Brian Truong, Hue Truong and Yen Ngyugen are all part of a non-profit organization called V3, a Vietnamese traditional dance performance group. They sat down with The Source to talk about Vietnamese culture and their desire to engage the next generation of Vietnamese-Canadians.
“If you ask Vietnamese around here they will say that our community is scattered,” says Ngyugen, who has volunteered with V3 for many years.
Engaging Vietnamese youth
There are 31,075 Vietnamese living in the Lower Mainland as per the 2011 National Statistics Canada census. The non-profit organization V3 represents people from the three regions of Vietnam: North, Central and South. V3 still struggles to engage Vietnamese youth in their culture and traditions.
“I don’t speak Vietnamese very well and I know little of my culture,” says Brian Truong. “This means that when I have my own family, the culture will be further diluted.”
Truong, 29, joined V3 as a way of understanding his own identity. He also noticed a lack of interest from Vietnamese youth who are more interested in assimilating with Canadian culture.
“There are not enough of the third and fourth generations of Vietnamese who have a desire to get reacquainted with their culture,” says Truong.
Many Vancouverites distinguish Vietnamese culture by their Pho meat-based soups and spicy curries from award-winning restaurants like Mr. Red Café in the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood. Many more businesses and communities live and breathe in pockets across the Lower Mainland, such as the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood on Kingsway that was renamed Little Saigon. However, the community still lacks an official body or association designed to promote Vietnamese culture.
“There are a number of small grass-root groups supporting our neighbourhoods,” says Ngyugen. “But, we don’t have one specific organization that helps to unite and promote
Vietnamese culture.”
Resettlement in Canada shaped Vietnamese culture
Hue Truong (back row centre) and her 11 family members on Barnston Island, Surrey, with one of their sponsors, Susan Russell and her three daughters. | Photo courtesy of Hue Truong
The journey of more than 40,500 Vietnamese resettling in Canada after the Vietnam War is an important part of Vietnamese culture.
Brian’s mother Hue Truong resettled in Canada in 1979. Eleven members of her family were rescued from an overcrowded fishing boat that was heading to a Malaysian refugee camp. When their boat was sunk in the ocean near the coast of Malaysia by Communists trying to stop them from leaving Vietnam, the families that survived the treacherous seas and starvation were transferred to a refugee camp in Malaysia where they could remain for ten years. Mrs. Truong’s family was lucky. A group of professors and doctors living in the Lower Mainland sponsored her entire family four months after they had arrived at the camp.
“I left Vietnam at 13 with my family – we crossed the Pacific Ocean on a small fishing boat that should only hold 20 people, says Mrs. Truong. “The problem was we had 360 people on our boat.”
Now 52, Mrs. Truong manages the dance performances for V3 group. She believes it’s important to help guide the next generation of Vietnamese. Similar to other Asian cultures, Vietnamese children learn at an early age to respect their parents and elders. Mrs. Truong is less interested in following outdated traditions like arranged marriages, but she does expect to live with one of her children when she is elderly.
“We are very proud of our Vietnamese culture,” says Mrs. Truong. “I was taught by my parents to be respectful, loving and honest. No cheating, no lying…and no shortcuts. And, I’ve taught my three children the same thing.”
Ngyugen, 30, was introduced to V3 as a teenager and now she manages the finances and donations for the group. Ngyugen has experienced how Vietnamese elders resist change and try to prevent the next generation from moving on from the past. The divide has stymied many Vietnamese groups from working together to build their cultural identity across the Lower Mainland.
“We need groups to work together to help preserve Vietnamese culture, so we can pass along our identity to the next generation,” says Ngyugen.
For more information on V3, go to www.V3group.ca.
