Southeast Asian Archive
Since the end of the Vietnam Conflict in 1975 a large number of refugees and immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam have come to the United States, and especially to California. In order to document their experiences in a new culture, the University of California, Irvine Libraries established the Southeast Asian Archive in 1987. The Archive’s collection strengths include materials relating to the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees and immigrants in the United States (and to a lesser extent, worldwide), refugee camp and other experiences of the “boat people” and land refugees, the development and progress of new ethnic communities, and the culture and history of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. There is a special focus on materials pertaining to Southeast Asians in Orange County and California. Holdings are in English and in Southeast Asian languages (primarily Vietnamese), and include books, refugee orientation materials, government documents, reports and surveys, periodicals, journal articles, newspaper clippings, video and audio recordings, personal and institutional papers, posters, photographs, ephemera, paintings, newspaper and journal articles, government documents, and dissertations and theses.
| HIGHLIGHTS: | |||||||
 Rejection letter |
 Hmong mother and sons in Fresno, California. |
 Exhibit poster for "A SEAA of Memories." |
