In response to “Why I don’t write about being Vietnamese” published Oct. 27, 2025:
In Kaylee Nguyen’s Voices article, she addresses her cultural identity in a compelling and vulnerable way — how her identity has been washed away in the "in between" of Vietnamese and American. In the author's situation, this is due to a perceived distance and shame about not being Vietnamese enough.
In contrast to Nguyen, who comes from a predominantly white area in Florida, I come from a prominent ethnic enclave. Although our backgrounds are different, our experiences with holding a Vietnamese identity are similar.
My hometown, Little Saigon, situated in Orange County, California, is the largest diaspora of Vietnamese people outside of Southeast Asia. People walk up to you assuming you know the language — school hallways are sometimes filled with more Vietnamese than English — and every street has an old school cafe, at least three pho restaurants (no English menus) and boba shops (they all change management every six months). In this environment, it is impossible to not feel Vietnamese. The distinction between the Vietnamese and the not-so-Vietnamese is only intensified. There is a large cultural conversation happening around "Who is more Vietnamese? Who is more American?" It was strange enough to be considered an outsider in my home, to feel a sense of shame for never being Vietnamese enough.
That’s something I’ve noticed about my hometown: Whether born in America or recently immigrated from Vietnam, anyone attempting to identify with both cultures was never enough for either side (Vietnamese or American), always awkwardly nestled in between.
The friends I’ve made at the University turned my self-notion of cultural adequacy upside down. At Hopkins, I spoke with sufficient fluency to be considered "Vietnamese enough." How did this shift happen? I went from feeling lost, part of a specific sub-population of my area of “dishonorable” sons and daughters who did not know enough about their culture, to a person who was assumed to know anything and everything about the Vietnamese American experience.
I suppose that none of us will be able to fully encapsulate the breadth of experience of being a true Vietnamese American — all my identity is in this description. And I know it's not just us either; every immigrant will deal with the spectrum between “American” and their other ethnic identity. I can only hope that we find peace in that space in-between — the bravery to accept our incomplete inheritances, to enjoy the cultural fusion of America without the pressure to conform to only one aspect of our cultural identities.
Andrew Huynh is a freshman studying Neuroscience and Public Health from Orange County, Calif.
