Book to Screen: Viet Thanh Nguyen on Adapting The Sympathizer

Recorded on May 1, 2024
Author Viet Thanh Nguyen discussed about adapting his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer, for the screen. Through clips from the series and readings from the novel, Nguyen talked about the difficulties and rewards of adapting his work for the screen, among other topics. Like the novel, the HBO series is an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire about the struggles of a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and his new life as a refugee in Los Angeles, where he learns that his spying days aren't over. Its showrunner is the acclaimed Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave), and the cast includes Robert Downey Jr. and Sandra Oh.
The conversation was moderated by Dr. Sylvia Chong, associate professor of American Studies and English at the University of Virginia, and author of The Oriental Obscene: Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era.
This event was copresented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Vietnam Society.
Image credit: The Sympathizer courtesy of HBO.

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Fascinating discussion. As a boat refugee who left VN in 1981 at the age of 14 without parents, I was placed in the foster care system. I was conflicted growing up between the two cultures for many years somewhat losing my Vietnamese identity heritage. The Vietnamese people will see me like a banana- yellow on the outside but white inside. I did feel a sense of not belonging in the main American culture, especially when being around the good old boys' clubs where the predominant people are not Asian. I am glad to see that Viet can articulate this kind of sentiment so clearly.