black cut-stone masonry wall, with the names of 58,261 fallen soldiers carved into its face, was completed in late October 1982 and dedicated on November 13, 1982. The wall is granite and V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument.

Lower than the groundLike two mirrorsA Fracture across the EarthAn Open Wound; An Open History Book

Symbolic Design • Lin's conception was to create an opening or a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers. The design was initially controversial for what was an unconventional and non-traditional design for a war memorial. Opponents of the design also voiced objection because of Lin's Asian heritage. However, the memorial has since become an important pilgrimage site for relatives and friends of the American military casualties in Vietnam, and personal tokens and mementos are left at the wall daily in their memory.

Women’s Table at Yale

The Women’s Table, 1993 • Maya Lin (b. 1959; B.A. 1981, M.Arch. 1986, D.F.A. 1987)Location: Rose Walk, by Sterling Memorial Library • Maya Lin’s monument-making began during her undergraduate years at Yale, with her 1981 design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Like the black wall of names cutting into the grassy Mall, the simple granite blocks of Lin’s Women’s Table organically emerge from the pavement as both a lament and a tribute. A string of figures marks the number of female students at Yale each year since its founding in 1701. These numbers grow with time as they spiral out toward the table’s edge, swelling like the rings of water that bubble from the central spring and spill over on all sides. Anonymous gift, commissioned in 1989 and installed in 1993

Women’s Table at Yale • Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library, as seen from Maya Lin's sculpture, Women's Table. The sculpture records the number of women enrolled at Yale over its history; female undergraduates were not admitted until 1969.

Lin Huiyin, Maya Lin’s Aunt1904 -1955 • A noted 20th century Chinesearchitect and writer. She is said to be the first female architect in China. Her niece is Maya Lin. • From a rich family, Lin Huiyin received the best education a woman could obtain at that time, studying both in Europe and America. She attended St Mary's College in London, and she had been adored by the well known Chinese poet Xu Zhimo whom is thought as the most famous romantic story in 20th century of China.

Lin Huiyin vs. Xu Zhimo

Xu Zhimo1897 - 1931 (died at 36 of a plane crash on his way to attend Lin Huiyin’s lecture in Beijing) • In memory of Xu Zhimo, in July, 2008, a white marble stone has been installed at the back of King's College, University of Cambridge, on which is inscribed Xu's best-known poem, “Second Farewell to Cambridge.”

輕輕的我走了， 正如我輕輕的來；我輕輕的招手，作別西天的雲彩。那河畔的金柳，是夕陽中的新娘；波光裡的艷影，在我的心頭蕩漾。軟泥上的青荇，油油地在水底招搖；在康河的柔波裡，我甘心做一條水草！那榆蔭下的一潭，不是清泉，是天上虹；揉碎在浮藻間，沉澱著彩虹似的夢。尋夢？撐一支長篙，向青草更青處漫溯；滿載一船星輝，在星輝斑斕裡放歌。但我不能放歌，悄悄是別離的笙簫；夏蟲也為我沉默，沉默是今晚的康橋！悄悄的我走了，正如我悄悄的來；我揮一揮衣袖，不帶走一片雲彩。 Quietly I am leaving Just as quietly I came; Quietly I wave a farewell To the clouds in the western sky. The golden willow on the riverbank, A bride in the setting sun; Her colorful reflection Ripples through my heart. The green plants on the riverbed, So lush and so gracefully swaying; In the gentle current of the Cam I’d be happy to remain a waterweed. The pool under the elm’s shade Is not a creek, but a rainbow in the sky Crushed among the floating green, Settling into a colorful dream. In search of a dream? You pole a tiny boat Toward where the green is even more green To collect a load of stars, as songs Rise in the gleaming stellar light. But tonight my voice fails me; Silence is the best tune of farewell; Even crickets are still for me, And still is Cambridge tonight. Silently I am going As silently I came; I shake my sleeves, Not to take away a patch of cloud. Second Farewell to Cambridge trans. by Michelle Yeh

Liang Sicheng(20 April 1901– 9 January 1972) • the son of Liang Qichao, a well-known Chinese thinker in the late Qing Dynasty. Liang Sicheng graduated from University of Pennsylvania. His first wife was Lin Huiyin and his niece is Maya Lin.

DiYanni’s Question • Lin’s design for a monument was unconventional, departing from traditional realistic representations of soldiers in combat gear. Instead of depicting soldiers realistically in action, Lin opted for a more symbolic design, with a long, black, shiny granite wall incised with the names of all soldiers who died in the war. Why do you think some people opposed Lin’s design for the monument, and preferred something more traditional? Why, after more than twenty years that the Vietnam Memorial has stood, do you think it has retained its popularity, having become the most visited of all memorials?

Names on the WallChronologically Listed

The Three Soldiers • The Three Soldiers (also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronzestatue on the Washington, DCNational Mall commemorating the Vietnam War. The grouping consists of three young men, armed and dressed appropriately for the Vietnam War era, purposely identifiable as Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic. It was designed to complement the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by adding a more traditional component. The statue, unveiled on Veterans Day, 1984, was designed by Frederick Hart, who placed third in the original design competition.

The Vietnam Women's Memorial • Also part of the memorial is the Vietnam Women's memorial. It is located a short distance south of the Wall, north of the Reflecting Pool. It was designed by Glenna Goodacre and dedicated on November 11, 1993, to the women of the United States who served in the Vietnam War, most of whom were nurses. The woman looking up is named Hope, the woman praying is named Faith, and the woman tending to a wounded soldier is named Charity.

My black face fades,hiding inside the black granite.I said I wouldn’t,dammit: No tears.I’m stone. I’m flesh.My clouded reflection eyes melike a bird of prey, the profile of nightslanted against morning. I turnthis way–the stone lets me go.I turn that way–I’m insidethe Vietnam Veterans Memorialagain, depending on the lightto make a difference. I go down the 58,022 names,half-expecting to findmy own in letters like smoke.I touch the name Andrew Johnson;I see the booby trap’s white flash.Names shimmer on a woman’s blousebut when she walks awaythe names stay on the wall.Brushstrokes flash, a red bird’swings cutting across my stare.The sky. A plane in the sky.A white vet’s image floatscloser to me, then his pale eyeslook through mine. I’m a window.He’s lost his right arminside the stone. In the black mirrora woman’s trying to erase names:No, she’s brushing a boy’s hair. “Facing It”by Yusef Komunyakaa

Civilization vs. Wilderness • "All America lies at the end of the wilderness road, and our past is not a dead past, but still lives in us. Our forefathers had civilization inside themselves, the wild outside. We live in the civilization they created, but within us the wilderness still lingers. What they dreamed, we live, and what they lived, we dream." — T.K. Whipple

Civil Rights Memorialin Montgomery, Alabama, 40 martyrs (1954 – 1968)Designed by Maya Lin, 1989

Further Readings • http://www.mayalin.com/ • Maya Lin, A Strong, Clear Vision, 1994 • Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision is a 1994 documentary film made by Freida Lee Mock about the life of American artist Maya Lin, whose best-known work is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. • The film won the 1994 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial