The world knows that the largest concentration of Vietnamese outside Vietnam resides in Orange County, but few know the history of this and other Vietnamese archives resides in the ever-expanding Southeast Asian Archive, kept at UC Irvine. Holding tens of thousands of documents ranging from personal letters and newspaper clippings to photographs and even Little Saigon restaurant menus, this collection increases in vitality as first-generation refugees pass away and their more-assimilated children lose contact with their ethnic roots. More impressively, the Southeast Asian Archive also documents the experience of other refugees from the area: Hmong, Cambodians, Laotians and the myriad groups affected by the Vietnam War.
