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Oral histories are intimate conversations between and among people who have generously agreed to share these recordings with BHS’s archives and researchers. Please listen in the spirit with which these were shared. BHS abides by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as agreed upon by the Oral History Association and expects that use of this material will be done with respect for these professional ethics.
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[Last name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer’s First name Last name], [Month DD, YYYY], [Title of Collection], [Call #]; Brooklyn Historical Society.
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Anonymous
Oral history interview conducted by Gregory Ruf
July 01, 1993
Call number: 1994.007.02
0:08 - 介绍家庭成员，去越南前的家庭状况 Family members introduced and their condition before they went to Vietnam
12:40 - 在越南的生活 Introduction to her life story in Vietnam
34:30 - 如何离开越南前往美国 How they left Vietnam and came to United States
43:29 - 刚到美国的生活（英语，租房） Her life when she and her children had just arrived in U.S. (language skill, renting)
48:15 - 在纽约的工作和生意：开成衣厂，礼品店 （在她的地产生意之前） Her job and business in New York: garment factory and gift shop (before real estate business)
54:50 - 在纽约的地产生意和她孩子在纽约的工作和学习 Her real estate business and her children's jobs and study in New York
61:03 - 在布鲁克林八大道附近的中国社区和八大道附近的房地产情况 Chinese community around 8th Ave in Brooklyn and condition of real estate around area
Interview Description
Oral History Interview with Anonymous
The narrator was born circa 1950 in Taishan, Mainland China. After a brief stay in Hong Kong, her family settled in Saigon, Vietnam, where she lived for thirty years. As an adult, she worked, married, and had five children. The family lived comfortably until the Vietcong conquered South Vietnam and took possession of her family's considerable financial portfolio. Forced to flee, the narrator and her children were granted refugee status in America and settled in Brooklyn. She started numerous entrepreneurial pursuits, including a real estate business. At the time of the 1993 interview, the narrator lived in Brooklyn with her husband and four adult children.
In this interview, the narrator relates her life story with a backdrop of generations of her family's history. She describes Vietnam; living in Saigon, the Vietcong takeover, her family's process of fleeing, and immigrating to America as a refugee. The narrator discusses her entrepreneurial pursuits by evaluating each business that she started along with each demise. She looks at the real estate business in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn; providing general rent information and identifying the future prospects for the area and its Chinese American residents. Interview in Mandarin conducted by Gregory Ruf.
Brooklyn Historical Society collaborated with the Chinatown History Museum (now the Museum of Chinese in America) in order to conduct a series of oral histories with residents of the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Cantonese, Mandarin, and English language interviews focused on what was then a new presence of Chinese and Asian immigrants concentrated along Eighth Avenue. Among the topics that are explored in the interviews are tensions between different groups of Chinese immigrants, crime and safety in the neighborhood, Sunset Park's relationship to Manhattan's Chinatown, and how long-term residents of Sunset Park had adjusted to the area's "newcomers."
Citation
Anonymous, Oral history interview conducted by Gregory Ruf, July 01, 1993, New Neighbors: Sunset Park's Chinese Community records, 1994.007.02; Brooklyn Historical Society.People
- mat tran dan toc giai phong mien nam viet nam
Topics
- Asian Americans
- Business enterprises
- Chinese Americans
- Communism
- Emigration and immigration
- Festivals
- Multiculturalism
- Real estate business
- Refugees
- Religious life and customs
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Places
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- China
- Chinatown (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Chinatown (New York, N.Y.)
- Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
- Hong Kong (China)
- Sunset Park (New York, N.Y.)
Finding Aid
New Neighbors: Sunset Park's Chinese Community records