Eden Center Is the Heart of Vietnamese Culture in Washington

Eden Center Is the Heart of Vietnamese Culture in Washington

A bright red, green and yellow arch¹ rises over the entrance to the Eden Center marketplace. Lion statues sit to the right and left, as if on guard. Smells of sweet and spicy² food flow out of the restaurants, filling the air.

Almost everyone at the market is speaking in Vietnamese. Vietnamese street signs also hang around the market. And a South Vietnamese flag, yellow with three red stripes, flies overhead.

But this marketplace is not found in Vietnam. Eden Center's home is Falls Church, Virginia, a small city just outside Washington, D.C.

About 80,000 Vietnamese immigrants and Vietnamese-Americans live in the national capital area. It is the fifth largest population of ethnic³ Vietnamese in America. And, the Eden Center is widely considered to be the heart of that community.

Eden Center has more than 120 businesses, most of them owned and operated by ethnic Vietnamese. Many are family businesses. There are restaurants, coffee and tea shops, and food stores. Vietnamese-run travel agencies, haircutters, accounting⁴ agencies and other businesses also can be found there.

"You can come over here and eat every kind of Vietnamese food" from all over the country, said Vinh Tran. He, his wife and other family members have worked at Phuoc Loc, a bakery and deli, since 1994. In 2013, Tran became its owner.

Cho Eden is a food store, or grocery, in the market. Its owner, Kevin Tran, arrived in Virginia in 1980. He was part of a large migration⁵ of Vietnamese refugees⁶ to America. They fled the country after years of civil war ended with the capture of the capital city, then called Saigon. Northern Vietnamese forces had defeated an opposing force from the South that was backed by the American military. The Vietnamese Embassy⁷ says up to 2 million civilians⁸ from the North and South died during the war.

Most of the refugees were from South Vietnam. Many of them left behind all their possessions. They fled across dangerous seas on small, overcrowded boats. Over time, the refugees became known as the "boat people."

Kevin and his family stayed with a relative in Falls Church when they first got to the U.S. It was just across the street from where the Eden Center would open a few years later.

Vietnamese in Northern Virginia

Kevin's relative was able to immigrate⁹ to the U.S. because he was a member of the South Vietnamese Navy. Military connections were common for the first Vietnamese who settled in Washington, said Kim O'Connell. She is a Vietnamese-American writer who has researched the history of Vietnamese in Northern Virginia and the Washington area.

"Families of higher ranking Vietnamese officials and better connected Vietnamese were the first people out...And so that's why Washington, D.C. ended up being such a hub for so many, because of military connections."

In just five years from 1975 to 1980, more than 235,000 Vietnamese immigrated¹⁰ to the U.S., O'Connell said. Later arriving refugees were generally poorer and less educated than the early boat people.

In the Washington area, the immigrants soon sought to open their own stores, restaurants and other businesses. At that time, there were many empty retail¹¹ spaces in Arlington, Virginia. The rent, or payments, for use of such space, were low. Many Vietnamese businesses opened in the area named Clarendon. People starting calling the neighborhood Little Saigon.

By the early 1980s, however, Little Saigon became a building site for the Washington area subway, or underground train. The new system expanded transportation service and made Clarendon a more desirable place to live. Rents greatly increased as a result, forcing Vietnamese businesses to close.

Several Vietnamese investors¹³ decided¹⁴ to team up to buy a failing marketplace just a few miles west of "Little Saigon." It grew into the Eden Center of today.

The name comes from the Eden Arcade¹⁵, a popular marketplace in 1960s Saigon.

Cho Eden owner Kevin Tran says the Falls Church center brings back remembrances of life in Vietnam for many visitors, especially because of the food it sells.

"The food. Especially, the food. You're not going to find any more in the northeast, where you can have a bunch of restaurants and these specific food items that you're not going to find along this northeast here."

Eden Center plays a big part in "keeping the culture together," Tran added. It holds traditional Vietnamese festivals and other cultural events throughout the year.

Researcher O'Connell, who was born and raised in the U.S., agrees. She says visiting Eden Center makes her feel more connected with her mother and Vietnamese ancestry¹⁶.

"I just treasure the fact that I can kind of see her experience, her heritage¹⁷ with my own eyes and experience that with her...So it's always been really special to me."

Keeping Eden Center Vietnamese

Although a large majority of businesses in Eden Center are Vietnamese, Korean, Thai and Chinese businesses have moved in more recently.

Eden Center businessman Quang Le thinks that trend is going to continue.

The owner of Huong Binh Bakery & Deli, Le says young Vietnamese in the area are generally better educated than their parents were. They do not seek the hard jobs their parents had to take in America, he told a local public radio station.

Kevin Tran, the grocery store owner, has two children attending graduate school.

"The kids here, when they go to school, or they get degrees there's a lot more opportunity for them, you know, than doing this."

Le said Vietnamese are like other immigrant communities in the U.S.

"They came to the U.S., worked very hard, created these centers and then as their children become more successful, they move away from these centers and eventually it fades away."

Eden Center shows no sign of fading yet, however. Every store in the shopping center is open except one. And business is close to the level it was before COVID-19, said Alan Frank. He is General Counsel¹⁸ and Senior Vice¹² President of Eden Center owner, Capital Commercial Properties. Frank said the marketplace will remain Vietnamese for years to come.

Kim O'Connell is similarly unconcerned about the changing face of Eden Center. Change is how "Little Saigon" became Eden Center, she noted¹⁹.

"I think it will be an important place for a long time to come...I'm really not that worried about changes that are happening. You know, it's kind of life, it's the way it goes."

Words in This Story

arch — n. a usually curved part of a structure that is over an opening and that supports a wall or other weight above the opening

bakery — n. a place where bread, cakes, cookies, and other baked foods are made or sold

deli — n. a store where you can buy foods (such as meats, cheese, salads, and sandwiches) that are already cooked or prepared

hub — n. the central and most active part or place

retail — n. the business of selling things directly to customers for their own use

festival — n. a special time or event when people gather to celebrate something

heritage — n. the traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation

trend — n. a general direction of change : a way of behaving, proceeding²⁰, etc., that is developing and becoming more common

opportunity — n. an amount of time or a situation in which something can be done

fade — v. to lose strength or freshness

1 arch   

n.拱门，桥洞；v.拱起，成为弓形

参考例句：

• Dip your head under the low arch.在低矮的门拱下要低头。
• The trees arch overhead.树木在头顶上弯成拱形。

2 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

3 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

4 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

5 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

6 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

7 embassy   

n.大使馆，大使及其随员

参考例句：

• Large crowd demonstrated outside the British Embassy.很多群众在英国大使馆外面示威。
• He's a U.S. diplomat assigned to the embassy in London.他是美国驻伦敦大使馆的一名外交官。

8 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

9 immigrate   

v.（从外国）移来，移居入境

参考例句：

• 10,000 people are expected to immigrate in the next two years.接下来的两年里预计有10，000人会移民至此。
• Only few plants can immigrate to the island.只有很少的植物能够移植到这座岛上。

10 immigrated   

v.移入( immigrate的过去式和过去分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• He immigrated from Ulster in 1848. 他1848年从阿尔斯特移民到这里。 来自辞典例句
• Many Pakistanis have immigrated to Britain. 许多巴基斯坦人移居到了英国。 来自辞典例句

11 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

12 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

13 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

15 arcade   

n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道

参考例句：

• At this time of the morning,the arcade was almost empty.在早晨的这个时候，拱廊街上几乎空无一人。
• In our shopping arcade,you can find different kinds of souvenir.在我们的拱廊市场，你可以发现许多的纪念品。

16 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

17 heritage   

n.传统，遗产，继承物

参考例句：

• The ancient buildings are part of the national heritage.这些古建筑是民族遗产的一部分。
• We Chinese have a great cultural heritage.我们中国人有伟大的文化遗产。

18 counsel   

n.忠告，劝告，律师，法律顾问；vt.劝告

参考例句：

• The judge asked counsel for the defence to explain.法官要求被告的辩护律师做出解释。
• He refused to listen to the old man's counsel.他拒不听从老人的忠告。

19 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

20 proceeding   

n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报

参考例句：

• This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
• The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。