原作者：PURVA PATEL
遴璘译
休斯敦纪事报版权所有

22年前，孙伟根的小杂货店主要面对的是亚裔顾客。

今天，他的越华国际食品超级市场除了经营亚洲进口货品外，也零卖高档的美国乳酪和德国黑尼根Heineken啤酒。

"我们认为这个地点是东方遇见西方的地方，" 孙先生说。

这句话能很好描述西南休斯敦，这里越南工商业界的增长开始模糊了东方和西方之间界限。他们不再是只互相推销给自己，而是瞄准主流消费者。

根据最近的统计，有远超过130，000的越裔居住在得克萨斯，他们中有百分之四十一居住在大休斯敦地区。

1975年数以万计越南难民在西贡陷落以后出逃了并且安身在德克萨斯。许多人被捕虾工作机会拉到了墨西哥湾，他们在越南也做这个。其他人在工厂装配线工作或着做其它蓝领工作。最终攒足了钱可以开他们自己的小生意。

习惯这里的生活并不总是很容易的。在三K党和捕虾者之间的剑拔弩张损害了种族关系。这使得在90年代出现了对亚洲售货员的一系列的射击事件。当店员开始武装自己还击时，非裔美国人变得更加关注亚裔商店东西方之间的那根模糊的线，普遍认为大多越南店东主正使用枪威逼着顾客。

两个社区的领袖举行市政厅会议帮助缓和忧虑，他们甚至还发行了一个免费的亚裔和美裔文化差异的小册子给所有亚洲便利商店的老板。

"它时常仍然发生，" 聂华理说，他帮助在社区之间协商。"随着新居民不断到达，总有某些人也许没有这些常识。"

百利大道

大多数越裔商店、沙龙和餐馆起初集中在城中地区，那里被称为"小西贡"。但租金高昂以及街道建筑在90年代晚期缺乏再开发迫使许多店搬迁。许多商店搬到了Sharpstown西边的百利大道走廊，即现在闻名的新中国城。

他们生意上的眼光是准确的并且得到了成长。

虽然从70年代起移民人数达到了一定的水平，休斯敦仍然吸引着美国其它城市的越裔。

城市的低生活费用，温暖天气和多元化已经使得休斯敦相比美国其它城市是个更赚钱且更吸引人的地方，西贡电台的共同老板Thuy Vu说。1997 年她跟随她的姐妹从圣迭亚戈到休斯敦后一直住在这里。

"在加利福尼亚，您看不到这种客户的多元化" 她说。" 当您服务单单一个社区时，迟早将有很多客户。当您有一个象休斯敦这样的城市，人们可以随心所欲的自由地进入彼此的商店，它真正地吸引了从加利福尼亚来的越南人，因为他们有更多机会成长他们的生意。"

分享一个强大的工作理念和一种企业精神，根据1997年被发布的最新经济人口调查，越裔美国人拥有休斯敦地区亚洲拥有企业的 25000中的近几乎三分之一，产生总年收入十二点三亿美元。随着城市的亚洲人口增长，这个数据显然极大的上升了。

金山酒家的老板Tri La，拥有着遍布城市的餐馆群。王裕炎，一个在越南长大的中国人，以香港城购物中心的大手笔创举在中国城印上了他的标记并继续在发展区域里充当一个主要角色。孙伟根,一个出生在越南的中国人，正在扩展他的越华购物中心，他还管理了一家食品批发中心和一家中国餐馆。

象来到美国的数以万计的其它难民，当孙伟根在外国土地上搜寻重新开始他的生活时，碰到了语言障隘。

他16岁时带着他的父母买的护照出逃越南以便他能在海外学习。但在西贡的秋天后，他曾经用它到了巴黎，当他学习想变成一位电子技术员的同时，还担任兼职洗碗工和侍者的帮手工作。1982年，他在休斯敦与他的父母和五个姐妹团聚了。

"被激发和惊奇了"

"我很激动和惊奇这个国家太大了。我感到极端幸运全家能安全地离开故国，"他说。"但同时，我被妨碍了因为我不懂英语，不会驾驶汽车。"

但他没有被吓倒。他认为自己是幸运的，在巴黎教他迅速适应帮助了他这些年。

他的父母在越南是菜市场主，在他的父母帮助下，他从一家由亚裔银行获得了一笔贷款和在艾莉夫区Wilcrest买了一个4，000 平方英尺的商店。

在三迁其地和五次扩展后，商店变成了一个在购物广场拥有100000平方英尺的超级市场，今年45岁的孙伟根希望它将成为西南休斯敦的一个地标。

他的顾客现在是更加多元化，他说，因为他的地点在西方山姆休斯敦大路和Beechnut 街道，会吸引H-E-B或其它西方贩商所在区域的顾客。

在越华，顾客能发现来自从中国到马来西亚的杂货，也能发现美洲大陆，非洲和拉丁美洲的产品。

"基本用户改变了很多，" 孙伟根说。

他在90年代也开办了亚美进口和批发公司来分配进口杂货给更小的商店、餐馆和未经预约而来的想买批量货物的顾客。他的开发公司，孙氏企业，集中于扩展越华购物中心所在的Beltway广场中心。

整个家族献身于成长的生意。甚至今天他的父母能被发现走在杂货店的走道上，他的姐妹们也在主持家族生意的一部分，这也是从越南带来的习惯。

他已经有他的四个十几岁的儿子帮助文书工作和库存架子。

"越南人在休斯敦成就了一个了不起的事业，" 孙伟根说。"但是他们最了不起的工作是去成就下一代。"

第一代花了很多年的时间工作，专心于把他们的孩子送上大学。

现在，那些孩子的一些回到家来帮助成长家族事业，好象他们在越南时做的一样。他们也帮助企业融入主流。

在12年前55岁的DucDoan在休斯敦开始保险经纪业务，他只卖保险给亚裔。 他是在1979年从越南出逃，在马来西亚一个难民营呆了一段后，搬到了休斯敦，他只卖给第一代亚裔。

女儿现在帮助

今天，他的26岁的在美国出生的女儿Thy帮助他瞄准其它市场。

"我能帮助满足我卖的第一代人的简单需求。"Doan说。"第二代，象很多美国人，有更复杂化的需要。我的女儿能与他们更好的沟通。"

许多第二代并且开始了他们自己的企业，进入房地产、财政规划，医学和出版。

"更年轻一代从大学出来，就更有方法做主流的生意" 财政规划师Nghi Ho说，他有比亚裔更多的非亚裔的客户。

很多企业只迎合越裔美国人，他说，并且一些甚至靠他兴旺了。

"仅我不能，" Ho说，当他的家庭离开了越南到休斯敦时他才8岁。"如果我做越南人生意，我会挨饿的。"

purva.patel@chron.com

照片画廊
孙伟根在休斯敦拥有越华购物中心－－东方遇到西方的地方，靠服务休斯敦的多元化　越裔美国人生意兴隆

孙伟根拥有越华购物中心，包括越华国际食品－－100，000平方英尺杂货店，兼营美国和亚洲杂货。
摄影:斯蒂夫· 坎伯: 休斯敦纪事报

孙伟根（左），与顾客Roy Tjinakwie谈话，他是一个在越华购物的中国国民。
摄影:斯蒂夫· 坎伯: 休斯敦纪事报

越华国际食品的入口处，在西方山姆休斯敦大路旁。
摄影:DeSoto: 休斯敦纪事报

以下是原文

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3159422

Vican Tan's small grocery store catered mostly to Asian shoppers when he opened 22 years ago.

Today, his Viet Hoa International Foods supermarket peddles processed American cheese and Heineken beer along with Asian imports.

"We think this location is where the East meets the West," Tan said.

That statement could very well describe southwest Houston, which touts a growing Vietnamese business community that's starting to blur the lines between East and West. They're no longer marketing strictly to each other, but targeting the mainstream consumer as well.

At last count, well over 130,000 Vietnamese lived in Texas, 41 percent of them in the Houston metropolitan area.

Thousands of Vietnamese refugees fled after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and found themselves in Texas. Many were drawn to the Gulf Coast by the chance to work as shrimpers as they did in Vietnam. Others worked in factory assembly lines or other blue collar jobs. Scores eventually saved enough to open their own small businesses.

Assimilation hasn't always been easy. Tensions between the Ku Klux Klan and shrimpers hurt race relations. So did the response to a series of shootings of Asian store clerks in the 1990s. When the clerks began to fight back by arming themselves, African-Americans became concerned that the Asian store Lines blur between East, West

owners, many of them Vietnamese, were using the guns to intimidate customers.

Leaders from both communities helped allay worries by holding town hall meetings and even distributing a free manual on the difference between Asian and American cultures to all Asian convenience store owners.

"It still happens once in a while," said Dan Nip, who helped lead talks between the communities. "There's always someone who might not have the knowledge as new people arrive."

Bellaire Boulevard

Most Vietnamese stores, salons and restaurants first concentrated in Midtown, in what was called "Little Saigon." But higher rents and street construction from redevelopment in the late 1990s forced many of the businesses to move. Many relocated to the Bellaire Boulevard corridor west of Sharpstown in what's known as the city's New Chinatown.

Their business presence is unmistakable and growing.

Although immigration has leveled since the 1970s, Houston is still attracting Vietnamese from other U.S. cities.

The city's low cost of living, warm weather and diversity have made it a profitable and attractive place to do business compared with other American cities, said Thuy Vu, co-owner of Radio Saigon. She had reservations about the city when she followed her sister to Houston from San Diego in 1997.

"In California, you don't see that kind of diversity in customers," she said. "When you serve just one community, sooner or later there will be too many. When you have a city like Houston where people tend to enter each other's stores freely, it really attracts the Vietnamese from California because they have more of a chance to grow their business."

Sharing a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit, Vietnamese-Americans own nearly one-third of the 25,000 Asian-owned businesses in the Houston area, generating total annual revenues of $1.23 billion, according to the latest economic census released in 1997. That figure has likely climbed significantly as the city's Asian population has grown.

Tri La, the owner of the Kim Son chain, has restaurants throughout the city. And Hai Du Duong, an ethnic Chinese raised in Vietnam, put his mark on Chinatown with the creation of the Hong Kong City Mall and continues to play a major role in developing the area. Vican Tan, also an ethnic Chinese raised in Vietnam, is expanding his Viet Hoa Center and also runs a wholesale food distribution center and chinese restaurant.

Like thousands of other refugees who came to the United States, Tan faced a language barrier as he searched to restart his life in a foreign land.

He had fled Vietnam at 16 with a passport his parents had bought so he could study abroad. But after the fall of Saigon, he used it to get to Paris, where he held part-time dishwashing and busboy jobs as he studied to be an electrical technician. In 1982, he reunited in Houston with his parents and five sisters.

`Excited and amazed'

"I was excited and amazed at how big this country was. I feel extremely fortunate the whole family was able to leave the country safely," he said. "But at the same time, I was handicapped because I didn't know English and didn't know how to drive a car."

But he wasn't scared. He considered himself lucky, crediting his years in Paris for teaching him to adapt quickly.

With the help of his parents, who had been grocers in Vietnam, he secured a loan from an Asian-owned bank and bought a 4,000 square-foot store on Wilcrest in Alief.

After three relocations and five expansions, the store evolved into a 100,000-square foot supermarket in a shopping plaza that Tan, 45, hopes will become a landmark in Southwest Houston.

His customers are more diverse now, he said, because his location at the West Sam Houston Parkway and Beechnut Street draws in shoppers already headed to H-E-B or other western retailers in the area.

Shoppers can find groceries hailing from China to Malaysia, as well as American, African and Latin American products.

"The customer base has changed a lot," Tan said.

He also opened A-F Import & Wholesale Co. in the 1990s to distribute imported groceries to smaller stores, restaurants and walk-in customers who want to buy in bulk. His development company, Tansco, is focused on expanding the Beltway Plaza Center that houses Viet Hoa.

The entire family dedicated itself to growing the business. Even today his parents can be found walking the aisles of the grocery store, and his sisters handle some part of the family business, a common practice carried over from Vietnam.

He already has his four teen-age sons helping with paperwork and stocking shelves.

"The Vietnamese people have done a great job settling in Houston," Tan said. "But their greatest job is to build the next generation."

The first generation spent years working and focused on sending its kids to college.

Now, some of those children are returning home to help grow the family business, as they would have in Vietnam. They're also helping assimilate the businesses into the mainstream.

Duc Doan, 55, started an insurance agency in Houston 12 years ago that sold strictly to Asians. Although he fled Vietnam in 1979, and moved to Houston after a stint at a refugee camp in Malaysia, he sold just to first-generation Asians.

Daughter now helps

Today, his 26-year-old American-born daughter, Thy, is helping him target other markets.

"The first generation I sold to had simple needs I could help fulfill," Doan said. "The second generation, like Americans, has more complicated needs. My daughter can communicate with them better."

Much of the second generation is also starting businesses of its own, venturing into real estate, financial planning, medicine and publishing.

"The younger generation comes out of college and has a more mainstream approach to doing business," said Nghi Ho, a financial planner who has more non-Asian clients than Asian.

A lot of businesses do stillcater just to Vietnamese-Americans, he said, and some even thrive on it.

"But I can't," said Ho, who was 8 when his family left Vietnam for Houston. "If I just did the Vietnamese, I'd starve."

purva.patel@chron.com

GALLERY
Vican Tan owns the Viet Hoa Center in Houston.
• EAST MEETS WEST: Local businessman Vican Tan is blurring the line between East and West, a trend that's taking over Houston.

Vican Tan owns the Viet Hoa Center, which includes Viet Hoa International Foods, a 100,000-square-foot grocery store that carries both American and Asian groceries.
Photo:Steve Campbell: Chronicle

Vican Tan, left, talks with customer Roy Tjinakwie, a Chinese national who is shopping in Viet Hoa.
Photo:Steve Campbell: Chronicle

The entrance to Viet Hoa International Foods on the West Sam Houston Parkway.
Ben DeSoto: Chronicle