It’s the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam.
Little Saigon.
Editor’s note: This is an occasional series where Voice of OC works with local community photographers to offer residents a first-hand look at the local sites and scenes of Orange County.
This weekend for the Tet holiday, at events like Garden Grove’s Tet Festival or Westminster’s Tet Parade, locals will gather to celebrate not only the advent of a New Year but the resilience of a community that rose out of the ashes of the Fall of Saigon – this year marking the 50th anniversary of that great tragedy and the vast diaspora it spurred.
Whether it’s car mechanics, restaurants, florists, or community soup kitchens run by Buddhist temples, today’s Little Saigon business district spans over 700 storefronts.
Following the Vietnam War, refugees came to the United States; they created ethnic enclaves like Little Saigon, which started in Downtown Westminster and expanded into Garden Grove, Fountain Valley and Santa Ana.
Just over half of the residents who call Little Saigon home are of Asian descent. White residents make up the city’s next largest demographic at 26 percent.
Little Saigon is home to many shopping centers and strip malls.
Malls like “Today Plaza,” which is home to dry cleaners, candy stores, pharmacies, and grocery stores.
“Here you can always find the car mechanic, you can always find the florist,” says Victoria Pham, a Temple Teacher’s assistant at TU VIỆN ĐẠI BI—Great Compassion Monastery and daughter to Vietnamese immigrants.
Although Little Saigon doesn’t have a designated plaza in the traditional sense, there’s an impromptu town square, the parking lot of the Asian Garden Mall, where cultural celebrations and events occur under the curved roof eaves, red lanterns and Vietnamese artistic motifs.
Additionally, from June through September, in addition to the shops inside the mall, there is a weekly outdoor night market.
Inside the mall, visitors can learn that many store owners opened their stores shortly after immigrating to the United States, especially from Vietnam.
Some have run their businesses for over twenty years, while others have passed them on to the next generation.
Business owners like Christina Ha, who inherited Tiem Vang Kim Ngan Jewelry from her immigrant father, and she hopes to pass the business on to her nephew eventually.
While a strong sense of community serves as Little Saigon’s beating heart, religion solidifies the bonds between many individuals in the community.
Monks can be seen welcoming the public to enter the 20,000 square-foot Chua Dieu Ngu Vietnamese Buddhist Temple, to visit, explore, pray, and attend religious events they host.
On the adjacent side of the city is the TU VIỆN ĐẠI BI—Great Compassion Monastery. Every weekend, the members of the TU VIỆN ĐẠI BI community come together days in advance to cook a feast capable of feeding hundreds.
Across from TU VIỆN ĐẠI BI’s parking lot is an Asian-styled garden where in the morning, a group of volunteers, mostly women from the congregation, sell cookies, crackers, dried fruits, and the taste of Vietnam to the local community.
Mere meters away, an open-air classroom hosts upwards of 100 children. Here, they learn to read and write Vietnamese and about Buddhism, and they get to witness traces of their homeland as the faces of the community come together to create an echo of what life might have looked like for the generations that came before them.
At around noon, the concession stand shifts into a free lunch line, and waves of new faces begin to arrive. Lively chatter from a native tongue crowds the patio as the smells of Pho, a slowly simmered beef bone broth with rice noodles, spill from the kitchen, permeating the area.
Energy runs high. Pots clatter in the kitchen as the arrival of more faces amplifies the chorus of noise. Layers of the Vietnamese language intersperse with English to create a unique melody.
Known by the community as an authentic place to get vegetarian Vietnamese food in OC, the monks welcome everyone to eat, including those praying in the monastery, the students after class, their families, and the community of individuals who can’t find this version of the meal anywhere else.
Any visit to Little Saigon is special to those who visit, say locals.
It carves out a space for a culture from across the sea to thrive.
Especially for Pham, who says visiting Little Saigon is a way to reconnect with her culture.
“There’s a community here.”
