Vietnam Culture

The building in the city that once crumbled under a rain of artillery is clean, trim and inviting, not unlike a resort hotel, and the young Vietnamese people who live there are much the same. But they are not quite Vietnamese, and they don't want to stay. They long to be American, but they are not quite American. They are hopeful, but they are also bewildered, dispossessed, lost in a world of hazy culture and ethnicity between Orient and Occident.

Ask Khoi Nguyen, an Anaheim medical technician, if he's read any good books lately, and he mentions one you won't find on the bestseller lists. It's "Thien Duong Mu" ("Blind Heaven") by Duong Thu Huong, a now-imprisoned dissident novelist in Vietnam whose books are reprinted in the United States and France.

The small percussion instrument Mai Nguyen holds in her hand hints of the international influences in Vietnam's past. More than 1,000 years of Chinese domination in Indochina are reflected in a dragon design, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The metal discs that produce the ringing sound are revealed on a closer look to be French coins, dated 1925, reminders of the more recent French rule of a troubled nation.

Ton-That Niem remembers the old days in Vietnam, when children would bow automatically and often as a signal of respect to their parents. In the new country, that age-old tradition has all but died. These days, he said, some children won't even bother to acknowledge their parents when they walk in the front door.

As dusk falls, promising relief from the sticky heat of an August day in Southwest Missouri, the fragrance of incense blends with the smoke curling up from barbecues on which sizzle thit heo kho , a sweet-and-sour pork, and ga nuong , chicken marinated in fish and soy sauces.

When Sean and Giana Pham left Vietnam for the United States in 1975, one thing they didn't leave behind was their deep appreciation for the popular music of their homeland. Once in this country, they developed another love: contemporary Western jazz. Combining these two passions has resulted in one of the most unusual musical hybrids in the world of jazz fusion.

With all the Vietnamese restaurants that have proliferated in California in recent years, perhaps it is only fitting that a cafe featuring the cuisine of Melrose Avenue should strike pay dirt in Ho Chi Minh City. Down to the cane furniture and amorphous watercolors on the walls, the City Bar and Grill is an unmistakable Los Angeles import in the former capital of South Vietnam. Take the menu.

The dragon undulated past, giving an imperious toss of his head. Obediently, with eyes open wide, the children dropped what they were doing and fell in behind him in Pied Piper fashion. In a matter of minutes, more than 100 of them trailed the fearsome creature, who led them through a maze of rooms, down concrete walkways and right into the yawning maw of . . . the rumpus room.

The Vietnamese Tet festival in Little Saigon has been canceled this year because its sponsor still owes the city more than $50,000 in unpaid bills from last year's celebration, organizers said Friday. "The city charged us too much money last year," said an angry Co Pham, president of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce. "We can't afford to pay what (it) charged us." The city told chamber officials last August that unless it pays $52,920.

Care for a cruise to the underground guerrilla tunnels of Cu Chi, where you can fire real AK-47s for a dollar a bullet? A friendly jaunt to Khe Sanh, site of a ferocious battle that drew the heaviest concentration of firepower in the history of U.S. warfare? How about a 10-day jungle tour down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, complete with war games and toy guns that shoot red dye? Vietnam declared 1990 the "Year of the Tourist," kicking off concentrated efforts to develop its tourism industry.