Spartan Daily

Tet brings Vietnamese culture in San Jose together to ring in the New Year

Tet 5 Members of the Vietnamese Lasallian Youth Troupe, perform at the 30th annual Tet festival, Jan 21, 2012 and the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Photo by Raphael Kluzniok.

Tet 4 Members of the Vietnamese Lasallian Youth Troupe, perform at the 30th annual Tet festival, Jan 21, 2012 and the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Photo by Raphael Kluzniok.

Tet 3 Members of the Vietnamese Lasallian Youth Troupe, perform at the 30th annual Tet festival, Jan 21, 2012 and the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Photo by Raphael Kluzniok / Spartan Daily

Tet 2 Members of the Vietnamese Lasallian Youth Troupe, perform at the 30th annual Tet festival, Jan 21, 2012 and the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Photo by Raphael Kluzniok / Spartan Daily

Tet 1 Members of the Vietnamese Lasallian Youth Troupe, perform at the 30th annual Tet festival, Jan 21, 2012 and the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. Photo by Raphael Kluzniok / Spartan Daily

Wobbly Vietnamese karaoke flowed from a stage, as the singer stood alongside rows of in-the-box flat screen televisions in a quiet performing area near the back of the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds on Sunday.

The performer sang undiscouraged before a crowd of seven while the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens game played on mute just below center stage.

This was one of the quieter and more evocative images of Tet, the celebration of the Vietnamese New Year, commemorated this year on Jan. 23, marking the Year of the Dragon.

The city of San Jose, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, has 100,486 Vietnamese citizens — the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam anywhere in the world.

The Fairgrounds hosted a celebration of the holiday on Jan. 21 and 22 and Dat Nguyen, executive director of the Vietnamese American Council, said in an email there will be another celebration at Vietnam Town on Story Road this upcoming weekend.

Nguyen said the Fairgrounds hosted the celebration for the last 30 years and attendance regularly exceeds 20,000.

Within the Fairgrounds there were stages with musical performances, food booths, a carnival, works of art from a museum, a beauty pageant, martial arts demonstrations and a gathering for businesses and vendors.

Vy Nguyen, cultural heritage chairperson of the Vietnamese Student Association at SJSU, said the group's members volunteered at the celebration and were making strong efforts to strengthen the ties of SJSU’s Vietnamese student population to the broader Vietnamese community.

“We are trying to bring as much Vietnamese culture to the campus as possible,” Nguyen said. “As much as the American culture is influencing us everyday, Vietnamese culture is where I originally come from, so there is no way I am going to give that up."

According to the Office of Institutional Research, there are 809 Vietnamese students at SJSU, though this is only tracked through a voluntary form of self-identification and may not represent the entire population.

Tony Tran, a second year volunteer at the festival and student at Yerba Buena High School said he felt it was very important to strengthen young people's connection to their heritage.

“It’s a really good opportunity for students in our school to brighten our community, to get in touch with their culture,” he said. “Most students at our school don’t relate to their culture.”

Tran said he remembered coming to the festival when he was a child and was glad to be able to participate and see others having the same experience he did.

“It’s nice all the kids all having fun and joy,” he said. “It’s important to preserve our roots. One day you might just forget them if you don’t try.”

Nguyen said connection to family was the strongest theme of Tet, and her family placed great emphasis on it.

“For us, Tet is family. It only happens once a year and it is big for us.” she said. “As Vietnamese, I was raised to believe we are very family oriented people.”

Ky Truong, founder of 3SC Vietnamese Clothing and SJSU alumnus, was selling his T-shirts at the festival as a vendor for the first time and said it was a good opportunity to promote his product.

“It’s perfect time to celebrate with Vietnamese people,” he said.

The largest two gatherings in the Vietnamese community are Tet and the Moon Festival Truong said, and other gatherings were uncommon.

With a table of shirts featuring the Burger King logo reading “Pho King Delicious” or an acrostic of the word VIET spelling out “Victorious In Every Task,” he said his main goal was to keep Vietnamese culture alive among Vietnamese-American youth by selling products that integrate both cultures.

“As future generations begin growing up in America, they begin to identify themselves with American culture,” he said. “Vietnamese culture gets diluted as years go by.

“The way to blend the two cultures is to try to find things for them to relate to.”

Sushie Tran, SJSU alumna and founder of “With love, made from hate" jewelry, said attendance was disappointing this year and was not on par with past years.

While Tran said she worked on her jewelry to promote more American and modern influences into Vietnamese jewelry, she felt the younger people were losing the traditional parts of Vietnamese culture, and the older members of the community were reacting too conservatively to newer elements being introduced into the community.

“I feel like sometimes we’re losing the traditional part of ourselves,” she said. “First generation Vietnamese should try to preserve their culture more.”

Tran did say she was pleased with how many young people had volunteered to help at the festival.

“A lot of the volunteers are new generation Vietnamese," she said. "I feel like it’s a very good mix of Vietnamese-Americans. It's a very diverse group.”

Tran and Vy Nguyen agreed the biggest element of Vietnamese culture being lost in younger generations is the language, but they want to keep making efforts to try to preserve that culture.

“First generation Vietnamese should try to preserve their culture more,” Tran said. “I think everyone should be proud of where you’re from.”