I recently found out that "History" in a textbook
could not tell everything. For example, my dad told me his personal experience
when he was one of the Vietnamese boat people. His "history" is enormous
that I always realize how much I can be proud of myself being his son.
However, a
history textbook summarizes my dad's history with only one sentence. It
only says ,"After the Vietnam War, there were many refugees from Saigon
called "Boat People", who immigrated to other countries.". This
concise but superficial sentence does not give any insight about how these
people suffered from the situation.
I think we need
both "History in a textbook" and "Personal History"
whenever we try to understand the past. History in a textbook tells the overview
of a situation; personal history tells a more focused and emotional response to
a situation. Therefore, I think we always need different lenses to focus on
different objects: a country, society, community or a person.
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