UC Irvine Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
UC Irvine
- Location: Irvine, CA
- Phone: (949) 824-3947
- Email: spcoll@uci.libanswers.com
- Website: http://seaa.lib.uci.edu/
The University of California, Irvine Libraries established the Southeast Asian Archive in 1987 in response to the community’s interest in having this history documented, preserved, and made accessible. The Archive's collection is broad and interdisciplinary in documenting the social, cultural, religious, political, and economic life of members of the Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese diaspora. Collection strengths include Southeast Asian American experiences of resettlement and community formations since the Vietnam War, Cambodian Genocide, and geopolitical turmoil in the former French-occupied "Indochina" in the latter half of the 20th century.
The circumstances related to the formation of these diasporic communities, including wars, genocide, and displacement, contribute to the complexities of the Southeast Asian Archive. In particular, records from international aid workers may include information about people who were unknowingly (or non-consentingly) documented and/or depict or describe graphic violence, nudity, as well as racist and/or sexist views. Additionally, these communities originate from countries previously colonized by France and named “Indochina.” As such, some records deploy terms that may be common in government and scholarly publications, but are not adopted or agreed upon by Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese people.
These primary source collections are historical and may include descriptive language, personal views, and imagery about and/or in them that are no longer used or considered appropriate today. The acceptability of language and content can change over time. It is possible that a collection or metadata associated with a collection may contain historical language or culturally sensitive content now recognized as inappropriate for publication without meaningful context or consultation with relevant communities.
We are proactively addressing these issues in the UCI Libraries, including ongoing work on reparative, ethical archival description. If you believe that we have archival materials or have published an image or information that is incorrect or that should be restricted, please submit feedback using this form: https://airtable.com/shrOmDhHMDUFlhBVd
Collections at this institution
Bonner (Mitchell I.) Photographs and Ephemera
This collection comprises approximately 3,000 photographs and slides taken by Mitchell Bonner between 1975 and 2001, as well as printed ephemera collected by him through 2014. The images document Iu Mien, Lao, Khmer, Vietnamese, and Cambodian community social and cultural events throughout Northern California, primarily the San Francisco Bay area. The emphasis is on Laotian American communities. The ephemera includes programs, posters and flyers from cultural, religious, and popular culture events, refugee publications, pamphlets and brochures from refugee assistance agencies, and other materials related to social services, education, and refugees. The collection also includes a small amount of material documenting …
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
275 Items
Cleary (Guire) and Jade B. Ngoc Le Collection of Hmong and Iu Mien Refugee Artifacts
This collection is comprised of 55 artifacts collected by Guire Cleary and Jade B. Ngoc Le from Southeast Asian refugees. Cleary is a Franciscan friar of the Episcopal Church who served as assistant director of the Tolstoy Foundation in San Francisco, California. Le is the former director of the United States Catholic Conference transit center in San Francisco. The artifacts in this collection are mostly Hmong or Iu Mien in origin and were left behind by refugees at the Travelodge Transit Center in San Francisco. During 1979-1983, San Francisco, California was the entry point for over 50,000 refugees each year …
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
8 Items
Fort Chaffee Photographs of Vietnamese and Cambodian Refugees
This collection is comprised of black and white photographs and negatives taken of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees living at Fort Chaffee, a military base in Arkansas. The photographs document the daily life of the refugees, including the arrival of refugees by plane and bus, a visit from President Gerald Ford, refugee education and social activities.
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
33 Items
Frank (Anne) Photographs of Southeast Asian American Communities
The collection is comprised of photographs of businesses and cultural festivals within Southeast Asian American communities. The photographs were taken by Anne Frank, librarian of the Southeast Asian Archive at the University of California, Irvine. The communities include those in Long Beach, California; Lowell, Massachusetts; Little Saigon in Garden Grove and Westminster, California and other cities in the United States.
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
50 Items
Hyleigh Pan collection of digital photographs of Lao ephemera
A description of the collection from the donor, Hyleigh Pan: "The Laotian community in the United States, made up of nearly 250,000 people, has limited representation in literature and art. The aftermath of the Secret War in Laos led many to flee the country, leaving only a few stories and scraps of paper behind. With the aim of preserving the past, I initiated a project to gather photographic evidence of items that are important to the Laotian Diaspora. While most collectors concentrate on famous items, I made a deliberate effort to locate objects that were often overlooked or undervalued, but …
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
107 Items
James A. Schill collection of photographs and a pocket diary of Southeast Asian refugees
These records document the conditions of refugee camps in Southeast Asia and resettlment in Camp Pendleton, California, collected by James A. Schill, a retired Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State and USAID. The collection comprises mostly of color photographs of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees at refugee camps in Malaysia and Thailand between 1975 to mid 1980s, as well as photographs of refugee resettlement in Camp Pendleton in 1975. Also included is a Vietnamese boat person refugee's pocket diary with entries written in English, Vietnamese and French from 1979, detailing their journey to Pulau Bidong, Malyasia.
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
3 Items
Lao Stories: Laotian American Oral History Project
Laos Stories: Laotian American Oral History Project consists of audio and video interviews of Laotian Americans across the United States about their life experiences. Interviews were conducted by Prinston Pan, a second generation Laotian American high school student in Southern California. The interviews range from 30 minutes to over an hour in duration and were primarily conducted remotely during the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic. The narrators discuss their experiences in Laos and the U.S. including the hardships they had to overcome, as well as what they hope for future generations. This project provides an in-depth, primary source on the Lao diaspora …
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
17 Items
Le (Van) Files on Southeast Asian Refugees
This collection is comprised of publications and other printed ephemera on Southeast Asian refugees in California and the United States that were accumulated during the course of his work by Van Le, a consultant in bilingual resources at the California State Department of Education. The materials are in English, Vietnamese, and Cambodian. The focus of the collection is on English language learning and Southeast Asian culture. The collection includes educational materials that were distributed to public schools and were used to teach newly resettled refugees.
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
3 Items
Ly Kien Truc Photographs of the Hi-Tek Demonstrations
This collection consists of 98 color photographic prints taken by Ly Kien Truc, publisher of Văn Hóa, a bi-weekly Vietnamese magazine. The photographs are of the 1999 demonstrations over the posting of a portrait of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese flag by Truong Van Tran, the owner of Hi-Tek TV and VCR, a store in Westminster, California. Although the demonstrations lasted from January 17-March 11 1999, these images highlight only certain events. The images depict protestor marches, activities, and arrests; Tran's and his wife's escorted return to Hi-Tek, and the re-hanging of the display; media interviews with Tran and …
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
10 Items
Marshall (Brigitte) Files on Southeast Asian Refugees.
This collection consists of printed materials, audio and videocassettes, and photographs taken by Brigitte Marshall, who worked as a volunteer in refugee camps in Thailand and as an English-language teacher in California. All materials relate to Southeast Asian refugees, principally Hmong, living in camps in Thailand, and adjusting to life in the United States. Photographs, articles, and reports document Hmong, refugees in camps in Thailand, as well as their resettlement in California, particularly the Fresno area. Printed materials include Hmong and Lao language lessons, memos, correspondence, reports, newsletters, newspaper and magazine articles, refugee orientation materials, publications, and unpublished papers.
Institution: UC Irvine, Libraries, Southeast Asian Archive
34 Items
