This article is part of a feature series by The Globe profiling individual students at Salt Lake Community College and the international journeys that brought them from their unique hometowns to their new homes in Utah.
Bao Lam immigrated to Utah from Vietnam in 2018. 20 years old at the time, he moved to join his father, who has lived in the U.S. after becoming a refugee of war in the 1980s.
Now 27 years old, Lam, a student at Salt Lake Community College majoring in video and radio production, works as a photographer and videographer for The Globe.
“I moved to Utah to live with my dad in the beginning, but I love Utah [now] because it’s so calm and the people are so nice,” Lam said.
Lam’s American story originated when his father fled their homeland during the war between the neighboring countries of Vietnam and Cambodia. The conflict occurred shortly after the end of the nearly 20-year Vietnam War.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, the number of Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S. doubled in the 1980s and 1990s, reaching just under a million by the turn of the millennium.
Lam’s father was one of many refugees who sought asylum from the two catastrophic wars. He first was placed in Texas, but eventually made his way to Utah.
“My dad has some cousins that were refugees here in Utah first,” Lam explained. “And they said it was easier to get a job in Utah than Texas … the living level is calmer and better [here in Utah] than Texas was for my dad at that time.”
While Lam’s dad earned a living in Utah, preparing a home for his family, Lam grew up in the Vietnamese city of Rach Gia, where he lived with his mother and younger brother in a small, two-bedroom house.
Lam said he remembers his hometown for its picturesque ocean shores, annual kite festival, outdoor food markets, canals and rivers used for transportation, and, since at least 2007, its booming hip-hop culture.
Life in Rach Gia
The city of Rach Gia sits on the Gulf of Thailand in the south-western region of Vietnam. It cradles the estuary of the great Mekong River, one of the largest rivers in Asia.
The area, known as the Mekong Delta region, is filled with smaller rivers and canals that branch off the main river. These rivers and canals transported goods, animals, rice and people after the Vietnam War destroyed many of the country’s smaller roads.
Beyond the city lie sprawling rice fields that go on for miles. According to the Hanoi Times, Vietnam ranked fifth globally in rice production in 2017. Much of the rice gets transported on boats, especially on the Mekong River and its many branches.
Lam’s grandparents lived on a local river before the war, in a house on risers that kept the building half on land and half over water.
“At that time, they didn’t have streets so [my grandparents] used a small motorboat to get around on the river,” Lam said.
However, Lam said new roads were built just over 20 years ago, which has made it easier for rice farmers and hunters to bring their food to the outdoor open markets that he frequented as a child.
“Hundreds of people would sit on the street, and they called it the street market,” Lam said. “Some people hunt fish, snakes, turtles and even wild cats in the forest, and bring [them] to the market to sell.”
Lam noted how agriculture has affected the marketplaces.
“But now they have farms with more animals, so they don’t have to hunt in the forest anymore,” he explained, adding that outdoor markets still exist, but are less crowded and more infrequently utilized by residents because of the introduction of grocery stores to the city just a few decades ago.
Rach Gia’s newer roads and infrastructure also increased the popularity of motorbikes for travel. Lam said the streets can be crowded and noisy, but added that one of his favorite routes to take is the coastal road that borders the city from the ocean.
“I like that my hometown is next to the ocean,” Lam said. “You can travel on the road next to the ocean on a motorbike and watch the sunset.”
Another activity Lam enjoyed as a youth in Rach Gia is the annual kite season, which begins in late February after the country’s Lunar New Year celebrations.
“My friend made me a kite when I was a teenager,” Lam said. “I had seen [kites] before but never flown one myself.”
Lam said that the spring in Rach Gia brings less rain, so kite flying is a popular activity on the coast until the end of summer.
“There’s a few months in the spring where it rains all morning, but in the afternoon it doesn’t, so you can fly kites,” he explained.
“My hometown has two seasons — rainy, and less rainy,” Lam joked.
Locals also tie musical instruments, like flutes and bells, to their kites, which adds a euphonic tone to the crisp ocean air.
“In Vietnam, they hook flutes up to kites and when they fly, they make music. It’s so crazy,” Lam said.
But Lam’s introduction to music and the arts in Rach Gia went beyond the activity of kite flying. The city also has a vibrant hip-hop culture, which Lam immersed himself in at a very early age, and which he says is one of the most important parts of his life to this day.
Hip-hop in Rach Gia
Lam said that hip-hop became popular in Vietnam around 2007, and that he “started dancing and digging in hip-hop culture in 2008 or 2009.”
Lam was 11 years old at the time and said that he and his friends were inspired most by three internationally popular hip-hop artists: Eminem, 50 Cent, and Snoop Dogg.
According to research from Duke University, rap and hip-hop music, as well as the accompanying dance styles, became popular in Vietnam as early as the 1990s, when the country was introduced to the world economy.
U.S. hip-hop culture also had some influence in Vietnam, since many Vietnamese residents remained in contact with family members living in the states.
However, not every American custom caught on in Vietnam like hip-hop did, according to Lam. He said that rock ‘n roll, another American creation, is less popular than hip-hop in Rach Gia these days.
“Rock ‘n roll has been there for like decades also but [local artists] haven’t expanded on it as much,” Lam said. “Hip-hop is bigger … it is the more attracting music [to locals] over there.”
Lam pointed to a popular rap competition show, Rap Viet, as evidence of how Vietnamese artists have taken hip-hop and ran with it — creating their own songs, albums, and dances that combine Vietnamese culture with American-born hip-hop.
Lam said Vietnamese rap artist Long Non La is his favorite. When he was growing up and whenever he goes back, Lam and his friends dance outdoors by the ocean, with hip-hop music providing the beat and the background. Artist Long Non La is a frequent choice for their dance routines.
Life in the US
Now that Lam has been in the U.S. for 7 years, he has made great strides in his personal growth and towards a career.
Although Lam earned a high school degree from his private school back home in Rach Gia, he achieved a US high school diploma from Horizonte Instruction and Training Center in Salt Lake City, shortly after he moved in with his father. Lam said that’s where he heard about Salt Lake Community College.
“When I got my high school diploma, the [advisors at Horizonte] introduced me to SLCC,” Lam remembered. “They said it was a good step for someone who still needed ESL [English as a Second Language] classes and that I could go to the University of Utah when I’m done.”
While Lam was not fluent in English when he started at SLCC, he took more ESL classes at the college and now has no problem writing in English and completing assignments with English-only instructions.
When asked who helped him the most in his time at SLCC, Lam said “Everybody has helped me a lot … I’ve learned from everyone.”
Lam’s mother and younger brother joined him and his father in Utah just over a year ago. His younger brother will be attending SLCC in the fall semester. And while Lam does go back to Vietnam every year, he said since his mother is here now, he will probably go back to Rach Gia less often.
Like a philosophical dialectic, Lam misses his home, but loves Utah, he said. He just went back to Vietnam for a month in June 2024, and said he had an incredible time – dancing to hip-hop in public with his friends, visiting the outdoor markets, riding along the ocean shore, and cherishing the place that raised and nurtured him in his youth.
