I was raised by parents who came from a culture where distance from the land signaled economic progress. In their move from rural Vietnam to Canada, leaving the soil behind became synonymous with survival, dignity, and success. Wealth, stability, and professional achievement were the unquestioned markers of a better life. Only as an adult have I begun to understand the environmental cost of that aspiration — and the way it shaped my own habits, values, and blind spots. This awareness has grown into a painful internal conflict: a climate conscience sharpened by education but immobilized by shame. That shame has crystallized into a quiet, almost ritualistic urge to apologize to the planet — to xin lỗi. In Vietnamese, xin and lỗi translate to “beg” and “mistake,” forming an apology delivered with crossed arms and a bowed head. It is a small, wordless gesture, and it feels devastatingly inappropriate as a response to the enormity of ecological harm.

 

My project explores what climate inaction looks like when it is driven not by denial, but by a conscience caught between knowledge and paralysis. Xin lỗi becomes the central motif — an inadequate offering that mirrors the insufficiency of individual gestures in the face of global crisis.

 

As a second‑generation Canadian of Vietnamese immigrants, I live daily within the friction of Eastern and Western value systems. From my family, I inherited a deep discomfort with confronting guilt or shame for fear of losing face. From my Canadian upbringing, I absorbed the Western emphasis on personal responsibility and accountability. Instead of giving me multiple pathways to address wrongdoing, these opposing frameworks often cancel each other out, leaving me suspended in inaction.

 

When a strong sense of responsibility collides with an equally strong sense of shame, attempts at repair can feel embarrassingly small. The works in this project use everyday objects and familiar scenarios to reveal how ordinary actions become charged, distorted, or hollow when viewed through this emotional lens. Each piece asks what it means to apologize to a planet in crisis — and what it might take to move beyond apology toward meaningful action.