Refugee Resettlement in Orange County

By K Lee

This installation is a part of Then, Now, Next: Oral History for Social Change, OHMA's multimedia interactive popup exhibition of stories, which will take place at the Refectory at Union Theological Seminary on April 29, 2015.

Vietnamese refugees, who experienced the loss of their home, remember their resettlement in Orange County, California in various ways. In the exhibit, viewers and listeners will listen to oral histories with Vietnamese Americans to learn about the refugees’ memories and experiences through their voices.

Dong Kue Lee has studied history in South Korea focusing on American foreign relations. After joining in OHMA, he has an interest in studying how refugees in the U.S. remembered specific incidents with Americans. He has developed his research idea on Vietnamese refugee resettlement in the 1970s. He is writing his thesis based archival oral records and interpret them through the lens of oral history.