AsianWeek

Oakland Tet Festival Fizzles
Political tensions put a damper on celebration
By Lauren Do

hen Hang Le, 16, and other teens decided to throw the East Oakland Viet Youths' first Tet celebration, they thought about partying, not politicking. So they were caught off-guard when a seemingly minor conflict over how best to salute the South Vietnamese flag escalated into a question of allegiance, one that distracted youths from other organizing tasks and divided the community's support of the Feb. 13 celebration.

What might have been seen as a spunky first effort-the unorthodox karaoke machine accompanying the singers, the raffle of computers that long predated the IBM 386-instead took on a melancholy pall. Though 150 people, mostly high schoolers and younger, showed up, the crowd wasn't as large or as upbeat as some had envisioned.

The controversy began when one member, who later left, proposed that the ceremony be performed by her uncle and other members of the Humanitarian Organization-a group of mostly South Vietnamese military and government employees whose recent immigration was sponsored by U.S. officials. However, most of the youths believed that such a ceremony would be too political, as it would involve former soldiers, and too complicated.

Within weeks, the group decided that it would sing the Vietnamese national anthem and that one person would carry the flag. But by then, allegations about the students' allegiances had already been raised in the Vietnamese-language press. Newspapers this month castigated the youths for what they interpreted as the organizers' unwillingness to sing the Vietnamese national anthem and to display the three-striped flag of the Saigon regime, which fell in 1975.

"The story in the newspaper-we were sad about that," said group president Huong Huynh, 17. "We are youths, and we try to organize and we try to help our community, the Vietnamese. We still remember our culture, where we come from, and that's why we organized this. But since what happened, that has disappointed us."

After the articles were published, a Viet Youth adviser sent apologies to the newspapers, blaming himself for not having been there to properly advise the group.

The question of which flag a Vietnamese American supports-and it's seen as an either-or question-has been a contentious issue in many communities. In Southern California, thousands of protesters, many of whom are former South Vietnamese refugees, have spent the Tet holiday picketing in front of a video store whose owner had displayed Vietnam's present flag (that of former North Vietnam) and had hung a portrait of communist leader Ho Chi Minh in the window.

Among Americans, even Tet's name has become associated with the Vietnam War. Among many, it conjures up memories of the infamous 1968 Tet Offensive, during which communist troops wreaked huge casualties in a coordinated attack on Saigon and some 30 provincial cities. Like Christmas Eve attack strategies, the timing of the Jan. 30 onslaught was to catch the other side off guard as it was preparing to observe the holiday.

But among Vietnamese and many Vietnamese Americans, the three-day Tet festival has long been seen as a celebratory time. In San Francisco Tenderloin, some 9,000 people gathered last week for the Vietnamese Community Center's third annual Tet street festival. Among the guests of honor were Chinese American Supervisor Leland Yee and City Administrator Bill Lee, who passed out Li See-red envelopes of "lucky money"-to hoards of children. Merchants selling everything from food to fireworks were hawking their wares in booths. Thanks to city funding, vouchers were passed out to kids to play games and purchase food, and traditional Vietnamese entertainment was provided for free.

Like their Chinese counterparts, Vietnamese designate one of 12 animals to represent each lunar year. The systems are almost identical, with one exception: Instead of the Year of the Rabbit, 1999 is the Year of the Cat. The qualities attributed to those born in such years (1987, 1975, 1963, 1951, 1939 and 1927, among others) are similar: Both Cat and Rabbit people are believed to be blessed with negotiating skill and an ability to get along with others.

Among Vietnamese, the holiday marks a time to remember ancestors. The first day of the three-day holiday, which began Feb. 16 this year, calls for making an offering of food and incense to departed relatives, usually grandparents or great-grandparents. A makeshift altar is set up on a kitchen table, incense is lit and special dishes-including thit kho, an egg and pork soup-are placed before the burner as an invitation to spirits to join in the family celebration. On the third day, the ceremony is repeated on a smaller scale to bid the spirits farewell for another year.

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