Little Saigon, Philadelphia
This heart of the Philadelphia metropolitan area's rapidly growing Vietnamese community is centered on the intersection of S. Eighth Street and Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia,[1] with "one of the largest Vietnamese populations on the east coast,"[2][3] and is a district where "... neon signs lure shoppers into grocery stores, restaurants, and karaoke bars set back from the street in low-rise concrete strip malls.Shoppers pushing carts laden with rice noodles, bean cakes and imported spices and sauces pack suburban-style parking lots behind the complexes.Meanwhile, the Vietnamese community has additionally expanded eastward across the Delaware River to Camden, Cherry Hill, Woodlynne,[5] and as far as Atlantic City[6] in the neighboring U.S. state of New Jersey.[7] According to Ariel Diliberto, a Temple University anthropology scholar, "... the strip malls are typical of Vietnamese business communities across the U.S." Diliberto points out that the architecture "... is an idealization of American enterprise among South Vietnamese frustrated under communism and inspired by the 'simple, geometric high-rise buildings' constructed in Vietnamese towns and cities during the Vietnam war."[4] Unlike other Vietnamese enclaves in the US, "... there’s no gaudy, generically 'Asian' archway entreating the passersby to explore, just a string of unannounced shopping malls and a smattering of nearby businesses integrated into the ever-evolving immigrant territory of the Italian Market and the building materials bazaar along Washington Avenue.