‘Little San Jose’: Vietnamese take Silicon Valley tech culture to Vietnam

By John | Sunday, May 18, 2008 | 4 Comments

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As I have written before about “Little Saigon” in San Jose, in today’s San Jose Mercury News, there is an interesting story on “‘Little San Jose’: Vietnamese take Silicon Valley tech culture to Vietnam” discussing about how many Vietnamese-Americans in Silicon Valley are returning to Vietnam to start their own companies:

“For decades, the Vietnamese who settled in Silicon Valley, which has one of the largest Vietnamese populations outside the Southeast Asian country, and the leaders of Vietnam eyed each other with suspicion, if not hostility. Now Hanoi is luring them back as the country embraces a pro-business path similar to its neighbor, China. In April, government officials held the latest in a series of seminars in Ho Chi Minh City focused on encouraging even more Viet Kieu, the phrase used by locals for Vietnamese who live overseas, to return… Most software outsourcing companies here were founded by Viet Kieu. Overseas Vietnamese hold high-level positions with companies like Intel and venture capital firms. The government reports Viet Kieu entrepreneurs invested about $90 million last year, but that doesn’t count the $5.5 billion that overseas Vietnamese pumped into the economy through remittances to families. That at least was the official tally; experts believe the actual amount of remittances could have been $10 billion.”

This is no surprise to anyone in Silicon Valley – this is the same story in many ways that has happened with other immigrants that have come to Silicon Valley – Taiwanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans and Indian-Americans, coming to America to find a better life, and later returning home to use their skills to help their native countries grow as well as take advantage of the growing opportunities.

The San Jose Mercury article aslo writes about “‘Little San Jose’: Culture shock in Vietnam,” about how even though Vietnamese-Americans are returning to their native land, they don’t necessarily feel as though they are back “home”:

“Because of their cultural understanding and language skills, Vietnamese-Americans have a distinct advantage when it comes to doing business in this Southeast Asian country. Many are surprised, though, by how American Vietnam makes them feel.”

I am sure many people who read this blog wonder or have though, am I more “Asian” or more “American”? – especially when traveling to our native lands or our parents’ or grandparents’ etc.. native lands (depending on your background). The reality for most of us is that growing up Asian-American, we have hopefully incorporated the best of both worlds into our identities and feel comfortable living in both worlds.

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