Claudine Phillips
November 22, 2003 

Vietnamese-American Immigrant Narrative Journal

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. The Immigrant Experience and Related Literature

A.     Diaspora from Vietnam

• Immigrant Narrative Stage 1: Leave the Old World
• Immigrant Narrative Stage 2: Journey to the New World
• Literary Objective 2b: Settings (journey to America)
• Literary Objective 2c: Character by generation (first: heroic)

B.     United States Experience

• Immigrant Narrative Stage 3: Shock, Resistance, exploitation, discrimination
• Literary Objective 2b: Settings (America) (ethnic enclave)
• Literary Objective 2c: Character by generation (first: heroic, second: divided)
• Cultural Objective 1c: Migration from East to West
• Cultural Objective 2: Family, generations, gender, community, religion

C.    Assimilation

• Immigrant Narrative Stage 4: Assimilation into the dominant culture/loss of ethnic identity
• Literary Objective 2b: Settings (mainstream)
• Literary Objective 2c: Character by generation (second: divided)

D.    Returning to Vietnam

• Immigrant Narrative Stage 5:  Rediscovery or reassertion of ethnic identity
• Literary Objective 2b: Settings (return to Vietnam)

3. Interview

4. Website Review

5. Conclusion

6. Works Cited

Introduction

In choosing to focus on the immigration experience of Vietnamese-Americans, I expected to discover how cultural aspects of the Vietnamese value system affect Vietnamese-American assimilation into the dominant culture.  While I did find evidence of this occurring, more interestingly I found that Vietnamese-Americans strive for balance between the old lands of Vietnam and the new lands of the United States.  Vietnam is both a place of the past and the present to the Vietnamese-American immigrant, and the connection to their homeland directly affects their assimilation into life in the United States. 

The Vietnam War is deeply embedded in the history of both the United States and Vietnam.  The conflict that killed fifty-eight thousand Americans also killed three million Vietnamese (Mason). Many current Vietnamese-American writers either lived in Vietnam during the Vietnam War or came to the United States as a result of it, explaining why this conflict plays such a prominent role in most of the literature I examine (Nguyen 102). 

Although Vietnam has a long history of occupation and resistance, the main diaspora related to the Vietnam War occurred within the last thirty-five years. Because it is so recent, the impact America has had on the Vietnamese-American family structure remains to be seen. Vietnamese ideals of gender, family structure, and religious beliefs are tested in the United States, but relatively little evidence of complete assimilation is shown.  The pattern of Vietnamese immigration in the United States does follow the pattern of the immigrant narrative, so it is likely that assimilation will occur over time with successive generations. 

Many common themes exist in Vietnamese-American literature related to the immigration experience.  The fiction and poetry of Vietnamese-Americans is primarily influenced by typical cultural experience passed down from generations of family who lived in Vietnam (Nguyen 101). However, unlike many other immigrant cultures that leave the Old World behind in search of the American dream, Vietnamese-Americans are still tied precariously to their homeland, frequently drawn back to it, both mentally and physically.

The Immigrant Experience

A.     Diaspora from Vietnam

Diaspora is defined by the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia as the dispersion of a people from their original homeland. The primary diaspora related to Vietnamese-American immigration occurred when Southeast Asian refugees began arriving in the United States from Vietnam in 1975, as part of a humanitarian mission at the conclusion of the Vietnam War.  Saigon, renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the communist regime took over in 1975, was the capital of South Vietnam (Mason).  During that time, approximately 130,000 Vietnamese refugees were flown from areas like Saigon to the United States through the aid of the U.S. military and placed at resettlement centers located around the country (Cao 208).

In Monkey Bridge, the journey Mai and her mother take to the United States begins, “... at their place of rendezvous on the 30^th of April, 1975, and the pre-approved car that was supposed to take both of them, along with a few other Vietnamese, to an American plane” (4).  Le Ly Haslip’s immigration to the United States also began in a similar fashion, as “On May 27, 1970, my sons and I stood in line to board the big American jetliner to Honolulu” (355).

This first group of refugees included mainly well-educated adults who fled Vietnam to escape the new communist regime. With a Christian population representing only 10% of the population of Vietnam, it is interesting to note that approximately 50% of the first wave of refugees claimed to be Christian, specifically Catholic (Cao 208). I found this trend to be reflected in the literature I examined as well. In her poem Rosary, Barbara Tran recounts her mother’s arrival,  “When she got off the plane, rosary wound around her left hand” (48). The narrator’s mother in Monkey Bridge, “...became Catholic in a French boarding school” (59). 

Political strife in Vietnam led to a second wave of refugees entering the United States several years later, without the aid of the United States military.  These refugees left Vietnam by any means available and frequently did not survive long enough to experience freedom.  Many Vietnamese citizens took passage by water, traveling on poorly constructed boats to nearby island countries, leading to the term boat people (Cao 210). Although this is the common image associated with Vietnamese refugees, I found very little literature related to this experience as the starting point for life in the United States.  Those refugees who survived the trip often stayed on the island the reached. If they continued traveling, usually it was to Europe instead of the United States. The United Nations has since worked with various world governments to implemented policies allowing safer passage from Vietnam, especially to those refugees seeking a new life in the United States (Le).

The second wave of refugees came to the United States with new stories of the horrible conditions in Vietnam from the war, and this influenced the writing of those Vietnamese-Americans who had escaped earlier (Nguyen 35).  The sadness they felt due to their separation from Vietnam was now mixed with the inability to see life in Vietnam ever returning to what it was before they left.  Instead of writing about Vietnam to preserve their own memories, Vietnamese-Americans wrote about Vietnam in order to document what it had been like before the turmoil (Nguyen 35).

B.    United States Experience

Even though the journey of these boat people seems particularly difficult, the psychological difficultly experienced by most Vietnamese refugees was the same regardless of the route they traveled.  Because of the traditional customs and beliefs that exist in Vietnam, anyone leaving the country also left behind relatives, ancestors, and language-everything significant in Vietnamese culture (Le). 

Le Ly Hayslip reflects on this experience when she remembers her last experience in Vietnam with a Saigon airport official.  “The official did not ask for passports or visas or certificates of any kind.  He asked only a single question—the last phrase I would hear in my native tongue on the soil which held my father’s bones” (355). What he asked or said is irrelevant.  It is the idea that the most significant part of the journey is not where she is going but leaving behind what she knows to be sacred.

When examining the immigration from Vietnam to the United States it is also useful to look at the patterns of migration Vietnamese-Americans took once they were settled here. Although many refugees were placed around the United States according to military camps and sponsoring families, Vietnamese immigrants frequently traveled south to warmer climates that more closely resembled their tropical homeland (Le).     

Houston, Texas is home to the second largest group of Vietnamese-Americans in the United States (Le). The largest concentration of Vietnamese-Americans in the United States is currently in Orange County, California, where almost 40% of all Vietnamese-Americans reside.  This large Vietnamese-American population in Orange County is responsible for the creation of an ethnic enclave known as Little Saigon, a community where Vietnamese culture remains strong and relatively untouched by the current American ways (Cao 215). 

Little Saigon plays a prominent role in Monkey Bridge, serving not only as a link to the culture of the Vietnam, but also serving to contrast the assimilation of Mai, the second generation Vietnamese-American and her mother. While ethnic enclaves allow the first generation immigrants to resist assimilation into the new culture, they do little to stop the subsequent assimilation of later generations.

Vietnamese religious practices differ dramatically from those of the typical American. It is common to combine traditional Vietnamese religions such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, or Cao Dai with either Catholicism or Protestant beliefs and follow both religions (Cao 222).   This practice isolates Vietnamese-Americans from the more traditional religious organizations, which cannot understand or accept this system of worship (Le).  

Traditional Vietnamese families rely on Confucian principals, specifically in regards to patriarchal power, ancestor cults, and gender roles. The welfare of the family as a group takes precedent over the individual (Le).  This family unit includes extended family, in-laws, as well as the departed family members who are thought to remain close to the family, even after passing over to the next world.

In the poem M.I.A., this link with ancestors is explored, as the narrator speaks to a family ghost saying, “Don’t bother to/go to Cho Lon,/ I am not there/among Mangos/I once peddled/ I am here now:/ America” (Tran 144). The tradition of ancestor worship continues, despite the fact that the narrator is no longer physically in Vietnam.  She burns incense, waiting for the spirit to “find me, love/breaking, broken into ashes/The green seas stretch/but they’re not end-/less” (144). This poem nicely balances the feelings of loss the narrator feels, never saying one loss is more intense then the other. Death of a loved one is equal to separation from Vietnam.  

C.    Assimilation

While assimilation is not unheard of, more often than not the literature of Vietnamese-Americans shows a resistance to rather than assimilation into American culture. This is especially true for first generation Vietnamese-Americans, who hold on to their memories of Vietnam rather than completely joining the ways of their new homeland. 

In the short story The White Horse, the narrator introduces us to a recent Vietnamese immigrant who does not fit into American society.  Mr. Nguyen doesn’t file income taxes on time, refuses to keep track of his checkbook, and has over forty parking tickets in the last three years, the total time he has been in the United States.  In answer to why he is “such a mess” it is revealed that, “for a Vietnamese cast far from his family, his friends, and his homeland, mired in endless worries, remembrance, and sorrow…a mind churning with events, questions, introspections…in final analysis, this is nothing extraordinary” (Tran 77). The fact he is separated from Vietnam justifies any deviant behaviors Mr. Nguyen exhibits, applicable to any Vietnamese immigrant adjusting to a new life in another country.

In Monkey Bridge, Mai and her mother mirror the common conflict issues that arise based on Vietnamese-American immigrant’s generational differences.  Mai “believes she has to go away to learn…that it’s the American way.” But her mother says that she “…feels sorry for this child of mine, so lost between two worlds that she can’t find her way back” (53). In attempting to separate from something she does not understand, Mai turns instead to the ways of the United States.

In the short story Night Shelter, Ben, a first generation Vietnamese-American has been in the United States for eleven years, having arrived as a teenager. Yet, he is unable to fully assimilate, despite marrying an American and living in the suburbs.  His wife comments that Ben hates to go anywhere, “Except at night. You’re lying next to me, and you’re gone halfway across the world” (Tran 155). 

In discussing his plans for the day, Ben’s wife tells him to remember to take the cat to the vet.  When he responds, it isn’t the cat he is talking about.  “I turn the key and give the engine some gas…I say, see you and then I say, Bonzo [the cat]…I won’t forget Bonzo…I’m not forgetting, I say to myself and slam the door shut” (159).  Even though he is content in his new life, Ben cannot sever his experience in Vietnam from his daily life.

Vietnamese culture relies on non-verbal communication and this frequently hinders the first generation’s assimilation into a culture that does not match up with what they are familiar with.  Below is a chart highlighting some of the common Vietnamese non-verbal communications and their meanings. Many non-verbal patterns have different meanings in the United States (Nguyen, Tony).  

Chart Source: www.vietspring.org

D.    Returning to Vietnam

There is a common trend for Vietnamese who fled their homeland to return, classified by the Vietnamese as Viet Kieu, meaning the overseas Vietnamese. There are various reasons why Vietnamese-Americans return to Vietnam, but often it is in hopes of finding closure of some sort.  Because of less restrictive travel policies, families that were once split by political or economic issues now have the opportunity to reunite.  In Vietnamese-American literature the idea of returning to Vietnam is usually ambiguous, allowing the reader to piece together clues to find the motivation behind the return.

In the poem Sounding Sadec by Mong Lan, the narrator returns to Vietnam searching for answers about her mother. The narrator assumed it was Vietnam that shaped her relationship with her mother, but describes picturesque scenes she encounters and wonders how “all this (could be) a precursor to your drunken stupor in later life” (Tran 35). 

Interview

            I conducted an interview with Phillip Mai, a 15-year old Vietnamese-American student in my 9^th grade English class.  The following is a summary of the information I collected during our conversation. 

• Tell me about how your parents came to live in the United States.

            My mother and father were working in Vietnam but not making any money.  My father was one of 10 children and needed to work to help support the family.  He left Vietnam with my mother and moved to Taiwan to work and save money for passage to the United States.  After working for a short time, my mother and father traveled to the United States in 1972, along with several other family members and friends. 

When they got here they were given a list of places to pick where they would be settled.  My parents went to Houston.  My aunt went to California, but later moved to Houston because she ran out of money.  Other friends went to different places around the United States.

·        Why did your family decide to leave Vietnam? 

The family in Vietnam was very poor and needed money.  My mother sold fruit door to door and my father worked as a fisherman.  My parents sent money home to Vietnam when they worked in Taiwan, but wanted to come to the United States for better opportunity.  The war was going on in Vietnam and it was dangerous to stay. My grandparents did not want them to leave.

• Tell me about the experience your family had arriving in the United States.

My parents had little money when they got here.  They worked at an Italian restaurant and although neither knew English, they learned some as they worked.  My father moved up in the restaurant, eventually become a manager, but also worked as a fisherman to make extra money. My mother stayed at home to raise us.  Not speaking the language was one of the biggest challenges they faced.

·        Have any of your relatives returned to Vietnam?

Yes, my family has visited Vietnam three times since coming to the United States.  I also went to Vietnam when I was thirteen. 

·        What did you think of Vietnam? 

Vietnamese people were everywhere, which was kind of strange.  Not like here. Everyone was working. Everywhere.  That is all they do.  The people I met were very interested in me, since I was from the United States.  Everyone was very polite.  My family is from an island in South Vietnam and it was mostly a poor area.  It was boring mostly, since no one had television or electronics.  The kids my age play soccer.  My uncle had a Sony PlayStation, but it only worked some of the time.  The school was really small and everyone went home at lunchtime.  Then they worked.  My father only had a fourth grade education when he left Vietnam.  Education is important in Vietnam but not always easy. 

·        How is your life influenced by your Vietnamese culture?

My parents think education is important. They also say that I am spoiled. They want me to be a doctor, but I am not sure what I want to do.  They have a girl picked out for me to marry in Vietnam, but I am not sure about this.  I have talked to her, but I have a hard time understanding her because of the language difference.  My family eats mainly Vietnamese food, but also some American foods.  My parents make me go to a Buddhist temple to learn Vietnamese every week, which I like.  We are not allowed to eat meat at the temple, so we eat lots of tofu and vegetables.  My parents are not vegetarians, so at home we do eat meat.  The most important holiday we celebrate is Vietnamese New Year.

Website Review

Asian Nation: www.asian-nation.org

            I located this website while I was researching my topic and found it had useful information for every issue I raised regarding Asian American immigration.  When I performed an Internet keyword search for anything related to my topic, the Asian-Nation website always came back recommended in the top responses.  Almost all of the other websites I looked at also contained a link back to this site, either as a recommendation or as a place to read more about a topic.

            The introductory page of Asian-Nation compares the website to an “online version of Asian Americans 101” and I agree.  Further down the page is a bulleted purpose statement, with the first goal being to “Educate those who would like to know more about the Asian American community”. The site founder, Cuong Nguyen Le, is Vietnamese-American and currently an assistant sociology professor at University of Maryland. 

I discovered as I collected research for this journal that it is difficult to find specific information and literature related to Vietnamese-Americans.  Common practice is to include Vietnamese information under the category of Southeast Asian, which encompasses not only Vietnam, but also Cambodia and Laos.  Not so with this site, probably because of the Vietnamese background of Cuong Nguyen Le.  Although the website gives information on all types of Asian topics, it was easy to find details on Vietnam, thanks to a complete Vietnam section covering a much broader scope of experience than what I am looking at in this journal.

One thing I particularly liked about this site is the documentation of all sources clearly listed to the left of any article.  It allows for further development of the topic or research and the citation is linked to an online bookstore to cut down on searching.  I also think it is easy to find information on the site, without having to do a keyword search.  The topics are broken down into manageable portions and it never becomes too academic. 

Because the website is created and maintained by a sociology professor, the issues that come up are organized by topic, from general to specific, and include definitions to clarify the academic terminology used. This is the perfect site for learning about Asian history as well as the issues that Asian Americans face in the United States.           

Conclusion

I found this subject to be interesting, especially the fact that so many Vietnamese-American immigrants started their journey with the assistance of United States government.  While I had very little previous exposure to Vietnamese culture or literature, I have developed a new understanding and appreciation for both. 

I was surprised how closely the Vietnamese-American immigration patterns followed the standard immigrant narrative, which only adds credibility to the immigrant narrative itself, since it is applicable regardless of the circumstances surrounding the immigration.  I found the first set of refugees seem to be best assimilated, having been educated in Vietnam and probably exposed to more of Western culture than the subsequent groups that came afterwards.  The interview I conducted with Phillip was the final part of my journal research and I was delighted to see how closely his account of his family’s immigration from Vietnam to the United States mirrored my findings.

The literature of Vietnamese-Americans also seems to be grounded in the immigrant narrative, so closely following the immigrant narrative that I have to consider the narrative issues as a primary force in shaping Vietnamese-American culture today. The majority of characters in the stories and poems I examined were woman, effortlessly representing the heroic first generation as they abandoned language, family, and homeland for freedom, which was not what I expected.  In the future, I would consider researching gender issues as they relate to Vietnamese-American culture, specifically whether the roles of women have remained true to traditional Vietnamese culture or have changed due to the influence of American ideas.

I still have many questions in regards to the Vietnamese-American immigration story.  I wonder if the second and third generation of Vietnamese-Americans will resist the ways of the old culture in order to be considered American.  If so, will they eventually desire a deeper connection to their ethnic identity, but lack the means to rekindle it?  Can there be a middle ground or will these new Americans live in limbo, neither accepted as American or as Asian? Whatever the answer, it is certain to affect the future writings of Vietnamese-Americans.   

Works Cited

Cao, Lan, Himilce Novas. Everything You Need To Know About Asian American History.  New York:  Penguin.  1996.

Cao, Lan.  Monkey Bridge.  New York:  Penguin. 1997.

Hayslip, Le Ly.  When Heaven and Earth Changed Places.  New York:  Doubleday.   1990.

Le, C.N.  2003. Asian-Nation. <http://www.asian-nation.org> (November 16, 2003).

Mai, Phillip. Personal Interview. 21 Nov. 2003.

Mason, Margie. "U.S Navy Returns To Vietnam." Houston Chronicle. 21 Nov. 2003: 24A.

Nguyen, Ba Chung. “Coming Full Circle: A Conversation with Nguyen Duy.” Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing” 14 (1) 2002: 100-104. MLA International Bibliography. Neumann Library, Houston, Texas. Nov. 08, 2003.

Nguyen, Ba Chung. “The Long Road Home: Exile, Self-Recognition, and Reconstruction.” Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing” 14 (1) 2002: 34-44. MLA International Bibliography. Neumann Library, Houston, Texas. Nov. 11, 2003.

Nguyen, Tony. “Journey Into the Vietnamese Culture.” < http://www.vietspring.org/> (Nov. 8, 2003).

Tran, Barbara, Monique T.D. Truong, and Luu Truong Khoi.  Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose.  New York:  The Asian American Writers’ Workshop. 1998.

"Vietnam." Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2001. <http://ea.grolier.com> (Nov. 8, 2003).