Thirty Years On, Saigon's Cholon Thrives Again

Thousands upon thousands did leave. When American officials began negotiations for an "Orderly Departure Program" to halt the sea-borne exodus in which untold numbers died at the hands of pirates and in storms, they asked for a list of people the communist government was prepared to let go.

The first list they received, known jokingly among U.S. diplomats as "The Cholon Telephone Directory," was seen as evidence of how strong the new government's desire was to see the back of the ethnic Chinese.

Many had reasons not to go. Some were too poor to buy their way onto a boat for a passage which had to be paid for in gold. Others were married to Vietnamese and felt that would afford protection. Some were too old for the arduous journey.

For those who stayed, life became miserable. They were forced to join cooperatives,, trade was slight and incomes tiny, said some of those who remained behind.

Things began to change in the late 1980s when the government began to liberalize a state-run economy which was not working. Change accelerated in the early 1990s as the reforms began to kick in.

EVER GROWING NUMBERS

Viet Kieu started to come back from the United States, France, Canada, Australia and other countries which had taken them in.

Quach Hung Tong was one of them.

An ethnic Chinese, he left on a boat with his parents and four brothers and sisters in 1979 from their home in Bac Lieu, south of Ho Chi Minh City, and reached Indonesia.

They were taken in by the United States and ended up in San Jose, California, where they used the overseas Chinese network to set up a business importing food from Thailand.

In 1989, Tung returned to visit relatives for the first time. He brought dollars and the relatives set up a food processing business in the days before foreign investment was permitted.

Now he has a $2 million, 320,000 square-foot factory in Cu Chi, 15 miles from Ho Chi Minh City, making Vietnamese condiments and food for export.

He still has his American passport and his parents still live in California. But they come every year for a visit.

There are many others like him. More than 1,000 Viet Kieu businesses have been established in Ho Chi Minh City, says the Overseas Vietnamese Business Association, which was established in 1999 with 48 members and now has 155.

The wealthy among them, said the 62-year-old ethnic Chinese owner of a small shoe store in Cholon, set up factories making textiles, shoes or parts for the millions of motorcycles which now clog the streets of Vietnam's cities.

The less wealthy open restaurants or karaoke bars, he said. In fact, so many have returned that property prices in his corner of Cholon have tripled in the past two years, he said.