Vietnamese masculinities in l�� thi diem th��y's The gangster we are all looking for

The defeat of South Vietnam in 1975 transformed Vietnamese men into fleeing refugees, boat people, and state-sponsored asylees. Writing against the popular and scholarly representations of Vietnamese refugee men as incapacitated objects of rescue, this paper provides an in-depth analysis of the intimate, insightful, and intense portrayal of Vietnamese masculinities in l�� thi diem th��y���s novel, The Gangster We Are All Looking For. Focusing on the ���sad and broken��� father in the novel, the article conceptualizes his bouts of domestic violence neither as a private family matter nor an example of individual failing, but as a social, historical, and transnational affair that exposes the conditions���war, urban neglect, poverty���under which Vietnamese masculinity is continually produced, negotiated and transformed.