Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon: The Vietnamese American Diaspora—05/14/2010

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May by commemorating the anniversary of Vietnamese mass migration to the United States in Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon: The Vietnamese American Diaspora.

The Speakers:

Andrew Lam is writer and editor with Pacific News Service, co-founder of New America Media, author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, commentator on NPR's All Things Considered, and award-winning syndicated writer for publications across the country.

Lan Cao is Professor of Law at the College of William and Mary, where she specializes in international law, trade, and development. She is the author of the novel, Monkey Bridge, and co-author of Everything You Need to Know about Asian-American History, with Himilce Novas and Rosemary Silva.

Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive Director of Boat People SOS, arrived in the U.S. in 1979 as a boat refugee from Vietnam. After obtaining a PhD in 1986 from Virginia Tech in mechanical engineering, he joined BPSOS in 1988 as a volunteer and has since built the organization into a national presence, operating out of 18 U.S. locations and two in Southeast Asia.

Moderator:

Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis of University of Maryland's Asian American Studies Program is a founding co-editor of the Asian American Literary Review. His poetry and fiction have appeared in McSweeney's, the New York Quarterly, and Fiction International, among other journals, and have twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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