For eight days, protesters paraded in front of one of Little Saigon's leading newspapers. They carried an effigy of Ho Chi Minh and called the editors "traitors" for running a photo they said was so offensive that it had to be the work of communist sympathizers.
Two top editors at the newspaper were replaced several days later.
The offending photo was of a piece of art by a UC Davis graduate student and Vietnamese immigrant who saw the creation -- a yellow and red foot-spa tub -- as a salute to Vietnamese refugees like her mother-in-law who toiled in a nail salon after the family came to America.
But the protesters saw something far more menacing.
The tub was yellow with three red stripes, which the protesters said must be a reference to the flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam. And the spa's yellow power cord was plugged into a red outlet, which seemed to resemble the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, now under communist rule.
"Why is the South Vietnamese flag on a thing that people wash their dirty feet in?" asked Uc Van Nguyen, 70, who attended some of the rallies, which began in late January.
Such loud and jeering protests are not unusual in the United States' largest Vietnamese enclave, where the line between free expression and traitorous behavior remains paper-thin.
The controversy over the foot spa underscores how homeland politics and memories of a war that ended a generation ago continue to echo in the community, where reputations can be tarnished with accusations of being a communist sympathizer. Business leaders, politicians, radio personalities, even pop stars are mindful of the pitfalls.
At the recent rallies outside the newspaper, protesters said that despite the abundant freedoms in America, artists must practice self-restraint to avoid insulting a community where the memories of war and struggle still linger.
"This image is extremely offensive," said Nguyen, who fought in the Vietnam War for the South Vietnamese military as a helicopter commander and now lives in Tustin. "It hurts the feelings of all Vietnamese refugees."
The photo of the artwork, titled "Connection," was printed in the Vietnamese lunar new year edition of a magazine published by Nguoi Viet, the largest daily newspaper in Little Saigon.
During the protest, which ended early this month, dozens of people marched around the newspaper's parking lot, yelling, "Down with communists! Down with Nguoi Viet newspaper!"
