By Minh Le
RMIT journalism student
Sunshine’s Vietnamese community once saw Hampshire Road as simply part of everyday life. That all changed following the death of local shopkeeper Van Viet Truong.
On July 25 Mr Truong was allegedly bashed when he tried to stop a group of teenagers suspected of stealing clothes from a neighbouring store. He died in hospital a few days later.
Mr Truong, 60, ran his grocery shop in Sunshine for more than 30 years. His long connection to the area meant many people knew him.
Since his death Sunshine’s streets have become difficult for many people to walk through.
For Ngoc Nguyen, who has lived in Sunshine for five years, the streets have not physically changed. But the way she experiences them has.
“The street looks exactly the same,” she says. “The shops are still there, people are still walking around, the buses still come. But it doesn’t feel the same.”
Nguyen says she now notices things she did not think about before.
“Before, you could walk past a shop without thinking about whether the person inside was safe. Now sometimes you notice things you never noticed before.”
For Ha Tran, a Vietnamese international student who lives in Sunshine, Mr Truong’s shop was more than a place to buy groceries.
“He was such a friendly and cheerful person. I often went to his shop because it gave me a feeling of home – hearing Vietnamese, seeing familiar things.”
Tran says his death is difficult to imagine because Mr Truong was an important part of everyday life in the area.
“You never imagine that someone you see everyday could suddenly be gone.”
But, as Ngoc Nguyen puts it, “a familiar place can become unfamiliar without changing at all.”
In response to Mr Truong’s death the community held a rally on Sunday, August 9. People came together to call for safer communities, stronger laws, and more police presence in Sunshine.
Nguyen Bao Chau, who organised the rally through the Vietnamese Mothers in Australia Community, says the rally began as a small idea.
She first asked other Vietnamese mothers why no one was speaking about what had happened. They encouraged her to organise something, and the idea grew as more people became involved.
Chau says she wanted to bring people together so that local councillors could hear the concerns of the Vietnamese community and understand how the incident has affected people in the area.
Chau says people who knew Mr Truong are still affected and that the wife of the shop owner who Mr Truong had gone to help has been especially shocked by the incident.
The Sunshine Business Association has also raised concerns about the impact of safety issues on local businesses.
It says businesses have reported robberies, vandalism, fewer customers and shorter trading hours because of safety fears.
The shops are still there. The buses still come and go. People still walk along Hampshire Road, but many do so with heavier hearts than before knowing that the community feels less safe than before.
