SALT LAKE CITY – Westminster's annual Kim T. Adamson Lecture in International Studies was held on April 2, 2024, and featured artist and award-winning author Thi Bui. Bui discussed her graphic novel The Best We Could Do, which details her family's escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and adapting to life as an immigrant in the United States. The Best We Could Do tells a story of personal identity, familial relationships and discovering what a home can be. Attendees of the lecture listened to a reading from sections of The Best We Could Do, along with discussions of Bui’s artistic process, and an opportunity to ask questions related to the book and Bui’s life.
When talking about how The Best We Could Do was created, Bui started by mentioning it wasn’t always meant to be a memoir.
“So, this was an accidental memoir. It is not the work of someone who did amazing things in their life, like Nelson Mandela sitting down at the end of his life to write down his accomplishments. I was a person whose parents lived through incredible times. I was a child of survivors of a massive exodus from one country and resettlement in another, and I had a lot of questions, basically, who am I? How did I get here? The search for an origin story is a very common one in comics, but it's not a superhero story, it's what suited my brain the best by training a visual artist,” Bui said.
What started as a response to years of movies and media painting Vietnam in a negative light culminated into a story of family experience instead.
“I first made my drawings as my revenge project against all the bad Vietnam War movies that I grew up watching. But I grew softer in the 10 years it took to write this book. So, it went from being a revenge project to being a massive love letter to my parents who went through so much and sacrificed so much to give their children a better chance at life. And so, my drawings, my love letters to them are the vehicle for me to share them with you,” Bui said.
Gathering information on her parents' stories was a difficult task for Bui. It took starting small with questions about daily life to unlock the whole story.
“It turns out all people are treasure chests of experience. You'll be really surprised at the things that they'll share with you, especially when you can if you're interviewing your own parents, especially when you can get yourself out of the way and think about them as being people before they were your parents and who had hopes and dreams outside of you. Once I did that, I started drawing all kinds of parallels between my thoughts, my feelings, and my father's feelings. And this was a fantastic way for us to bond because I grew up terrified of my father and he was still quite emotionally distant even when I was an adult. But when I started seeing him as the little boy who experienced so much, he started to warm up to me more,” she said.
The Kim T. Adamson Lecture in International Studies is an annual lecture at Westminster University that started in 2001. The series aims to highlight recognizable figures in international studies, military history, and fields related to current campus interest, by conducting lectures and seminars on current global issues. By introducing speakers without regard for ethnic, religious or ideological considerations, the Kim T. Adamson lectures strive to help attendees navigate the changing global environment. All lectures are open to the public without charge due to the proceeds of the Kim T. Adamson Endowment, a gift from alumni, Westminster Board of Trustees member, and friend of Westminster, Kim T. Adamson.
By Violet Czech (’26)
From left to right: Honors College Dean Richard Badenhausen, author Thi Bui, and Board
of Trustees member and lecture sponsor, Kim T. Adamson
