UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center has published a book written by a new generation of Vietnamese and American scholars who examine the lives of Vietnamese-Americans and their complex connections to Vietnam.

In “Vietnamese Americans: Diaspora & Dimensions,� writers take different approaches to looking at the Vietnamese American experience. Essays focus on education, economics, ethnic studies, history, literature, political science, public health, religion and sociology. The book is a special 280-page issue of the center’s Amerasia Journal.

“Vietnam is marked by 1,000 years of invasion by the Chinese, followed by 300 years of French colonialism, Japanese occupation during World War II, attempts at French recolonization, and a decade of direct U.S. intervention,� said Linda Vo, the book’s editor and an assistant professor of Asian American Studies at UC Irvine. “In the post-war years, Vietnam has been shaped by countries with socialist regimes.�

Writers, activists and artists within this special Amerasia issue address such issues as women’s health, gender relations, marriage and culture. Articles go beyond the “survival and silence� of the Vietnam war years and ask important questions about changes within the Vietnamese communities in the United States.

“Although the majority of our population is first generation, we can now speak about 1.5, second, and even a third generation of Vietnamese Americans,� Vo said.

Each generation of Vietnamese is forging new diasporic, transnational connections between the U.S. and Vietnam. The concept “diasporic� as it applies to Vietnamese outside Vietnam includes many of the following features: territorial/political connections; economic and trade relationships; remittances; immigrant and labor migrations; and cultural and ethnic identification with a homeland.

For example, in her essay, Tran Ngoc Angie, associate professor with California State University, Monterey Bay, explores the linkages between Vietnamese workers in the U.S. electronic industry and Vietnamese workers in the garment industry in Vietnam. Her study compares labor conditions in factories and homes of male and female workers. While some
immigrants experience mobility, others experience similar forms of exploitation both within Vietnam and in the United States.

Other articles explore transnational linkages in the Vietnamese music industry, in literature and in politics. In the literary section, chaplain, artist, and poet Phuc Luu writes about his pilgrimage — from the time his family left Saigon in 1974 to their arrival in Morgantown, W.Va., to his current life in Houston, Texas. His journey remains a constant struggle to transcend the cultural trappings imposed by others, and to seek new voices in the spiritual wilderness of America.

For order inquiries, or review copies for media or classroom use, e-mail
thaocha@ucla.edu or call (310) 825-2968.