'Barbarians' and 'younger brothers': The remaking of race in postcolonial Vietnam

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 29, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 374-391

  Pelley, Patricia ^a  

^a TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL RELATIONS; ETHNICITY; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY;

VIET NAM;

EID: 0032409196     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0022463400007505     Document Type: Article

References (76)

1. This essay draws on research presented in "Writing Revolution: The New History in Postcolonial Vietnam" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1993).
2. Charles Hirshmann's "The Making of Race in Colonial Malaya: Political Economy and Racial Ideology", Sociological Forum 1, 2 (1986): 330-61, has been instrumental in shaping my own approach to ethnography in postcolonial Vietnam.
3. have also benefited from Shelly Errington's comments on an earlier version of the paper, given at the Berkeley Conference on Southeast Asian Studies (1997).
4. My approach to the question of Vietnamese diacritics is as follows. I have included diacricial marks when they were present in the original, except in the following two cases. Personal names and toponyms that have entered the English language - Ho Chi Minh, for instance, or Dien Bien Phu - are written without the diacritical marks. References to ethnic groups that are familiar to other Asianists - such as Thai - appear without diacritical marks, while the names of less familiar groups - Tày, for example - appear with the diacritics.
5. These scholars conducted their research under the auspices of the Committee for Research in Literature, History, and Geography (Ban nghiên cú'u' Vǎn Su + (Combining comma above)' crossed D signi + (Combining dot below)a), which was established in December of 1953 in accordance with a Lao crossed D signno + (Combining dot below)̂ng Party decree. Ta + (Combining dot below)̂p san Nghiên cú'u Li + (Combining dot below)ch su + (Combining comma above)' [hereafter NCLS] 152 (1973): 1-4.
6. E. Chassigneux, "Géographie de L'Indochine", in G. Maspéro, ed., Un Empire Colonial Français: L'Indochine, vol. 1 (Paris: Editions G. Van Oest, 1929), p. 34.
7. Pierre Huard, "The Blackening of Teeth in Eastern Asia and Indochina", in Vietnamese Ethnographic Papers (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, 1953), p. 5.
8. Paul Doumer, Situation de l'Indochine (Hanoi: Schneider, 1902), p. 2.
9. These themes are more fully developed in "The Cult of Antiquity in Postcolonial Vietnam", a paper I presented in Honolulu at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies.
10. Significantly, mainstream publications outside of Vietnam have widely circulated this new rendition of the past. The latest edition of the Harper Collins World History Atlas (New York, 1996), for example, shows that Neolithic sites emerged in Vietnam as early as 8,000 BCE and in China considerably later, around 4,000 BCE.
11. "The Beginnings of Civilization", p. 2.
12. Paul Bourde coined this phrase in "L'Enseignement en Indochine", Le Temps 2 & 17 (Octobre 1889).
13. I have analyzed this narrative cliché more closely in "The History of Resistance and the Resistance to History in Postcolonial Constructions of the Past", in Essays into Vietnamese Pasts, eds. Keith W. Taylor and John K. Whitmore (Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program Publications, 1995), pp. 232-45.
14. See, for example, "Vie + (Combining dot below)̂t Nam là mo + (Combining dot below)̂t khôi thông nhât tù' Bǎc crossed d signên Nam", Ta + (Combining dot below)̂p chí Vǎn Su + (Combining comma above)' crossed D signi + (Combining dot below)a [hereafter VScrossed D sign] 5 (1955): 1-4.
15. When Pha + (Combining dot below)m Ngo + (Combining dot below)c Liên first introduced this term in 1963, it summarized the recent trajectory of Vietnamese historiography. "Góp mo + (Combining dot below)̂t sô ý kiên vè vân dè câu ta + (Combining dot below)o no + (Combining dot below)̂i dung li + (Combining dot below)ch su + (Combining comma above)' Vie + (Combining dot below)̂t Nam theo quan crossed d signiêm crossed d signa dân to + (Combining dot below)̂c", NCLS, 48 (1963): 50-56.
16. "Vie + (Combining dot below)̂t Nam là mo + (Combining dot below)̂t dân to + (Combining dot below)̂c crossed d signang ma + (Combining dot below)nh mê tiên lên", VScrossed D sign 8 (1955): 1-2.
17. Vie + (Combining dot below)̂t Bǎc (Hà No + (Combining dot below)̂i: Vǎn Nghe + (Combining dot below)̂, 1955), pp. 138-42. My translation.
18. Dang Nghiem Van, "Dien Bien Phu: Some Ethno-Historical Data", Vietnamese Studies [hereafter VNS] 43 (1975): 12.
19. Dang Nghiem Van, "Dien Bien Phu: Some Ethno-Historical Data", Vietnamese Studies [hereafter VNS] 43 (1975): 12. Ibid.
20. Mai Quang, "Viet Bac: From Cradle of the Revolution to Autonomous Zone", VNS 41 (1973): 136.
21. Mai Elliot, "Introduction", in Chu Van Tan, Reminiscences on the Army for National Salvation, tr. Mai Elliot (Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program Publications, 1978), p. 6.
22. Alexander Woodside, Vietnam and the Chinese Model (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971, 1988), pp. 234-94.
23. Le Van Hao, "Ethnological Studies and Research in Vietnam", VNS 32 (1971): 10.
24. Ta + (Combining dot below) Vǎn Tài has examined legal provisions of both codes in "Ethnic Minorities and the Law in Traditional Vietnam", Vietnam Forum 5 (1985): 22-36.
25. Nguyên Ngo + (Combining dot below)c Huy and Ta + (Combining dot below) Vǎn Tài have conducted a more comprehensive study in The Lê Code: Law in Traditional Vietnam, 3 vols. (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1987).
26. Nguyen Due Hoc, "The Thai", VNS 15 (1968): 141.
27. Le Van Hao, "Ethnological Studies", p. 15.
28. David Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), p. 299.
29. Chassigneux, "Géographie de l'Indochine", p. 37.
30. Eugène Cazenave, "Les Travaux Publics", in Un Empire Colonial Français: L'Indochine, vol. 2, ed. G. Maspéro (Paris: Éditions G. Van Oest, 1930), p. 236.
31. Chassigneux, "Géographie de l'Indochine", p. 47.
32. Nguyen Duc Hoc, "The Thai", p. 147.
33. Jean Chesneaux, The Vietnamese Nation: Contribution to a History, tr. Malcolm Salmon (Sydney: Current Books, 1966), pp. 113-14.
34. Henri Brenier, "L'Indochine Économique", in Un Empire Colonial Français, vol. 2, p. 214.
35. Nguyen Duc Hop, "The Thai", p. 152.
36. Nguyen Duc Hop, "The Thai", Ibid., p. 154.
37. Nguyen Duc Hop, "The Thai", Ibid., p. 155.
38. "Ba mu'o'i nam thu'c hie + (Combining dot below)̂n chính sách dân to + (Combining dot below)̂e ho + (Combining dot below)c cu + (Combining comma above)a crossed D signa + (Combining comma above)ng", NCLS 10 (1960): 68-76.
39. Chassigneux, "Géographie de l'Indochine", p. 37.
40. "Mây nét so' lu'o + (Combining dot below)'c vè dân to + (Combining dot below)̂c ho + (Combining dot below)c Mác-xít", VScrossed D sign 47 (1958): 15-33.
41. "Ethnological Studies and Research in Vietnam", VNS 32 (1971): 9-10.
42. "Danh mu + (Combining dot below)c các thành phân dân to + (Combining dot below)̂c Vie + (Combining dot below)̂t Nam", Ta + (Combining dot below)p chí Dân to + (Combining dot below)̂c ho + (Combining dot below)c, 1 (1980): 78-83.
43. Vuong Hoang Tuyen, "Some Ethnic Groups Only Just Saved From Extinction Living in Remote Parts of the Northwest", VNS 36 (1973): 143-95.
44. "Danh mu + (Combining dot below)c", pp. 80-82.
45. An Thu, "The Zao Are Coming Down to the Lowlands", VNS 15 (1968): 181.
46. This same periodization was reiterated in Be Viet Dang's study, "The Zao in Vietnam", VNS 40 (1973): 40.
47. crossed D signa + (Combining dot below)̌ng Nghiêm Va + (Combining dot below)n, Chu Thái So'n and Lu'u Hùng, Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam (Hanoi: The Gioi, 1993), p. 149.
48. Be Viet Dang, "The Zao", p. 46.
49. crossed D signa + ̌ng Nghiêm Va + (Combining dot below)n et al., Ethnic Minorities, pp. 3-4.
50. An Thu, "The Zao", p. 181.
51. An Thu, The Zao Ibid., pp. 181-83.
52. Dang Nghiem Van, "The Khmu in Vietnam", VNS 36 (1973): 74.
53. The cooperative was established in an area that a French settler, identified simply as Monpezat, had earlier ruled as his own private fiefdom. An Thu, "The Zao", p. 177.
54. An Thu, The Zao Ibid., p. 183.
55. Mai Quang, "Viet Bac: From Cradle of Revolution to Autonomous Zone", VNS 41 (1973).
56. Huu Tho, "Storming the Hills", VNS 72 (1982): 151.
57. Huu Tho, VNS Ibid., p. 153.
58. "Tinh Khoai Sǎn", in Vie + (Combining dot below)̂t Bǎc, p. 105.
59. Huu Tho, "Storming the Hills", p. 154.
60. Dang Nghiem Van, "An Outline: The Thai in Vietnam", VNS 32 (1972): 160-61.
61. Le Quang Ba, "Reminiscences of Underground Revolutionary Work", VNS 15 (1968): 28-29.
62. Dang Nghiem Van, "An Outline", pp. 161-65.
63. Dang Nghiem Van, "The Khmu", p. 74.
64. Nguyen Duc Hop, "Storming the Hills", p. 161.
65. Hoang Thuy Nguyen, "Preventive Medicine in the DRVN: Problems and Achievements", VNS 34 (1972): 99.
66. Lam Tam, "A Survey of the Meo", VNS 36 (1973): 22.
67. An Thu, "The Zao", p. 184.
68. Dang Nghiem Van, "An Outline", pp. 194-96.
69. Le Quang Ba, "Reminiscences", pp. 35-36.
70. Dang Nghiem Van, "The Khmu", pp. 134-35.
71. Lam Tam, "A Survey of the Meo", p. 59.
72. Hoang Tu Dong, "Complementary Education for Adults", VNS 30 (1971): 26-27.
73. See, for example, Hoàng Lu'o + (Combining dot below)'ng, "Vài nét vè tình hình kinh té cu + (Combining comma above)a giai câp tu' sa + (Combining comma above)n mai ba + (Combining comma above)n mîên Nam", NCLS 31 (1961): 28-35;
74. crossed D signa + (Combining dot below)̌ng Vie + (Combining dot below)̂t Thanh, "Tro + (Combining comma above)' la + (Combining dot below)i bài vè giai câp tu' sa + (Combining comma above)n ma + (Combining dot below)i ba + (Combining comma above)n nu'ó'c ta trong thò'i Pháp thuo + (Combining dot below)̂c", NCLS 32 (1961): 15-24,
75. and Phan Huy Lê, "Tinh hình khai mo + (Combining comma above) du'ó'i trîêu Nguyên", NCLS 52 (1963): 47-59.
76. Translated by Constance Farrington (New York: Grove Press, 1968), p. 45.