The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation: Stories of War, Revolution, Flight and New Beginnings

by Sucheng Chan (Editor)

Overview

The conflict that Americans call the "Vietnam War" was only one of many incursions into Vietnam by foreign powers. However, it has had a profound effect on the Vietnamese people who left their homeland in the years following the fall of Saigon in 1975. Collected here are fifteen first-person narratives written by refugees who left Vietnam as children and later enrolled as students at the University of California, where they studied with the well-known scholar and teacher Sucheng Chan. She has provided a comprehensive introduction to their autobiographical accounts, which succinctly encompasses more than a thousand years of Vietnamese history. The volume concludes with a thorough bibliography and videography compiled by the editor.While the volume is designed specifically for today's college students, its compelling stories and useful history will appeal to all readers who want to know more about Vietnam and especially about the fates of children who emigrated to the U.S.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592135028
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	06/12/2006
Series:	Asian American History & Cultu
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	343
File size:	459 KB

About the Author

Sucheng Chan is Professor Emerita of Asian American Studies and Global Studies at the University of California. She is the recipient of many prizes and author or editor of numerous books, including Claiming America: Constructing Chinese American Identities During the Exclusion Era (Temple, co-edited with Scott Wong), which won the Outstanding Book Award in History and Social Sciences from the Association for Asian Studies.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Vietnamese Names
    Part I: Historical Overview
Chapter 1.   Vietnam before the Mid-nineteenth Century
Chapter 2.   French Colonial Rule and Vietnamese Resistance
Chapter 3.   Communism and Nationalism
Chapter 4.   The 1945 August Revolution
Chapter 5.   The First Indochina War
Chapter 6.   The American Involvement in Vietnam
Chapter 7.   The Fall of Saigon and Its Aftermath
Chapter 8.   The Plight of the Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam
Chapter 9.   An International Refugee Crisis
Chapter 10.  Ending the Indochinese Refugee Exodus

    Part II: Stories of War, Revolution, Flight, and New Beginnings
Chapter 11.  A Tragedy: From Vietnam to America
Chapter 12.  A Journey Called Freedom
Chapter 13.  My Autobiography
Chapter 14.  How It Feels to be an Asian American
Chapter 15.  Integrity Through Change
Chapter 16.  A Place to Call Home
Chapter 17.  The Coming of Age of a Chinese-Vietnamese American
Chapter 18.  My Father and I
Chapter 19.  The Pain in My Heart
Chapter 20.  The Never Ending Struggle
Chapter 21.  An Unfinished Journey
 
Chapter 22.  From Vietnam to Germany to the United States
Chapter 23.  Vietnam Memories in America
Chapter 24.  My Transition to Being an Asian American
Chapter 25.  At That Time in My Life
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Selected Videography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"[T]he autobiographical accounts reveal key themes in the Vietnamese American experience and address important historiographical topics...this book contributes to refugee history, an important if understudied aspect of the immigrant experience. Includes a useful bibliography and videography. Highly recommended."
—Choice

From the Publisher