Asian Studies

Change is common feature of society and keep on adapting to the new conditions and likes to improve themselves and in the same time likes to retain the old culture and traditions to keep their identity and to remember their lost generation efforts towards better society. There are societies which will continue their cultural values for generations and even in the change of their home land.

The main statement of the thesis is that Overcoming the geographical barriers and decades of time frame, Vietnamese are able to retain their culture and also successfully continuing and integrating it to other sections and their next generations in America.

The above point is a statement with lot has lot of support from the history and even the present day conditions. To justify the statement it should it is provided with the basic introduction of the Vietnamese entry in the USA, available literature on this context, an overview of various cultural festivals and how they are integrated into the American culture, the impact of Vietnamese Americans culture on Americans and how this cultural integrity is continued in the next generations also. These are also supported by analysis on all the aspects mentioned above.

Vietnam is a small country in south East Asia with a history and cultural connectivity of which the majority of the Americans were ignorant when they entered field in the mid 1940s. There was small number of Vietnamese in the United States before 1975 and they were wives and children of white service men of country. After 1975, Vietnamese immigration to US have increased. Vietnamese became the largest Asian American groups from the war. At the time of World War II the American government started showing interest in Vietnam, because it helped to Ho Chi Minhs, the anti-Japanese forces. After the war, Americans committed to help the anti-communist South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem to keep the North Vietnamese from taking over the entire country. Though the Vietnamese are the newcomers to North America, they adopted to a culture elder than the United States and older than any national culture of Europe. In the second century B.C. the Chinese wrote that the first identified ancient records of the Viets in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam.    

A brief history of Vietnamese immigration
There are less than 4,000 Vietnamese living in the United States in between 1960 to 1970. With in two decades this population has increased rapidly. Based on arrival of Vietnamese into United States, Vietnamese can be classified into two cohorts. One is the first arrived in spring of 1975 and another one is arrived in the early of 1980s. In April 30, 1975 the South Vietnamese government was defeated by the North Vietnamese communist forces. The Vietnamese had little or no time to set up for their relocation into another country due to their fear of unfavorable fortune. For safety around 65,000 Vietnamese immediately fled the country. About 125,000 Vietnamese refugees had arrived to United States at the end of 1975. Most of them are upper middle-class urbanites and had a professional occupation, English knowledge, higher education. The Vietnamese refugees were temporarily housed in military bases.  At these locations military forces were offered cultural orientation and English classes workshops. The next wave of immigration begins between the late of 1970 and the early of 1980. When the war was ended communists begin mass harassment on Vietnamese who had connections with or worked for United States government. The third wave Vietnamese immigration in 1978 to 1983, commonly called as the boat people, were prominently rural farmers with no experience in western culture. The Vietnamese resettled in the west cost and southern states with huge concentration in Texas and California because Vietnamese has variety of factors like better business, family reunification, better education, employment opportunities, cultural and social networks(Aleman and Alemn, 2000).

On April 18, 1975, President Ford authorized the entry of 130,000 refugees from the countries of Indochina into the United States among them 125,000 refugees are Vietnamese. These are the first large group of Vietnamese entered into America and it is known as the first wave.   Several American Vietnamese proceed to face hardships, though they have success to settle in a new country. Keeping Vietnamese traditions is a major anxiety in mainly adult Vietnamese Americans and Vietnamese Americans communities regularly worry that their children may be losing their cultural characteristics. But Vietnamese are a credible history people. Through their interests and beliefs of their culture, the Americans also influenced and follow their culture. So we can say Overcoming the geographical barriers and time frame, Vietnamese are able to retain their culture and also successfully integrating it to other sections and their next generations in America.

Vietnamese Americans have contributed a lot in establishing foreign relations between United States and Vietnam from the time of war to till the date through their demonstration against the war and many of them made US their home for escaping communism of North Vietnam and found their employment within the US.

In this thesis, cultures of Vietnamese such as worship and prayers, ethical norms their celebrations of festivals like Trung Thu, Tet festival and the food items in festivals are described. They also celebrate birthdays some honorable people like Ho Chi Minh as festival and treat that day as holiday. They participated in social group dances in some celebrations. In this way the truth, beautiful and good in Vietnamese culture can be enriched by the truths and values found in Americans culture. When comparing the United States with Vietnam, the three dimensions of long-term orientation, individualism and power distance differ most significantly. Especially among welfare groups, the degree of solidarity is not maintained by positive cultural elements in the Vietnamese American community.

Literature Review
The book therapeutic interventions with ethnic elders health and social ..., has outlined only about the immigration and limited to extent of their settlement in some the cities in U.S.A.  The book written by Nick Ray provided an overview of an important Tet festival. The author Bobbie Kalman have outlined the Trung Thu festival and Flavors of Vietnam festivals. Freeman in his book provided an impact of Vietnamese Americans culture on Americans. Williams-Leon and Nakashima, provided an idea about the multi-cultural diversity. Author Coleman explained about Vietnamese migration to US, their cultural activities which were headed by their organizations and their effort of being part in US. Author Sucheng Chan, mentioned about how Vietnamese should act and live respecting their own culture. All the literature available was providing an overall idea of how immigration of Vietnamese was carried on, their cultures uniqueness, and impact of the culture on American culture and other relevant aspects. But the present available literature failed in providing exact matter on the Vietnamese cultural continuity in America overcoming the hardships.

Vietnamese culture
Vietnamese are most cultural believes. They celebrated their festivals and some other important days very interestingly with variety of programs. Some of their celebrations are depicted here.

Tet festival (New Year) 
The Lunar new year was announced by the Tet nguyen Dan, in Vietnamese calendar this date is most important. In Vietnamese Tet is celebrated as everybodys birthday, at this time families welcomed ancestral spirits in to their homes and they hop that good future will come for the coming year. Some times this festival comes between 19 January and 20 February on the western calendar. The next three days after New Years Day are official holidays. But in South areas most of the people take the whole week off. Before New Years Day all people in the Vietnam release live crap in to rivers and lakes because the God Tao Quan ride fish on their journey to heaven, and they hope of receiving favorable reports from god in the coming years. In this Tet festival celebration the teenager Vietnamese performs the Dragon Dance and it is one of the important celebrations of Tet festival (Ray and Yanagihara, 2005).

Trung Thu festival
Mid-autumn festival or Trung Thu, this festival is celebrated in the eighth lunar month. Trung-thu is held to celebrate the harvest. It is also called as Moon Festival because the full moon is brightest and biggest at this time of year. By making rice paper lanterns, children celebrate Tet Trung-thu, which are hanging on long bamboo poles. These lanterns are prepared like fish or star and others are shaped in fancy designs. Children march in a colorful parade after lightened in the dark. Lanterns are protected carefully by them from wind. The real challenge in this parade is that they have to reach the end of the parade without the lantern fired. After this, children go back to their homes to a treat of moon cakes, made of peanuts, watermelon seeds, rice, raisins, and eggs.  

Flavors of Vietnam festivals
Food is an important part of every culture. Vietnamese have knowledge for several years of famine. They have sufficient food to eat is mainly important. In Vietnamese meal rice and vegetables have main part. Meat and fish are some times added to food (Kalman, 2002)

Celebrations regarding to Honoring heroes
In Vietnams history several festivals celebrate heroes. Example, May 19 is a public holiday due to Ho Chi Minhs birthday. Another national celebration is the Trung Sisters Festival. This festival is celebrated to honor the two women who defeat the Chinese rulers in 39 A.D. In every city and village select two girls to dress up in colorful clothes like those wear by the sisters. These girls travel through the streets, remembering people of the important role of women have made to Vietnams history.

Holiday for the dead
The Doan Ngu festival symbols the longest day of the year- the summer solstice. In the fifth lunar month it is celebrated. To prevent the spread of diseases, paper effigies are fired as a gift to the god of death to appease him was done on this day. Trung Nguyen festival commences in the seventh lunar month and end in the same month. People assumed that at this time the souls of the dead wander the earth. To give the souls comfort during their journey on earth, people make offerings of food and incense to their ancestors.

The impact of Vietnamese Americans culture on Americans
Vietnamese Americans views on America reflect Americans to its economic opportunities and social limitations. There are so many refuges succeeded economically so well in American history.  By overlooking the Vietnamese Americans adopted patterns like familial cooperation, stressing consensus, and self help Americans seeking to develop their own social and economic predicaments and also they think about the friendship, political freedom, and discipline of Vietnamese Americans critiques. Based on the Vietnamese Americans perspectives, Americans might reflect in their present relation with the socialist Republic of Vietnam and new ways on their role in the Vietnam War (Freeman, 1989).

In United States a greater part of Vietnamese multi-racials immigrants or refuges are from Vietnam. But it is not easier to classify then any other group of Asian Americans. It is considered that in Vietnamese community is better to be Eurasian (French Vietnamese) then American (American Vietnamese). It is interesting that when compared to monoracial Vietnamese Americans with a multiracial Vietnamese Americans, monoracial Vietnamese Americans have poor or nonexistent Vietnamese-Language skills. Vietnamese fluency is beneficial for Gavin Robinson interaction in community, mainly because Vietnamese Americans often recognize him as White rather than Americans (Williams-Len and Nakashima, 2001).

Continuity of Vietnamese culture in America
In 1970s and 1980s the Vietnamese who lived in America formed several Vietnamese American organizations with a purpose of conserving the culture of Vietnamese and helping to the Vietnamese in America. These organizations celebrate some occasions by inviting Americans as hosts of their celebrations to introduce and establish their culture. An organization, the Vietnamese American society improve their dealings in business with Americans to improve Vietnamese culture in USA. Many Vietnam American families were compromised with American customs only if those are adapting with their traditions. In United States the Vietnamese Americans become as a strong community with their great cultural aspects. It is a best example for Vietnamese culture is being a part of culture the older people highly respected by the younger and in the same way the younger eager to know the advises and good things from older people. Vietnamese refugees of the first generation still maintain strong tie to the language and culture of their homeland. To keep the Vietnamese cultural identity like other refugees group language has been used (Coleman, 2004).  Sucheng Chan says Being Vietnamese means I must follow the ideologies, values, and beliefs that have persisted for thousands of years, upon which the entire history and social and familial structures of Vietnam are based (Chan, 2006).

Trung Thu is also known as moon festival. It is celebrated in the eight lunar months. This festival is celebrated for harvest. It is important festival of Vietnamese. The population of Vietnamese Americans increasing, due to this the culture is also spreading in the America and also showing interest in Vietnamese culture. They also celebrate this festival now a day. Vietnamese celebrate several festivals for heroes. They celebrate these festivals to honoring their heroes. By seeing these type of festivals Americans are also celebrate this type of festivals to honor their leaders and heroes.  The Doan Ngu festival is celebrated to prevent the spread of diseases. Trung Nguyen is another festival celebrated by Vietnamese, on this day the souls of dead wander the earth. To give the souls comfort, people make offerings of food and incense to their ancestors. Many Americans believe this and they also celebrate these festivals. Americans believe this as a traditional festival. Food is the part of every culture. Vietnamese Americans use vegetables and rice for their meal. Some times they use fish and meat as dishes to their meals. Americans are also showing interest on these types of food.  Apart from being influenced by the majority population, Vietnamese even though being minority continued to retain their historical glory of cultural and traditional values given by their old generations.

Maintaining Vietnamese culture in United States
Vietnamese Americans are one of the largest Asian communities in the country and they maintain their culture and traditions through their language, customs and festivals. As festivals play a vital role in retaining culture in any ethnic group being away from mother land Vietnamese Americans organize their festivals in associations to promote and maintain their culture and to celebrate their festival being away from their country of origin. Vietnamese Americans have established several association and organizations in a small period of time to practice their language, customs and culture and to pass the same to next generation of Vietnamese Americans and to help the new Vietnamese immigrants in United States of America to adjust in new place and culture.

Vietnamese Americans are much more concerned about their children from being Americanized as they spend most of time out of the home. Vietnamese Americans encourage their children to speak Vietnamese language in their home and to follow the customs of their religions. Some of the Vietnamese Americans have started their own schools and institutions for their children and youth to teach their language and culture.
Vietnamese Americans still maintain their customs and traditions in US and they have been part of US society with their distinct culture and habitat which even influenced the Native Americans.  In USA, many has left their own religion Christianity in 2008 and embraced new faiths and more inclined to Buddhism. The main signs in connecting their own heritage will itself will tell that Vietnamese are interested in making this new land as their new home.

Any way the cultures and traditions are not similar in the Vietnamese families and differ based on customs, beliefs and practices. The United States was the country of choice for many Vietnamese to relocate because of the special relationship Americans had with South Vietnamese before the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Even huge flow of refuges from Vietnam forced the US Government to bring the Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980, and other refugee policies.

There were two phases of immigration to US from Vietnam and now it is the third generation of Vietnamese living in USA and many of the distinguishing cultural characteristics are faded away in the course of time. But most of them still remain and stood against the litmus test of time frame and geographical barriers. This is a great achievement for Vietnamese in retaining their culture and continuing the cultural values even in home ground of western culture.