For as long as I can remember, my siblings and I was exposed to this Buddhist shrine from a very young age. This all started when my family, from my father side, immigrated to Los Angeles, California in Chinatown in 1981 from Vietnam in order to have a better life. His family originally came from China but immigrated to Vietnam in 1936 when my grandfather was twelve years old in order to find jobs and to have a better than in China. Years have passed since my grandfather arrived in Vietnam where he met my grandmother; who was also a Chinese immigrant from China. They got married and had eight children including my father. But during the 1970s when my father and his siblings were young, the “Vietnam War” was going on.  At this time, they wanted to draft young teens into the military which my grandmother did not want so they decided to move to the United States. My father and his family’s immigration to the U.S. was for wealth and for better living. But they faced a lot  the discrimination  when they arrived here in the U.S. It was very difficult to find jobs that doesn’t require them to speak English. Because of this, they were being made fun of because of their lack of English. But through all these hard times my father’s family faced, they relied heavily on Buddhism for them to move forward with their lives here in the U.S. The positivity because of Buddhism my family were able to thrive for many decades to come.

– Kristine Quang

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant