On the Media Vietnamese Newspapers During this era of great uncertainty for most American newspapers, at least one segment of the international press in this country is thriving. Refugees from Vietnam now living in the U.S. have established dozens of newspapers in southern California, New Orleans, Houston and in the suburbs of the nation's capital. From Washington, D. C., Lex Gillespie reports. It's a recent afternoon at a small bookstore in the Eden center, a Vietnamese shopping mall in Falls Church, Virginia, that's filled with restaurants, cafes and small shops.
Customers here scoop up the latest editions of Vietnamese-language newspapers.
One of the regulars at this store is Bich Nuwinn, an activist in the local Vietnamese community. Many of these weekly newspapers were founded during the 1980s, as refugees built communities across America in the aftermath of the fall of Saigon. Dao says the newspapers are especially popular among many older residents fluent only in their native tongue. The paper's layout doesn't have the stylized look of a typical American daily. Most of its pages are filled with long columns of domestic and international stories.