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Building Little Saigon

Refugee Urbanism in American Cities and Suburbs
  • Erica Allen-Kim
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2024
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About this book

An in-depth look at the diverging paths of Vietnamese American communities, or “Little Saigons,” in America’s built environment.

In the final days before the fall of Saigon in 1975, 125,000 Vietnamese who were evacuated or who made their own way out of the country resettled in the United States. Finding themselves in unfamiliar places yet still connected in exile, these refugees began building their own communities as memorials to a lost homeland. Known both officially and unofficially as Little Saigons, these built landscapes offer space for everyday activities as well as the staging of cultural heritage and political events.

Building Little Saigon examines nearly fifty years of city building by Vietnamese Americans—who number over 2.2 million today. Author Erica Allen-Kim highlights architecture and planning ideas adapted by the Vietnamese communities who, in turn, have influenced planning policies and mainstream practices. Allen-Kim traveled to ten Little Saigons in the United States to visit archives, buildings, and public art and to converse with developers, community planners, artists, business owners, and Vietnam veterans. By examining everyday buildings—who made them and what they mean for those who know them—Building Little Saigon shows us the complexities of migration unfolding across lifetimes and generations.

Author / Editor information

Erica Allen-Kim is an assistant professor of architectural history at the University of Toronto.

Reviews

This book is creative, timely, and important. Within the fields of architectural history, urban history, and Asian American history, there is a great need for work that explores the role of migrants and refugees in shaping cities. Across several US cities, Erica Allen-Kim reveals how Vietnamese refugees have spearheaded development projects, owned and managed businesses, and commissioned landscape elements. In doing so, she illuminates critical issues, including the transnational influence in the making of US cities and the divergent—sometimes clashing—perspectives of refugees, developers, and non-Asian city dwellers. Highly recommended.
— Sarah Lynn Lopez, University of Pennsylvania, author of The Remittance Landscape: Spaces of Migration in Rural Mexico and Urban USA

Accounts such as this one inflect American urban history by pointing to hybrid cultural memories that undo any homogeneous understanding of both nation and urban space. Allen-Kim’s research provides both narrative refuge and resistance for the communities who make their homes in new lands, who contribute to the civic life and cosmopolitanism of our cities, and who have stories to share.
— Journal of Architectural Education

Erica Allen-Kim’s trailblazing book...masterfully chronicles how Vietnamese Americans—as developers, planners, artists, and entrepreneurs—have repurposed and built anew urban spaces not as passive inheritors but as active creators of more inclusive cities.
— Pacific Affairs

The author has put together a rich, well-organized book that brings together the voices of Vietnamese refugees and urban gatekeepers from different Little Saigons in the United States… Allen-Kim’s timely book should encourage further comparative research on ethnic enclave neighborhoods. It should also contribute to public debate on the role and impact of refugee urbanism, local governance, and urban/community planning in diverse American cities and suburbs…In addition to offering a wealth of useful information, this book has important policy implications and fills gaps in the literature of refugee urbanism and ethnic cultural landscapes in North American cities.
— Journal of Urban Affairs

[Allen-Kim] offers something fresh by considering the history of Little Saigons in the United States from a planning and architectural perspective. The focus on seemingly ordinary suburban mini-malls, supermarkets, storefront museums, memorials, and even bus shelters help reveal the defiance and resistance characterizing the trajectory of Vietnamese American communities in the United States...At a moment when many ethnic enclaves are being threatened and erased by gentrification, [this book] underscores the intentionality and political meanings of enclaves as more than commercial or residential concentrations. The question that Allen-Kim raises with this book—who benefits from these transnational capitalist ethnic enclave developments—is a generative one.
— International Migration Review

[A] trailblazing book...Building Little Saigon masterfully chronicles how Vietnamese Americans—as developers, planners, artists, and entrepreneurs—have repurposed and built anew urban spaces not as passive inheritors but as active creators of more inclusive cities...Its compelling analysis of refugee urbanism offers a powerful testament to the agency and innovation of Vietnamese migrants as they continuously redefine their presence and significance within the ever-changing urban fabric of American cities.
— Pacific Affairs

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  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Introduction: Fleeing Backward

    1
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    Chapter 1 Pagodas, Dive Bars, and Storefront Museums

    21
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    Chapter 2 The Social Life of Mini-Malls

    47
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    Chapter 3 Memorials to a Never-Ending War

    77
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    Chapter 4 Downtown Saigon USA

    105
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    Chapter 5 Houston’s Little Saigon: The Architecture of Survival

    141
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    Epilogue: Refuge for All

    167
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    Acknowledgments

    181
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    Notes

    185
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    Index

    212

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 3, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781477323007
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
https://doi.org/10.7560/322994
eBook ISBN: 9781477323007
Keywords for this book
Asian Americans; Vietnamese Americans; Suburbs; Little Saigon; Shopping center; Ethnic enclave; Ethnic tourism; Vernacular architecture; Immigration; Transnational; Refugee; Urban history; Urban design; Urbanization; Gentrification; Vietnam; Diaspora; Cultural identity; Memorials; Vietnam War
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
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