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THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF VIETNAMESE AMERICAN PLACEMAKING
By: dũngThe Fall of Saigon fifty years ago marks a turning point in American history that facilitated the mass influx of Vietnamese refugees to be resettled across the United States, and by the year 2000, over a quarter of the entire Vietnamese population would reside in the Southern California area.1 Twenty years of the American Vietnam War, decades of anti-colonial resistance before that, and the struggle of resettlement finds a Vietnamese American population carving out a distinct community through placemaking. In this essay, I will analyze through various sources how Vietnamese Americans have sought to reclaim their own subjectivity and power, while contributing to the maintenance of the hegemonic narrative that has effectively worked towards a silencing of that community, both externally and internally. The hegemonic narrative on one hand, has historically contributed to portraying Vietnamese Americans as eternal victims, while framing the United States as saviors. While there have been challenges to this narrative, particularly by the efforts of the Vietnamese Americans through community organizations, a pluralizing of the narratives with an emphasis on the second wave of refugees known as the “boat people” has allowed for a level of agency in the production of these new narratives. The trauma of their lived experiences and the entangled histories with the United States has been mutually beneficial for both the diasporic community and the United States by not only allowing the United States to redeem their image as saviors, but by silencing voices in the diaspora that would otherwise challenge the narrative. It is crucial to frame the context of the diaspora’s relationship with the United States, and their mutual contributions to the reconstitution of the dominant narrative by the historical development that led to their displacement in the first place, through the anti-colonial resistance against French occupation, the United States involvement in a war that extended twenty years, and embargo enacted by President Nixon during the war, which would be extended to cover the entirety of Vietnam once it was reunified. An economic analysis of the effects of this embargo that would halt U.S. and Vietnam trade relations until the 1990s would be useful when considering how the multi-million dollar remittance market exacerbated the economic conditions in Vietnam.2
In tending to a complex and contested history, I will be focusing my analysis mainly on the physical and strategic placemaking of Vietnamese Americans in San Diego to examine the continuous maintenance of the dominant narrative. That being said, a crucial aspect of this analysis will also include how the first generation of refugees have been able to shape and maintain the community’s collective memory through the youth. Useful to this paper, is the framing of anti-communist rhetoric as a cultural development of the diaspora that allows an exploration of how these silences are both motivated and maintained in a way that a Eurocentric political analysis fails to encapsulate.3 An analysis of the Van Lang Vietnamese Language Center mission statement offers an opportunity to see how continuity of anti-communist rhetoric and the values constituted by the refugee lived experience is passed to the youth. Looking at the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance, an examination of their mission statement, in addition to their organizing of the San Diego Lunar New Year Festival as a site of social and cultural reproduction, it becomes apparent how the dominant narrative is not only maintained, but how the representation it provides, has allowed for the more recent strategic placemaking seen in physical monuments. In this way, the use of postcolonial critiques, in conjunction with a public history analysis through the physical demarcations and construction of monuments, can be useful in exploring how the dominant narrative is reinforced. Thus, an analysis of the resolution passed by the Council of the City of San Diego for the demarcation of the Little Saigon Cultural and Business District becomes useful for this purpose. In addition to that, the “Greetings from Little Saigon” mural and the development of the Boat People Park, located within the Little Saigon district, provides an opportunity to see how strategic placemaking can be beneficial in some ways, while also suppressing other voices.
The establishment of the Van Lang Vietnamese Language Center in 1984 coincided with the decade that witnessed 166,700 Vietnamese refugees arriving in 1980, followed by 40,000 more every year through the 1980s.4 Bringing their lived experience of the recent war and the ongoing persecution of Vietnamese that were in opposition to the Hanoi regime, the establishment of a language school in a foreign country that was predominantly English, served to ensure that the Vietnamese culture and traditions could be passed along to the new generation. Although, an analysis of the mission statement shows an additional objective, one that would contribute to formation of a particular refugee identity that anticipated a return to Vietnam, a sentiment that permeated the recently resettled community.
“The goal of Van Lang Vietnamese Language Center is to teach children to read and write Vietnamese fluently, understand Vietnamese literature and art, and foster the Vietnamese spirit in them to serve as a foundation for building strong, united Vietnamese families and communities in the United States, and to prepare the foundation for generations of young people to return to build a free Vietnam in the future.
To achieve the above goal, Van Lang Vietnamese Language Center guides students in a general Vietnamese language program from elementary to grade 6 along with Vietnamese cultural and artistic activities. Van Lang focuses on moral education in the spirit of "Learning manners first, then learning knowledge" to raise students' sense of responsibility and duty to family, school, community and nation.
The direction of Van Lang Center's activities is entirely cultural and social. All teachers volunteer without remuneration, and together manage and decide all school activities in a democratic manner, with one vote per person.
Van Lang Vietnamese Language Center always tries to:
Maintain a competent and dedicated faculty and staff .
Improve and innovate teaching methods and apply a practical, specific, flexible and adaptable curriculum to suit all levels, ages and student numbers.
Manage budget, teaching materials and textbooks effectively.
Create a suitable environment for children to live in security, discipline and progress.” 5
Still in operation today, the mission statement remains the same: “to prepare the foundation for generations of young people to return to build a free Vietnam in the future.” 6 The emphasis of maintaining strong ethnic ties to the Vietnamese culture offers recently resettled refugees a way to ensure their children do not lose traditions that their families were brought up on, but through education, one that presented a fixed reality to the youth and reinforced notions of unquestionable authority that can find its roots in Confucious ideals, presents an effective means for shaping the collective memory of the new generation. “Learning manners first, then learning knowledge” exemplifies this notion of filial piety, while the emphasis on the school operating through volunteers through a democratic manner, signifies both how committed the community is to repatriation, but also acts a nod to the Western idea of democracy that legitimizes U.S. intervention against the Vietnamese communist regime. Teaching more than just language, the emphasis on cultural traditions and education for the youth, when read with a Foucaldian analysis, could be interpreted as a form of bio-power being enacted within the diasporic community.7 As noted in the mission statement, the emphasis on discipline and progress further reifies the hierarchical relationship between the youth and elders that encourages obedience, which allows for the uncritical consumption of the dominant narrative. Having been in operation since the early arrival of refugees, the Van Lang Vietnamese Language Center also participates in the local San Diego Lunar New Year Festival, a social and cultural event organized by Vietnamese American Youth Alliance. The school itself has its students perform songs that reify a national identity of the South Vietnamese State that shows the complicated layers of cultural reproduction that allows for a preservation of their own identity, while turning it into an entertainment spectacle that displays itself to the American public as refugees deserving of their status, thus offering ease to Americans that were still affected by the loss of the war and the lives of many of their own soldiers.
Similarly to other Vietnamese youth organizations, the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance emphasizes in the mission statement the goals of promoting youth leadership, cultural awareness, social activism, and community development. 8
“At VAYA, we work to promote youth leadership, cultural awareness, social activism, and community development. This is our mission. Everything we do reflects this mission and the values that make it possible.
Our Values
As an organization, and as individuals, we value:
Integrity and honesty.
Openness and respectfulness.
Taking on big challenges and seeing them through.
Constructive self-criticism, self-improvement, and personal excellence.
Accountability to our constituents, partners, and members for commitments, results, and quality.
Passion for youth empowerment, for our friends and supporters, for community development of San Diego, and for a better future of Vietnam.
Our Organizational Goals
Bringing together young professionals and students from different colleges and high schools to build unity and solidarity among Vietnamese American youths in San Diego.
Encouraging and recognizing the growth of leadership and services among Vietnamese American youths Creating and maintaining a network of established Allied Organizations to share common resources, cross-promote local events, and learn from one another.
Empowering Vietnamese American youths in activism and social justice.
Promoting Vietnamese American culture, language, and history.” 9
It is important to consider the intertwined relations between youth groups such as the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance and older Vietnamese American organizations such as Van Lang, especially when their mission statement blends current rhetoric popular with American political activist groups, but carries with them the education, influence, and continuity of the
older refugee generation. By identifying the empowerment of Vietnamese American youths, culture and legacy, there is a distinction and acknowledgement of their position in the diasporic community, that is, despite being of the diaspora, there is an understanding that a generational difference does not only exist, but that heterogeneity of the Vietnamese American experience is not the same as the refugees of old. Common to ethnic Americans in the United States, conflict concerning identity in the Vietnamese American community and one’s place in America as a minority could be read as contradictions that emerge from narratives engrained in the private sphere during their youth, against those that have challenged them in the public sphere. It could be useful to consider a type of border thinking, one that considers the diaspora and their historical subjugation to French colonialism and American imperialism, but one could even take it a step further. When considering the lack of lived experience from 1.5 or second generation Vietnamese Americans compared to the refugee, the fundamental differences could generate tension. In another way, does this offer the Vietnamese American youth a way to inhabit these tensions within themselves to practice a dialectical exercise that could challenge the dominance of the master narrative?
Using the San Diego Lunar New Year Festival that is organized by the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance as a site of analysis provides a useful link between generations, the reinforcement of the hegemonic narrative, but also an opportunity to see how the consistency of these large cultural fairs help to provide space for Vietnamese Americans to claim space in the public eye and generate leverage to advocate for further representations through the creation of permanent structures such as monuments. Using donations and sponsors, the free admittance into the event ensures an accessibility to everyone in the diaspora to celebrate a shared collective identity that is reinforced through cultural dances, national songs of resistance against the communist regime, the promotion of traditional wear, among other displays. 10 As a public event, open to everyone, this becomes a fruitful site of analysis for how it helps to reinforce the perspectives of the diaspora through not only the prominent cultural displays noted above, but by the inclusion of various booths operated by multiple American military branches and the U.S.S. Midway Museum, the festival also serves to validate U.S. involvement. The defunct South Vietnamese flag, as part of a sign system, is flown throughout the festival, while Vietnamese veterans are framed as heroic soldiers. In a way, the shift from helpless refugee to heroic soldier through a gendered analysis, shows a complicated relationship between the historical racialization of Asian and Asian Americans in the United States.
In considering the development of ethnic enclaves, particularly in City Heights, a refugee hub of San Diego that is inhabited by not only a large Vietnamese American population, but refugees of other conflicts, as well as other racialized minorities, Vietnamese Americans have been able to leverage political power through community organizing and public events such as the Lunar New Year Festival. Among these community groups, the Little Saigon of San Diego Foundation presented a resolution to the city that was approved in 2013, which physically demarcated six blocks along El Cajon Boulevard as the Little Saigon Cultural and Business District. 11 Dedicated to revitalizing the community through branding it as a cultural and business district, the Little Saigon Foundation of San Diego took advantage of the growing popularity of Vietnamese cuisine, bolstered by the growing presence and public displays of Vietnamese culture. In addition to facilitating the demarcation of this district, the Little Saigon Foundation also leveraged their political power to demand repairs on infrastructure along the neglected road of El Cajon Boulevard. 12
An analysis of the resolution document unveils a few things, for one, it allowed for Vietnamese Americans that have been sequestered into a dense urban neighborhood to claim a space when over 70% of the businesses are Vietnamese American owned. 13 There is an emphasis on the potential for a growing tourism industry that would allow for these businesses to thrive, but the cost of this could result in the potential homogenization and reinforcement of the imagined Vietnamese American. The designation of Little Saigon itself harkens to a city that has been renamed, but the sign system that it is a part of, is what makes it worth noting. A nostalgic reminder for a diasporic community, as well as a defiant response to its current name, Ho Chi Minh City. In claiming the creation and maintenance of an authentic Little Saigon district, the dominant group within the diaspora is able to speak for all Vietnamese, only now with the backing of the state.
Lastly, a consideration of how this physical sign and boundary is a state sanctioned resolution should also be noted, particularly because of the portion of the resolution that notes how this would contribute in the raising of living standards, as well as a decrease in crime, theft, and violence. 14 This outlook can be seen as a way for the state to resolve conflict generated by inadequate resettlement plans, while disregarding the historical circumstances that resulted in their displacement.
In continuing my analysis of Vietnamese American placemaking, the growing leverage of the community and relationship to the state can be seen by the approval of state funded projects such as the “Greetings from Little Saigon” mural. An artistic representation in collaboration with community members, this project can be seen as a way for the community to continue to distinguish themselves from the helpless refugee, to a thriving one. By collaborating directly with the community, the artist Victor Ving, was able to allow their voices to be a part of this placemaking process. While the consideration of community voices is important, the silencing of the marginalized is also present here. The pervasiveness of the defunct Vietnamese flag in the United States is apparent when the artist claims that the inspiration for the bright yellow background was from the “original flag.” 15 As I trace these sources, the chronological frame of these physical monuments is a testament to the shaping of not only the collective memory of the diaspora, but how it continues to shape public history in the American public outside of the community. As a community organized mural, sanctioned by the state, this collaboration through the arts to generate a monument such as this is emblematic of a holistic effort by both the dominant group within the diaspora and the state to support one another.
In my final source, I will be analyzing how the Little Saigon Foundation of San Diego is currently in the process of developing the Boat People Park, a miniature park located in the middle of the Little Saigon district that serves to honor the experiences of the refugees that arrived with the second wave in the 1980s.
“The garden will include an interactive sculpture of Vietnamese Boat People dedicated to the courage, determination and willpower of the many Vietnamese refugees who never yielded to suppression and to honor those refugees who perished while still holding onto the dream of freedom. This mini park will be the first in an ongoing series of Little Saigon Revitalization Initiatives to redefine and transform public sidewalks and city streets into public gathering areas and reshaping the sidewalk experience.” 16
Using the San Diego Lunar New Year Festival that is organized by the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance as a site of analysis provides a useful link between generations, the reinforcement of the hegemonic narrative, but also an opportunity to see how the consistency of these large cultural fairs help to provide space for Vietnamese Americans to claim space in the public eye and generate leverage to advocate for further representations through the creation of permanent structures such as monuments. Using donations and sponsors, the free admittance into the event ensures an accessibility to everyone in the diaspora to celebrate a shared collective identity that is reinforced through cultural dances, national songs of resistance against the communist regime, the promotion of traditional wear, among other displays. 10 As a public event, open to everyone, this becomes a fruitful site of analysis for how it helps to reinforce the perspectives of the diaspora through not only the prominent cultural displays noted above, but by the inclusion of various booths operated by multiple American military branches and the U.S.S. Midway Museum, the festival also serves to validate U.S. involvement. The defunct South Vietnamese flag, as part of a sign system, is flown throughout the festival, while Vietnamese veterans are framed as heroic soldiers. In a way, the shift from helpless refugee to heroic soldier through a gendered analysis, shows a complicated relationship between the historical racialization of Asian and Asian Americans in the United States.
In considering the development of ethnic enclaves, particularly in City Heights, a refugee hub of San Diego that is inhabited by not only a large Vietnamese American population, but refugees of other conflicts, as well as other racialized minorities, Vietnamese Americans have been able to leverage political power through community organizing and public events such as the Lunar New Year Festival. Among these community groups, the Little Saigon of San Diego Foundation presented a resolution to the city that was approved in 2013, which physically demarcated six blocks along El Cajon Boulevard as the Little Saigon Cultural and Business District. 11 Dedicated to revitalizing the community through branding it as a cultural and business district, the Little Saigon Foundation of San Diego took advantage of the growing popularity of Vietnamese cuisine, bolstered by the growing presence and public displays of Vietnamese culture. In addition to facilitating the demarcation of this district, the Little Saigon Foundation also leveraged their political power to demand repairs on infrastructure along the neglected road of El Cajon Boulevard. 12
An analysis of the resolution document unveils a few things, for one, it allowed for Vietnamese Americans that have been sequestered into a dense urban neighborhood to claim a space when over 70% of the businesses are Vietnamese American owned. 13 There is an emphasis on the potential for a growing tourism industry that would allow for these businesses to thrive, but the cost of this could result in the potential homogenization and reinforcement of the imagined Vietnamese American. The designation of Little Saigon itself harkens to a city that has been renamed, but the sign system that it is a part of, is what makes it worth noting. A nostalgic reminder for a diasporic community, as well as a defiant response to its current name, Ho Chi Minh City. In claiming the creation and maintenance of an authentic Little Saigon district, the dominant group within the diaspora is able to speak for all Vietnamese, only now with the backing of the state.
Lastly, a consideration of how this physical sign and boundary is a state sanctioned resolution should also be noted, particularly because of the portion of the resolution that notes how this would contribute in the raising of living standards, as well as a decrease in crime, theft, and violence. 14 This outlook can be seen as a way for the state to resolve conflict generated by inadequate resettlement plans, while disregarding the historical circumstances that resulted in their displacement.
In continuing my analysis of Vietnamese American placemaking, the growing leverage of the community and relationship to the state can be seen by the approval of state funded projects such as the “Greetings from Little Saigon” mural. An artistic representation in collaboration with community members, this project can be seen as a way for the community to continue to distinguish themselves from the helpless refugee, to a thriving one. By collaborating directly with the community, the artist Victor Ving, was able to allow their voices to be a part of this placemaking process. While the consideration of community voices is important, the silencing of the marginalized is also present here. The pervasiveness of the defunct Vietnamese flag in the United States is apparent when the artist claims that the inspiration for the bright yellow background was from the “original flag.” 15 As I trace these sources, the chronological frame of these physical monuments is a testament to the shaping of not only the collective memory of the diaspora, but how it continues to shape public history in the American public outside of the community. As a community organized mural, sanctioned by the state, this collaboration through the arts to generate a monument such as this is emblematic of a holistic effort by both the dominant group within the diaspora and the state to support one another.
In my final source, I will be analyzing how the Little Saigon Foundation of San Diego is currently in the process of developing the Boat People Park, a miniature park located in the middle of the Little Saigon district that serves to honor the experiences of the refugees that arrived with the second wave in the 1980s.
“The garden will include an interactive sculpture of Vietnamese Boat People dedicated to the courage, determination and willpower of the many Vietnamese refugees who never yielded to suppression and to honor those refugees who perished while still holding onto the dream of freedom. This mini park will be the first in an ongoing series of Little Saigon Revitalization Initiatives to redefine and transform public sidewalks and city streets into public gathering areas and reshaping the sidewalk experience.” 16
An analysis of this source and the implications behind the rhetoric used shows multiple aspects of silencing. For one, while the claim of never yielding to suppression is part of the story of communist persecution in Vietnam, that in combination with dream of freedom, portrays the United States as a land of saviors, which denies the role of American intervention in not only the displacement of the Vietnamese, but the displacement of peoples across various Southeast Asian countries such as Laos and Cambodia. This statement and sentiment serves to silence many different ethnic groups affected by U.S. involvement, but what makes this particular statement interesting, is the manipulation of those who can’t speak. The utilization of the voiceless, the ones who perished, to maintain the dominant narrative is representative of how a community organization such as the Little Saigon of San Diego Foundation, is able to attain a level of hegemony within the community to control the shaping of how the American public in general understands the Vietnam War. The collaboration of the city helps to rectify the tainted image of the state following the war, while once again offering an opportunity for the urban and environmental injustices levied through urban planning to be addressed. As a physical monument, the meaning imbued at this park will continue to shape the collective memory of the community and public history as it concerns the war.
As it can be seen, Vietnamese Americans have been able to pluralize their experiences, but the degrees at which it has been done, particularly through the dominant group, has in some ways, only shifted how the dominant narrative is being maintained. The community organizations, united by the lived experiences of internecine conflict and persecution, have been able to generate political leverage and collaborate with the state to gain representation through a mutually beneficial reinforcement of the dominant narrative at the cost of people that were caught in a struggle to survive. The growing relationship can be seen manifested in the expanding construction of monuments that will serve as permanent reminders of a particular history. While the Boat People Park is still under construction, another monument is in the works. The House of Vietnam is a museum in development that is located in San Diego’s largest park and one of the city’s biggest tourist destinations. Compared to the monuments located in City Heights, a neighborhood that is generally not considered a tourist destination just yet, the reach and influence that could be had by the establishment of a monument at Balboa Park will surely play a significant role in contributing to the dominant narrative.
1. Erika Lee, The Making of Asian America: A History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 327
2. Nguyen, Phuong Tran, Becoming Refugee American : The Politics of Rescue in Little Saigon, 1st ed. Urbana, Chicago, Springfield, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2017, 114.
3. Dang, T. (2005). The Cultural Work of Anticommunism in the San Diego Vietnamese American Community. Amerasia Journal, 31(2), 64-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.17953/amer.31.2.t80283284556j378 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2rz6t6p0
4. Nguyen, Phuong Tran, Becoming Refugee American : The Politics of Rescue in Little Saigon, 1st ed. Urbana, Chicago, Springfield, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2017, 3.
5. Trung Tâm Việt Ngữ Văn Lang San Diego, “Giới Thiệu,” Van Lang Vietnamese Language Center, 2018, https://baopduong.wixsite.com/vanlangsd/gioi-thieu.
6. Trung Tâm Việt Ngữ Văn Lang San Diego, “Giới Thiệu,” Van Lang Vietnamese Language Center, 2018, https://baopduong.wixsite.com/vanlangsd/gioi-thieu.
7. Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume 1: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 144.
8. Vietnamese American Youth Alliance, “About,” Vietnamese American Youth Alliance, accessed May 13, 2025, https://www.vayasd.org/aboutus/.
9. Vietnamese American Youth Alliance, “About,” Vietnamese American Youth Alliance, accessed May 13, 2025, https://www.vayasd.org/aboutus/.
10. San Diego Tết Festival, “Visitor Info,” San Diego Tết Festival 2025, accessed May 13, 2025, https://www.sdtet.com/visitor.
11. San Diego City Council, Resolution No. R-308237, adopted November 5, 2013, https://docs.sandiego.gov/council_reso_ordinance/rao2013/R-308237.pdf.
12. Little Saigon San Diego Foundation, “Boat People Garden,” Little Saigon San Diego, accessed May 13, 2025, https://www.littlesaigonsandiego.org/#:~:text=Boat%20People%20Garden&text=The%20garden%20will%20includ e%20an,Price%20Philanthropies.
13. San Diego City Council, Resolution No. R-308237, adopted November 5, 2013, https://docs.sandiego.gov/council_reso_ordinance/rao2013/R-308237.pdf.
14. San Diego City Council, Resolution No. R-308237, adopted November 5, 2013, https://docs.sandiego.gov/council_reso_ordinance/rao2013/R-308237.pdf.
15. Greetings Tour, “Little Saigon, San Diego,” Greetings Tour, February 13, 2018, https://www.greetingstour.com/murals/little-saigon.
16. Little Saigon San Diego Foundation, “Boat People Garden,” Little Saigon San Diego, accessed May 13, 2025 https://www.littlesaigonsandiego.org/#:~:text=Boat%20People%20Garden&text=The%20garden%20will%20includ e%20an,Price%20Philanthropies.
17. Erika Lee, The Making of Asian America: A History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 326.