Tag Archives for Vietnamese American

For the Nguyễn

Source: 8Asians.

From Yahoo:

Eschewing the optional yearbook one-liner under each of their photos, they divided up two sentences that made fellow students and administrators think twice before making any stereotypical assumptions. Altogether, the words under the Nguyen girls’ eight pictures read: “We know what you’re thinking and no we’re not related.”

I should have done this for my high school yearbook! There were 5 of us Hos, all guys, two of whom were named James. Unfortunately, two of us were distantly related, so that wouldn’t have worked out as well.

“House temples”: Suburban Buddhist temples in Cabramatta and El Monte

A “house temple” in Cabramatta, near Sydney. Photo by Anna.

Anna’s post on I Heart Cabramatta about Vietnamese “house temples” in her Sydney suburb caught my attention:

“House temples” a phrase that I have coined to describe these numerous temples that have popped up in the residential parts of Cabramatta. At first you do a double take, then you ask yourself “Is that a typical 1960′s red brick house with a big white Buddhist statue in the front yard?”. Answer : “Yes it is!”.

These Vietnamese “house temples” exist in my hometown of El Monte, California, as well! Take, for instance, this temple on Lashbrook Avenue, this other one on Cogswell Road, and yet another one on Musgrove Avenue. (I found all of these addresses on The Buddha Garden.) In addition to these small temples tucked away among houses, there are also larger temples in El Monte, such as Phuoc Hue Dao Trang on Lower Azusa Road, right down the street from my high school.

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Anniversaries

Photo by Khánh Hmoong (Flickr/Creative Commons).

Today is the 37th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon.

Photo by Mick Taylor (Flickr/Creative Commons).

Yesterday (April 29) was the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles Riots (known among the Korean American community as Sa-I-Gu).
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