A prominent Vietnamese American businessman is suing San Jose Councilmember Bien Doan for defamation after the two sparred in court last year — painting an alleged connection between San Jose and a federal bribery scandal in Oakland. The Feb. 3 lawsuit by Le Bail Bonds owner Hai Huynh says Doan wrongly described him as a...
A new Vietnamese mural brings East San Jose residents agency. The mural’s three panels — which depict Vietnamese people fleeing their homeland, a woman in cultural dress and the beauty of Vietnam — is a first for the East San Jose Asian American community. The artwork evokes the history of the Vietnamese American community in...
Charges of nepotism and suspicious bank withdrawals surround a fight for control of San Jose’s Viet Museum in History Park – a crown jewel for Little Saigon. The 147-year-old farmhouse, which stores hundreds of precious artifacts, photographs and art of Vietnam War refugees, now hangs in limbo over a dispute between the museum’s visionary, Loc...
A courtroom battle over an alleged ‘Godfather.’ A City Hall protest against one San Jose mayoral staffer. A fight for control of a Vietnamese cultural garden. The takedown of a renowned charity organization. A common thread connected all these stories in 2024: unhealed wounds over the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese community is more dynamic and...
Candidates on both sides of a historic race to seat Santa Clara County’s first Vietnamese American supervisor say their campaign signs have been stolen, torn and defaced. One San Jose leader wants to investigate who’s behind it. District 7 San Jose Councilmember Bien Doan said his office is looking into the theft of campaign signs...
Santa Clara County elections officials have taken down a Vietnamese language billboard in San Jose’s Little Saigon neighborhood, after passing drivers noticed it advertised the wrong election date. Until this month, the billboard on Story Road read “Bầu cử sơ bộ (Primary election)” and “Ngày 5 tháng Ba, 2024 (March 5, 2024).” It should say “Bầu cử tổng...
The San Jose Vietnamese Running Club breaks a sweat to raise money for underserved children in Vietnam. But its overseas mission has become targeted by local anti-communist campaigns — and the club may have raised money illegally. State records show the California Franchise Tax Board suspended the running club, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, in 2021....
San Jose officials are reckoning with a political fight over a park important to the city’s older Vietnamese community. The issue reached a handful of councilmembers at Wednesday’s Rules and Open Government Committee, which voted unanimously with brief discussion for a clear explanation as to how the parks department manages access to the Vietnamese Heritage...
State lawmakers are calling out San Jose officials for changing the locks and community event access to a Vietnamese cultural garden that’s opened a political rift in Little Saigon. A Tuesday letter from San Jose’s elected representatives in Sacramento questions who’s really in control of the city’s parks. It comes after District 7 Councilmember Bien Doan’s...
Some Little Saigon activists are in uproar after a San Jose councilmember’s office changed the locks and the rules for reserving events at the Vietnamese Heritage Garden. Councilmember Bien Doan announced those new rules last month after becoming the center of political divide over anticommunism earlier this summer among older Vietnamese Americans. The divide has partly played...
