A STREET will now be named after Emperor Quang Trung, the Garden Grove City Council decided on Tuesday (Wikipedia photo).
By Jim Tortolano
The renaming of a street after an 18th century Vietnamese monarch was approved by the Garden Grove City Council on Tuesday night. Business Center Parkway off Euclid Street will become Emperor Quang Trung.
During public comments, four people spoke on the proposal, two for and two against. The council’s approval was unanimous, with all seven members in favor.
Councilmember Phat Bui, who brought the matter to the council, said “The younger generation has been inspired by this person,” and called him “an inspiration for the future.”
Trung, also known as Nguyen Van Hue, was the second emperor of the Tay Son Dynasty in what is now Vietnam, having overthrown the previous dynasty.
He was a successful military commander defeating armies from Siam (today’s Thailand) and China. Instituting reforms and religious tolerance, he was popular for advocating the interests of the peasants. He died at the age of 40 in 1792. Trung/Hue is considered a hero to many Vietnamese, although some historians claim he was ruthless in fighting his enemies, including mass killings of an opposing clan.
The cost of renaming the street – about $1000 – will be born by the Quang Trung Statue Committee, which is also erecting a statue of Trung at the northwest corner of Euclid and Business Center in a primarily Vietnamese business area.
Also the council approved on a 7-0 vote the second and final reading of an ordinance placing restrictions on the parking of recreational vehicles on public streets. It will go into effect in 30 days.
Categories: Garden Grove
This is wrong!! The Committee should be ashamed of themselves what it is EmpEror ever do for the people of the United States! Did he save 30,000 lives in the Vietnam war! I am not a history buff but he hasn’t done a thing for the American people when the Vietnam refugees came to America they became American citizens their ancestors are Vietnam’ citizens their children are now known as Americans so again what has Emperor Quang Trung done for America?
I agree,this is totally wrong.Westminister is taking away all of the great American history from their city and now Garden Grove is doing this crap.Lookout Fountain Valley,Huntington your next!
Great American History? How many Mexican died during Mexican-American war and how many suffered thereafter during the Mexican Repatriation? The Mexican Repatriation was a mass deportation of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from the United States between 1929 and 1936 that can only be categorized as in modern term as ethnic cleansing. You are just out to promote hate amongst Americans! Yes, look out Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach, the bigots and Russians trolls are online to incite hate.
An Emperor from a foreign land? Really? Have we run out of Americans to honor?
Consider this my objection that I would like entered into the minutes.
Thank you.
Tony Flores
Mr. Phat Bui,
Thank you for calling me earlier today reference the above captioned matter, but I believe that your reason for suggesting that we change the name of this particular street is disingenuous.
You said that part of your reasoning to change the name of this street is to create visitor interest that will in turn generate revenues for the General Fund. If you or any of the other city council members are serious about generating more revenues for the General Fund, you’d enforce and ensure that all of the businesses in the Asian Community secure their required business license(s) and pay their required sales taxes. (It is my understanding that an audit was conducted not long ago in our city that identifies this very problem/issue in the Asian Community.)
Or in the alternative, perhaps you should consider dressing up like Emperor Quang Trung, go forth into the Asian Business Community and demand that they all secure their required business license(s) and pay their required sales taxes. With all due respect, history tells us that it’s not a happy ending when an emperor demands something of his subjects and those very subjects disobey said emperor.
Respectfully submitted,
Tony Flores
I was sadden by Mr. Flores’ statement; though, deeply touched by a couple words (Semper Fi) from Mr. Holm.
I and many Vietnamese Americans felt a strong sense of indebtedness to the kind people of this great land of America who opened their doors to take us in and gave us a second chance of life. While we are proud of being American, we are also proud of our heritage. That heritage and the sense of paying back has instilled many Vietnamese Americans to be passionate about serving this great country. After 40 years, we have had a couple generals, countless of officers and soldiers serving in the United State Arm Forces.
Like others in uniform, many Vietnamese American have made the ultimate sacrifices for this great country that we now call home. Most recently, in June 2017, the Sonar Technician 3rd Class Ngoc T Truong Huynh, 25, from Oakville, Connecticut was among the 7 sailor who died when the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a Philippine container ship off the coast of Japan.
Best regards.
Phat Bui
Phat,
You say my statement saddens you? Hell, then I got a story that will make you cry.
Imagine growing up in Garden Grove with strawberry fields and orange groves all within walking distance from almost any home. And then in what seems to be almost overnight, more homes on smaller pieces of land, stacked one on top of the other start popping up along with businesses with signs in languages other than English. Then all of a sudden in this great land of America, we have the “Korean Business District” and “Little Saigon District” where today in 2017, there are still language barriers if an English speaking person were to attempt to patronize almost any one of these establishments. Establishments that don’t or won’t secure their required business license(s) and/or pay their required sales taxes.
I am proud of my heritage too but prouder still of my American culture, a culture that appears to be evaporating before our very eyes. You initially told me that changing the name of the street had to do with generating revenues and now you want to turn the conversation into Vietnamese who have served in our U.S. Armed forces? If so, what does some ancient emperor (who is not named in any American history book that I’ve ever seen) have to do with generating revenues or Americans of Vietnamese descent serving in our armed forces? Now if you are attempting to marshal support in the Asian community for a potential, future mayoral bid with this misguided attempt in changing the name of this street then simply say so.
Instead of wasting council time on this nonsense, why don’t you and our other council members find solutions to our out of control crime problem, our homeless issue and our ever diminishing quality of life here in Garden Grove? I’ve not yet heard one current council member even raise the issue of the Asian Organized Crime problem that our under-staffed police department can’t begin to address because they are being challenged daily with the “every day crimes”.
Let’s return to our main topic and in the spirit of compromise, if we are going to change the name of this street I suggest that our city council pick a name from any one of the over 58,000 U.S. Servicemen and women names that are on The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. I’ve attached the website for easy reference and you are welcome.
http://www.virtualwall.org/
Consider this my objection to changing the name of this street and please enter same into the 8/22/2017 council minutes.
Thank you,
Tony Flores
p.s.
Semper Fi
“Semper Fidelis”
1.Marine Pride;
2.The Motto of the United States Marine Corps. Latin for always faithful. Faithful to God, Country, Family and the Corps.
The Constitution says we do not give honorary titles (like King, Duke, Barron, etc.) to Americans so I do not understand why we are honoring someone who has NO relationship whatsoever to American history. He was a warrior and self-proclaimed Emperor, but never fought on behalf of America, never visited America, probably never even heard of America (unlike Lafayette or General Baron von Steuben, etc.). Fine to place his statue on private property, but wrong to honor him by naming a public street after him. Who’s next? Should every ethnic or religious group get to rename a street, or government building, or school after a non-American folk hero, warrior, emperor, etc.? Who’s next? Nero? Stalin? Hannibal? Saddam Hussein or the (former) Shah of Iran? This is like opening up Pandora’s Box . . . is the council ready to handle the disputes between religious or ethnic factions that disagree with each other? Why should one of our ethnic groups get a special honor that others don’t?