Back for Tet, Vietnamese expatriates see changed nation
HO CHI MINH CITY - With the
government trying to lure them back, record
numbers of overseas Vietnamese are
returning to Vietnam to celebrate the Lunar
New Year, which begins tomorrow.
Most are stunned by how quickly their
homeland is changing.
They arrive with vivid, sometimes idealized
childhood memories of quiet downtown
streets where people wore pajama-style
clothes, rode bicycles and shopped at
simple sidewalk groceries with mangoes
and papayas stacked outside.
Some of that old country still exists, but it
is being eclipsed by a new Vietnam in
which trendy young people sport the latest
fashions, an army of motorbikes shares the
streets with a small but-
growing fleet of Mercedes Benzes, and
upscale shops peddle $1,000 Swiss
watches.
Even Vietnamese visitors who have made
previous trips to Vietnam are surprised by
how much the place has changed in just
the past two or three years.
The economic boom has brought back some of the decadent, bourgeois
trappings of the old Saigon that "Uncle Ho" and his cadres fought against. But
for all the economic progress, Vietnam remains one of the poorest countries in
the world, with many of its 80 million citizens mired in rural poverty.
Even for people at the bottom, however, things have been getting better. Per
capita income has risen to $438 a year, up 45 percent from five years ago.
Overseas Vietnamese are helping fuel the country's economic changes. They
are opening hundreds of businesses and wiring more and more money to their
Vietnamese relatives, much of which arrives during Tet, as the New Year's
holiday is known.
The three-day celebration will be marked by large family gatherings, lots of
traditional food and rituals intended to bring good fortune in the year to come.
(This will be The Year of the Goat, and it's a propitious time to have children.)
Vietnam's government seems increasingly eager to welcome home the overseas
Vietnamese.
In the past year, authorities have simplified visa and customs procedures,
passed a law enabling overseas Vietnamese to buy houses for the first time,
and begun phasing out the two-tiered airline prices that required overseas
Vietnamese and other foreigners to pay a 40 percent premium for a seat.
"We're trying to make it easier for overseas Vietnamese to come back," said
Nguyen Viet Thuan, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Committee on
Overseas Vietnamese. "The government considers overseas Vietnamese an
inseparable part of Vietnam."
It wasn't always so. For many years after the war, the government regarded Viet
Kieu, as overseas Vietnamese are known here, with deep suspicion. Wartime
hatreds were slow to recede, and many officials here feared that overseas
Vietnamese, many of them ferociously anti-communist, would return to their
homeland and plot to overthrow the government.
The old suspicions haven't completely faded, but the raft of new Viet
Kieu-friendly legislation passed by the government suggests Vietnam is growing
more serious about reconciliation.
And with good reason: Viet Kieu have opened or helped open more than 700
businesses in Ho Chi Minh City, creating thousands of jobs in the process.
They are playing a key role in the nation's fledgling technology industry. And
last year, they wired $2.4 billion to friends and relatives in Vietnam, up 20
percent from the previous year.
"Every year, the amount of money sent to Vietnam by Viet Kieu is increasing,"
Thuan said, stressing that the $2.4 billion figure includes only money sent
through official channels such as banks and agencies. According to some
estimates, the total could be as high as $4 billion.
Roughly 340,000 of the world's 2.7 million Viet Kieu visited the country in 2002,
up 10 percent from the previous year. As many as 40 percent of those visitors
arrive around Tet, which for Vietnamese is like Christmas, New Year's and
Thanksgiving rolled into one.
"There are so many motorbikes, and there are so many stores," said Sang
Chau Phan, a 37-year-old San Jose, Calif., resident who goes by his American
name, Sean. "They sell everything."
The many Viet Kieu who swamp Ho Chi Minh City at this time of year hang out
at places such as Windows, a popular downtown cafe.
Among the crowd was Kim Ta, 34, a San Diego manicurist making her eighth
visit to Vietnam since 1992. She feels much more welcome in Vietnam now
than she did on her first visit, when she had to tell authorities whenever she
traveled anywhere.
"It's better now," Ta said. "It's a lot better."
For Ta, who has become quite Americanized during her 24 years in the United
States, the Tet holiday has lost some of its allure. "It's not a biggie," she said.
But many of the Viet Kieu arriving to celebrate the New Year have grown tired of
spending the holiday in the United States, where they had to make do with
plastic Tet trees and a few even ate burgers instead of the traditional food that
everyone eats here.
"Tet is a special time for us," said Dan Nguyen, 35, a San Jose, Calif., airline
pilot who will celebrate the holiday with about 35 relatives in Ho Chi Minh City.
"And it's a much bigger celebration here."
By Ben Stocking - The Seattle Times - January 31, 2003.
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