Harmonious culture in Little Saigon

These days, many migrants gather together and make their own small place to hold their cultures. Because their cultures are more a blend of multiple cultures rather than a traditional, they are different each other. However, even though a mixed culture seems like a unique non-traditional, it is as same as one strong culture. In the story, Culture is Ordinary, Raymond William says, “every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. Every human society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning” (93). I have visited Little Saigon, Westminster where was a little town for Vietnamese immigrants. This little society has built unexpected strong identities by creating many Vietnamese business stores and other cultural materials. Little Saigon people have built and shaped their own strong mixed cultures and identities by accepting new observation and learning of American and other Asian different cultures.

In the personal relationship, Vietnamese American people in Little Saigon show that they are divided into first generation, second generation, and 1.5 generation. When I went into the Vietnamese pho restaurant, the waitresses are all old Vietnamese. They didn’t welcome us because they have bad English skills and didn’t want to communicate with us. They only said “hi” to me and tried to talk with facial expression and body language. I realized that they are first generation that came from Vietnam in old age so they don’t know enough English. Not only in the restaurant, but also in the Asian Garden Mall and other business stores where I went to had most of the first generation workers. I had very difficult time to have a communication with the workers, so I felt unwelcomed or uncomfortable situat...

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...at the same time. Because they attempt to have both identities, Little Saigon also has both American and Vietnamese cultures that reconciled with each other.

Vietnamese American people in Little Saigon manifest their unique identities in many ways such as personal relationships, cultural artifacts and material experiences. Little Saigon shows who they really are and what they have. They are influenced by American and other Asian cultures, and make Little Saigon a blended community, which tries to maintain their own native history and cultures at the same time. I think Little Saigon is like “little America” because the United States has the myth of the melting pot that many different cultures melt together into a harmonious one big culture. The Little Saigon itself has harmonious cultures that reflect Vietnamese American’s various identities and diverse community.