Tag Archives for Vietnamese Australian

“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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WLR: Chinese birth tourism and Vietnamese nail technicians

Mainlanders as locusts. Click on the image to learn more about this ad campaign.

“Anchor babies” in Canada

Hong Kong is not the only place where Mainland Chinese mothers are hoping to give birth. Joel of China Hope Live writes about how the influx of “birth tourists” in Canada is changing the country’s health care system’s attitudes towards foreign mothers:

Literally right as I was meeting my parents and daughter at the reception desk when they were coming to see the new baby for the first time, an agent showed up for a 20-minute lecture/interrogation, asking us the kind of questions you get when going through customs: When did you arrive in Canada? How long do you plan to be here? Where is your permanent residency? Etc. [...] She even photocopied Jessica’s passport, even though Canadian border agents don’t usually stamp American visitors’ passports. I get them being all on top of securing Jessica’s insurance info, but what’s her status in Canada have to do with it?

I’m guessing that since Jessica is white and American, she was pestered a lot less than a non-resident East Asian would be. The Canadian authorities are cracking down as expectant mothers are finding new ways to game the system:

The Canadian action comes an investigation by a Hong Kong newspaper found that bogus “consultants” are teaching Chinese women how to hide their pregnancies and how to apply for Canadian visitor or student visas.

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