Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
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.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 or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
Southwest Philadelphia
Southwest Philadelphia (formerly Kingsessing Township) is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The section can be described as extending from the western side of the Schuylkill River to the city line, with the SEPTA. The nort ...
and
Northeast Philadelphia
Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Northeast and the Great Northeast, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of between 300,000 and 450,000, depending ...
also contain Vietnamese American neighborhoods. Mimicking Little Saigon is Baby Saigon, a small Vietnamese neighborhood located within in Whitman neighborhood of South Philadelphia. 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. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, before em ...
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.
Background
According to Ariel Diliberto, a
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called ...
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 an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bucki ...
(a suburb of LA) and
Falls Church
Falls Church is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Washington metropolitan area.
Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Churc ...
(a suburb of DC)."
See also
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Vietnamese American
Vietnamese Americans ( vi, Người Mỹ gốc Việt, lit=Viet-origin American people) are Americans of Vietnamese people, Vietnamese ancestry. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian Americans, Asian ...
*
Chinatown, Philadelphia
Philadelphia Chinatown () is a predominantly Asian American neighborhood in Center City, Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC, ) supports the area. The neighborhood stretches from Vine Street on the north; Arch ...
*
Koreatown, Philadelphia
The first Philadelphia Koreatown () is located around the Olney section of the city of Philadelphia, United States. Since the late 1980s, the Korean community has expanded northward, and it now straddles the border between North Philadelphia in P ...
*
Italian Market, Philadelphia
The Italian Market is the popular name for the South 9th Street Curb Market, an area of South Philadelphia featuring awning covered sidewalks, curb carts, grocery shops, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, butcher shops, etc., many with an ...