A Writer Salutes Best and Brightest Refugees

Trong Minh, who arrived in the United States three months after the fall of Saigon in 1975, gestured toward an open restaurant door looking out onto bustling Little Saigon and began speaking rapidly in Vietnamese.

“He says Little Saigon was once a deserted area but the Vietnamese refugees built it up to this magnificent, very impressive business district in a few years,” Rick Murphy said, translating for his friend.

Minh had made his point: The more than 800 Vietnamese-owned businesses here exemplify the accomplishments of immigrants in their adopted country. More important, he said, they illustrate that Vietnamese refugees in the United States and other receiving countries have been an asset, not a burden.

Minh, a former journalist and screenwriter in Vietnam, began chronicling the achievements of refugees six years ago. His self-published “The Pride of the Vietnamese”--a bilingual volume in English and Vietnamese--contains profiles of the best and brightest of the Vietnamese refugee community. These 60 “luminaries” are scattered around the globe--in France, Finland, Germany, Australia, Japan, Canada and the United States. They include:

* The family of Thoa Nguyen, whose three sons and two daughters received engineering degrees from the University of Washington on the same day in 1987.

* Nguyen Huu Xuong, a UC San Diego professor of physics, chemistry and biology whose machine to help AIDS researchers has made national headlines.

* Hoang Thieu Quan, who became in 1991 the first woman to serve as Montreal’s director of finance.

* Dustin Nguyen of Costa Mesa, who co-starred in TV’s “21 Jump Street.”

Minh, 52, wrote in his introduction that he hopes “a look at the track record of Vietnamese achievements in the overseas setting will cause fellow Vietnamese and foreigners to realize that Vietnam is a hidden treasure of talents.”

Seated at a table with the book’s translator, Nguyen Van Giai, and Murphy, editor of the English section, Minh said he wrote the book partly to combat negative stereotypes.

“I want people in my second country to know Vietnamese people are busy, that they work hard,” said Minh, whose real name is Vu Trong Chat. (As is the custom of Vietnamese authors, he adopted a symbolic pen name. Trong Minh, the name Minh prefers, translates as values intelligence. )

“The Pride of the Vietnamese,” which Minh hopes will be the first in a series of similar volumes, was launched in December with a news conference attended by several hundred members of the Vietnamese community.

Translating for Minh, Murphy said: “He realizes it’s at an opportune time because Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong are being forcibly repatriated. He says the book, by talking about the Vietnamese character, culture and history, will show that there is no cause for their repatriation--that they’re potential contributors to the society.”

“The Pride of the Vietnamese” is now available only in Vietnamese bookstores, but Minh hopes to eventually distribute it to general bookstores, “so the American population can understand my people.”