Foreigness in Vietnam

----- Original Message -----

From: "Karen Turner" <TURNER@holycross.edu>

To: <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 9:53 AM

Subject: [Vsg] Foreigness in Vietnam

This discussion reminds me of the "old" days in China in the late 70s

and early 80s when I was a student and then a researcher. Every now

and again there would be an "incident" and we students would always be

nervous about it because we often did not know the whole story or

because we were living closer than other foreigners to "real" life

and understood better how marginal we were. When I lived in China as a

researcher, with a bit more status, I felt less vulnerable and more

isolated from what was going on on the ground. So some of these

responses depend I bet on one's position. I find Vietnam the

Vietnamese people I know to be far more pragmatic and at ease with outsiders

than Chinese people were at at similar stage, but I also admit that I know

less about it. But I think it impossible to sort out motives for

hostile behaviour and maybe more productive to think of responses. In any

case, just some thoughts from a comparative point of view.