Evalee Anderton

Project #1

Overview

For my cultural function I attended a VASA (Vietnamese American Student Association)

event for Tet also known as Vietnamese lunar new year. To learn more information about VASA

I interviewed a member of the club named Christina Truong, to ask her about what VASA does.

I compared VASA to the Value Orientation and discovered a newfound interest in the VASA

group.

Religion or Culture

VASA is a club run by students that connects people to Vietnamese culture. They run

events and meetings for other students to meet new people and learn about Vietnamese traditions

and activities. There are other VASA’s, sometimes they have different names like VSA

(Vietnamese Student Association) at other colleges in many different states. Christina added that,

“Sometimes there are conventions for all the VASAs in a region and they collaborate” (Truong,

2021).

A collaboration they did this year was presidents from each club around the southwest

region did a “smoothie challenge” fundraiser to raise money for kids in Vietnam. Usually every

year there’s a convention called APEX where they all meet and do workshops and hear from

speakers about leadership and diversity. Culture shows are also a way they travel to meet in

person, they’re events where people perform.

Religion or Cultural Function

Vietnamese lunar new year or Tet, this year was done via Zoom but if there wasn’t Covid

there usually is an in person event with food, performances, and people dress in Ao Dai, a

traditional Vietnamese lunar new year garment. I learned that Tet is the most important

celebration in Vietnamese culture.

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To prepare for the lunar new year families do a deep cleaning of their homes, buying

flowers, burning incense and votive paper. Votive paper is supposed to represent valuables that

are burned to be sent to the dead to use in the afterlife. It is believed that on December 23rd Ong

Tao or the “Kitchen God” rides a carp up to heaven to discuss a family’s situation, good or bad,

with the Jade Emperor or the King of Heaven. They let him go by incensing. It was very

interesting to learn about what traditions each family had but the thing they all had in common

was giving their family members money in red envelopes to signify luck.

Value Theory

The Value Theory that came to my mind was the Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck Value

Orientation. They, “emphasized the centrality of cultural values in understanding cultural

groups” ​(Martin & Nakayama, 2018, p. 95). The scholars suggested that, “members of all

cultural groups must answer the following important questions: What is human nature? What is

the relationship between humans and nature? What is the relationship between humans? What is

the preferred personality? What is the orientation toward time?”​ (Martin & Nakayama, 2018, p.

96). They also believed that, “religious beliefs, for example, may reinforce certain cultural

values.” (Martin & Nakayama, 2018, p. 96)

Analysis

Christina told me that a lot of people in VASA are Buddhist and those that were would

go to the Buddist temple to celebrate and pray for good fortune for the new year as well (Truong,

2021). Even those that aren’t Buddhist have the same societal beliefs about the relationship

between humans as well as their orientation toward time. The relationship they have between

humans is a very close one such as family and how important it is as a culture and being

revereing your elders. The orientation they have towards time is past oriented they, “strongly
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emphasize the past, believing that knowledge and awareness of history have something to

contribute to the understanding of contemporary life” (Martin & Nakayama, 2018, p. 102).

Reflection

I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this project and asking Christina questions about VASA.

I have a couple friends that are members of VASA and I have attended some VASA events

before but have never really asked them questions specifically about their club. I learned that

Tet is very important to my friends and their families. They celebrate their family values and

cultural community.

At first I had the mindset that this was just another event that they celebrated but when I

learned that it’s the most important I was intrigued. I feel like I got a better understanding of my

friends as well. Tet is like Thanksgiving where families come together and New Years

celebrating the future and letting go of the old year but learning from it as well. I could learn

from this by trying to be closer with my family and learning from the past so I can welcome the

future. I might even attend more VASA events.

Works Cited

Truong, C. (2021, February 12). Zoom meeting. (E. Anderton, Interviewer)

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2018). ​Intercultural communication in contexts. (7​th Ed.).

New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Educatio​n.