From Hanoi to Prague An Interview With Pham Huu Uyen

From Hanoi to Prague

An interview with Pham Huu Uyen

By Jules Eisenchteter

The Vietnamese community, estimated to be around 70,000 strong, is an essential part of Czech society. Yet, the real story of this Southeast Asian diaspora at the heart of Europe remains a mystery to many.

Born in a small village in north Vietnam, Pham Huu Uyen came to Prague in the early 1980s on a government scholarship, as part of a bilateral agreement that enabled thousands of Vietnamese guest workers and students to gain experience and know-how in communist Czechoslovakia. Like many of his compatriots, he thought his stay would only be temporary. But his story took a different turn.

After an intensive year of Czech language courses, Pham Huu Uyen completed his studies at the Mathematics and Physical Faculty of Charles University. Amidst the turmoil of the early 1990s, he started an independent, pro-democratic magazine, Diễn Đàn (Forum), with some friends, an endeavour which landed him in the cross-hairs of Vietnamese authorities and forced him to apply for refugee status. A few years later, he received Czech citizenship and founded his own company, KITE System, which provides IT solutions and software in the aviation sector and thrives to this day.

The uncertain rise of the Vietnamese community

The integration of Vietnamese into Czech society after the fall of communism wasn’t painless. “The early 1990s was a very difficult time for us,” he explained. “Although it had probably always existed, hidden beneath the surface, xenophobic sentiment and racist attacks against Vietnamese people suddenly became quite common and widespread.”

The storm eventually passed. “The situation has continuously improved since, and Vietnamese are now well integrated, even though some children still have some problems at school,” Pham Huu Uyen said. Acceptance grew as their numbers skyrocketed, nearly doubling in 20 years. In 2013, the Vietnamese community, now the third-largest in the country, became the first non-European minority to join the Council for National Minorities, an advisory body set up to assist the Czech government in all matters pertaining to a dozen officially recognised ethnicities established in the country.

Beating two other candidates, Pham Huu Uyen was appointed that year as the first official chief spokesman and representative of the country’s Vietnamese population. “I was a bit sceptical at first, but my friends eventually convinced me that I would be right for the position,” he said with a wry smile. Despite its limited powers, the Council for National Minorities has been instrumental in improving the situation of the Vietnamese community. But Pham Huu Uyen won’t be their standard-bearer once his second term ends in 2023. “It’s time to let the younger generation run the show.”

Mostly concentrated in Prague, Karlovy Vary, and northern Bohemia, Vietnamese are now an essential part of Czech society. Most Czechs will buy their groceries at the nearby Vietnamese-owned potraviny, while pho and other local delicacies have become a central part of the diet of many Praguers. More importantly, they’re here to stay. “Contrary to 30 years ago, most Vietnamese families will now tell you that they have no intention of going back, unless the situation in Vietnam dramatically improves.”

Tellingly, the Vietnamese community has been largely spared the resurgence of hate speech and the wave of xenophobic rhetoric that has swept the country in recent years. “Many politicians actually parade their acceptance of Vietnamese people to ‘prove’ they’re not racist,” Pham Huu Uyen explained. “We’re being used as a shield of respectability, and this can be dangerous in the long run,” he warned.

This observation hits the raw nerve of the issue: despite being largely accepted and well integrated, the Vietnamese community is still seen by many as a separate, self-contained, and somewhat closed entity within Czech society. This diagnosis is confirmed by ethnologist Stanislav Broucek who, in his 2017 study The Visible and Invisible Vietnamese in the Czech Republic, argues that many Czechs hold one of two equally simplistic and stereotypical views about Vietnamese people: the “hardworking and quiet immigrant” or the “criminal and drug dealer.”

After decades of mostly peaceful coexistence, a gap remains. As it so often does, it all boils down to language and communication, according to Pham Huu Uyen. “Many Vietnamese people, including those who arrived after 1990, don’t speak Czech. It’s a shame, even more so considering the fact that, in my opinion, Vietnamese are by nature very open people.”

The younger generation takes the floor

As tensions between Czechs and Vietnamese receded, another type of storm was brewing on the horizon: tensions between first-generation parents and their second-generation children – the latter Czech-born and bred. “That’s a very big problem within families,” Pham Huu Uyen confirmed. “The first and second generations of Vietnamese have very distinct sets of values and systems of belief. They don’t behave or think in the same way. Most Vietnamese parents want their children to study economics, which they see as the ultimate career path and holy grail to succeed in life. Although their children might beg to differ, they’re often too shy to confront their parents about it.”

How to reconcile their Vietnamese heritage and Czech upbringing, their parents’ expectations with their own aspirations? “That truly is the main question when it comes to second-generation Vietnamese. There isn’t any miracle recipe, and every family deals with it in a different way,” Pham Huu Uyen said.

He’s no stranger to seeking that fine balance with his own two sons, aged 19 and 22. “I taught them Vietnamese, but as soon as they started going to school, they switched and answered me in Czech! But I’m not too worried. Every time we travel to Vietnam, I see that they can still speak the language.”

The future of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic lies in this second generation, born in the late 1980s or early 1990s and now coming of age, scrambling on a day-to-day and individual basis to strike the fine balance between the two cultures that make up their complex and unique identity. This voyage into uncharted territory is only just beginning.

Photos in this article were provided by: 1) Pham Huu Uyen 2) Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1989-1215- 003 / CC-BY-SA 3.0