"The Making of Little Saigon intricately weaves the stories of activists, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, and scholars who shaped Little Saigon in Orange County, California, into a cherished haven for Vietnamese refugees. Each narrative, spanning oceanic crossings to forging a new home, resonates with a history of pain, beauty, disunity, solidarity, failure, and resilience, reimagining community building through storytelling in the US"--

A collective memoir of community reimagining, The Making of Little Saigon orchestrates the voices of activists, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, and scholars who have inhabited and nurtured Little Saigon, Orange County, California, into a beloved sanctuary—a sumptuous enclave of Vietnamese refugees and immigrants in the US. This constellation of narratives chronicles collective memories of settlement, nostalgia, (dis)enchantments, and aspirations as the community has evolved over time. From oceanic crossings to forging a new home, every story interweaves and reverberates with a history of pain and beauty, disunity and solidarity, failure, and resilience as the community careens forward into an uncertain future.

Colonialism and war disrupted the lives of millions of Vietnamese people during the 20th century. These are their stories.

Miss Saigon (PVG) presents 12 songs from Boublil & Schonberg’s hit musical, Miss Saigon. Each song has been freshly engraved for piano and voice, with accompanying lyrics, allowing you to relive the beauty and drama of the show. With beautiful and faithful transciptions, alongside full-colour photography, this book is an essential purchase for any fan. Songlist: - The Heat Is On In Saigon - The Movie In My Mind - Why God Why? - Sun And Moon - The Last Night Of The World - I Still Believe - I’d Give My Life For You - Bui-doi - What A Waste - Too Much For One Heart - Maybe - The American Dream

Vietnamese refugees fleeing the fall of South Vietnam faced a paradox. The same guilt-ridden America that only reluctantly accepted them expected, and rewarded, expressions of gratitude for their rescue. Meanwhile, their status as refugees ”as opposed to willing immigrants ”profoundly influenced their cultural identity. Phuong Tran Nguyen examines the phenomenon of refugee nationalism among Vietnamese Americans in Southern California. Here, the residents of Little Saigon keep alive nostalgia for the old regime and, by extension, their claim to a lost statehood. Their refugee nationalism is less a refusal to assimilate than a mode of becoming, in essence, a distinct group of refugee Americans. Nguyen examines the factors that encouraged them to adopt this identity. His analysis also moves beyond the familiar rescue narrative to chart the intimate yet contentious relationship these Vietnamese Americans have with their adopted homeland. Nguyen sets their plight within the context of the Cold War, an era when Americans sought to atone for broken promises but also saw themselves as providing a sanctuary for people everywhere fleeing communism.

Vietnamese Americans have transformed the social, cultural, economic, and political life of Orange County, California. Previously, there were Vietnamese international students, international or war brides, or military personnel living in the United States, but the majority arrived as refugees and immigrants after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Although they are lumped together as "refugees," Vietnamese Americans are diverse in terms of their class, ethnic, regional, religious, linguistic, and ideological backgrounds. Their migration path varied, and they often struggled with resettling in a new homeland and rebuilding their lives. They are dispersed throughout the country, but many are concentrated in central Orange County, where three cities--Westminster, Garden Grove, and Santa Ana--have "Welcome to Little Saigon" signs. They constitute the largest population of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam and have created flourishing residential neighborhoods and bustling commercial centers and contribute to the political and cultural life of the region. This book captures snapshots of Vietnamese life in Orange County over the span of 40 years and shows a dynamic, vibrant community that is revitalizing the region.

This riveting, beautifully produced graphic memoir tells the story of the early years of the Vietnam war as seen through the eyes of a young boy named Marco, the son of a Vietnamese diplomat and his French wife. The book opens in America, where the boy’s father works for the South Vietnam embassy; there the boy is made to feel self-conscious about his otherness thanks to schoolmates who play war games against the so-called “Commies.” The family is called back to Saigon in 1961, where the father becomes Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem’s personal interpreter; as the growing conflict between North and South intensifies, so does turmoil within Marco’s family, as his mother struggles to grapple with bipolar disorder. Visually powerful and emotionally potent, Such a Lovely Little War is both a large-scale and intimate study of the Vietnam war as seen through the eyes of the Vietnamese: a turbulent national history interwined with an equally traumatic familial one. Marcelino Truong is an illustrator, painter, and author. Born the son of a Vietnamese diplomat in 1957 in the Philippines, he and his family moved to America (where his father worked for the embassy) and then to Vietnam at the outset of the war. He earned degrees in law at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and English literature at the Sorbonne. He lives in Paris, France.

Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.