Little Saigon Coffee Shop is the New Hooters

Source: laist

Say you're a guy that likes attractive Vietnamese gals. You also have a passion for caffeine. You've no doubt been frustrated, and said to your friends time after time, "geez, when will Garden Grove get a Vietnamese coffee shop that offers more sex appeal than Starbucks' green aprons?" Time to get happy. Cafe Di Vang 2 is the spot. They're the "Asian Hooters for coffee," according to one of their bikini-wearing tea-pourers.

The bikini bar is nothing new so since the Vietnamese like to drink coffee, play cards and chess, a bikini coffe shop makes perfect sense.

Food: The cultural defense

Mmmmmm Tofu and Peas! You can live forever eating this!

Source: Nguoi Viet

Thiên Trần, who manages a beauty salon and nail spa, says he has been eating better and losing weight since the economic downturn.

''My wife makes Vietnamese food and I take it to work,'' said Trần, who is in his 40s. ''I used to order burgers and fries or Thai noodles, but that is too expensive. My lunch went from $8 to $2 a day.''

In lean times, Thiên has returned to eating his traditional Vietnamese foods. ''It’s either rice and fish, rice and salted pork, rice and steamed chicken, with lots of vegetables,'' he rattled off his menu, laughing.

It’s a cultural defense against an economic crisis that works for many who come from Asia and other parts of the world. After all, it’s not just Thiên’s waistline that’s shrinking — his pocket book is too, as fewer customers are able to afford his services. ''They come,'' he says with a sigh, ''when the roots are really showing [for a dye job]. And instead of three weeks, now it’s six weeks for nails.''

This is a good lesson to all. Even during good times, one should try to bring lunch to work more often than eating out. $8 a day adds up and all the money could have been saved for tough times like these. I always tried to bring lunch to work, even if mocked by co-workers!

Controversial art exhibit on Vietnam ends early

Source: LA Daily News
Source: LA Times

A sign outside an art exhibit warned visitors about the "highly sensitive political material" inside.

One photograph showed a woman sitting next to a golden bust of communist leader Ho Chi Minh and wearing a red tank top bearing the yellow star of the Vietnamese flag.

Other images depicted the painful flight of refugees from Vietnam nearly four decades ago and their ongoing struggles in the U.S.

The Vietnamese American Arts &; Letters Association hoped its exhibit would spark dialogue about the wide range of viewpoints in the Southern California community founded by refugees from communism.

But the show drew a barrage of criticism and prompted demands for curators to remove the provocative pieces.

Co-curator Tram Le said the exhibit closed two days early Friday because of community anger and news from city code inspectors that organizers were not allowed to hold an art exhibit in the ground floor of the office building they had leased.

"We just realized how hurt the community was, and we wanted to be sensitive," she said.

Nice to see you JUST realized that honey. You wanted to bring communist symbols to Orange County and "challenge" the people into opening their minds and ideas. You got the response didn't you :)

A protest had been planned for today. It was unclear whether the early closing would stop the demonstration.

It did not. Pictures here (Vietnamese).

Santa Ana police officers arrested a man this morning after he unfurled a flag of communist Vietnam among a crowd of hundreds of anti-communist demonstrators protesting a provocative art exhibit. The exhibit was shut down Friday after organizers grew concerned about the threat of large-scale demonstrations and Santa Ana officials said it didn't the proper permits.

Woohoo! A guy with a red flag disturbing the demonstration got arrested and not the demonstrators who beat him up. That's justice to me :)

Debate over Communist symbols in Orange County art exhibit

Follow up to Art group portrays Vietnamese symbols on canvas

Source: LA Times

A provocative art exhibit that opened on the outskirts of Little Saigon this weekend got a strong reaction from some Vietnamese Americans who were offended by the pieces of art that featured Communist symbols.

The exhibit, commissioned by the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Assn., displayed works that included Communist symbols, the flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam and artwork that has been banned in Vietnam.

The curators wanted to start a discussion in the Vietnamese community, where talk of politics other than staunch anti-communism is taboo and any hint of associating with Communists, whether perceived or real, can erupt in street protests.

Yup. People don't want to see it. It may seem paranoid and often silly but that's how they feel. If you let tolerate one thing, they'll keep advancing.

There were some heated calls to take the photo down. In the meantime, someone has spit on the artwork and made a scratch through the glass on top of the photo. But the photo did spark a discussion between the arts group and the members of the Vietnamese American community who saw the piece as hurtful. "We left our home country because of the regime of the Communists. This art brings back memories of the hurt and suffering of our people that still pains us today," Phuong Le of Canoga Park told exhibit organizers Sunday. "When you judge art, you have to view it in history and see that these images only open wounds that continue to hurt us."

The organizers have refused to remove the photo. "We considered what they had said, and we felt that this was still something that should be up for discussion," said Tram Le, one of the co-curators. Le said that some Vietnamese Americans who came to see the photo did not find it to be offensive.

Some Vietnamese community members have threatened protests if the photo is not removed. Vietnamese community leaders are meeting today to discuss what action to take next.

This will get ugly very very soon. Maybe they'll burn it all down.

Art group portrays Vietnamese symbols on canvas

Source: LA Times

An exhibit commissioned by a Vietnamese-American arts group will open in Santa Ana, a display that purposely includes communist symbols, the flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam and artwork that has been banned in Vietnam.

In the middle of the United States’ largest Vietnamese population, the curators hope to challenge sensibilities and provoke discussion in a community where the topic has long been taboo.

Oh boy. Challenging sensibilities of people who have so much hated for anything that symbolizes communist Vietnam.

“I felt the community was on this slippery slope, that we were not progressing toward having open dialogue and being more tolerant of different political viewpoints.”

Eeeep. Open dialogue? Tolerant of different political viewpoints? In America, you can't even get people to be tolerant of Republican-Democratic or Prop 8 let alone COMMUNISM!

Titled “F.O.B. II: Art Speaks,” the name is a play on the pejorative moniker “fresh off the boat,” a term given to immigrants who came to the United States by boat, including hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who escaped after the Vietnam War was ended.

*shudder*

One of the more provocative pieces is a photograph by Brian Doan of a girl in Vietnam wearing a red tank top with a yellow star. On a table is a small bust of former communist leader Ho Chi Minh and a cell phone.

“This piece uses the communist flag but isn’t celebratory of communism,” said Lan Duong, a co-curator, and assistant professor of media at UC Riverside. “The communist flag isn’t used just as a political symbol, but of what is going on in Vietnam and the kinds of modes of consumption that marks youth culture.”

How can academics be so stupid? A person wearing a red t-shirt with a yellow star in the middle with Ho Chi Minh on her cellphone isn't celebratory of communism? These professors would be mopping the floor in Communist Vietnam. They were fortunate to escape here, now they want to bring us to be tolerant? They have way too much time on their hands.



This is an issue that can't resolved. I don't have a hated for the people of Vietnam even though I am "Viet Kieu". If I was born in Vietnam instead of Canada after the war then I'd be supporting that flag as well. Vietnamese-Americans in Orange County, even though I'm on their side, always go overboard. They'll protest anything! If you don't support them, you're communist.

After being quiet for a few year things were pretty hectic for the Vietnamese-American community with the Foot Spa Flag and Madison Nguyen recall incident. And now they're going to open a new can of worms with this exhibit. Expect a backlash very soon.

We've Been Called Again

Little Saigon activists tell USC to take down Vietnam flag

We must rise again and once again re-teach people about how the Vietnamese flags work. Yes we know the Communist flag is the official flag and it's recognized by the UN. That is irrelevant to us. We refuse to step foot into any place that displays that flag and this definitely includes universities who should no better and stop catering to Vietnam SR.

Little Saigon is Killing Us

'Little Saigon' naming debate casts shadow over candidates

I am an overseas Vietnamese or "Viet Kieu" born in Canada. I will always support my fellow Viet Kieu. But they're insane!

Why is everyone fighting over a name? The name Little Saigon isn't that big of a deal since there's already one in Orange County. And it's not even about the name Saigon itself since the proposed name would be "Saigon Business District"

I think we have forgotten how to work together and are now too busy attacking each other.. for what.. a shit Councilman seat?

I will always support my fellow Viet Kieu. I love their passion and how they make sure that Vietnam SR doesn't walk all over us and claim us for themselves. But this in-fighting and finger-pointing and back-stabbing is pretty embarassing.

I hate the name "Madison". It's a white trash girls name.