New Wave

Fifty years of the Vietnamese Diaspora as seen through the New Wave movement, showing how young Vietnamese refugees in Orange County found rebellion and reinvention through music, fashion, and community.

As Vietnamese refugees sought safety in the United States in the wake of the fall of Saigon, a generation of Vietnamese teenagers and young adults struggled to adjust to a new life in America. Many of these young people in Southern California found a new life and a new identity in New Wave music, a type of Euro Disco that became enormously popular in this community. New Wave: 50 Years of Music in the Vietnamese Diaspora celebrates the rebellion, reinvention, and rebirth of joy in this young generation in cultural limbo. Featuring essays from prominent Vietnamese scholars, critics, and stars, New Wave explores how music, fashion, and rebellion can be a force for healing. New Wave is a love letter to the first generation of Vietnamese punks and rebels who came of age in the 1980s.