One of the largest Vietnamese neighborhoods in the United States is Philadelphia's Little Saigon, located in Passyunk Square, a neighborhood in

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west."." ''City of Philadelphia''. Retrieved November 8, ...

. This heart of the

Philadelphia metropolitan area Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

's rapidly growing Vietnamese community is centered on the intersection of S. Eighth Street and Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia, with "one of the largest Vietnamese populations on the east coast," and is a district where "... neon signs lure shoppers into grocery stores, restaurants, and karaoke bars set back from the street in low-rise concrete strip malls. Shoppers pushing carts laden with rice noodles, bean cakes and imported spices and sauces pack suburban-style parking lots behind the complexes." The author further states that the Vietnamese are now (as of 2013) the largest ethnic community in the Washington Avenue/Passyunk Square section of the city and that the entire Vietnamese population of Philadelphia is larger than that of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Southwest Philadelphia and

Northeast Philadelphia Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Great Northeast, and known colloquially as simply "the Northeast", is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of betw ...

also contain Vietnamese American neighborhoods. Mimicking Little Saigon is Baby Saigon, a small Vietnamese neighborhood located in the Whitman neighborhood of South Philadelphia, bordering Cambodia Town. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese community has additionally expanded eastward across the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

to Camden,

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, Woodlynne, and as far as

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in the neighboring

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Background

According to Ariel Diliberto, a

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

anthropology scholar, "... the strip malls are typical of Vietnamese business communities across the U.S." Diliberto points out that the architecture "... is an idealization of American enterprise among South Vietnamese frustrated under communism and inspired by the 'simple, geometric high-rise buildings' constructed in Vietnamese towns and cities during the Vietnam war." Unlike other Vietnamese enclaves in the US, "... there’s no gaudy, generically 'Asian' archway entreating the passersby to explore, just a string of unannounced shopping malls and a smattering of nearby businesses integrated into the ever-evolving immigrant territory of the Italian Market and the building materials bazaar along Washington Avenue."

History

Starting from the 1990s, the Vietnamese shopping areas started with Hoa Binh Plaza, followed by Wing Phat Plaza, both of which were dwarfed in 1998 with the construction of the New World Plaza and 1st Oriental Market. According to Dilberto who quotes Pappas that the origins of the Little Saigon closely follow the patterns seen in "...

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

(a suburb of LA) and Falls Church (a suburb of DC)."

Gallery

File:1stOrientalPhilly.jpg, 1st Oriental Supermarket at 6th and Washington File:VietnameseShoppingCenter.jpg, Vietnamese Shopping Center

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philadelphia Neighborhoods in Philadelphia Ethnic enclaves in the United States Vietnamese-American history Little Saigons Asian-American culture in Pennsylvania

Background

History

See also

Gallery

References