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Hao Pham, left, Thang Tran and Ethan Le want to bring a Vietnamese-American cultural center to Metro Detroit.Vietnamese hope for cultural center
New facility would be first of its kind in Metro Detroit and help educate others, aid immigrants.
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MADISON HEIGHTS -- Sitting in a black vinyl booth of a Madison Heights restaurant with a plaid shirt and a smile that makes his eyes crinkle at the corner, Hao Pham passes around dishes of Vietnamese-style catfish, cabbage salad and chicken stir-fry with lemongrass.
A lot has changed for the 48-year-old father of two since he fled Vietnam in 1979. One of the thousands of "boat people," Pham, of Ann Arbor, endured a cramped three-day journey across the South China Sea with little food and a Thai pirate attack to make it to Malaysia and later the United States.
Today, Pham hasn't forgotten his desperate past. He's working with a group of friends to bring other Vietnamese immigrants together, teach Americans about the Vietnam War and provide resources to other new immigrants through a Vietnamese-American cultural center.
"A cultural center would benefit everybody," said Pham, who works at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn. "It'll be a place for our people, it'll enrich others and expand their knowledge base."
Conceived by older Vietnamese immigrants years ago but never acted upon, the center will be the first of its kind in Metro Detroit and is being spearheaded by Pham and three Vietnamese friends and co-workers whom he met through the Ford Vietnamese Association.
Fund raising kicked off last month with a special program in Royal Oak featuring Vietnamese singing, dancing and food that raised more than $7,000.
Milon Hoang, another member of Vietnamese-American Future Generations spearheading the drive, said the goal is to raise roughly $500,000 during the next five years to build the center or renovate a building.
The center may be in Madison Heights, Sterling Heights or north Warren, where many Vietnamese-Americans live.
"There's community centers for just about every ethnic group," said Hoang, 40, of West Bloomfield.
"Why not a Vietnamese center? It would add to the cultural enrichment of Metro Detroit."
According to U.S. Census figures, Michigan's Vietnamese represent one of the smallest Asian subgroups in the state, with 0.1 percent of the population in 2000. But their ranks are growing, up 124 percent between 1990 and 2000.
Hoang said there is no place where the Vietnamese in Metro Detroit can come together.
Hoang, who fled Vietnam with her family two days before the fall of Saigon in 1976 because her father was a South Vietnamese Army colonel, said many Vietnamese turn to their churches or temples for traditional celebrations or classes to teach their children Vietnamese.
But she hopes the center will be a place where Vietnamese can come together regardless of faith and Westerners can learn about the history and aftermath of a devastating war.
The center will include a historical exhibit with artifacts, letters and testimony. Roughly 6 million Vietnamese lost their lives during the 30-yearlong civil war, along with 58,000 American soldiers.
"Between 1954 and 1975, 2.5 million people died," Hoang said.
"You're talking about almost 10 percent of the (North Vietnam and South Vietnam) population. ... People don't see that. For the Vietnamese, it was a huge toll we paid."
You can reach Maureen Feighan at (248) 647-7416 or mfeighan@detnews.com.
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