Maya Lin

Maya Lin. Undergraduate student at Yale University. Chinese American. 21 years old. Designer of the Vietnam War Memorial.

Who would have guessed that the Vietnam Memorial was designed by an architecture student at Yale? Who would have guessed that the time and work she put into creating a monument would leave visitors in such silence and grief of all the innocent lives lost?

I found Maya Lin truly amazing. Her design beat out nearly 1400 other competitors. Although her design was plain and simple, it impacts viewers emotionally on a personal level. Of course, like any other good deed that tries to be done, there were the news articles shunning Lin for being an Asian, designing an Asian Memorial. It was simply ironic that she was Chinese when she was chosen anonymously. She received many criticism and harassment because of her ethnicity but she still stood strong. I think she was able to stay strong throughout this phase and move on to create the most remarkable memorial that has yet been created.

Maya Lin had many people to convince from changing her design, because everything had a meaning behind it. Her design was first controversial because it was a non-traditional design for a war memorial. One contradicting issue I found was keeping the granite black. I have personally visited the Vietnam Memorial, and the granite does leave behind a feeling of sadness and loss from all the lives taken during bravery. It is a huge difference in the atmosphere when you visit the Lincoln Memorial and right when you step into the Vietnam Memorial surroundings. Silence breaks amongst and sadness begins to fill your heart. Lin spoke the truth on how a memorial should really be about the reality of war, loss of life in war, and remembering those who served and especially those who died. Designing the memorial to where all the men who served were listed on the wall brought out the memorial even more. Knowing the history behind the Vietnam Memorial development makes me want to go back and visit the Vietnam Memorial again.