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Discover the curated images, videos, and primary sources featured throughout Foundations and Futures

History is more than just text on a page; it is the photographs, voices, and artifacts of the people who lived it. The images and recordings featured across Foundations and Futures are part of a meticulously curated media repository. Whether you are building a lesson plan or investigating an artifact, you can use this database to trace the provenance of our media: discover who created an asset, the historical context behind it, and how it can be used to bring Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences into your classroom.

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  • A white, geometric pillar glows with white and purple lighting at dusk. In the background is a building that reads "Asian Garden Mall".
    Image
    Of Two Lineages

    Of Two Lineages public art installation located in front of the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster, California, by artist James Dinh. The project commemorates the fortieth anniversary of Vietnamese migration to the United States.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • Large white cement statue of an open palm with a little girl standing along the fingers while a little boy lays down on the palm.
    Image
    Hand of Hope

    Hand of Hope located at Camp Pendleton, the first US military base set up to receive Vietnamese refugees in 1975. This monument was designed by artist Nguyen Luu Dat and built by two Marines.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • The drawing shows an American lifeguard saving a relaxed Viet refugee underwater. The text below reads "Could you manage to kick a little bit?"
    Image
    Could You Manage to Kick a Little Bit?

    This political cartoon from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (c. 1964) demonstrates a simplistic view of Vietnamese refugees. The problematic depiction echoes government and media narratives from this time that perpetuate stereotypes of Vietnamese refugees as a burden to American society.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • Uyen Hoang remembers family gatherings at garage parties and discusses the Vietnamese-American community’s resilience in the face of challenges. Recorded Jun. 8, 2022; Fountain Valley Library, Fountain Valley, CA.
    Video
    Little Saigon Stories – Still A Lot of Tensions

    Uyen Hoang, a Vietnamese American community member of Orange County’s Little Saigon in California, recalls an early childhood memory of the 1999 Hi-Tek incident.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • During a protest against Hi-Tek, protestors wave American and South Vietnamese flags. A float decorated in yellow colors stands above the crowd.
    Image
    Hi-Tek Protestors

    Orange County’s Little Saigon community members protest against Hi-Tek Video. Protestors demanded owner Tran Truong to remove a poster featuring Hồ Chí Minh and the red flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from his shop window.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • South Vietnam flag waving on a flagpole. The flag is yellow with three horizontal red stripes across the center.
    Image
    Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster

    Vietnamese American “Heritage and Freedom” Flag, flown at the city of Westminster’s Vietnam War Memorial.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • The bar graph titled "Donald Trump Favorability" shows the results of different ethnic groups. Levels of favorability is indicated by colors.
    Image
    Donald Trump Favorability, 2020

    Infographic showing Asian American voters’ favorability of Donald Trump in 2020. This survey shows that compared to other Asian American groups, Vietnamese voters respond with a higher favorability to Donald Trump.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • Trump supporters crowd the front entrance and railings of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C during a cloudy day.
    Image
    January 6, 2021

    Ultraconservative groups take siege of the United States Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021. A person prominently carries the flag of South Vietnam (center right).

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 5
    View multimedia
  • Foundations and Futures Multimedia
    Audio
    Decades After Clashing With The Klan, A Thriving Vietnamese Community In Texas

    An National Public Radio (NPR) Weekend Edition story shares the history and current community formations of Vietnamese resettlement in Texas, offering a lens to view current sentiments toward immigrants.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • A plastic bag with a red square that reads "ICEM" four times. Inside are chest X-rays of Viet refugees.
    Image
    “ICEM” Plastic Bag

    These plastic bags held chest X-rays, part of the medical screening for tuberculosis that Vietnamese refugees underwent to prove that they were medically-cleared for resettlement, only to then expose themselves to health hazards in nail work.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • A group of Vietnamese and white women pose for a class photo. In the top center is Vietnamese American Tippi Hedren.
    Image
    Tippi Hedren with Graduating Nail Tech Refugee Class

    American actress Tippi Hedren (top center) with one of her graduating classes of Vietnamese refugee women learning to become nail technicians.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • A page from Người Việt Daily News with classified ads, small business ads, and community notices in Vietnamese.
    Text
    First Issue of Người Việt Daily News (Page 1)

    The first issue of Người Việt Daily News (c. 1978). The Vietnamese-language newspaper started out of Yến Ngọc Đỗ’s home in Garden Grove, California, near the center of Orange County’s Little Saigon.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • Four women smiling and talking stand behind a cashier counter in a pharmacy. A man stands to the right looking at the camera.
    Image
    Danh’s Pharmacy

    Danh’s Pharmacy in Orange County’s Little Saigon (c. 1980s). Before the US and Vietnam normalized trade and diplomatic relations, Vietnamese Americans depended on businesses such as Danh’s Pharmacy to ship care packages to their families in Vietnam.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • Vietnamese American Van Le standing in a seafood processing room. Behind are women packing crab meat into containers.
    Image
    Van Le in Seadrift Seafood

    Van Le (center) and her husband own a seafood business named Seadrift Seafood. Vietnamese refugees drawn to the fishing business resettled along the Gulf Coast of Texas and formed new communities.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • A crowd of white Americans gather around a wooden boat set on fire by a Ku Klux Klan member. "Viet-Cong" is painted on the side of the boat.
    Image
    Ku Klux Klan Set “Viet-Cong” Boat Ablaze

    Louis Beam (right), Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, sets fire to a boat labeled “Viet-Cong” during a rally for white Texas Gulf fisherman in Santa Fe, Texas in 1981.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • This Washington Post clipping shows an image of Saigon Market. A Vietnamese family walks past the storefront.
    Image
    Little Saigon in Arlington County, Virginia

    This 1979 clipping from the Washington Post documents the history of Little Saigon in the Clarendon neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • Black-and-white photo of a woman hunched over in the grass holding a bag and some papers. Above her, clothes dry on a clothesline.
    Image
    Vietnamese Refugee Settles in California

    Many Vietnamese refugees temporarily housed at Camp Pendleton went on to resettle about sixty miles north in Orange County, California. Today, Orange County is home to the largest Little Saigon in the United States.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • A graph titled "Vietnamese population in the U.S., 2009 - 2019" shows growth over four green data points. The note below explains the methodology.
    Image
    Vietnamese Population in the U.S., 2000-2019

    Vietnamese population in the US, 2000–2019 by the Pew Research Center.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 4
    View multimedia
  • This drawing shows a refugee family in a bunk bed. A mother holds her child while a woman takes her shirt off behind and a boy sits on the top.
    Image
    Life in the Camp by Nguyen Dai Giang

    Life in the Camp (1990) by Nguyen Dai Giang. The artwork depicts the living quarters of a refugee family.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
    View multimedia
  • This excerpt from a Viet refugee's diary details the beginnings of their escape a on boat.
    Text
    Pocket Diary of a Vietnamese Refugee (Pages 7-8)

    These dairy pages are excerpts from Pocket Diary of a Vietnamese Boat Person Refugee, housed at the University of California, Irvine Libraries Southeast Asian Archive. The diary details an anonymous refugee’s boat journey beginning at 8:00 p.m. on June 17, 1979, from Cà Mau. This rare primary source object captures the experiences and feelings of an individual, but also sheds light on some of the first asylum countries’ roles in the refugee exodus.

    Featured in:
    Vietnamese American Experiences, Module 3
    View multimedia
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