Maya Lin was born in Athens, Ohio on October 5, 1959. In 1949, her parents fled Communism in China and came to the United States. In 1958 they moved to Athens, home of Ohio University, where they were professors. Her mother wrote poetry and taught literature; her father was a ceramic artist and became Dean of the College of Fine Arts.
As a child, Maya Lin liked to hike, read, watch birds, work in her father’s ceramics studio and build miniature towns. She loved to think and solve problems. In high school, she was an excellent math student who took college level courses and worked at McDonalds. She thought she was kind of nerdy because she never dated or wore make-up.
Maya went to Yale University to study architecture. While she was 21 and still a student, she entered a blind contest to submit a design for the new Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. According to contest rules, the memorial had to: fit in with the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, include of the names of all the dead and missing from the war and refrain from making political statements. Maya’s simple, but elegant design features a pair of two hundred feet long polished black granite walls. The monument is V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument.
The wall has the carved names of 58,195 men and women who were killed or missing in the war. They are listed according to the dates the soldiers were reported killed or missing, instead of in alphabetical order. Her design was chosen over 1,441 others. Maya believes her design would not have been chosen if the judges had known she was Chinese American. Some people harassed her after her family background and age had become known.
Today she continues to work on sculpture and architecture. Some of her other projects include: the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama; the Wave Field at the University of Michigan; and the Confluence Project along the Columbia and Snake rivers in Washington and Oregon. She has also written several books and is interested in sustainable energy use. In 2009, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.
Answer the following questions
1 Maya went to Yale University to study…
a math
b problem solving
c architecture
d fine arts
2 Which of the following best describes Maya Lin in high school?
a bored
b hard-working
c glamorous
d average
3 Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was…
a elaborate
b simple
c controversial
d very complicated
4 Based on your understanding of the passage, what is a “blind” contest?
a One in which only architects invited to submit their design can enter.
b One in which the personal identity of a design’s author is not known to the judges
c One in which the judges decide exactly what the design of the memorial must look like
d One in which only blind people can enter
5 Which of the following is not true about Maya Lin?
a She wanted to be a ceramics artist
b Her parents were professors
c She was good at math
d She liked to watch birds
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