Ever since coming to the States back in 2008, I have encountered many moments of cultural misrepresentation.

It all began when the students in my French class were assigned to give a cultural presentation for our midterm. Back then I was standing in the cross road of trilingualism that consists of Vietnamese, French, and English, the latest of which I was still a novice. Unable to make out what would attract my teacher and classmates, I embarked on the universal human interest in culinary. Thus I made a powerpoint presentation on Vietnamese gastronomy and prepared a small vietnamese dish for the class. Out of pure innocence I included in it a slide about the Vietnamese habit of eating dogs and cats, and I made my spring roll with pork meat.

The outcome was terrible, though I myself has never been a devotee of dog and cat meat, I was instantly repulsed by the class once the slides come up, in which featured a steaming furless grilled dog lying squarely on a plate. A few people choke on the foods of the previous presenter but most directed their disgusted look toward me. Much to my satisfaction, half of the class did not bother to touch my spring roll because I was unaware of the muslim pork eating taboo.

On that day I has both tainted my self-image and misrepresented my culture from a beautiful and peace-loving one to one that treats dogs and cats cruelly and has its citizen feed muslims pork meats. I’ve never participated in any culture-representing event ever since.