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The exhibit ’Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon’ opened at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19. The show is the first Vietnamese American historical exhibit at the Smithsonian.
MCT PHOTOS
WASHINGTON — Vu Pham knew as he assembled an exhibit on the exodus of the Vietnamese after the fall of Saigon that he would be judged by the very people whose experiences he was documenting.
“It was a tougher one to put together, because you’re dealing with living, breathing sources,” who each have a different take on the events, said Pham, the curator of “Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon,” which opened at the Smithsonian Institution on Jan. 19.
It is the first exhibit at the museum and in the nation to highlight the journey of Vietnamese who fled to the United States after communists took control of the country. At the end of this month, it will leave the S. Dillon Ripley Gallery and head out on a three-year U.S. tour.
Pham, 34, is a professor of Asian-American studies who teaches at UC Irvine and UCLA. He is also linked to the exodus personally: He was born in Vietnam, and his family came to the United States after Saigon fell.
While he hadn’t assembled an exhibit before, Pham said his status as an expert on the event was what got him hired.
“There aren’t too many people with my specialty,” he said. “It’s not that I have this wealth of experience, but that I’m a rarity in terms of who’s there and has studied this subject.”
Since 1975, more than 150,000 Vietnamese-Americans have settled in Orange County, Calif., making it one of the largest enclaves in the country.
A sense of this Vietnamese-American community is laid out on the walls of the quiet gallery that is part of the Smithsonian Institution. There are photos of immigrants being loaded onto helicopters — eyes filled with fear and uncertainty. In grainy film footage, emaciated immigrants wave for help from ships in rough seas — adrift and seeking a home.
Next to images of struggle are pictures of happier times in a new land. They show immigrants in well-known American settings: boys in Cub Scout uniforms, families marching in Fourth of July parades and a man in a cowboy hat waving an American flag.
It also highlights the sense of tension that can exist as younger generations are raised in a culture distinctly different from that of those who came before them. The exhibit showcases barriers such as language and the outside influences of a foreign culture.
“We wanted to show community building,” Pham said. “We wanted to show daily life and that forming a community takes many different people.”
IF YOU GO
If you go
What: “Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon”
Where: The Smithsonian Institution, Concourse Gallery, D. Dillon Ripley Center, 1100 Jefferson Drive, S.W., Washington, D.C.
When: Through March 31