Maya Lin
& the Vietnam Memorial
Presentation by Robert Martinez
Images as cited.
Primary Content Source: American Lives, New Readers Press
http://www.mkatakis.org/images/maya_lin.jpg
The American Dream
Maya Lin is the daughter of Chinese
immigrants. Her parents left China in the
1940s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Lin
Her mother was a poet, and taught English
and Asian literature. Her father was a wellknown ceramic artist. He also directed the
fine arts program at Ohio University.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/arts/08publ.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/L/Lin,%20Maya
Lin’s parents didn’t talk about their past in
China. They didn’t teach Lin and her
brother the Chinese language. Lin said she
felt more American than Chinese while she
was growing up.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/maya_lin/index.html
As a child, Lin was surrounded by artwork
and furniture that her father made. She
often made pottery in her father’s studio at
the university.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31477229@N00/386499177/
In high school, she was interested in
modern European literature. At the same
time, she became interested in death.
http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/lin/images/mayalb.jpg
After high school, Lin enrolled at Yale
University. She took many trips to the local
cemetery and photographed headstones.
She admired the serenity of the simple
designs.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Elanehistory/Lane%20Headstones.jpg
In Denmark, she visited a cemetery that
was also used as a park in the summer. Lin
saw that the cemetery was an important
part of everyday life. This use of the
cemetery fascinated her.
http://www.stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/Articles/DanishCemetery.jpg
When she returned to Yale, she enrolled in
a funerary architecture class, a class that
studied memorials for the dead.
http://www.amdoc.org/projects/truelives/pressroom/mayalin/images/02_mayalin.jpg
As a class assignment, the professor asked
the students to enter a nationwide
competition to design the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial.
http://redmig.com/sp_Vinti_HN_files/image028.jpg
The students all went to Washington, D.C.
They visited the location of the future
memorial. It was between the Lincoln
Memorial and the Capitol building.
http://www.visitingdc.com/images/national-mall-at-night.jpg
Lin saw a few people playing catch on
the grass there. They reminded her of the
cemetery-park in Denmark. She got the
idea to build a “gravestone in a park.”
http://www.stpete.org/HR_Photos/0810.jpg
Lin submitted an innovative design for the
competition. She designed two large, black,
granite walls that formed a V shape.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MayaLinsubmission.jpg
On the walls would be carved the name of
every American who had died or was
missing in the Vietnam War. Almost 58,000
names would be cut into the stone.
http://www.amdoc.org/projects/truelives/pressroom/mayalin/images/05_mayalin.jpg
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/at00827cs.jpg
Visitors could touch and photograph the
names. Lin hoped that this experience
would comfort people who had lost loved
ones in the war. Lin won the competition,
she was only 21 years old.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joschmoblo/161648060/
When her design became public, its quiet
beauty impressed many people. However,
some veteran’s groups thought that the
design did not honor the dead and missing
soldiers enough.
http://www.usvetdsp.com/maya_lin.jpg
They thought that it did not look patriotic.
The groups wanted a statue of a soldier
instead. And some people made racist
remarks because of Lin’s Asian
background.
http://www.usvetdsp.com/maya_lin.jpg
Lin was under a lot of pressure to change
her design. But she kept her original plan.
As a compromise, the government allowed
the groups who opposed Lin’s design to
put up a statue.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamanance/42856531/
The statue shows three servicemen with a
U.S. flag. It stands near the entrance to the
memorial.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/debsmouse/2206524507/
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, built using
Lin’s design, opened on November 13,
1982. It is now the most visited memorial in
the United States.
http://www.greenmuseum.org/c/aen/Issues/lin.php