About

December 2^nd, 2012

The idea behind this blog is to share with the world the beautiful collection that my mother and father have garnered throughout the years. Many of these items sat in storage in Hong Kong and Bangkok for many years, while others accompanied them everywhere they went. Too long have these beautiful pieces been kept within the confines of our home and storage warehouses. I finally decided it was time to share not only their beauty, but also the personal stories that are tied to these objects and to their acquisition.

This blog has resulted from my mother’s hard work and passion for all things beautiful. Her profession as a caseworker for refugee affairs and my father’s work as a journalist have taken them around the world, with me and my brother Daniel in tow. My parents, Lac Thi and Ron, met in Vietnam during the war and have lived on nearly every continent ever since: Hong Kong, Argentina, Cairo, Paris, Miami, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Islamabad and, finally, Sugar Land (Texas).

From each of these home bases, my mother went in search of many of these treasures, wandering through dark alleyways, adventuring to far away villages, embarking on tiny boats, hopping aboard tiny buses overflowing with people, sometimes with or without me and my brother. While collecting these various items, she dedicated much of her sweat and tears, and sometimes blood even (in reference to the rickshaw accident in Rangoon in the late 1970s while trying to collect as much Burmese lacquerware as humanly possible in one day). D‑E‑D‑I‑C‑A‑T‑I‑O‑N.

My admiration for her beautiful collection was my inspiration in pursuing my undergraduate and graduate studies in History and Art History at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. However, it has also been my demise, as I sit here, jobless, writing this blog, trying to make use of my time between the hundreds of job applications I submit each week.

My father also played his part in contributing to their extensive collection, bringing home carpets and paintings that he acquired in between his duties as a foreign correspondent for Newsweek Magazine. His contributions come from the places where he could not take us with him: Haiti, Pakistan and Iraq during the 1980s and early 1990s.

I will do my best to post new pictures and their accompanying stories regularly. In between posts related to my parents’ collection, you will also find random objects and pieces of information that stem from my personal interest in the arts of Asia. In addition to making their collection and information on Art History accessible to a larger audience, this blog is a homage to my parents, to their hard work, passion and determination, which have inspired my personal and academic growth and nourished my love for the arts of the Orient.

Linh Anh Moreau

With Nguyen Thi Lac Moreau and Ron Moreau