Overview

This book unpacks the multifaceted ways of living with heritage in contemporary Vietnam. It shows how heritage shapes our community and shines possible directions of pathways to the future(s). It also shows that heritage is something being reconfigured, recombined, or compounded (and sometimes erased) over time and across space through changing contexts. Within this collection, the chapters cover a broad range of these aspects of heritage: The first shows how heritage is mobilized as a key instrument in constructing a national cultural identity, followed by a call for the preservation of the collective housing complex, a significant architectural symbol of life during the Subsidy Period. Another then examines passive design in the traditional Cham house, a living heritage hiding in plain sight, and the book goes on to highlight the dark aspect of heritage by recounting the construction process of the Dian–Việt Railway. Using the case of the arch bridges of Huế Imperial City across Ngự Hà River, another chapter demonstrates the contradiction between preservation and living with the needs of the present. One author shows how performance of intangible cultural heritage is a collaborative process that involves diverse actors, and the next unveils the dedicated commitment of folklore practitioners and heritage scholars in ensuring Mother Goddesses worship belief practices lives on in the face of political and social challenges. Finally, the book recounts the dedicated contribution by heritage researchers working on the Complex of Huế Monuments, key actors in the heritage field whom we often take for granted. Relevant to scholars in cultural studies, history, archaeology, and heritage studies, specifically, and to Southeast Asian humanities and social science researchers more broadly, particularly those with a specific interest in Vietnam, this is a timely contribution to discussions on Vietnamese heritage – past, present, and future.

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9789819545889

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Author Information

Stan BH Tan-Tangbau is Vietnamologist. He has carried out extensive research in Vietnam since 1997 about agrarian change in the Mekong Delta, coffee pioneer fronts, frontier and state formation in the Central Highlands, historical-geography of the transborder railway from Hải Phòng to Kunming in Yunnan (China), and jazz in Vietnam. His book, Chơi Jazz ở Việt Nam (OmegaPlus), won a Vietnam National Book Prize in 2023, while the original English edition, Playing Jazz in Socialist Vietnam (University Press of the Mississippi), came in second for the EuroSEAS 2022 Humanities Book Prize. Between 2009 and 2018, Stan founded and directed Kachin Life Stories, a public digital anthropology project he designed for the Kachin people originating from Myanmar, China, and India.   Phạm Quỳnh Phương is Associate Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University of Hà Nội. She is Author of many articles published in national and international journals and a number of books such as Hero and Deity: Trần Hưng Đạo and the Resurgence of Popular Religion in Vietnam (Silkworm Books), Gender, Empowerment and Development: Gender Relations from the Perspective of Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam (Thế Giới Publisher), Social Change in Contemporary Vietnam – A Study of the Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Movements (Social Science Publishing House). With over 25 years of experience in the field, Phương has dedicated her career to the study of cultural and social change in contemporary Vietnamese society, with a particular focus on issues related to ethnic minorities, intangible heritage, popular religion, gender and sexuality, and social movements.   Trần Thị An is Associate Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University of Hà Nội. She is Expert in Vietnamese folklore, cultural studies, and heritage studies. An has carried out numerous research projects and has published widely in Vietnamese and English, both in Vietnam and internationally. Her book, Characteristics of Folk Legends and Documentation of Vietnamese Folk Legends (Vietnam Social Science Publishing House, 2014), was awarded second prize by the Vietnam Association of Folk Arts and a Vietnam National Book Prize in 2015. An previously worked for 29 years at the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), where she served as Head of the Folklore Division in the Institute of Literature and Director of the Scientific Management Department of VASS.

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