Vietnamese Trumpism

From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Joe Buckley

Sent: Friday, January 8, 2021 4:12 AM

To: Dien Nguyen <nguyendien519@gmail.com>

Cc: Vietnam studies group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: [Vsg] Republic of Vietnam flags

Does anyone know the meaning of "45 love 45"? It seems to be a recurring phrase among pro-Trump Vietnamese Americans, printed on áo dài etc. Presumably one 45 refers to Trump being the 45th President?

Best,

Joe Buckley

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From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Dien Nguyen

Sent: Friday, January 8, 2021 4:05 AM

To: mchale@gwu.edu

Cc: Vietnam studies group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: [Vsg] Republic of Vietnam flags

Đại kỷ nguyên is among a whole stable of Viet-language media published by the Falun Gong, including Tân sinh, Tinh hoa, Tri thức, Minh huệ, Chánh kiến, Tân đường nhân (New Tang Dynasty). They are all rabid Trump supporters.

See, for example, this article in Tân sinh:

Vai trò của Tổng thống Trump đã được Chúa Giê-xu báo trước

Mọi người đã biết “Trump of God” là do các giáo sĩ Do Thái đã từ Cựu ước chỉ ra những điểm có liên quan đến Tổng thống Hoa Kỳ Donald Trump, tuy nhiên trong Tân Ước điềm báo về Trump còn rõ ràng hơn nữa, đó là tình huống liên quan đến Ngày tận thế mà Chúa Giê-xu đã dự ngôn.

https://tansinh.net/bi-an/vai-tro-cua-tong-thong-trump-da-duoc-chua-gie-xu-bao-truoc/

See also this article from the BBC:

Người Việt và Hoa cùng đọc Đại Kỷ Nguyên và ủng hộ TT Trump đến cùng?

https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/world-55145863

Nguyễn Điền

Canberra

On Thu, Jan 7, 2021 at 8:02 AM Shawn McHale <mchale@gwu.edu> wrote:

My guess this is the influence of Vietnamese version of the Epoch Times, Dai Ky Nguyen, which is the Falun Gong newspaper/ website that has become, to use a technical term, rabid for Trump.

See its Vietnamese version:

https://www.dkn.tv/

Shawn McHale

On Wed, Jan 6, 2021 at 3:39 PM Alec Soucy <Alec.Soucy@smu.ca> wrote:

Hi Ben,

That is the flag that the overseas Vietnamese community still uses. When my wife became a Canadian citizen in 2005 the school where the ceremony was held made posters of the flags for all of the countries from which the new citizens had originated. The Vietnamese flag for my wife was the wife was the flag you described (fellow background, red stripes) although she was born in Hanoi in 1968, and never - in her life - lived under that flag.

Best wishes,

Alec Soucy

Saint Mary's University

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

On Thu, Jan 7, 2021 at 6:47 AM Tuan Hoang <tuannyriver@gmail.com> wrote:

François Guillemot squarely hits the nail by calling the phenomenon a "complex combination."

To add, the RVN flag has been a common sight at ethnic events for decades. Besides nationalist symbolism similar to modern national flags, it was probably more potent to Vietnamese refugees and immigrants due to the lack of representation elsewhere: museums, public statues, other forms of commemoration, etc.

While this flag had appeared at events organized and/or participated mostly by non-Vietnamese during the 1970s and 1980s, I don't think that its appearance at such events became widespread until the 1990s or even the 2000s. By then, there was a critical mass of former reeducation political prisoners and their families in the U.S. Also more widespread since the 1990s were men wearing military clothes at ethnic events: Tet events, political rallies, fundraisers, funerals, reunions, etc. I think that September 11 also played a role in its more visible appearance at non-ethnic events. Moving into the 2010s, the symbolism of this flag might have signalled a subtle overlap between homeland politics (anti-Chinese and anticommunist) and growing incorporation into US politics.

There were other national flags at yesterday's protest, including Australian and Japanese flags from the footage I've seen. Incidentally, there was a pro-Trump march in Tokyo held yesterday. Back in the U.S., there was a small pro-Trump rally in San Jose's Little Saigon, complete with counter-protestors, supporters wearing military garb, and of course plenty of RVN flags.

• https://sanjosespotlight.com/trump-supporters-held-a-stop-the-steal-protest-in-san-jose-unlike-the-one-in-d-c-it-didnt-turn-into-a-riot/

Vietnamese Americans are hardly the only Asian group to have shown strong support for Trump. Paul Mooney has already noted Chinese Americans. Anthony Ocampo, a second-generation Filipino American academic, went to a pro-Trump rally among Filipino/a Americans in southern California and published a very interesting report about his co-ethnics.

• https://www.colorlines.com/articles/i-went-filipinos-trump-rally-heres-what-i-found

• https://lausan.hk/2020/understanding-the-chinese-american-right/

Tuan Hoang

Pepperdine University

www.tuannyriver.com/about

On Thu, Jan 7, 2021 at 12:07 AM François Guillemot <francois.guillemot@ens-lyon.fr> wrote:

Dear Ben, I think Paul is right,

this Vietnamese flag expresses the republican, anti-communist and anti-Chinese feelings of a significant part of the Vietnamese community in the United States. For them, Trump embodies a form of heroism against the People's Republic of China and the Communist danger, this ties also in with the views of the Falun Gong channel (Dai Ky Nguyen) in Vietnamese as Shawn points out. And as Mike recalls to us, this flag is a symbol of the ARVN memories or Vietnamese anticommunism resistance (Tran Van Ba) floating in the Eden Center very near Washington DC.

So this is a complex combinaison of influences (ARVN memory, resistance) and political positions (anti China, anticommunism) mostly carried by Vietnamese nationalism outside Vietnam.

Best

From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Richard Alvin Gessert

Sent: Wednesday, January 6, 2021 9:58 PM

To: Benedict Kerkvliet <ben.kerkvliet@anu.edu.au>; VSG <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: [Vsg] Republic of Vietnam flags

Việt Thanh Nguyễn has a number of posts on Facebook and Twitter regarding Vietnamese American Trump supporters and South Vietnam nationalism. I would link them here, but his accounts are not active at the moment.

As for a comparative analysis of the Trump support within Vietnam and the diaspora and how both are tied to nationalism (mostly anti-China sentiments), you can read my piece on Medium here: https://richardgessert.medium.com/where-does-vietnamese-trumpism-go-from-here-5e027a706c79.

Best regards,

Richard Gessert

Independent

On Wed, Jan 6, 2021 at 9:56 PM Paul Mooney <pjmooney@me.com> wrote:

Dear Benedict,

I’ve not seen the coverage you refer to, but it doesn’t surprise me. The Vietnamese community in the US has been split over support for Trump, with the older generation who arrived in the US after 1975 being quite supportive of him. That said, they have a long history of supporting the Republican Party. There have been bitter exchanges on social media between the two groups, the critics of Trump being mainly younger Vietnamese.

Of course, Trump also has strong support within Vietnam, mainly because Trump is seen as being tough against China. Just days before the US election, I met with a half-dozen people in Hue and Quang Tri who were visibly surprised when my wife and I said we were opposed to Trump. When I pressed them, each of them said essentially the same thing: “Trump is against China.” This despite the fact that my wife is Chinese and was sitting right beside them.

The same is going on within the Chinese community, and it appears that a majority of Chinese dissidents are very supportive of Trump, the anti-Communist. Chen Guangcheng, the famous barefoot lawyer, even appeared at a recent Proud Boy’s protests in D.C. The Falun Gong media has also been quite active in disparaging the Bidens and many Chinese have been sharing their postings. Chinese dissidents are even convinced there was massive evidence of cheating in the US presidential election.

Best regards,

Paul

On Jan 7, 2021, at 03:11, Benedict Kerkvliet <ben.kerkvliet@anu.edu.au> wrote:

6 January 2021

Dear VSGers,

Watching today TV coverage of protesters marching to and at the US Capitol building, I see several people carrying flags that look like RVN flags, yellow with red horizontal stripes. If they are, indeed, RVN flags, why are some protesters using them?

Ben

Ben Kerkvliet

Emeritus Professor

Australian National University

Canberra

Affiliate Graduate Faculty

University of Hawai'i

Honolulu