Vietnamese Pop Concert in Anaheim Is Target of Protest

About 2,500 angry demonstrators rallied outside a Vietnamese pop music concert Sunday at the Sun Theatre in Anaheim. The concert and protest underscored a widening cultural divide between some older refugees and younger Vietnamese Americans.

Protest organizers and others said the concert was no more than propaganda for the current communist government. Waving American and old South Vietnamese flags, they heckled cars entering the theater parking lot, and stomped on mannequins of Ho Chi Minh and other communist leaders. Several wore their former military uniforms.

“This is not a cultural show. . . . Communists have no culture and no art,” said Ky Ngo of Garden Grove, a rally spokesperson. But the show’s organizer, John To of San Diego, said the lineup included internationally acclaimed Vietnamese musicians, and that love songs, not politics, were on the evening’s program.

To, 38, who left Vietnam in 1975, expressed sympathy for the demonstrators, many of them older people who were forced to flee during or after the war.

“They have family who died in the war, and they have deep hatred for communists,” To said. “I’m of a younger generation. I don’t want to look back, I want to move on and open up and show these people what freedom is all about.”

To said about 600 to 700 people bought tickets to the concert. It was not clear if everyone attended.

The crowd outside was far larger. By 5 p.m., police said about 2,500 people were crowded onto sidewalks. The rally remained peaceful as about 100 Anaheim police officers kept protesters away from concert-goers.

But there were tense moments. After the concert, police escorted most of the audience out a back door to their cars. One older woman and a girl who had parked in front of the theater were verbally accosted by demonstrators shouting, “Go home communists.”

Times staff writer Dave McKibben contributed to this story.