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Sample Student final exam answers 2018 (2018 final exam assignment) Part 3: Model Research Reports |
LITR 4340
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Anne Ngo
The Vietnamese Shopping Mall: A
Look inside the Acculturation, Assimilation and Rediscovery of
Vietnamese-Americans
If you want to examine the acculturation and assimilation
of Vietnamese-Americans, take a look at Vietnamese shopping malls in the United
States. For example, in Houston’s Hong Kong City Mall, you may find the first
generation of Vietnamese-Americans shopping at its indoor grocery store,
purchasing herbs, produce, delicacies that remind them of their home country. Or
you find some at the food court, playing cờ tướng, or Chinese Chess, with a
perimeter of spectators who come every weekend to watch a good game. What about
the younger generation? They are seen in the arcade with other second generation
Vietnamese-Americans, battling it out for the top score on Dance Dance
Revolution.
But that was years ago, and Vietnamese Shopping Malls
have decreased in second generation visitors over the years. Has the second
generation lost touch on their Vietnamese roots? Even then, many young visitors
stopped by at these malls years ago, often accompanied with their families to
spend their weekend. Perhaps this is a sign of their assimilation. As a second
generation Vietnamese-American, I often ponder if others lost touch with their
Vietnamese roots. Or perhaps others, like me, reflect the movement from Stage 4
of assimilation to Stage 5 of the “rediscovery or reassertion of ethnic
identity” in the Immigrant Narrative (Objective 2c: Course Home Page). This
movement of the two stages are the focuses of my research, with the Vietnamese
shopping mall providing insight to the acculturation, assimilation, or
rediscovery of the first and second generation. Through my research, I learned
that no matter how assimilated they are, Vietnamese-Americans will always be in
touch with their roots.
Compared to the younger generation,
Vietnamese immigrants may not establish complete assimilation to the new
country. They can adapt to whatever environment they are living in, while
continuing to hold on to their ethnic and cultural identity. In fact, one
characteristic of Vietnamese traditional culture is to “adapt to change,” or
acculturate, in efforts “to remain in harmony with other cultures and ethnic
groups from the host country” (Nguyen 447-448). It is in Vietnamese traditional
culture that supports immigrants’ “change” or adapting to a new country, as they
still hold on to their “Vietnamese cultural and ethnic identity” (Nguyen 448).
For Vietnamese immigrants, they adjust to the host country, but still practice
their traditional customs.
Many second generation Vietnamese-Americans, on the other
hand, may feel American, rather than Vietnamese, highlighting the assimilation
that may take place in the next generation. They may feel that “Vietnam is the
country of their parents,” knowing little about Vietnam (Nguyen 449). Some
second generation Vietnamese-Americans may even “reject the Vietnamese culture,”
as they have “grown up” around their “American peers” (Nguyen 449). These
sentiments reflect the fourth stage of Immigrant Narratives: assimilation to the
dominant culture (Objective 2c: Course Home Page). Despite their assimilation,
some Vietnamese-Americans “regret” their growing departure of their Vietnamese
identity and their lack of knowledge of the language (Nguyen 449). They may
rediscover their Vietnamese culture, moving from Stage 4 of the Immigrant
Narrative to Stage 5 (Objective 2c: Course Home Page). For me, these findings
are not unheard of. I also see these sentiments in my own experience and in the
people I know who are also second generation Vietnamese-Americans. Some have
rediscovered their Vietnamese roots, while others are fully assimilated to the
dominant American culture.
Vietnamese shopping malls, such as the Eden Center in
Washington D.C., offer a look to the Vietnamese’s adaptation to America. The
physical building of the Eden Center showcases the representation of their
adaptation, as it holds shops found in Vietnam, while showcasing “American
features” (Meyers 5). These features suggest acculturation to the dominant
culture, as the English lettering in some store fronts and its location in a
strip mall, “non-existent in Vietnam” (Meyers 69). The older generation sees the
center as a physical representation of the Vietnamese community, different to
the newer generations’ view of it. For the second generation, they understand
the importance of the Eden Center, but do not see the “need for it” (Meyers 60).
Rather, they see the center as the place where their “mom drags them,” not the
physical symbol of the Vietnamese community (Meyers 74). Growing up, I also saw
our local Vietnamese shopping mall as a place where my parents would drag us to
every Saturday. We would spend hours every weekend buying groceries and to-go
foods that we could not find at our local supermarket. I, on the other hand,
wanted to spend my free time playing on my Nintendo DS. However, as I got older,
it is a place I actually want to go
now, suggested by my rediscovery of my roots. Thus, the different attitudes of
the older and newer generations reflect the adaptions and assimilation of both
generations respectively. Implications of these findings suggest that the
younger generations acknowledge the importance of engaging in Vietnamese
culture, but also distance from it. This distance is unintentional, as they are
more familiar and engaged in the American culture.
As seen in the decline of young visitors in Vietnamese
shopping malls, the second generation are seemingly more “Americanized.” The
younger generation, especially those who were raised in a non-Vietnamese
community, are more pressured to conform to the dominant culture due to
“prejudice, stereotyping, social rejection, and out-group-treatment” (Duan & Vu
238). However, these experiences may prompt the second generation
Vietnamese-Americans to “reduce their connection with the mainstream culture”
and to “adhere to their ethnic culture. . . buffer against the cultural
conformity from the dominant culture (Duan & Vu 238). Many second generation
Vietnamese-Americans may try to retain their cultural and ethnic identities,
even if they know little of the language, as a means to stop assimilation (Trieu
49). These findings were initially surprising to me, as I would have thought
many second-generations would completely assimilate. But, I could see these
findings in the people I know and even myself. Not everyone from the second
generation reasserts or rediscovers their roots, but despite the pressures to
conform, they still try to hold on to some part of their heritage.
Understanding the sentiments of the old and new
generations reveal the patterns of adaptations, assimilation, and rediscovery of
the Vietnamese culture. The first generation acculturate or adapt to America,
while the second generation tends to assimilate to the dominant culture.
However, the second generation may keep in touch with their roots, even if they
are “Americanized.” These findings are enlightening to me, as they are also
familiar. Through these findings, I learned that I am not alone in my experience
as a Vietnamese-American.
Looking at the Vietnamese shopping mall now, visitors
from the younger generation have declined. Many have grown up now; their moms
dragging them out to these mall only once in a while. But every Tết, you may
find a mall packed, alive with the new and old generations, celebrating the
Vietnamese New Year together once again.
Works Cited
Chomsky, Aviva. “Assimilation Brings Lower Status for
Minorities.”
Opposing Viewpoints in Context.
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010600204/OVIC?u=down54663&xid=
2caa2814
Duan, Changmin and
Paul Vu. “Acculturation of Vietnamese Students Living On or Away From Vietnamese
Communities.” Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, vol.
28, no. 4, 2000, pp. 225-242.
Galler, Robert W. “Indian Missionaries.”
Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.
http://plains
humanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.asam.022
Meyers, Jessica. “Pho and Apple Pie: Eden Center as a
Representation of Vietnamese American Ethnic Identity in the Washington, D.C.
Metropolitan Area.” Journal of Asian
American Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, 2006, pp. 55-85.
Nguyen, Thị Hien. “Cultural Adaptation, Tradition, and
Identity of Diasporic Vietnamese People A Case Study in Silicon Valley,
California, USA.” Asian Ethnology,
vol. 75, no. 2, 2016, pp. 441-459.
“The Pilgrims.”
History, 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/pilgrims.
Trieu, Monica. “The Role of Premigration Status in the
Acculturation of Chinese–Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans.”
Sociological Inquiry, vol. 83, no. 3,
2013, pp. 392-420.
Zong, Jie and Jeanne Batalova. “Caribbean Immigrants in
the United States.” Migration Information
Source.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/caribbean-immigrants-united-states
