Thuy Huynh Tresner

By Anne Lowe | Rancho Cordova Post

RANCHO CORDOVA, CALIFORNIA – Thuy Huynh Tresner’s modest storefront popped in to Rancho Cordova last October with little fanfare. During a time when many people were watching their pocketbooks with concern, her small bridal shop didn’t garner as much attention as it might have in years past. Tresner, however, is hoping that will change soon; her rags-to-riches-to-rags fairytale is depending on it for a happy ending.

Tresner, 39, opened Elegant Designs Bridal on Sunrise Boulevard near White Rock Road as a last-ditch effort to stay afloat in her adopted country. Her now ex-husband brought her to America as his bride just 13 years ago and treated her to a life she could never have imagined in her small Vietnamese hometown.

Tresner’s beginnings in Vietnam were humble at best. As a child she didn’t have any toys to play with, so she would draw her own paper dolls and draw clothing for her hand-made models to wear. Years later while attending Huong Duong, a school in her hometown, she rediscovered the passion she’d once had for making clothes for her paper dolls.

“I was thinking, ‘Wow, I can make clothes for doll, I can make clothes for me!’ That’s how I started,” she said in a still thick Vietnamese accent.

In 1996 she got an opportunity of a lifetime. Her former husband sponsored her and brought her to the U.S. to be his wife. Seven years later they had a daughter, Angelina, who is now 6 years old.

“It’s a fairy tale, a very beautiful story,” she said, “but it just didn’t work out the way we planned.”

The Tresner’s lived a lavish lifestyle, far removed from Thuy’s humble roots in Vietnam. Together they owned several houses in the Sacramento area and operated several businesses, including Fitness System, a 24-hour fitness center in Lodi. Last July, however, her husband filed for divorce.

The divorce has left her with little more than memories of the privileged life she had been brought in to from Vietnam. “We used to live in an 11,000-square-foot home,” she said. “He took over everything and I have absolutely nothing right now.”

Despite her setbacks, something good has come from the divorce. Once her husband filed, she felt prompted to try and live her dream of being a professional designer.

“When we separated I had no money coming in at all,” she said. “I decided I would open a wedding store and designing store
because that’s what I’m good at.”

Getting her name known as a designer has been difficult. When she first opened, she made business cards with a coupon on the back and passed them out to businesses around her shop. She also placed ads on Craigslist to try and make her business known in Sacramento’s competitive bridal market. One cold Saturday earlier this year, Tresner could be seen in a hand-made white skirt hammering small cardboard signs into the grass in front of her store.

Tresner is hoping her small attempts at advertising will pay off, but she knows that the recession is making it difficult for her to recoup her money.

“I love to meet people, and I love to help everybody out right now,” she said. “Especially because of the economy, I try to pass on most of the savings for everyone.”

So far, though, she has found so much satisfaction in her work that it makes the struggle worthwhile. “I don’t make nothing right now but it makes me feel good. I am doing something good,” she said.

Tresner’s fairytale has gone from poverty to unimaginable wealth and back again. For now, her hopes are riding on her small, unassuming storefront to make her ending one that will be happily ever after. In the meantime, she’d like to give a little advice to anyone who might be going through something similar.

“I want to leave a message for all the women out there: Be strong and don’t give up your hope.

Danh Dang puts some products in the coolers at his father's store Carolina Seafood and Oriental Market. (Photo by Jon C. Lakey)

By Steve Huffman | Salisbury Post

SPENCER, NORTH CAROLINA – This shows how dedicated Thanh “Long” Dang is to his business, Carolina Seafood & Oriental Market.

Every month or so, Long leaves Spencer for a drive to a huge fish market in Texas where he buys anywhere from 400 to 500 pounds of saltwater jumbo shrimp.

The purchase complete and the shrimp stashed safely in big coolers in the back of his van, Long begins the trek back to Spencer.

Round-trip, the excursion takes 37 hours, and would take longer still if it weren’t for the fact that Long doesn’t bother stopping along the way to rest.

“He doesn’t sleep,” said Long’s 21-year-old son, Danh “Yawn” Dang. “He’s a machine.”

Thanh Dang puts a king mackerel on the scale for a customer at his fresh seafood house on South Salisbury Avenue in Spencer. (Photo by Jon C. Lakey)

Long, 49, and his family opened Carolina Seafood at 912 S. Salisbury Ave., a couple of months ago. The building is a few blocks from downtown. The store occupies a renovated 1,200-square-foot building that used to house a ceramic shop.

Carolina Seafood’s third — and final — employee is Long’s wife and Yawn’s mother, Oanh “Wanda” Nguyen.

As evidenced by their names, the family ain’t from these parts. Long and Wanda were both born in Vietnam, though they met in the United States.

About 10 years ago they owned a seafood shop — Salisbury Seafood — that was at the intersection of South Main and Horah streets. They’ve since spent most of their years in Florida.

They returned to Rowan County to escape Florida’s heat and, because, Long said, “I love Salisbury.”

Despite having been in the United States for the better part of three decades, Long’s English remains — at best — broken.

“I’ve never been to school,” he said. “My wife, she went to school.”

Yawn admits to being his father’s translator.

“You ought to see him when he’s trying to talk with someone on the phone,” Yawn said, laughing.

Thanh Dang cuts up a mackeral for customer. Dang has a variety of fresh fish at South Salisbury Avenue in Spencer at Carolina Seafood and Oriental Market. Photo by (Jon C. Lakey)

Long escaped Vietnam in 1980 with several members of his family, stealing away on a small boat. He said that because they encountered a hurricane and engine problems along the way, the trip to Hong Kong took 12 days. Typically, Long said, it could have been covered in 72 hours.

From Hong Kong they went to San Francisco before eventually settling in North Carolina.

Long said that before he was born, his father lived in France for 14 years. His patriarch spoke glowingly of France, Great Britain and the United States, places where freedom of speech was not only allowed, but encouraged.

Long said the Vietnam War was raging during his childhood. He said numerous American troops — he remembers all as being friendly — visited the small village where he was raised.

Whenever fighting commenced, he and his siblings would escape to an underground shelter.

“Every time they’d start the war, we’d hide out,” Long said.

“It was a shell,” Long said of the building he purchased not long ago. “Nothing in here.”

There’s plenty inside now. In additional to a variety of Oriental food offerings, the business specializes in fresh seafood. Packed in ice is red snapper, mullet, tilapia, king mackerel and more.

Long said his best-selling offering is that aforementioned jumbo shrimp, which fetches $6.89 a pound, a bargain, considering all that goes into getting it to Spencer.

Thanh Dang has a variety of fresh fish at his seafood market on South Salisbury Avenue in Spencer called Carolina Seafood & Oriental Market. (Photo by Jon C. Lakey)

Carolina Seafood is open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Bear in mind that the business has but three employees, and Yawn’s time at the shop is limited because he’s studying computers at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.

Yawn said his father invests at least 72 hours a week into the store, displaying a work ethic that most can’t fathom.

“This is hard work, too,” Long said, picking up on enough of the ongoing conversation to realize he is being spoken about.

“It’s a little dirty, but I love it.”

Yawn’s days helping his parents are limited, saying he plans to relocate to either Japan or Korea once his education is complete.

He graduated with honors from high school in Vero Beach, Fla., and is already well-schooled in a variety of computer programs, capable of repairing just about any make.

Asked if a career in the fish business wasn’t his calling, Yawn laughed before answering, “No way.”

Thanh Dang waits on a customer at his Carolina Seafood & Oriental Market on South Salisbury Avenue in Spencer. (Photo by Jon C. Lakey)

Just inside the entrance to Carolina Seafood, the first thing that shoppers see is a smiling statue of Buddha, the religious philosopher who was the founder of Buddhism.

A pat to the belly is welcome, though Long said he hopes the statue simply conveys a spirit of well-being.

“I call him ‘Lucky Man’ or ‘Happy Man,’ ” Long said. “He’s always smiling. I hope he brings me luck.”

Yawn stood and watched his father laughing as he spoke on a recent weekday morning, the elder Dang alternating between his broken English one moment and his native Vietnamese the next.

Father and son would occasionally converse with one another solely in Vietnamese, the talk coming in a tongue that customers couldn’t begin to understand.

During the midst of it all, Yawn lowered his voice almost to a whisper so his father wouldn’t hear.

“He’s very happy here,” he said. “I hope this works.”

Yawn pointed to the barred doors his father had welded outside the shop. When the business closes, the bars are slid across the doorways and locked, providing an extra measure of security.

“He said he’ll quit working when those rails rust,” Yawn said, motioning again to the bars on the sliding doors.

“He’s going to be here a long time.”

Thanh Dang has a variety of fresh fish at Carolina Seafood and Oriental Market on South Salisbury Avenue in Spencer. (Photo by Jon C. Lakey)

Madison Nguyen

By Juliana Barbassa | Associated Press

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – To outsiders, the banners flanking a six-lane thoroughfare in the heart of Silicon Valley, “Welcome to Little Saigon”, blend innocuously with the suburban landscape of ethnic restaurants, nail salons and check cashing outlets.

But the battle to put them up tore deep into San Jose’s Vietnamese community, which is the largest of any U.S. city, and threatened to derail the burgeoning career of its first elected representative, 34-year-old Madison Nguyen.

The rift started over a year ago, when Nguyen proposed to honor the city’s 85,000 residents of Vietnamese descent, nearly 10 percent of the population, by designating a one-mile (1.6-kilometer) strip as a Vietnamese commercial district, complete with banners and publicity.

Many in the community wanted to call it “Little Saigon,” a name heavy with meaning for the generation that lived through the city’s fall. Nguyen considered proposals from businesses and residents, then struck what she considered a reasonable balance: “Saigon Business District.”

The compromise offended voters who’d celebrated Nguyen’s victory in 2005 as the culmination of their own yearning for democracy. “Little Saigon” was the name used by other Vietnamese communities; it was the name they wanted.

Other council members also voted against “Little Saigon,” but Nguyen was one of their own. They felt betrayed. Thousands protested, one man staged a 29-day hunger strike and some who once looked on Nguyen with pride started gathering signatures to take her down.

James Lai, a professor of Political Science and Ethnic Studies at Santa Clara University, said Nguyen underestimated the symbolism of “Little Saigon.”

“It’s not semantics,” he said. “It’s a term that is used in a lot of Vietnamese-American communities, and stands for a historical connection to the homeland.”

Nguyen ended up surviving a recall effort Tuesday, but some analysts see the activism around her rise and near fall as a story of immigrants finding their political voice.

“Once you give people the tools to participate it’s hard to predict which direction that democratic action will take,” said David Lee, a political science professor at San Francisco State University and observer of Asian politics.

Kim Nguyen, a San Jose housewife, was moved to tears when she explained why she worked on the recall campaign, knocking on doors and getting out the vote.

She’s not related to Madison Nguyen, and doesn’t live in her district, but like the councilwoman and her family, she fled in the wake of Saigon’s takeover in 1975 by victorious North Vietnamese communist forces, who renamed it Ho Chi Minh City.

Madison Nguyen could have been her daughter, a wayward daughter that needed to be brought back in line, said Kim Nguyen.

“She’s one of us, she should understand how we feel,” the 57-year-old said. “She didn’t listen.”

Campaign literature also blamed the councilwoman for an increase in crime, a city council pay raise and other perceived missteps. But the talk on blogs, in cafes and on community radio centered on “Little Saigon” and seethed with the feeling that Nguyen had turned her back on her base.

“People risked their lives to come here for a better future, for democracy. And that’s not happening,” said Paul Le, 42, an accountant who worked as the recall campaign’s treasurer.

To Madison Nguyen, the process was equally painful. Born in Vietnam, she grew up in California’s Central Valley, working alongside parents who harvested crops to raise nine children.

She experienced every hardship that marked her opponents, from days stranded in a boat at high seas to years adapting to a bewildering new country, she said.

“I represent them in the most fundamental way,” she said. “Their story is my own story. That country they left, I left it too.”

She worked for the Vietnamese, who make up a third of her district, and the other ethnic groups she represents when she created affordable housing, revitalized parks and brought jobs to town, she said.

But the burden of her ethnic community’s hopes was heavy.

“I felt like the bride of a hundred families, with so many expectations,” she said.

Her work with other communities, including Latinos who make up more than a third of her district, helped her beat the recall with 55 percent of the vote. Business leaders contributed, helping her raise more than double the cash gathered by her opponents. Important unions, including police and firefighters, poured hands and funds into her campaign.

Dwayne Green, 52, who works for a company that provides wheelchair service in San Jose’s airport, doesn’t live in Nguyen’s district, but spent Tuesday rousing voters to keep her in office. Nguyen stood by his union when it asked the city council for a living wage last year.

“She was there with us, and she cared not just about her people, but about everyone,” said Green, who is black.

Lisa Jensen Dawn, who supported the “Little Saigon” name, volunteered to help Nguyen, whom Dawn said acted courageously when she refused to bow to her community.

“If Madison had done something illegal, immoral or unethical, it would be appropriate to recall her,” said Dawn, who is white. “But the time to take on a politician you disagree with on policy is during elections.”

The city has since scrapped its plans for a Vietnamese district. The Little Saigon banners that flutter on San Jose’s Story Road are privately funded.

What remains to be seen is how the Vietnamese community will survive the infighting that destroyed years’ worth of coalition-building and threatened to reverse their political gains, experts said.

“This election symbolized the awakening of the Vietnamese-American community, showed what they can achieve,” said Lai. “This will be a teachable moment for future leaders.”

The unique bamboo structure Wind and Water Café is located in southern Binh Duong Province.

Award-winning architect Vo Trong Nghia, creator of the unique bamboo structure Wind and Water Café, on using environment-friendly materials in modern structures.

By Thu Ha | Vietnews Online

VIETNAM – Nghia, who this year received the prestigious International Architecture Award (IAA) for his café built with the traditional Vietnamese building materials, bamboo, said he began the project to oppose long-established concepts about architecture.

He wanted to show that it was wrong to think only high class materials could create a beautiful house and that the use of natural materials, such as wind and light, was possible.

Q: Vietnamese architects have received quite a lot international awards, so what is special about the IAA award?

A: It is simple. The award is practical. It is not an award for students’ graduation projects but for professional architects. It means people have come to acknowledge and appreciate your work as a real structure, not something only on paper.

It is significant to me as the award proved that I am heading in the same direction as the rest of the world in using open space, nature and unprocessed and environmentally-friendly materials.

"An architect’s responsibility is to create an architectural model that is close to nature that even poor people will also be able to enjoy the benefit of." -Vo Trong Nghia, architect

Q: You always emphasize the natural and environmental elements of your designs. It is not that other Vietnamese architects do not know about it, but they have to rely on the project investor and thus are unable to bring to life their ideas. What did you do to be able to convert your ideas into construction?

A: I spent my childhood in a small village in central province of Quang Binh and like any other village, we lived with our wind, rice field, garden and river. I have been making bamboo baskets and screens since I was a child.

My house was made of bamboo and dirt. I only studied in Hanoi for about two years before heading to Japan to continue my studies.

What surprised me the most was how natural elements still exist in Japan’s construction and everyday life, side by side with modern technology, and they are treasured to the point they are protected by law.

I was amazed to learn that Japan has 67 percent of its land covered by forest grown by humans. The amount of wood harvested every year reaches 2 million cubic meters and thus the government encourages local people to build wooden houses and schools.

Of course, Vietnam can not do the same thing as our forests are being excessively exploited and destroyed. But we have bamboo, a fast-maturing and easy-to-grow type of Vietnamese material.

A bamboo bush can have dozens of buds and if we do not cut off the old ones, there will be no space for the young ones to grow. That’s why after my return to the country, I immediately thought of bamboo. It is cheap and easy to find, that’s why I try to convince my clients that their projects should be environmentally-friendly.

If we make it environmentally-friendly in a high-class way like some resorts do, does that mean only rich people can bring nature into their home? An architect’s responsibility is to create an architectural model that is close to nature that even poor people will also be able to enjoy the benefit of. Of course, I was not able to convince my client and ended up conducting the project by myself. The Wind and Water Café is entirely made of processed bamboo trunks, which are very cheap.

The structure remains beautiful after four years of operation and it has attracted visitors from around the country. Lots of coffee shops of the same designs have been built in other places. Even though I have not received any copyright payment, it makes me happy. Now the new trend in architecture has been popularized and bamboo is taking the place of concrete, aluminum and glass.

My model of creating open space which makes use of light and wind is in accordance with modern architecture. Vietnamese bamboo has its own unique character. I have exported a number of bamboo structures to Europe, America and Japan. My ambition is to have my creations, made with Vietnamese bamboo, in every country of the world.

The Wind and Water Café is a half-moon shaped complex which applies aerodynamic theory. (Photo by Hoai Trang)

Q: The term architecture does not only mean grand-scale public structures but also the living space of each family. All the materials you said are cheap are, in fact, quite delicate and complex when it comes to constructing. Will these materials be able to reach private households?

A: All of my structures may look complex but they are, in fact, quite simple. Everything is modulated and it takes little time to install. A house of moderate size in a rural or suburban area will cost a few dozen million Vietnam dong to complete. A house like that is only about one third of the price of a normal house of the same size.

Q: You have been using bamboo in your construction, have you ever thought of growing bamboo to replace what you use?

A: I am working on a plan to grow bamboo, not only as building material but also as decoration. We are also thinking of creating a museum for bamboo. This will be the world’s biggest bamboo museum with all type of bamboos from Vietnam and neighboring areas.

Cindy Lou paints fillings onto Kathy Evan's nails Feb. 14 at Stone Creek Nails in Del Rey Oaks. (Photos by Brittany Durgin)

By Robert Walch | Salinas Californian

DEL REY OAKS, CALIFORNIA – Speaking on behalf of her co-manager and sister-in-law, Cindy Lou Nguyen, Tammie Nguyen says their new nail salon, Stone Creek Nails, is entirely a family business.

Not only did an aunt provide the two women with financial backing, but both their sisters, Nga and Kim, work alongside them serving their customers.

Born and raised on the Central Coast, Nguyen and her sister-in-law graduated from Seaside High and then worked together in the same nail salon in the Del Monte Shopping Center for six years.

The young women, both in their 20s, had been thinking about starting their own business but had not found the right location. That changed last summer when they found space at the Stone Creek Shopping Center in Del Rey Oaks.

Stone Creek Nails in Del Rey Oaks,California. (Photo by Brittany Durgin)

Once the lease was negotiated, Nguyen said the next step was hiring a designer and contractor to transform the empty space into an environment that would be “soothing and welcoming.”

As the work moved ahead on the shop’s interior, the co-managers began purchasing the fixtures necessary for a good-quality establishment.

“It was very expensive,” Nguyen said, referring to the five new spa pedicare chairs and six manicure stations that currently fill the front of the shop. In the back, a private waxing room also had to be furnished.

Stone Creek Nails opened its doors in December, just in time for the holiday season. The shop specializes in not only pedicures, manicures and waxing but also eyelash extensions. Nguyen said facials would be available to their clients soon.

Nguyen acknowledges that business has been a little slow the first couple of months. She said the family discussed the current negative business climate but figured with the clientele she and Cindy Lou built up through the years they could make a go of it.

“We saw an increase toward the end of January,” she said. “As word gets out that we are here, I think we’ll soon have more customers to augment our regulars.”

Sample nails with a variety of colors and designs. (Photo by Brittany Durgin)

As part of a grand opening promotion, Stone Creek Nails is offering 10 percent off through the end of March. The shop features Creative nail products and Extended Beauty eyelash extensions.

According to Nguyen, the noon hour and the late afternoon period after work are usually the busiest for the staff.

Although reservations are recommended for those busy times, there is usually not a wait for walk-in customers during the rest of the day.

Nguyen stressed that the staff is fully licensed as well as certified for doing eyelash extensions. She also noted that the shop hosts private events for individuals planning birthdays, bridal parties or some other type of get-together.

Stone Creek Nails is at the Stone Creek Shopping Center, 457 Canyon Del Rey Blvd. in Del Rey Oaks, California. Hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.