Skip to main content
 
Ngoc Nguyen is standing in front of a wall and smiling.

Interview Details

Interviewee(s):

Ngoc Nguyen

Interviewer(s):

Katy Clune

Date of Interview:

April 17, 2023

Communities:

Asian American, Southeast Asian, Vietnamese, Vietnam

About

“I look at them [older generation of folks] and think about what their lives are here in the United States and what their lives were like in Vietnam with the understanding that with each passing generation you lose a little bit of that culture and a group of those stories.”

 

Ngoc Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1972, just after her father, Phung Nguyen, immigrated to the United States on a scholarship to Duke University to study political science and economics. She grew up with a younger sister and brother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The impending fall of Saigon temporarily pushed the Nguyen family to a Thai refugee camp before they followed Ngoc’s father to Durham. In the states, her father witnessed a lot of anti-war protests and was put in a difficult position being South Vietnamese on college campus during the Vietnam War. Nguyen’s parents would later go back to Vietnam twenty-five years after leaving and being disheartened at the state of their home country.

His teaching position later moved the family to Greensboro, North Carolina where he became a tenured professor at A&T State University. Discussing early childhood, she remembers interacting with more Vietnamese families after moving to Greensboro. Because her family was the very first wave of refugees who came to the United States and living close to Duke campus, they were somewhat isolated from the surrounding community. It was not until after moving to Greensboro that her family found and interacted with other Vietnamese people.  It was there that her father founded the Greensboro Vietnamese Temple and became active in the local Vietnamese community as he served as the president of the Vietnamese Association of Greensboro.

 

 

 

This photo Ngoc believes is of her grandparents on the beach

 

Ngoc describes attending events at the temple like Phật Ðản, a family day celebration and Vietnamese New Year. Preserving Vietnamese culture was important to her father, and she similarly immerses her own children.

She is currently serving her second term as the executive board member of the Vietnamese Association of Raleigh and organizes events which she believes serve an important role in conserving the traditions of the older generations of Vietnamese.

 

She attended University of North Carolina from 1990 to 1994, where she studied public policy. At her time at UNC Chapel Hill, her friend created the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA), where she would serve as the vice president and then president of the Vietnamese Student Association. Since the creation, VSA has since grown largely in numbers and popularity.

Ngoc discusses a fond memory that has touched her sons and how she envisions what kind of impact her participation in the Southern Mix project will have.

She responded, “About their personal life, what they did for a living, how their childhood was like, because I think the kids would be interested in comparing. They are always talking about the toys they played with the games. I remember my dad telling the boys about the slingshot, and how he felt bad about killing birds. So now he put the slingshot away and he’s a vegetarian, so they make the connection. They make that connection between him being a vegetarian and the slingshot, which is funny. Those types of stories. Unique, seemingly trivial details, but interesting nonetheless, and significant”.

 

Ngoc ends the conversation by delving into deeply personal and emotional aspects of her life, prompting reflections on the challenges and gratitude intertwined with their family’s journey as refugees.

Listen and read to Ngoc’s recollections of her early years in North Carolina and her involvement in the community below

Read the transcript here