We Are Our Stories

The Zans and Paws at their family home near Rangoon, Burma.

Let’s face it: Memory fades. And with it, faces, characters, voices, and stories you could never imagine having not known. Stories that might have become an indelible part of who you are, who you wish to become, the traces you wish to leave on the world. But the loved ones who tell these stories—our family members—are impermanent, and as much as we might think we can vividly store them in our minds forever, life simply doesn’t work that way. Blink and you might miss something. Blink and something, someone, you thought you’d always have might be gone. But we don’t have to let that happen.

This project is about family, stories, and voices–all things that can’t always be captured by mere memory or ink on paper. The meandering narrative of the Zan family’s journey to the States from Burma is not a linear, cut and dry yarn easily passed from generation to generation. My earliest understanding of my Burmese-Karen-American heritage was through episodic stories recounted by my grandparents, father, uncle, and other extended family members and friends. It was only later that I began to piece the myriad tales I had heard into a larger sociopolitical narrative of greed, injustice, and the silencing of voices in what was now modern-day Myanmar. And it is both the backbone of family stories and the larger, encompassing narrative of an unjust nation that I hope to solidify through capturing and sharing them—as spoken.

This project aims to capture the oral storytelling that played such a vital role in understanding my family’s heritage, and with that, my own sense of self. It is my hope that this archive of digital storytelling will not only be a cherished resource for future generations of Zans, but also a source of inspiration and momentum for the greater public, particularly those interested in hearing strikingly human tales from a country that has historically been selective in presenting its own history.

This project is not intended to be a strictly textbook account to be taken as uncontested truth. Instead, consider it a family gathering during which many voices recount their very personal and subjective versions of how they remember their adventures and experiences in Burma—of how they made sense of war, colonialism, genocide, corruption, racism, loyalty, and unconditional love—all terms that become so easily abstracted through the sweeping narratives of history books and the glossy headlines of the media.

History is comprised of unique individuals, a dizzying collective of mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends. History was created and is passed on to us by the people we cherish and call family—it is what we see when we look in the mirror, both in our reflection and the breath that fogs it. It’s in the curves of our face, the tint of our eyes, and the timbres of our laughter and cries. History is not a series of events easily captured by dates and dots on a map. Each individual has their own way of interpreting the world around them, both its uncompromising horrors and its prevailing beauty, and it is in these personal encounters that I find the most profound indicators of human resilience and potentiality.

“Second Jungle” by Jenna Zan. This piece is as a meditation on the way personal narratives can reclaim and re-root within the historied landscapes of its erasure.

Through collecting an audio series of episodic memoirs, interviews, readings, and monologues, I hope to capture history in its peopled form—what it means not only to be a Zan, but to be a member of a family, a part of an ongoing narrative that is crucial to building a stronger sense of self, and a more engaged sense of the world we inhabit. Moreover, I hope that this project helps to bridge the irreparable void created when we allow those voices we cherish to fall silent.

Please, take a moment, put your feet up, and let my family’s stories take you someplace far away. You are always welcome here. Visit often, and linger with warmth and reflection.

– Jenna Zan, Project Curator