Vivian Le |
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Family in Vietnam and America
How does your extended family in Vietnam perceive America, the war, and your family being here?
I still have extended family in Vietnam. They are my maternal grandparents’ siblings and their children. For them, the way they perceive America is that they still perceive it as a place where you can make lots of money easily. To them, it is a very ideal land of opportunity and because of that, they are always expecting my grandparents to send them back money. For my grandparents, that is also very hard because they haven’t been doing as well in America as they had in Vietnam. So, the perception on both sides is a little bit distorted.
For instance in Vietnam, nobody ever has the perfect picture of it. They don’t know for sure how well off it is and they don’t know for sure how bad it is, because you will hear terror stories about people robbing others and cutting off other people’s hands just to rob them. On the flip side, you will see communities where it is very affluent. Over in Vietnam, when they look over at the American side, they see it as a place where it is very easy to make money, so why can’t you send money to help out your family [in Vietnam]?
As for the war, like I said earlier, it is something that has been very much accepted at this point and just adapting to it. But they tend to just exploit my grandparents a lot in order to help them adapt [to post-war Vietnam].
How has the war affected you and your aunt’s offspring differently?
My oldest cousin is now thirty-eight, almost thirty-nine, and she was born in Vietnam and she lived in Vietnam for about a year or two before coming over here, but to be honest, her experience is probably exactly the same as mine. The only difference is that I would say that her Vietnamese is probably a little bit better than mine, but other than that, her experience is the exact same. My aunt has kept from her most of the tragic stories and because she came over at such a young age, she doesn’t remember being a refugee, therefore, she has none of those negative memories to weigh her down. She went through school and her career as if she was born here.
Object Description
| Profile of | Vivian Le |
| Title | Our Parents Wouldn’t Tell Us Anything |
| Profile bio | Vivian Le is a student at the University of Southern California. She is currently studying biochemistry with a double minor in philosophy and sociology. She was born and raised in the United States as the daughter of an engineer and an accountant. Both of Vivian's parents came to the United States from Vietnam before they met and settled down in Camarillo, California. Vivian has a large family on her father's side with his eight siblings and her sixteen cousins. On her mother's side, she has only one uncle and one cousin. |
| Profiler bio | Stephanie Balais is a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering from Honolulu, Hawaii.; Alice Huang is from Saratoga, California and is currently a freshman studying human biology.; Jonathan Coons and Allison Holliday are sophomores from Modesto, California majoring in mechanical engineering. All profilers are students at the University of Southern California. |
| Subject |
2nd generation Profile Escape Refugee Vietnamese American |
| Profiled by | Balais, Stephanie; Huang, Alice; Coons, Jonathan; Holliday, Allison |
| Profile date | 2016-02 |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Camarillo; Los Angeles; Richmond |
| Geographic subject (county) | Ventura; Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | California; Virginia |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA; Malaysia |
| Coverage date | 1978; 1979; 1982; 1986 |
| Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/vivian-le/ |
| Type |
images video |
| Format | 1 image; 6 video files (00:20:26); 6 transcripts |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
| Filename | levivan |
Description
| Profile of | Vivian Le |
| Title | Family in Vietnam and America |
| Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
| Filename | levivian-vid5_tr5.pdf |
| Full text | Family in Vietnam and America How does your extended family in Vietnam perceive America, the war, and your family being here? I still have extended family in Vietnam. They are my maternal grandparents’ siblings and their children. For them, the way they perceive America is that they still perceive it as a place where you can make lots of money easily. To them, it is a very ideal land of opportunity and because of that, they are always expecting my grandparents to send them back money. For my grandparents, that is also very hard because they haven’t been doing as well in America as they had in Vietnam. So, the perception on both sides is a little bit distorted. For instance in Vietnam, nobody ever has the perfect picture of it. They don’t know for sure how well off it is and they don’t know for sure how bad it is, because you will hear terror stories about people robbing others and cutting off other people’s hands just to rob them. On the flip side, you will see communities where it is very affluent. Over in Vietnam, when they look over at the American side, they see it as a place where it is very easy to make money, so why can’t you send money to help out your family [in Vietnam]? As for the war, like I said earlier, it is something that has been very much accepted at this point and just adapting to it. But they tend to just exploit my grandparents a lot in order to help them adapt [to post-war Vietnam]. How has the war affected you and your aunt’s offspring differently? My oldest cousin is now thirty-eight, almost thirty-nine, and she was born in Vietnam and she lived in Vietnam for about a year or two before coming over here, but to be honest, her experience is probably exactly the same as mine. The only difference is that I would say that her Vietnamese is probably a little bit better than mine, but other than that, her experience is the exact same. My aunt has kept from her most of the tragic stories and because she came over at such a young age, she doesn’t remember being a refugee, therefore, she has none of those negative memories to weigh her down. She went through school and her career as if she was born here. |
| Archival file | Volume5/levivian-vid5_tr5.pdf |
