Table Of ContentTHE AMERICAN DREAM IN VIETNAMESE
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THE AMERICAN DREAM
IN VIETNAMESE
Nhi T. Lieu
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
The publication of this book has been aided by a College of Liberal Arts subvention grant
awarded by the University of Texas at Austin.
An earlier version of chapter 3 was published as “Remembering ‘The Nation’ through
Pageantry: Femininity and the Politics of Vietnamese Womanhood in the H oa Hau Ao Dai
Contest,” F rontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 21, no. 1 (2000): 127–51; reprinted with
permission of the University of Nebraska Press; copyright 2000 by Frontiers Editorial
Collective. An earlier version of chapter 4 appeared as “Performing Culture in Diaspora:
Assimilation and Hybridity in P aris by Night Videos and Vietnamese American Niche
Media,” in A lien Encounters: Popular Culture in Asian America , eds. Mimi Thi Nguyen and
Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu, 194–220 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press); copyright 2007
by Duke University Press; all rights reserved; reprinted with permission.
Copyright 2011 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lieu, Nhi T.
The American Dream in Vietnamese / Nhi T. Lieu.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-6569-3 (hc : acid-free paper) – ISBN 978-0-8166-6570-9 (pb: acid-free
paper)
1. Vietnamese Americans–Ethnic identity. 2. Vietnamese Americans–Cultural
assimilation. 3. Popular culture–United States. 4. Popular culture–Vietnam. I. Title.
E184.V53L54 2011
305.895922’073–dc22
2010032641
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my family, the nucleus of my support system: my
lifelong partner, Toan Leung; my parents, Mo Lieu and Nhung Truong;
and my children, Sophie and Ethan.
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Contents
INTRODUCTION: Private Desires on
Public Display ix
1. Assimilation and Ambivalence: Legacies of
U.S. Military Intervention 1
2. Vietnamese by Other Means: The Overlapping
Diasporas of Little Saigon 27
3. Pageantry and Nostalgia: Beauty Contests
and the Gendered Homeland 59
4. Consuming Transcendent Media: Videos,
Variety Shows, and the New Middle Class 79
CONCLUSION: Transnational Flows Between the
Diaspora and the Homeland 115
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 135
NOTES 141
INDEX 171
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Introduction
Private Desires on
Public Display
MORE THAN THREE DECADES have passed since the fall of Saigon,
but the jarring words V iet Nam still haunt many Americans. Known as the
unforgettable war lost by the United States, “Viet Nam” was not regarded
by the popular media as a nation in its own right. Torn by political confl icts
that unleashed massive confusion and tragedy upon its own people, the
besieged country was seen as an unfathomable quagmire that divided the
American nation and continues to resonate darkly in America’s historical
memory, especially in light of our contemporary involvement in Iraq and
Afghanistan. For the Vietnamese refugees and immigrants who fl ed the
war and their defeated nation, starting a new life elsewhere aff orded them
countless opportunities as well as insurmountable challenges. From these
bleak circumstances, they have constructed for themselves new ways to
make sense of their experiences.
Metropolitan settings and their surrounding suburbs throughout the
world have become new places of resettlement for a signifi cant number
of people who fl ed Vietnam during and since the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Vibrant ethnic neighborhoods and communities thrive in global cities, serv-
ing not only tourists, but also continuous fl ows of new immigrants who
relocated in the aftermath of empire and colonialism. While these areas of
immigrant resettlement serve as gathering places for dispersed members of
the Vietnamese community, spatial anonymity in these locations has para-
doxically allowed for the proliferation and public display of the most visible
signs of diasporic Vietnamese cultural production. In the form of glossy
airbrushed posters, hypervisible images of diasporic Vietnamese entertain-
ers cover storefront windows of Vietnamese-owned restaurants and ethnic
businesses, advertising the latest concert/entertainment variety show com-
ing to town. The ads contain collages of singers, dancers, and performers
where female artists are scantily clad or provocatively posed in form-fi tting
ix
