Vietnamese Americans

"As I grew older, I started to wonder if that was it, if that was just luck. For so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer. No matter what I did, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid."

"When you have a dream and you kind of bury it because you think it won’t come true, to see it finally come true is incredible."

"When I stepped away, that dream, all the dreams that I had of, you know, imagining one day of walking down the red carpet at the Oscars, those scenes dissipated and they were so distant that I didn't think they would ever come back. And so for me to be here today, to be nominated, it is so surreal. And it goes to show that, you know, if you stick with it, dreams do come true no matter how long it takes."

"There are so many people out there who doubt themselves, who have dreams they’ve given up or didn’t think would ever come true. To those people, I hope my story inspires them."

"I noticed Asian actors were getting more opportunities, and I began to harbour this dream of getting back into acting, but it took a lot of courage to give voice to that dream. One day I decided: if I don’t do this, I will regret it."

"When I walk on a movie set, knowing how difficult it is to get to have this opportunity, I’m always grateful. I didn’t think I would have this amazing second act as an actor in my early 50s, and I hope my story inspires someone to not give up on their dreams."

"When I got back into acting, I decided I was going to go back to my birth name – that was really important to me."

"For the longest time, all I wanted was just a job. Just an opportunity to act, to show people what I can do. This movie, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ has given me so much beyond anything I could have ever asked for."

"But I think I’ve cried more in the last six months than I cried in the previous 20 years. Hearing all these wonderful comments from people about how much they’ve missed me on the screen and their warm embrace of my return has made me very emotional."

"This time last year, all I was hoping for was just a job. And just when I think that it can’t get any better, it does. What an incredible honor."

"I was raised to never forget where I came from and to always remember who gave me my first opportunity."

"Everything happens for a reason. For the longest time I was so insecure and always felt like I wasn’t good enough. Every time I lost a job to somebody else, I thought: ‘That man deserves the job better than I did.’ Now I understand that everything needed to happen the way it did. Just don’t give up."

"My stepping away from acting was not an easy decision to make. I had to be realistic: There were not a lot of opportunities for an Asian actor at that time. I had no choice but to do something else, so I went to film school, graduated, and started working behind the camera."

"I grew up with very traditional Chinese family values. Since I was a little kid, my parents taught me to internalize the emotions that we have instead of projecting them outward. It’s very contradicting to what an actor is. With all these internalized emotions, I just needed to spend a long time with myself and bring all of that out."

"The irony, like I said, is that I didn't pursue acting when I was a little kid. But as I got older, in my late teens and early 20s, I really took it seriously. That’s what I wanted to do, what I wanted my profession to be. But when I started pursuing it, there were just not a lot of opportunities for me. It was extremely difficult for an Asian actor at that time. In Hollywood, very, very few child actors make smooth and successful transitions into adult acting. It's very difficult for many, but I think it's a hundred times—a thousand times—more difficult when you are an Asian actor. I found myself at a crossroads at a very early age. Do I want to continue down a path where I just didn't see many opportunities for myself? Or do I want to go down a path, an unknown path, where I really don't know what I want to do? And I struggled for a long, long time. And at the same time, I was just hoping that phone would ring with an amazing offer to be in a movie like Indiana Jones or The Goonies, or a great role for an Asian actor, and it never came. I was so dispirited and disheartened."

"It is the responsibility of elected officials to turn down the rhetoric and return civility to our public debates"

"I have a very narrow timeframe to be present enough in their lives when the hard years come with hormones and bigger challenges."

"The freedoms and values we enjoy in the United States, we owe to our veterans."

"I couldn’t believe that here I was, a refugee immigrant who had fled authoritarianism, now trapped in the basement of the Capitol, the place where I thought I would be safest."

"There is nothing about investigating and understanding the facts of Jan. 6 that prevents you from doing any number of other policy and legislative things."

"I love the idea of being American-Taiwanese. It's very specific to people who feel like they're from two different cultures. Because being American is something that we should be proud of. It's not something that needs to be defined in a certain way. This is our culture, too."

"Some of us don't want to admit to it, but we are a lot like our parents. The way that we are in our own personal relationships is very similar to how we grew up. And whether that's positive and negative, it's definitely something to be aware of."

"In middle school, I really longed to have a connection with my birth mom, and so I moved to Taiwan for four years and learned a whole new language and culture."

"The world will always have something against you, no matter how you look. I surround myself with people that hopefully as a group are doing good work for the culture. The reason I like to play different characters is that for so long Asian American actors have been in this stereotypical box."

"As an Asian American, when you go to Asia, you sometimes feel like a foreigner even though you look like everyone else. I felt like the American coming in; my look was different, my feel was different."

"I wore my hair in those space buns for my audition, and the only reason why I did it was because I wanted to be someone totally different from who I am as a person."

"You know, I am one of those people where there wasn’t a moment growing up that I knew I wanted to be an actor—the truth was that I didn't know what I wanted to be at all. I wasn’t great at anything, I wasn’t an all-star athlete, great at playing the piano or the smartest kid in school but I liked creative things and watching Disney movies."

"While California remains the state with the largest Vietnamese population, the percentage of Vietnamese living in California decreased during the 1990s. The downward trend of the electronics industry in which many Vietnamese were employed, coupled with unaffordable housing, prompted the departures. Economic growth in places like Texas, Florida and Louisiana attracted a great number of Vietnamese."

"In the years since the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese Americans – particularly the older generation – have typically aligned themselves with the Republican party because of the GOP’s fervent anti-communist stance dating back to the war."

"Vietnamese-Americans who came to the U.S. as refugees more than 40 years ago and their children are mobilizing to help Afghans with whom they feel a kinship at the chaotic end of another lengthy war in Asia."

"Large-scale Vietnamese migration to the United States started as an influx of refugees following the end of the war. Early arrivals consisted largely of military personnel and urban professionals (and their families) who worked with the U.S. military or the South Vietnamese government. The next wave of Vietnamese refugees, known as “boat people,” arrived in the late 1970s. Most of these refugees came from rural areas and were often less educated. Many of the Vietnamese refugees who arrived between 1983 and 2004 were initially resettled in states with large immigrant populations, including California, Texas, and Washington State."

"But many first-generation Vietnamese were already conservative to begin with. Having left behind a communist-led country, they may be averse to liberal politics, deeply religious, and invested in the idea of the American dream. Guided by a tide of Vietnamese- and English-language misinformation, however, these radical right-wing views are now quietly held by a not-so-insignificant minority — and are often left to younger, more progressive family members to challenge and dismantle."

"In San Jose, the new Vietnamese community was bolstered by access to Asian markets in the area, that had already been established by other immigrant families from Asia. In this way, the Vietnamese community developed less as an enclave and more as an integrated, borderless part of the larger San Jose area."

"Our parents have been seen as a generation that was just trying to survive in many ways ... and our generation is seen as going past this idea of surviving, but really thriving. And by thriving, I think we're able to speak up."

"Even in Orange County, among the Vietnamese American voters who have long been a part of the Republican coalition, the GOP has been losing ground. After an election year in which AAPI voters turned out across the nation in record numbers, there is greater urgency than ever for the party to rethink its approach."

"In Orange County’s Little Saigon, the flag of the old South Vietnam still flies, and the phrase “Ho Chi Minh City” can provoke a dirty look, or worse."

"The yellow-and-red-striped banners of the former South Vietnam flew above crowds of rioters all over the Capitol grounds. Many of the flag carriers were Vietnamese Americans who, in support of President Donald Trump, have often used the emblem to express nostalgia for a lost home and opposition to communism."

"The United States is proud of being an invincible defender of the just cause and the ideal of freedom in the world… Are US statements worthy? Are US commitments still valid?"

"If I do not say that you were defeated by the communists in Vietnam, I must modestly say that you did not win either. But you found an honourable way out. And at present, when our army lacks weapons, ammunition, helicopters, aircraft and B-52s (bombers), you ask us to do an impossible thing, like filling up the ocean with stones…"

"I believe that we cannot survive as a democratic country when we are supporting someone like Thieu in Saigon, who has put 300,000 political prisoners in jail because they've spoken in favor of peace. I just don't believe that when a Republican Party bugs the Democratic Party headquarters, that that smacks of democracy. These kind of things I speak out against. That doesn't mean I'm a Communist."

"Nguyen Van Thieu and his machine of oppression and constraint, instruments of the U.S. “Vietnamization” policy, constitute the main obstacle to the settlement of the political problem in South Vietnam. Therefore, Nguyen Van Thieu must resign immediately, the Saigon administration must end its warlike policy, disband at once its machine of oppression and constraint against the people, stop its “pacification” policy, disband the concentration camps, set free those persons arrested on political grounds and guarantee to the people the democratic liberties as provided for by the 1954 Geneva agreements on Vietnam. After the above has been achieved, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam will immediately discuss with the Saigon administration the formation of a three-segment government of national concord with a view to organizing general elections in South Vietnam, to elect a constituent assembly, work out a constitution, and set up a definitive government of South Vietnam. The general elections will be held according to procedures agreed upon among the political forces in South Vietnam so as to ensure effectively their free, democratic and fair character."

"Of course, I would like to go down in history as the man who brought peace."

"Until today we have had a half war. I say, had we attacked North Vietnam with a classical war, had we bombed North Vietnam continuously, had we landed in North Vietnam, the war would be over by now."

"Likewise, you have let our soldiers die under the hail of shells. This is an inhumane act by an inhumane ally. Refusing to aid an ally and abandoning it is an inhumane act…"

"Yes, I'm a military man, and as a military man I say that if peace fails and we want to end this war, we must bring the war to North Vietnam. In all possible ways, including landing."

"You say that you blame me for the fall of South Vietnam, you criticize me, everything. I let you do that. I like to see you do better than I."

"We have told the Americans, that when you talk to the Communists, if they propose this or that solution, you just receive it and take it back and show it to us. Then we would give our views and you would inform them of our views."

"Some $300 million is not a big sum to you. Compared to the amount of money you spent here in ten years, this sum is sufficient for only ten days of fighting. And with this sum, you ask me to score a victory or to check communist aggression, a task which you failed to fulfil in six years, with all US forces, and with such an amount of money. This is absurd."

"When you negotiate with the Communists, you shouldn't fix a deadline. You must not tell them that you want to repatriate the prisoners as soon as possible, to bring peace as soon as possible, otherwise they exploit you. Be patient. One must be patient with the Communists, more patient than they are."

"In any peace solution the final decision should be ours. Nobody can sign a cease‐fire agreement or peace settlement without the signature of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam."