At least, that's the conclusion of San Jose Mercury-News, based on newly registered voters under 30 in Silicon Valley with Vietnamese surnames.
San Jose Mercury News
Older Vietnamese refugees are so obsessed with their communist homeland, and containing it at all costs, that they have wholeheartedly supported the Republican war machine and its disdain for "socialist" domestic programs. Reagan, W, and McCain have all been considered heroes in the Vietnamese-American community. Democrats have been seen as communist sympathizers. This mirrors the mentality seen in the Cuban-American community. In fact, the Vietnamese-American community is the only Asian-American demographic that prefers McCain over Obama. (Though I am pretty sure that the Korean-Americans must be very close.)
But that is changing. It's been over 30 years since Saigon fell, and the Vietnamese refugees have produced a generation of American-born and American-raised offsprings, who are no different from any other Americans. Their concerns are more likely to be on social issues and economic justice. They are more likely to be critical of McCain's (and the Republicans') stances on reproductive choice, gays, and domestic programs. The Mercury News, in fact, states that Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 4-to-1 margin among this new group of Vietnamese-Americans.
Another factor at play here: the current arrivals from Vietnam are well-to-do people who come in through normal immigration channels (as opposed to refugee status), and harbor less of an outright knee-jerk hatred toward the Hanoi government. They love both America and Vietnam, and unlike the earlier refugees, support stronger ties between the two nations. For them, becoming Republican is much less automatic.
If the Republicans can't even hold on to the Vietnamese vote, they really have a lot of trouble brewing.
Showing posts with label Vietnam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vietnam. Show all posts
28 October 2008
08 September 2008
Calendarology
Even one more tangent.
Since calendars were mentioned in an earlier post today, here's a Wikipedia article on Korean calendar (as well as traditional holidays), which has traditionally been lunar. In fact, my flight to Seoul will take place on August 15th (AKA Chuseok, or Lunar Harvest Festival) on lunar calendar - which means my nighttime flight will enjoy plenty of moonshine, and my bus ride into Seoul will benefit from lighter-than-usual traffic due to the holiday weekend. To help out with farming, however, 24 solar terms (an example would be the summer solstice), tied to the solar calendar and its seasons, were also used. The names of the terms are largely shared with their Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese counterparts.
The days of the week are also an interesting topic. All days of the week get the 曜日 (yoil) suffix. The seven days of the week are 日, 月, 火, 水, 木, 金, and 土 (pronounced il, wol, hwa, su, mok, geum, and to), from Sunday to Saturday. Like the days of the week in Germanic languages, they use the sun, the moon, and the planets as their names, in the order of Sun, Moon, Mars (fire), Mercury (water), Jupiter (wood), Venus (gold), and Saturn (soil). The Japanese also use the exact same labels, though with Japanized pronunciations. This is different from the Chinese system, which sequentially number Monday through Saturday as 1 through 6; the average Chinese won't be able to understand the Korean/Japanese days of the week.
Latin languages also use the moon and the planets, but instead of Sunday, they have "Lord's Day" - dimanche in French, domingo in Spanish. In South Korea, the Christians follow the same practice, preferring to use 主日 (juil, "Master's Day" or "Lord's Day") instead of 日曜日 that everyone else uses. In the US, where virtually all Korean speakers are fundamentalist Christians, 主日 is used far more frequently.
When I arrive in Seoul, I can expect to see calendars showing Gregorian solar calendar and Christian AD/CE year, though lunar dates and solar terms (sometimes in Korean, sometimes in Chinese) will also be noted in smaller font. The days of the week will follow the secular convention, either in Korean or in Chinese characters (NOT Chinese names) - or they will be in 3-letter abbreviated English names.
And last, but not the least, in addition to the traditional holidays listed above, South Korea observes these holidays, which include modern-day nationalistic memorials as well as Christmas; some are days off, some are mere memorials, some will require flag display. And speaking of Christmas, again the Christian and the non-Christian terminology differ. Popular terminology follows the Christian preference, 聖誕節 (seongtanjeol, or Holy Birth Celebration Day), because, obviously, it was the Christians who popularized it and turned it into a national holiday. The legal name for Christmas is 基督誕辰日 (gidoktanshinil, or Christian Birthday), the preferred non-Christian terminology. It's also acceptable to simply call it Christmas (크리스마스), or in written form, X-mas (X-마스).
For comparison, check out North Korean holidays, which, by contrast, tend to celebrate Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and their milestones. In particular, July 27th is called Victory Day, which, in North Korean revisionist history, means the triumph of the great Korean people over the American imperialist aggression (North Korea still insists that the war was started by the US and South Korea); in real history, it marks the Korean War armistice signed in 1953.
Since calendars were mentioned in an earlier post today, here's a Wikipedia article on Korean calendar (as well as traditional holidays), which has traditionally been lunar. In fact, my flight to Seoul will take place on August 15th (AKA Chuseok, or Lunar Harvest Festival) on lunar calendar - which means my nighttime flight will enjoy plenty of moonshine, and my bus ride into Seoul will benefit from lighter-than-usual traffic due to the holiday weekend. To help out with farming, however, 24 solar terms (an example would be the summer solstice), tied to the solar calendar and its seasons, were also used. The names of the terms are largely shared with their Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese counterparts.
The days of the week are also an interesting topic. All days of the week get the 曜日 (yoil) suffix. The seven days of the week are 日, 月, 火, 水, 木, 金, and 土 (pronounced il, wol, hwa, su, mok, geum, and to), from Sunday to Saturday. Like the days of the week in Germanic languages, they use the sun, the moon, and the planets as their names, in the order of Sun, Moon, Mars (fire), Mercury (water), Jupiter (wood), Venus (gold), and Saturn (soil). The Japanese also use the exact same labels, though with Japanized pronunciations. This is different from the Chinese system, which sequentially number Monday through Saturday as 1 through 6; the average Chinese won't be able to understand the Korean/Japanese days of the week.
Latin languages also use the moon and the planets, but instead of Sunday, they have "Lord's Day" - dimanche in French, domingo in Spanish. In South Korea, the Christians follow the same practice, preferring to use 主日 (juil, "Master's Day" or "Lord's Day") instead of 日曜日 that everyone else uses. In the US, where virtually all Korean speakers are fundamentalist Christians, 主日 is used far more frequently.
When I arrive in Seoul, I can expect to see calendars showing Gregorian solar calendar and Christian AD/CE year, though lunar dates and solar terms (sometimes in Korean, sometimes in Chinese) will also be noted in smaller font. The days of the week will follow the secular convention, either in Korean or in Chinese characters (NOT Chinese names) - or they will be in 3-letter abbreviated English names.
And last, but not the least, in addition to the traditional holidays listed above, South Korea observes these holidays, which include modern-day nationalistic memorials as well as Christmas; some are days off, some are mere memorials, some will require flag display. And speaking of Christmas, again the Christian and the non-Christian terminology differ. Popular terminology follows the Christian preference, 聖誕節 (seongtanjeol, or Holy Birth Celebration Day), because, obviously, it was the Christians who popularized it and turned it into a national holiday. The legal name for Christmas is 基督誕辰日 (gidoktanshinil, or Christian Birthday), the preferred non-Christian terminology. It's also acceptable to simply call it Christmas (크리스마스), or in written form, X-mas (X-마스).
For comparison, check out North Korean holidays, which, by contrast, tend to celebrate Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and their milestones. In particular, July 27th is called Victory Day, which, in North Korean revisionist history, means the triumph of the great Korean people over the American imperialist aggression (North Korea still insists that the war was started by the US and South Korea); in real history, it marks the Korean War armistice signed in 1953.
17 June 2008
Speaking of Silenced Majority Portal
Image by Kayakbiker of Silenced Majority PortalI've commented there, under my nickname "Ally McRepuke," a few times about the menace of conservative immigrants, particularly those hailing from Cuba, South Korea, and Vietnam (and perhaps Poland).
The two bloggers, Kayakbiker of the Twin Cities and Slugbug (DiAnne Grieser) of Seattle, dug up some great evidence of reactionary Vietnamese immigration, in both their hometowns, on the following post:
Silenced Majority Portal: Ally McRepuke Told Us About Right Wing Immigrants
07 February 2008
Offending head honchos of an ethnic community...
can have deadly consequences.
The article below, from San Francisco Chronicle a week ago, states that a reporter for a Vietnamese-language newspaper was killed for being supportive of the Communist government of Vietnam, and that a reporter for a Chinese-language newspaper was killed by the Taiwanese government's hit men for exposing the Nationalists' corruption. These two killings have helped make ethnic journalism one of the most dangerous jobs in the US.
McCarthyism is alive and well in the Vietnamese and Chinese (and Korean too) communities across the US, and being seen as a sympathizer of communism (or left-wing political parties in general, such as Taiwan's pro-LGBT Democratic Progressives and South Korea's New United Democrats) can be deadly.
Perhaps the only silver lining is that for the Chinese-speaking community, rabid hatred of anything resembling communism has *not* translated into blind support of the Republican neoliberal and neoconservative agenda.
SFGate
The article below, from San Francisco Chronicle a week ago, states that a reporter for a Vietnamese-language newspaper was killed for being supportive of the Communist government of Vietnam, and that a reporter for a Chinese-language newspaper was killed by the Taiwanese government's hit men for exposing the Nationalists' corruption. These two killings have helped make ethnic journalism one of the most dangerous jobs in the US.
McCarthyism is alive and well in the Vietnamese and Chinese (and Korean too) communities across the US, and being seen as a sympathizer of communism (or left-wing political parties in general, such as Taiwan's pro-LGBT Democratic Progressives and South Korea's New United Democrats) can be deadly.
Perhaps the only silver lining is that for the Chinese-speaking community, rabid hatred of anything resembling communism has *not* translated into blind support of the Republican neoliberal and neoconservative agenda.
SFGate
27 August 2007
Odds and Ends
Good news today - the torture czar, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is gone. Even then, Gonzales is being spun as an immigrant success story, which disgusts me greatly.
On the subject of reactionary immigrant Republican whores, W recently compared the Iraq War to the Korean and Vietnam Wars, calling it a struggle for freedom of a nation. Empty rhetorics can only say so much - W has destroyed many cherished American freedoms, and it bears remembering that South Korea AND South Vietnam were dictatorships that happened to be fighting commies, not democracies in their own right. South Korea's democratization, in fact, happened despite American prop-up of its fascist dictators (and massive admittance of the fascist supporters into the US when the fascism finally crumbled).
Besides, W never believed in nation-building, accusing the Clinton administration of overextending American troops in Somalia and the Balkans; nation-building became his interest only after 9/11, a convenient excuse to be linked to his former buddy Saddam Hussein. Moreover, he turned from a small-government president to the leader of the largest expansion of US government in history.
Disgust is an understatement.
On the subject of reactionary immigrant Republican whores, W recently compared the Iraq War to the Korean and Vietnam Wars, calling it a struggle for freedom of a nation. Empty rhetorics can only say so much - W has destroyed many cherished American freedoms, and it bears remembering that South Korea AND South Vietnam were dictatorships that happened to be fighting commies, not democracies in their own right. South Korea's democratization, in fact, happened despite American prop-up of its fascist dictators (and massive admittance of the fascist supporters into the US when the fascism finally crumbled).
Besides, W never believed in nation-building, accusing the Clinton administration of overextending American troops in Somalia and the Balkans; nation-building became his interest only after 9/11, a convenient excuse to be linked to his former buddy Saddam Hussein. Moreover, he turned from a small-government president to the leader of the largest expansion of US government in history.
Disgust is an understatement.
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