‘Meaningful’: Little Saigon offers home for Vietnamese community

The Cross-Cultural Center collaborated with Rebecca Hesgard, a Chapman leadership development graduate student, to commemorate Little Saigon in an April 14 presentation. DANIEL PEARSON, Staff Photographer

Nearly 50 years ago, an entire community of people was forced to flee their homes as a result of the devastation left from the Vietnam War. Many Southern Vietnamese people found solace in Orange County, where they built a new community from the ground up, maintaining their cultural identity in an area now called Little Saigon.

“Without knowing the individual history, we lose the ability to see how we have all gotten to this point we are at and how we can continue forward,” said Rebecca Hesgard, a Chapman leadership development graduate student.

An April 14 discussion on the legacy and culture of Orange County’s Little Saigon was co-hosted by Hesgard, as a component of her capstone project, alongside Chapman’s Cross-Cultural Center. Entitled “Inside OC: Little Saigon,” the event aimed to delve deeper into the historical significance of the Little Saigon community, discuss identity reflection and share ways to support the local Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) enclave.

“Going into depth on one specific community or identity under an umbrella term like APIDA is important, because there is so much history tied to each different identity’s experience within the context of the United States,” Hesgard said. 

Little Saigon, which spans the communities of Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Westminster and parts of Irvine and Anaheim, was originally founded in 1988 as a business district by California Governor George Deukmejian. Freeway landmark signs alert ongoing drivers upon entering the ethnic enclave, which is home to nearly 190,000 Vietnamese Americans, according to Hesgard Approximately 40% of all Vietnamese immigrants live in California.

“Little Saigons” exist throughout America, but Orange County’s is the oldest and largest in the country. Hesgard said it is common to see the South Vietnam flag flown through the community as a sign of cultural identity and ethnic unity, despite the country’s consolidation with the North almost 50 years ago. A memorial located in Sid Goldstein Freedom Park further honors the allyship between South Vietnam and the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

During the discussion-based areas of Hesgard’s presentation, many participants were responsive and eager to share their stories about the area. 

“I was born and raised here,” said Charlene Pham, a junior animation major and the vice president of Chapman’s Vietnamese Student Association. “I feel really appreciative and grateful to just have this part of my culture to be so expansive and to actually be able to explore it, because some people may feel a disconnection to the culture because they don’t live in prominent Vietnamese communities.”

The unique cultural flavors and distinctive fashion of Little Saigon are arguably the most popular aspects of the district, according to Hesgard. Asian supermarkets such as Shun Fat, T&K Food Market and 99 Ranch Market are common throughout the community, alongside mom-and-pop shops offering homemade Vietnamese dishes, traditional clothes and jewelry.

“Although I don’t identify as Vietnamese American, I know that if I go to that area, I can find comfort food, I can feel at home and I can see people that look like me,” said Shishei Tsang, a program coordinator for the Cross-Cultural Center.

Pho 79, located in Garden Grove, was one of the very first pho specialty restaurants to open its doors in 1982. The restaurant introduced Southern California to beef pho, one of Vietnam’s most popular dishes, according to Hesgard and Pham. The restaurant was honored with a James Beard Foundation Award in 2019, an honor Hesgard described as the “Oscars of food.”

Prior to the pandemic, the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster reeled in tourists for evenings of Vietnamese street food, shopping and entertainment every weekend of the summer. Located in the heart of Little Saigon, the open space continues to operate as a regular mall by day — offering community accessibility, a public place of worship, clothes, food and a large host of jewelers. 

“The Asian Garden Mall is (Little Saigon’s) centerpiece,” Pham said. “It's a nice place to start off, just to get a vibe of what Asian people sell and shop for.”

Familiarity and comfort were words used to describe Little Saigon by APIDA guests at the event. 

“Communities like this around the country are just so important, because you want to find a place where you can feel safe and comfortable,” Tsang said.

Stop AAPI Hate reported nearly 3,800 incidents of harassment and assault during the pandemic. With a rise in anti-AAPI violence across the country, Hesgard felt her project carried more impact.

“The fear of knowing that your loved ones cannot strip away their identity to be safe is really difficult to process and sit with,” Hesgard said. “When it came to my project, I put more pressure on myself for it to be meaningful.”