Day 54: Cambodia Town, Long Beach, California
📌APIA Every Day (54) - Cambodia Town, also known as Little Phnom Penh or Little Cambodia, is a one-mile strip of Cambodian-run businesses along Anaheim Street in the Eastside of Long Beach, California. Initially rejected in 2000, Cambodia Town gained official designation by the Long Beach City Council in 2007. In the 1950s and 1960s, the first wave of Cambodian immigrants comprised students attending California State University Long Beach’s USAID exchange program to learn industrial skills. Subsequent waves occurred in the mid-1970s, with people fleeing the Khmer Rouge's takeover of Cambodia. Approximately 2,000 of these Cambodian arrivals initially migrated to Camp Pendleton, a military base in Southern California, later moving to Long Beach in search of a familiar lifestyle and culture. The last wave of refugees consisted of Cambodian farmers from small villages, arriving after the passage of the Refugee Act of the 1980s, following the Vietnamese intervention against the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
The initial Cambodian immigrants played a crucial role in providing services like mental health resources to assist fellow refugees migrating to California. Additionally, the United Cambodian Community formed around this time to assist Cambodian refugees with housing, finance, and goods. This created the ethnic enclave we now see in Long Beach, making it a prime destination for Cambodian immigrants.
According to the 2010 census, the current Asian population in Long Beach constitutes 20% of the overall population, with 70% identifying as Cambodian. Comprising a significant portion, Cambodia Town celebrates their culture through festivals such as the Cambodian New Year festival in April and the Cambodia Town Film Festival founded by Cambodian American filmmaker Caylee So. Cambodia Town continues to thrive in Long Beach, earning the moniker "Capital of Cambodia" with the largest concentration of Cambodians in the U.S.
LEARN MORE:
Los Angeles Times: Cambodia Town is Now on the Map
Cambodia Town: History of Cambodia Town
Medium: Pan Asian Metropolis — Cambodian Los Angeles
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