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Guide to the Do Dinh Tuan Collection of Vietnamese Periodicals
MS-SEA029
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Title: Do Dinh Tuan collection of Vietnamese periodicals
Date: 1975-1990
Collection Number: MS-SEA029
Collector:
Do, Dinh Tuan.
Extent:
1.2 linear feet
(2 boxes)
Languages: The collection is primarily in Vietnamesewith occassional Englishtranslations.
Repository:
University of California, Irvine. Library. Special Collections and Archives.
Irvine, California 92623-9557
Abstract: The collection comprises periodicals collected by Do Dinh Tuan and published outside of Vietnam in the Vietnamese language.
Do collected a broad spectrum of titles that document the concerns and interests of the Vietnamese emigrant community following
the collapse of South Vietnam in 1976. As a whole, the periodicals reflect the challenges refugees faced as they built new
lives for themselves outside of Vietnam and their lingering concerns for the land and people they left behind.
Important Information for Researchers
The collection is open for research.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Southeast Asian Archive Librarian.
Do Dinh Tuan collection of Vietnamese periodicals. MS-SEA029. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries,
Irvine, California.
Gift of Do Dinh Tuan, 2004.
Processed by Julia Stringfellow, 2005. Translation services provided by Nguyen Dat, 2005. Processing was supported by a
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant. Finding aid updated and encoded by Cyndi Shein, 2007. While the printed
finding aid contains Vietnamese language characters, the diacritics have been omitted from the characters in the electronic
version to facilitate online display and searching.
Since 1982, Do Dinh Tuan has owned and managed Van Khoa Books, a Vietnamese language bookstore located in the Asian Gardens
Mall in Westminster, California. The store sells books on topics of interest to the Vietnamese American community, such as
English as a Second Language (ESL) books, English and Vietnamese dictionaries, books about the Vietnam War, and translated
novels.
Do came to the United States as a refugee in 1975 and subsequently worked in refugee services and education. He founded and
served as chairman of the Vietnamese Community of Orange County, Inc., and has taught ESL classes at several community colleges
throughout Orange County. Prior to 1975, Do studied Vietnamese culture and linguistics at the University of Saigon. He attended
graduate school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received Masters of Arts degrees in linguistics and in
English language and literature. Do also did postgraduate work in English phonetics at London University from 1970 to 1971.
He has also worked as a simultaneous translator for international conferences and seminars.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
The collection comprises periodicals collected by Do Dinh Tuan and published outside of Vietnam in the Vietnamese language.
Do collected a broad spectrum of titles that document the concerns and interests of the Vietnamese emigrant community following
the collapse of South Vietnam in 1976. As a whole, the periodicals reflect the challenges refugees faced as they built new
lives for themselves outside of Vietnam and their lingering concerns for the land and people they left behind. The periodicals
address diverse topics such as resettlement, human rights activities, religion, politics, cultural issues, and current events.
The periodicals were primarily published in California, but also include titles from the greater United States and Canada,
and a few titles from Australia and France.
Issues from earlier years focus on topics such as learning English, adjusting to a new host country, and political opinions
regarding the situation in Vietnam, while later years include specialized periodicals devoted entirely to poetry, science,
fitness, sports, women's issues, and Christianity. Although the text of the majority of the periodicals is exclusively in
Vietnamese, bilingual advertisements appear throughout the periodicals and trace the changing economy and lifestyles of the
community. For example, early issues contain ads for items that fulfill basics needs, such as Asian food markets and medical
services, while later years contain ads for real estate, music lessons, jewelry, and cosmetic surgery.
Do often collected special issues of the periodicals, including those published for the New Year (Tet) and those that commemorate
the anniversaries of the publications. Although Do generally collected one representative issue of a title for a given year,
he occasionally kept more than one issue of the same title from the same year.
This collection is arranged chronologically, then alphabetically by title.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Refugees -- Vietnam -- Periodicals.
Refugees -- United States -- Periodicals.
Vietnamese Americans -- Archives.
Vietnamese Americans -- Periodicals.
Vietnamese -- Periodicals.
Genres and Formats of Materials
Periodicals -- 20th century.
Southeast Asian Archive