"New Left" or "True Left" in Vietnam?
From: Mark Sidel
Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:44 PM
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
Dear colleagues,
The China studies community has really not gotten any work done in recent weeks. We have been following, avidly bordering on obsessively, the extraordinary political developments surrounding the now deposed Bo Xilai, his spouse Gu Kailai, who is under investigation for the murder of the unfortunate Neil Heywood, their son Bo Guagua, and others. From interactions yesterday with Vietnamese diplomatic officials in connection with the memorial service for Judy Ladinsky here in Madison it is clear that they are following this very closely as well.
Some (though by no means all) members of a broad group of intellectuals and officials often called the Chinese "new left" have supported Bo, and the Bo episode has given this shifting and often contradictory group, which has existed in various forms since the late 1970s, considerably more prominence. The definition of the Chinese "new left" is sharply disputed, but some/many are suspicious of/opposed to some of the market reforms of the Deng era, can be highly nationalist in nature, in many cases are deeply opposed to liberal intellectuals and dissidents who write and advocate for human rights and "western-style democracy," and so on.
(As most on this list know, notions of left and right in China are not always the same as elsewhere, and members of the old left or new left on this list may be amused or annoyed to have this Chinese "new left" -- with its often intense nationalism and sometime opposition to human rights advocates, among many other positions -- associated with the idea of "left." Some of us might prefer to call these conservative positions, but in the context of recent Chinese history they are called "left" in China.)
My question: Is there a Vietnamese "new left"? Are there "left" officials and intellectuals outlining positions akin to the Chinese "new left"?
I don't think I really mean the military, security and other officials (and occasional intellectuals) who oppose "bourgeois liberalism," the occasional articles that used to (perhaps still do?) appear in such outlets as Cong an Nhan dan. Or perhaps I should be considering them?
And I don't think -- though am I too quick to say that -- that I mean the intellectuals who have taken nationalist positions on bauxite, maritime and other issues, some of whom would be readily attacked by the critics of "bourgeois liberalism." Or perhaps I should be considering them too? Would the bauxite and maritime and border critics call themselves "left"? Would we call them that, or akin to the Chinese "new left"? Have their critiques broadened to include criticisms of market reforms, a call for return to pre-1986 policies and values, for example?
Is there a group of Vietnamese intellectuals and officials who have come to be suspicious or opposed to the market reforms, seek some sort of a return to revolutionary values, are significantly nationalist (more than the norm), are opposed to "western-style democracy"? Is there a Vietnamese "new left" akin to the Chinese new left?
Comments much appreciated, onlist please. (For those who read Chinese and want a brief list of Chinese "new left" websites to look at -- some of them quite strikingly critical, including calling sitting Chinese government officials "traitors," for example -- email me at sidel@wisc.edu.)
Mark Sidel
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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From: David Biggs
Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 2:37 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Mark and colleagues,
I don't know about the "new Left" in Vietnam, but the tone of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's account of his recent meeting with Fidel Castro suggests a continued strong embrace of Renovation policies. A friend who studies Cuba sent this: http://granma.cu/ingles/cuba-i/16abril-fidel-Phu-Trong.html
Best,
David Biggs
UC Riverside
--
David Biggs
Department of History
1212 Humanities & Social Sciences Building
University of California - Riverside
Riverside CA 92521
ph: 951-827-1877 | fx: 951-827-5299
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From: Chung Nguyen
Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 5:43 PM
To: dbiggs@ucr.edu, Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I don't think that there exists a movement that can be identified as "new Left" in Vietnam. There are indeed conservative elements of the party that at times react strongly against liberalization tendencdy, and force policy changes. An example is the 180 degree change in the Writers Association re: the awarding of the 1st literary prize for Bao Ninh's "The Sorrow of War" (most people on the award committee later denied that they voted for it).
There is a "left" and a "right" leaning, but more importantly, neither can compete against the essentially conservative elements that hold on to its power and privilege.
Chung Nguyen
UMass Boston
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From: David Marr
Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 5:48 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
What are the Chinese characters for `New Left' and how do they transliterate to Vietnamese? My impression is that 'ta khuynh' and 'huu khuynh' in Vietnamese today carry such heavy ideological baggage from the past that they would only be used by a few party hacks... If so, are alternative terms surfacing?
David Marr
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From: Li Tana
Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 6:01 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
"Tân ta?" is the Chinese transliteration for "new left".
Li Tana
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From: Philip Taylor
Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 6:29 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
This discussion topic is interesting.
Potentially the so-called 'reformists' of the doi moi era - I'm thinking of Vo Van Kiet, among many others - could be regarded as Vietnam's true 'left', for their only partially-realised vision for post-war Vietnam of freeing up private property and markets, encouraging domestic and foreign investment, advocating for international (capitalist) 'normalisation' and substantive national reconciliation, etc., are not in any way inconsistent with a classic Marxist or 'progressive' view of history and societal development.
Is 'conservatism' in Vietnam recognisably leftist? Vietnam's political 'cult of the public sphere', continuing adoption of a centrist planning model, maintenance of the party as a parallel system of governance, heavily intrusive policing and state surveillance, paranoia about peaceful evolutionism, and anti-China nationalism, etc. are not obviously leftist. They have resonances with parochial or xenophobic pre-colonial policies, a tradition of secret society membership, and Czarist and French colonial development and policing techniques, not to mention what Hy Van Luong describes as an 'indigenous' (northern and central Vietnamese) logic stemming from traditions of agrarian communalism, Scott's 'subsistence ethic', the bounded village, and traditional (regional) age, gender and occupational hierarchies.
It remains tempting to view Vietnam's left/right along regional lines. However, against this inclination, in the mid 1990s, I found a strong vein of conservatism or anti-reform exhaustion or 'reaction' among southern Party-aligned ethnic Kinh intellectuals, artists and former soldiers. It seems to confirm Chung Nguyen's comments that so-called 'conservatism' can be a response to self-interested or badly executed reform.
I'm interested too in these differences within 'ethnic minority groups' among whom one can find both strong reform boosters and ant-development conservatives. Discernibly, these positions reflect regional, class, gender, occupational and educational differences but the very notions of progress and conservatism usually are thought through in vernacular terms. For instance, among Khmer Krom (that's ethnic minority Khmers to some folks) are found a range of attitudes towards infrastructural, market and educational development - contesting positions that invariably are couched in terms of Theravada Buddhism.
Philip Taylor
Department of Anthropology
College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University
Canberra, ACT, 0200
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From: Daniel Vukovich
Date: Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 10:02 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
A very interesting thread to me as well, since I am working in part on the rise of new left or heterodox, non-liberal discourse in China. I have often wondered if there are parallel developments within Vietnam. I'm aware -- all too dimly and amateurishly aware -- of the variety of nationalisms and discontent with the Vietnamese Party state. (Though there seems less discontent in comparison...) But I only know this from the media and from travelling and chatting-- superficially.
I would LOVE to know more about what Edward Said always called "intellectual political culture" within Vietnam though I cannot read Vietnamese sadly. Any suggestions for readings, links, films, anything-- do let me know.
I think what what makes the Chinese new left -- indeed a disputed and contentious term -- leftist is an old fashioned position on the market and capitalism. In other words it is really the critique of "reform" and capital/neo-liberalism/the market-principle that separates them from admittedly more anti-Party-state liberal people (rights, universalism, private proerty, free markets). Liberal and conservative in their American sense are so unhelpful here.
I think the second thing -- and more disputed and controversial -- is the position on the revolutionary past and what it achieved.
Is there anything like these debates within Vietnam? Or even in the literary/cultural or internet worlds?
all best,
Dan
----
Dr. Daniel F. Vukovich
School of Humanities
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Rd.
Hong Kong, China
http://hku-hk.academia.edu/DanielVukovich
----
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From: David Brown
Date: Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 10:31 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Fascinating thread, however inconclusive so far about the actual existance of a 'new left.'
I was impressed by the mini-tempest that erupted when greedy Can Tho authorities, having failed to force Song Hau Farm directorTran Ngoc Suong (aka 'Ba Suong') to relinquish a large part of the 4000 member collective's acreage for urban development, cooked up an embezzlement charge and secured a six-year jail term for Suong. Song Hau Farm is one of the few, perhaps the only, collective farm still thriving, and Suong, twice decorated with Labor Hero medals, is a gray haired icon for the old, if not the new, left. Her many old revolutionary friends, including Mme Nguyen Thi Binh and Vo Van Kiet (just before his death), rallied round and eventually the Can Tho Court's decision was overturned.
A couple of months ago, I wrote a bit about the case for Asia Sentinel: http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4184&Itemid=213
David Brown
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From: Thomas Jandl
Date: Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 2:18 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I find it interesting that the Party can justify doi moi in Marxian terms. The problems with the planned economy has been attributed to leapfrogging the required stage of bourgeois capitalism. Hence only by creating market capitalism can the next stage -- communism -- be reached. So are the designers of doi moi the true Marxists?
Thomas Jandl, Ph.D.
School of International Service
American University
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From: Daniel Vukovich
Date: Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 10:13 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Well there was a goodly amount of 'Marxist humanists" and others in China of the 1980s who felt just this way-- a stagist conception of world history and a Russian if not Stalinist notion of "productive forces" trumping "relations of production". (But they were not really Stalinist either -- just borrowed the economics, as did Deng Xiaoping in a way.)
In the end.... the development of capital trumped all such hopes and desires (and the idea that it will lead to liberal pluralistic democracy seems equally misplaced to me.) But that's the PRC -- doi moi sounds fascinatingly similar but I know the contexts are radically different in some ways and the pace of change as well.
Dan
----
Dr. Daniel F. Vukovich
School of Humanities
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Rd.
Hong Kong, China