Little Saigon
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Little Saigon is a name given to any of several Vietnamese-American communities in the United States. Saigon is the former name of the capital of the former South Vietnam, where a large number of first-generation Vietnamese immigrants originate. There has been relatively little direct immigration to the United States from the northern portions of Vietnam, although more than 2 million North Vietnamese had already immigrated to the South during the partitioning of the country in 1954 and many of these subsequently immigrated to the US from the South. This lack of immigration is partly due to the fact that the United States had refused to admit refugees from northern Vietnam. (In the mid-1990s, relations between the U.S. and Vietnam improved under President Bill Clinton, although many old-guard Vietnamese anti-Communists—many of them veterans of the ARVN in the Vietnam War—in several Little Saigon communities still strongly oppose formal U.S. diplomatic relations with Vietnam.)
After the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese refugees began settling in refugee camps of Camp Pendleton, California. Nearby Westminster was once a white middle-class suburban city with ample farmland, but it the city later experienced a decline by the 1970s. The new Vietnamese American arrivals soon revitalized the area by opening their own businesses in old formerly white-owned storefronts and investors constructed large shopping centers.
In the 1980s, many ethnic Chinese Vietnamese (called the Hoa in Vietnamese) arrived to escape persecution in Vietnam during the border skirmishes between Vietnam and Mainland China. They also settled in Orange County's Little Saigon and in the Los Angeles Chinatown and San Gabriel Valley, where there are significant Chinese Vietnamese populations.
The oldest Little Saigon is in Westminster and Garden Grove in Orange County, California where they constitute 30.7% and 21.4% of the population, respectively. In many cases, the population also consists of some people of Chinese Vietnamese stock (meaning the descendants of early Chinese settlers from the Guangdong province of China who settled in Vietnam several centuries ago; they make up the "overseas Chinese" population). It was settled in the late 1970s after the Vietnamese began arriving and establishing small businesses in the United States. It was then developed during much of the 1980s and 1990s.
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California
Orange County
In California, Little Saigon is now a wide, spread-out community dotted with a myriad of strip malls containing a mixture of Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese businesses. It is located west of Disneyland between the California State Highway 22 and Interstate 405. However, the main focus of Little Saigon is Bolsa Avenue center at Bolsa Mini Mall, which runs through Westminster and the street has been officially designated Little Saigon by the city council of Westminster. It is lined with numerous huge shopping centers and strip malls. As with many other Vietnamese American communities, competing mom-and-pop restaurants that serve Vietnamese cuisine (especially Phở beef noodles) are abundant. In addition, there are quite a number of small Vietnamese delis and bakeries in Little Saigon specializing in French-style coffee and baguette sandwiches - indeed, a legacy of Vietnam's turbulent colonial past. Restaurants serving Chinese cuisine such as Teochew and Cantonese are also available but in smaller numbers.
The major Chinese American supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market had its first start in Little Saigon of California. However, the flagship store has since closed and replaced by another supermarket.
There have been plans to turn Westminster's Little Saigon (Bolsa Avenue) into a tourist attraction, to draw white tourists, particularly from Disneyland. Plans were proposed for a pedestrian-friendly area and a bridge connecting several Vietnamese shopping centers. However, these plans have yet to be implemented.
Westminster is generally considered the main cultural center of the Vietnamese American community with several Vietnamese-language television stations, radio stations, and newspapers originating from this and adjacent areas. For example, there is Little Saigon TV and Little Saigon Radio. In addition, many advertisements in Los Angeles area Vietnamese-language publications invariably refer to businesses in Westminster.
Westminster's Little Saigon is a vehemently anti-communist community. During the Têt New Year of 1999, a Vietnamese American video store owner named Truong Van Tran caused quite a stir when he displayed in his store a portrait of Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. This stirred anger and passions in the local Vietnamese American community, many of whom were war veterans (of the US-backed South Vietnamese military), refugees and immigrants from the former South Vietnam - a curious irony since Tran himself was among the refugees who fled the country. Others that participated were second and third-generation Vietnamese Americans of the aforementioned groups. Mass vigils and demonstrations (sometimes peaceful and sometimes coming close to a riot) in front of the store ensued. For example, an egg was tossed at Tran as he was entering his store. In the coup de grâce, the owner was then arrested by Westminster city police on the charge of illegally renting pirated videos. Since the incident, the video store has disappeared. The event also raised some controversial issues about constitutional free speech in the United States.
Vietnamese Americans, due to their large numbers, have exercised considerable political power in Westminster and Garden Grove. Many have won public offices in these two cities. Several Vietnamese Americans serve in the Garden Grove city council and the mayor pro tempore is also Vietnamese American. They have pressured the Westminster city council to recognize the former South Vietnamese flag and the Garden Grove city council to controversially designate it a "no-communist zone." Many city council meetings are attended by Vietnamese Americans.
The Vietnamese American population has now begun to diffuse in traditionally white beach cities such as Huntington beach, and Fountain Valley.
Sacramento
With a large and growing Vietnamese American population, Sacramento has an informal "Little Saigon". Although settlement of Vietnamese refugees began during the 1980s, large numbers of Vietnamese have moved from the San Jose area to the Sacramento area since the late 1990s. The large Asian supermarket Shun Fat Supermarket (a small chain owned by a Chinese Vietnamese American) has opened in 2000 to cater to the local community.
San Francisco
San Francisco has now officially designated a Little Saigon in the Tenderloin district. Long being a major Vietnamese community, and attracting Vietnamese from San Jose, a number of community activists have supported making this Tenderloin neighborhood into a Little Saigon. Soon, there will be an official entrance constructed, much in the same way as the Japantown and Chinatown in San Francisco.
Texas
A major Little Saigon can also be found in Houston, a strip along Bellaire Blvd. However, the redevelopment of Midtown Houston from run-down to upscale has increased property values and property taxes, thus forcing the Vietnamese Americans out of their current neighborhood into other areas. One of the largest Vietnamese supermarkets in the Bellaire district is called Hong Kong Supermarket, located in Hong Kong City Mall at the crossroads of Bellaire and Boone. Another Vietnamese supermarket was recently opened near Beltway 8 and Beechnut, called Viet Hoa International Foods. These supermarkets, along with various smaller outfits across Houston area, provide great selections of Asian produce and foodstuffs, and prices are very reasonable.
Washington
Seattle, Washington has a significant, prosperous Vietnamese American business district centered at 12th Avenue and Jackson Street, immediately east of the city's considerably older Chinatown. This area has not been officially designated a "Little Saigon", although a few street signs with this name have been erected. Rather, the area – along with the Chinatown – has retained the longstanding name International District (now officially Chinatown/International District, but often just "The I.D."), dating back about a century. The predominantly Chinese and predominantly Vietnamese areas are separated from one another by Interstate 5, but there is easy pedestrian and car access between the two.
Oklahoma
Like Seattle, Oklahoma City has a significant Vietnamese American business district in a gentrified area in the centre part of the city. Thousands of Vietnamese refugees were relocated to Oklahoma City during the 1980s and have established businesses in much of the old Uptown 23rd and Classen business districts. While the area is officially known as the Asia District because of the abundant Asian diversity of the area, much of the "Little Saigon" portion centres around Military Dr. Little Saigon features numerous Pho cafés and Asian supermarkets. There are even a few hopping nightclubs and videobars joining the growing list of Chinese, Thai, Filipino, and Korean establishments that make up the remainder of the Asia District.
Australia
Sydney
Outside the United States, one of the largest Little Saigons is located at Cabramatta, New South Wales, a south-western suburb of Sydney in Australia.
Related topics
External links
- Vietnamtown (http://www.vietnamtown.com) - Useful general guide with maps of Vietnamese American business districts in the United States.
- AsianWeek: Big Plans for Little Saigon (http://www.asianweek.com/051796/LittleSaigon.html) - In-depth article on the development of Little Saigon in Orange County, California.