Course Description

Were the Vietnamese people actually born of 100 dragon eggs? Do spirit mediums in contemporary Vietnam really incarnate the first socialist president, Ho Chi Minh, as a god?  Do Vietnamese women really know less about electronics than men? The answers to these questions provide fascinating insight into Vietnamese culture and society, which we will explore in depth in this course. In particular, we will investigate how contemporary Vietnamese cultural practices have been shaped by the dramatic political, economic and historical events and upheavals of the Twentieth Century and beyond. We will pay close attention to how Vietnamese have viewed and redefined their culture under different historical circumstances including: anti-colonialism and revolution, socialism and socialist nationalism, and, most recently, the market reforms that were initiated in the mid-1980s.