The Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) at Portland State will host its twenty-third annual Culture Show on Feb. 17 in Smith Memorial Student Union. Traditional food will be provided, in addition to live performances celebrating the Vietnamese community and culture.
VSA strives to be a place for community where everyone is welcome to join and engage in Vietnamese culture—whether they identify as Vietnamese or not. VSA hosts a series of workshops throughout each term. These provide opportunities for the community to come and learn about the culture and language and partake in various activities.
The most recent workshop on campus was an interactive exercise which involved learning about the famous landmarks in Vietnam. VSA also likes to engage with the larger Vietnamese community in the PNW through collaborations and events with schools in Washington and Oregon.
VSA’s largest event of the year is its annual Culture Show—a celebration of the Lunar New Year. This holiday is called “Tết” in Vietnamese and is the most important festival in Vietnamese culture. They celebrate Tết every year between mid-January and early February with parades, dance, food and symbols of good luck.
Every year, the VSA Culture Show revolves around a specific theme that holds cultural significance. This year’s theme is the traditional Vietnamese culinary dish, “Mâm ngũ quả” or five-fruit tray. The five-fruit tray—a long-standing tradition of the New Year—symbolizes respect for one’s ancestors and the wishing of good things for the new year.
Traditionally, each fruit has a different meaning, which VSA will explore at the Culture Show through live performances. The show will open with a line dance and conclude with a skit that showcases the theme’s meaning.
Along with Mâm ngũ quả, the VSA Culture Show will incorporate Vietnamese dishes, such as egg rolls, spring rolls, meat dishes, fried rice and desserts. Many VSA students will wear traditional Vietnamese clothing and encourage others to do so as well.
“I believe it’s important for students to get knowledge of different cultures in general,” said Mary Nguyen—the VSA president—about the value of cultural celebrations at PSU. “[It’s important] to be open minded about how there’s differences in values and culture, how someone from one culture can value something different from another.”
Two years ago, one of the officers at the time asked Nguyen to help out with that year’s Culture Show, and she joined VSA.
First, as the cultural chair for the association and now serving as the organization’s president, Nguyen identifies VSA as a resource to educate the broader PSU student body about Vietnamese culture and as a space for students with Vietnamese heritage to foster community and build connections.
VSA has “helped [me] with finding a community of Vietnamese students,” Nguyen said. “Growing up, I wasn’t really in a big Vietnamese community or anything; it was a really small community. And mostly there were older people rather than students and people my age.”
Cultural clubs and events such as these also advocate for equitable resource distribution and diversified representation across the university. For example, Nguyen explains how student groups on campus sometimes face difficulties when trying to get traditional cultural foods for events, such as boba. Students having a platform to organize, such as VSA, ultimately allows for greater visibility and inclusivity.
Students can find information about how to get involved with VSA through their social media pages and through PSU Connect, where the association details upcoming workshops and events.
VSA continues to provide a place for students to form a community, while also hosting cultural events and educational programming that contributes to the preservation and promotion of Vietnamese culture in Portland.