The University of California, Irvine Libraries established the Southeast Asian Archive in 1987 in response to the community’s interest in having this history documented, preserved, and made accessible. The Archive's collection is broad and interdisciplinary in documenting the social, cultural, religious, political, and economic life of members of the Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese diaspora. Collection strengths include Southeast Asian American experiences of resettlement and community formations since the Vietnam War, Cambodian Genocide, and geopolitical turmoil in the former French-occupied "Indochina" in the latter half of the 20th century. The circumstances related to the formation of these diasporic communities, including wars, genocide, and displacement, contribute to the complexities of the Southeast Asian Archive. In particular, records from international aid workers may include information about people who were unknowingly (or non-consentingly) documented and/or depict or describe graphic violence, nudity, as well as racist and/or sexist views. Additionally, these communities originate from countries previously colonized by France and named “Indochina.” As such, some records deploy terms that may be common in government and scholarly publications, but are not adopted or agreed upon by Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese people. These primary source collections are historical and may include descriptive language, personal views, and imagery about and/or in them that are no longer used or considered appropriate today. The acceptability of language and content can change over time. It is possible that a collection or metadata associated with a collection may contain historical language or culturally sensitive content now recognized as inappropriate for publication without meaningful context or consultation with relevant communities. We are proactively addressing these issues in the UCI Libraries, including ongoing work on reparative, ethical archival description. If you believe that we have archival materials or have published an image or information that is incorrect or that should be restricted, please submit feedback using this form: https://airtable.com/shrOmDhHMDUFlhBVd
This collection contains 6 large format scrapbooks documenting the Vietnamese Exodus from 1979 to 1982. The collection includes photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and official documents. The scrapbooks were compiled by Cynthia Glegge Bashall, wife of Talbot Bashall. Talbot Bashall was Controller of the Refugee Control Centre camp in Hong Kong from April 18, 1979 to October 17, 1982.
The Boat People S.O.S. records contain materials from the Vietnamese Alliance Association, Boat People S.O.S. by-laws and meeting minutes, pamphlets, correspondence, and materials documenting Boat People S.O.S.'s early work and programming. Formed in 1980, Boat People S.O.S. was based in San Diego, California and conducted many joint rescue-at-sea missions with international organizations. Currently, Boat People S.O.S. is a national organization with multiple branches in the US and operations in Southeast Asia.
7.7 Linear Feet (10 boxes, 2 oversized folders 275 digitized images) and 4.0 unprocessed linear feet
Creator
Bonner, Mitchell I.
Abstract Or Scope
This collection comprises approximately 3,000 photographs and slides taken by Mitchell Bonner between 1975 and 2001, as well as printed ephemera collected by him through 2015. The images document Iu Mien, Lao, Khmer, Vietnamese, and Cambodian community social and cultural events throughout Northern California, primarily the San Francisco Bay area. The emphasis is on Laotian American communities. The ephemera includes programs, posters and flyers from cultural, religious, and popular culture events, refugee publications, pamphlets and brochures from refugee assistance agencies, and other materials related to social services, education, and refugees. The collection also includes a small amount of material documenting other Asian American communities in California, including Burmese, Thai, Filipino, and Tibetan.
0.25 Linear Feet (1 half-width legal-size document box)
Abstract Or Scope
The Kathy Buchoz collection on Westminster, California and Vietnamese Americans contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera from Kathy Buchoz' time as mayor of the city of Westminster and beyond, focusing on the city, its Little Saigon area, and the experience of Vietnamese Americans there.
0.8 Linear Feet 1 legal document box; 1 letter document box, 1 OS folder
Abstract Or Scope
This collection is comprised of photographs taken by Michael Burr. The collection includes black and white photographs of various sizes of Saigon, South Vietnam in 1969-1970s, as well as colored photographs of Vietnam between 2003-2005.
This collection contains interview transcripts, published and unpublished reports, research notes, working papers, maps, clippings, correspondence, memoranda, and statistical data gathered by Joseph M. Carrier primarily while he was employed as a Rand Corporation counterinsurgency specialist with the Chieu Hoi Program in Vietnam. The bulk of the materials pertains to the Chieu Hoi Program, which was operated by the Republic of Vietnam from 1963 to 1973 to encourage civilian and military defections from the communist-controlled South. The collection contains materials documenting the administration of the Chieu Hoi program in addition to transcripts of interviews conducted with defectors (or "ralliers"), prisoners of war, and refugees. English and Vietnamese interview notes, translated Viet Minh (or "Viet Cong") documents, and preliminary interrogation reports are also included. The collection also contains administrative materials produced by the Rand Corporation, the United States government, Republic of Vietnam government, the National Academy of Sciences, and other agencies documenting such topics as Viet Cong and U.S. military activities; counterinsurgency movements; the use of herbicides and their toxicological and environmental effects; and Vietnamese socio-economic conditions, social history, politics, and demographics. A small group of files contain Carrier's research materials for the San Francisco Center for Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement's 1991 study of AIDS knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors in San Francisco Southeast Asian communities, as well as personal letters by a Rand colleague named Leon Goure. The majority of materials are in English. Some materials are in Vietnamese. The collection also contains 35mm slides and black and white negatives of South Vietnam between 1962-1973.
This collection is comprised of records collected by University of California, Irvine student Paokong Chang documenting the Southeast Asian refugee experience in America, with a special focus on the Hmong population. The bulk of the collection contains photocopies of original newspaper and magazine articles written in the 1980s. There are also reports, statements, pamphlets, and brochures written by various Hmong activist and human rights groups documenting their activities and refugee life, particularly in California. The materials include detailed contextual material that makes this data useful for research on early Hmong refugee and immigrant life in America, human rights issues, and more broadly in Asian American diaspora studies.
This collection consists of 82 audio tapes (71 mini-cassettes and 11 cassettes) containing interviews with Cambodian-Americans, conducted by Audrey U. Kim in 1995 and 1996 for the book Not Just Victims: Conversations with Cambodian Community Leaders in the United States published by the University of Illinois in 2003. Also included are approximately 170 newspaper clippings indexed by Sucheng Chan covering 1978-1980, regarding events in Vietnam and Cambodia as well the experiences of refugees from those countries.
This collection contains scanned surrogates of Chan Troi Moi, a free newspaper published by Vietnamese refugees in Guam, USA. Issues included are from 1 through 86 dated 2 May 1975 to 22 August 1975.