Interiors and Homemaking in Displacement: A Study of Vietnamese Americans in Southern California

Abstract

This paper examines how displaced immigrants create meaningful spaces for themselves in a setting with vastly different customs, values, buildings, and institutions. Through a naturalistic field study, this paper examines in detail the choices, preferences, and decisions made by Vietnamese Americans in Southern California to rebuild their homes and interiors. Salient in their conceptualizations of homemaking were multigenerational family and genealogical linkages with ancestors and extended kin, as well as ritual linkages through worship, food, décor, and spatial requirements. The lessons from this study on homemaking in displacement also reveal the following emergent concepts: home as cultural investment—interior spaces created to facilitate culture specific living, lifestyle, use, activities, and interactions; home as cultural accommodation—spaces modified and transformed to accommodate cultural values and preferences; and home as cultural repository—home as a container for artifacts, paintings, art, and more. All of the above were significant in Vietnamese American homemaking.