Diep M. Feigenspan stopped taking days off on July 4, 1996. That's the day the woman known to everyone as simply "Momma" opened the Saigon Vietnamese Cuisine Restaurant in Chinatown. Vietnamese a fading
presence in Hawaii?REALITY OF DREAMS
Gordon Y.K. Pang / gpang@starbulletin.com
The day begins at 7 a.m., an hour before the restaurant opens. It closes at 5 p.m.
At night, Feigenspan works as a bar manager in Kakaako. She closes up the bar at 4 a.m. and gets in a couple of hours of shuteye before returning to the restaurant.
"I always wanted to have my own restaurant," said Feigenspan, whose spring rolls and Saigon sandwiches were famous when she managed a Kapiolani strip club in the early 1990s and continue to be a hit with downtown lawyers and bankers today.
Sometimes, however, the 53-year-old Feigenspan wonders if it's all worth it.
"Nowadays, it's not easy," she said. "You make money to pay the landlord."
The Vietnamese people in Hawaii are still among the state's fastest-growing ethnicities, but many are finding it tough going. Many are seeking greener pastures elsewhere.
Feigenspan notices this because she's been losing steady customers over the last two years. Longliners affected by a federal ruling last year are now doing their angling on the mainland, she said. Gone, too, are scores of taxi drivers, garment makers and others.
The migration to the continental U.S. is also affecting her family.Feigenspan, who came to Hawaii in 1969, sponsored her sister's family when they immigrated here about five years ago. But while all three of her own children remain here, three of her sister's five offspring are already on the mainland.
Tin Myaing Thein, executive director of the Pacific Gateway Center of Hawaii (formerly the Immigrant Center) said there are fewer Vietnamese immigrants using her organization's services.
"There are less newcomers, obviously, because the (refugee) camps have closed," Thein said.
Most of the Vietnamese immigrants arriving today are being sponsored by "anchor relatives" like Feigenspan.
Tung Bui, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's College of Business Administration, said there are not fewer Vietnamese in Hawaii, just fewer of them who were born in Vietnam.
He said his own unscientific survey shows fewer people at Vietnamese cultural events such as the annual New Year's festival since he first arrived in Hawaii three years ago.
"The participation is less and less over the years," he said.
Bui -- the Matson Navigation Co. distinguished professor of global business -- said many Vietnamese students also move on to the mainland after graduation. But that shift is not one exclusive to the Vietnamese, he said. Students of all ethnicities are on the move due to the bad economy locally, he said.
At the same time, Vietnamese immigrants have been able to assimilate quickly into the Hawaii community.
At a university-area cafe known as a popular hangout for Vietnamese students, the dominant language is English, he said.
"They're more Hawaiian and American than Vietnamese," Bui said.
Hawaii's predominantly Asian mix has made it easier for the Vietnamese to blend in than on the mainland, he said.
The quick influx of Vietnamese merchants into Chinatown through the 1990s is one example.
"Anytime I go down there, I hear more Vietnamese in Chinatown than Chinese," Bui said.
Feigenspan counts no less than eight Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown, making them as plentiful, if not more so, than Chinese restaurants.
But Feigenspan has been able to carve her own niche.
"We have more variety than anyplace else," she said, pointing at her menu.