And Tam Tran, who moved from South Vietnam with her family to Memphis, Tennessee, in the early 1990s, explores her ever-changing relationship to her own developing identity in a series of self-portrait photographs called Accents.

Konrad Ng, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American program, says the exhibit is not designed to make visitors arrive at any particular conclusion but rather to serve as a conversation starter:

“This show is a terrific opportunity for people who want to understand what an Asian-American portrait of encounter would feel, sound like in some instances, and have that experience, and then walk away from that, hopefully transformed and asking more questions about that topic,” he says.