My Personal Exhibit
I am the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in America after 1975. My parents grew up in a traditional, conservative family that values education, culture, and respect. They value those aspects, and hope to teach them to us as my sisters and I began to grow up.
In this special, personal exhibit, I will take you on a journey of how my parents grew up in Vietnam during the tough times of the Vietnam War, and how I began to grow up and began to explore my heritage as an American-born Vietnamese.
Vietnam (Việt Nam) is located in Southeast Asia, bordering next to Cambodia, Laos, and China. Many people knew Vietnam from the war from 1954 to 1975, but as many people began to move on from the tragic event, people started to see Vietnam as a beautiful country with incredible food, people, and environment. As I am exploring the country, with a new cultural environment miles away from home, as well as new friendships created on the way, I hope to get a better understanding of the country and culture, and explore more of my family history and connections.
In every Vietnamese family, we name our relatives based on how the families refer to them. For example on my dad's side, I call my grandparents Ông Nội (grandpa) and Bà Nội (grandma). On my mom's side, I call my grandparents Ông Ngoại (grandpa) and Bà Ngoại (grandma).
Every family comes from different parts of Vietnam, and they refer relatives based on the region they were from. My dad's side is from the historic city of Huế, and I call my relatives either O (aunt) or Bác (uncle). My relatives' names were based on nicknames they call each other when they were young. Meanwhile on my mom's side, I call my relatives either Dì (aunt) or Cậu (uncle). My mom's side is from the southern part of Vietnam (Bến Tre) where they would refer each other based on the numerical hierarchy system. For example, my cousins call my mom Dì Tám (Aunt #8) because she was the "8th" child born in the family.
Since my parents came from the central and southern parts of Vietnam, I call my parents Ba (dad) and Mẹ (mom). Other families call their parents in other Vietnamese words, depending which region they're from.
Timeline in Historical Context
July 21, 1954 - The Geneva Conference took place; Vietnam was divided by the 17th parallel, forming North (also known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (also known as the Republic of Vietnam)
1954-1955 - The Great Migration of people fleeing from North Vietnam to South Vietnam
October 26, 1955 - Ngô Đình Diệm became the first president of South Vietnam
May 6, 1959 - President Diệm issued his 10/59 Edict, cracking down anyone associated with the Communist movement
January 17, 1960 - The Đồng Khởi Movement began in Bến Tre, sparking the beginning of the Vietnam War
December 20, 1960 - The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, also known as the Việt Cộng (VC), was formed
May 8-November 2, 1963 - The Buddhist Uprising began after buddhists protested against President Diệm's policies
January 30, 1968 - A surprise attack was made by the VC and the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), marking the beginning of the Tết Offensive
January 31-March 2, 1968 - The VC and the PAVN attacked Huế; a massacre happed in the city
January 31-February 5, 1968 - The VC and the PAVN attacked Bến Tre
March 29, 1973 - US troops were evacuated from South Vietnam by the order of President Richard Nixon
April 30, 1975 - The VC took control of the city of Saigon, marking the end of the Vietnam War
1975-1995 - Vietnamese civilians escaped the country to seek freedom and opportunity
My dad grew up in a big family in the ancient town of Bao Vinh, located on the northeast corner behind the Imperial Palace of Huế. He received excellent education at the Quốc Học - Huế High School for the Gifted, the same school where Communist leader Hồ Chí Minh attended. He later attended the Huế University of Education, and graduated in 1979. He was transferred to Kon Tum where he taught high school students. It wasn't until one year later he made a bold decision to leave the country by going on an unstable boat where many Vietnamese refugees made the ultimate sacrifice to seek freedom and opportunity. My dad and my uncle were the only two family members to leave Vietnam.
After spending one year in Japan at a refugee camp, my dad was finally given the opportunity to come to the United States to help him establish his new life as an American citizen. While settling in a small town in Ambler with an American family, my dad found work as a dishwasher in order to pay for his schools. He attended 4 universities to pursue his career as an electrical engineer. He retired as a senior research engineer at the Naval Air Engineering Station (now the Lakehurst Maxfield Field). He was a part-time professor at the Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA.
During a family gathering in 1986, my dad met my mom with a formal introduction from my uncle. With many love letters and dates, they got married one year later.
My mom grew up outside the city of Bến Tre in the Phú Nhuận district. Growing up was not easy for my mom ever since she lost her mother at a young age. Despite the hardships she faced in her family and around her community, she overcame them and worked hard to survive the conditions she was living in, even during the time of the Vietnam War.
My mom and her siblings attended the same school at Bến Tre High School. After receiving proper education, she went on to become a teacher at a primary school in her hometown. 10 years after 1975, her older brother and sister sponsored her family to come to the United States. But before officially coming to America, she had to spend months at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC).
My mom and her siblings stayed at their brother's home in North Philadelphia where my mom attended the Community College of Philadelphia. After having me and my sisters, my mom found part-time work to help raise her family. Then she found motivation to go back to school. She went to beauty school and earned an Associate degree at the Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA (This was around the time I was born). After college, she went to the Gordon Phillips Beauty School in East Norriton. For 20 years, she was a hairstylist at JCPenney in Montgomeryville, PA. She retired in 2020.
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Growing Up in a Vietnamese Family
Behind the Name
When my sisters and I were born, we were given the same middle name Hoàng (gold) to signify that we are sisters. Each of our names has a different meaning behind it. Our parents chose those names because they were considered beautiful and unique. By combining our middle and first names, it creates a special meaning:
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Lan = orchid
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Kim = alloy
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Yến = canary
As for my name, no one can pronounce it with the Vietnamese accents. Instead of receiving an American name, I would have people call my name just how it looks on my birth certificate: Yen. The main reason my parents didn't give me an American name was because they want us to be reminded of our cultural heritage as Vietnamese.
While growing up, my parents were taught to go to school and learn to be respectful to adults (parents, teachers, older siblings). There's a saying on the wall of my living room that says in Vietnamese, "Tiên Học Lễ, Hậu Học Văn." In English, it simply means, "First Learn Ritual, Second Learn Literature." In other words, it's important to learn about proper etiquette when talking and interacting with friends, teachers, and family members before doing real learning in school.
On my fireplace are the three Sanxing Deity statues (Phước Lộc Thọ) that represent the three attributes of a good life in the family: prosperity, status and longevity.
These values were passed down from our parents to help us become successful in our futures. Upholding traditions has been a priority in my family to remind us where we come from.
Confucius Values
Death Anniversaries
Traditionally in Vietnamese culture, we celebrate death anniversaries (Đám giỗ) of ancestors who passed away on a specific day. Every year, the oldest member of the family would be the one to host the event and invite family members (depending which side of the family) to come together and pay respect to the person who passed.
In every Vietnamese household, there are altars of loved ones placed in the living room. When paying respect, we use Chinese incense to pray and place them in the burners in front of the altars. Altars are very common around Vietnamese households in the living rooms.
Traditionally, it's the time of year when schools, offices and shops are closed so the people in Vietnam can go back to their hometowns to spend time with their family members and loved ones. For the younger children, they are given lucky money (lì xì) for good luck.
In America, my family and I celebrate Lunar New Year (Tết) by attending an event at Chùa Giác Lâm in Lansdowne, PA; eating out in Chinatown or in the Vietnamese community (Little Saigon) in South Philadelphia; hanging out at a relative's house. My parents made sure we have the Yellow Apricot Flower (hoa mai) displayed in our home. This flower is the symbol of Lunar New Year in Vietnam.
Lunar New Year
Going to Vietnamese Classes
Growing up, my sisters and I speak mostly speak English to our parents at home. This became a concern for my parents that made them decide it's important for all three of us to have someone teach Vietnamese to us. Over the weekends, we would go to the teacher's house (a family friend) and learn Vietnamese from a textbook given to us by the teacher.
Out of the three of us, I was the one who didn't take Vietnamese seriously. That was when my parents decided to take me to someone else who could help me learn Vietnamese. I learned Vietnamese every Sunday morning at St. Maria Goretti Roman Catholic Church in Hatfield, PA. I was 15 years old at the time, and that was the last time I took Vietnamese classes.
Discovering My Cultural Identity
Long time ago when I was a kid, my family and I travelled to Vietnam every summer to visit relatives and places around the country. During those times, our parents gave us opportunities to engage and interact with the culture and environment in Vietnam. Since 2007, we stopped our annual visits to Vietnam as my sisters and I began to grow up and focused more on our educations.
When I was a student at the Wissahickon School District, I began to question about my cultural identity: I questioned my own name, and why people were calling my name differently from how my family called me. I was very American as I was being influenced by the people I talked to and interacted with in school. It wasn't until I began to acknowledge my cultural heritage and accept my identity as an American-born Vietnamese. During my senior year, I wore my grandmother's (Bà Nội) necklace on picture day to represent my family and cultural heritage.
Click on the circle images to view the projects!
During my college experience at Temple University, I was given many opportunities to explore the environment around me, and even myself as I was figuring out what I want to do in my future. It was the Architectural History classes where we have to choose any historic building around the world, and write a 3500-word essay on it. I decided to step outside my comfort zone and research the historic structures in Vietnam that had little information on things I needed to write about. No matter how well I did on those essays, it was worth the research since I truly learned more about Vietnam and its history.
In the summer of 2019, I interned at the State Historic Preservation office, part of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, where my task was to research and record findings on African American churches and cemeteries. It wasn't until my supervisor at the time decided to give me an opportunity to research and explore the Vietnamese history of Pennsylvania. It was my chance to represent my hometown and the Vietnamese communities in Pennsylvania, and even the Vietnamese communities in the US. You can read my findings by clicking on the PHMC icon on the right.
