Asian Garden Mall, known in Vietnamese as Phước Lộc Thọ, is a shopping center in Westminster, California. Opened in 1987, Asian Garden Mall is the first and largest Vietnamese-American shopping mall and is seen as a symbol of the community. The mall is located at 9200 Bolsa Avenue, serving as the focal point of Little Saigon in Orange County and is the site of many cultural and political events in the Vietnamese-American community.
Names
In Vietnamese the mall is called Phước Lộc Thọ, which has the same meaning as the Chinese name (), from the names of three deities in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese beliefs representing fortune (phước), prosperity (lộc), and longevity (thọ). To attract non-Vietnamese customers, the developers gave it the English name Asian Garden Mall. In Vietnamese-language media and vernacular of local Vietnamese-speaking people, the mall is invariably called Phước Lộc Thọ.
History
The history of Asian Garden Mall is intimately connected to the history of Little Saigon, underscoring its central role in the area. Following the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, many Vietnamese people moved to Orange County and started many businesses. In 1978, Frank Jao, a Vietnamese with Chinese roots, started the real estate firm Bridgecreek Development and bought empty land alongside Bolsa Avenue for development. By 1987, there were more than 550 businesses operating in the area, and each weekend brought in 20,000 to 50,000 shoppers.
Asian Garden Mall was developed since 1986 and opened for business the following year, as the second phase of Jao's development plan for the land that Bridgecreek owned alongside Bolsa Avenue. The first phase was a shopping center across the street from Asian Garden Mall named Asian Village, developed in 1985. Development involved capital from many Asian investors, including a Chinese Indonesian and Roger Chen, who started the 99 Ranch Market chain with the first location inside Asian Village. The total cost of the mall was $15 million. To attract non-Vietnamese customers and investors, Jao gave the projects names that de-emphasize their Vietnamese-ness (such as "Asian Garden Mall") and lobbied to name the area "Asiantown" instead of "Little Saigon" that many Vietnamese activists were calling for. However, his effort to name the area "Asiantown" was unsuccessful; meanwhile, Asian Garden Mall immediately became a mainstay of the community after opening—in 1988 the Governor of California George Deukmejian came to the mall to inaugurate the business area with the name "Little Saigon".
In the mid-1990s, the mall faced the prospect of irrelevancy as younger Vietnamese Americans joined mainstream society and moved further away from Little Saigon. Community leaders wanted to attract younger people. In order to attract mainstream visitors, Jao wanted to reduce the Vietnamese nature of Little Saigon. In 1996, he proposed building a pedestrian bridge long and wide across Bolsa Avenue, to be named Harmony Bridge, connecting Asian Garden Mall and Asian Village. However, this proposal encountered stiff opposition from the Vietnamese community; opponents objected to the Chinese-influenced motifs in the bridge's exterior decorations, complaining that the design was "too Chinese" and did not accurately represent Vietnamese culture. In the end, his company was forced to scrap the plan.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Asian Garden Mall was forced to close, along with other malls in California. To cope, the mall turned its parking lot into an open-air market with many shops. The mall reopened in 2021 at limited capacity, and was fully open by 2022.
Description
Asian Garden Mall is the largest shopping mall in Little Saigon and the largest shopping center for Vietnamese people in the United States. Although its English name only mentions Asian people and does not specifically highlight its Vietnamese roots, goods, and services in the mall are primarily provided by Vietnamese shop owners catering to Vietnamese customers, especially cultural and culinary products.
The mall consists of a 2-story building, with a parking lot in the front and back. In front of the building there are statues of the three eponymous deities Phước, Lộc, and Thọ, along with a statue of Di-lặc. The building has distinctive architecture, communicating its Vietnamese and Chinese-Vietnamese heritage. It has a roof made with green tiles; in front of the building is an ornate gateway with an ornate curved roof with ridge ornaments leading to the mall. Landscaping included miniature plants and trees. Inside, the mall is decorated with Vietnamese and Asian symbols such as red paper lanterns, fans, as well as statues and figurines.