Vietnam Related Panels and Paper Abstracts at the Association for Asian Studies Conference 1995

Session 12: Situating the Moment in Southeast Asia: Four Case Studies on Cultural Politics and Contemporary Social History

Organizer and Chair: Kenneth M. George, Harvard University

Discussant: Rita Kipp, Kenyon College

National and transnational forces continue to bring about obvious and significant change in the contemporary sociocultural landscape of Southeast Asia. This panel explores some of the less obvious political dilemmas, complexities, and compromises surrounding interpretive work when matters are anything but settled and viewpoints are kept in constant flux and negotiation. What is at stake as people struggle for control over images, objects, ideas, memories, values, and the means of cultural representation? How do these same cultural forms elude positioned attempts to hold them down? How do people confront or take advantage of the uncertain and the unexpected? And how might ethnographers capture and be captured by the unfolding cultural politics of contemporary Southeast Asia? Panelists will discuss the discourse of virtue in Vietnamese village politics; the life histories of a Toraja family scattered across Indonesia and Europe; reflections on the trauma of places that are no more-Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand; and the biography of an abstract canvas by Indonesian painter A. D. Pirous, from the time it was first exhibited in 1968 to its recent appropriation by a critical art history.

Local Value and Official Ideology: Defining Virtue in Contemporary Northern Viet Nam

Shaun Kingsley Malarney, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies

Similar to the Confucian state that preceded it, the revolutionary socialist state in Viet Nam engaged in a concerted campaign to create and popularize official definitions of ethics and virtue. Immortalized in Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary adage 'Industry, thrift, incorruptability, and righteousness. Public spirit and impartiality,' the socialist state attempted to replace local constructions of ethics and virtue with an official canon that directed people's loyalties toward the state and revolution. The popular acceptance of this canon, however, was problematic as local definitions of virtue and moral responsibility oftentimes remained salient in social practice. Using the example of a commune election in Hanoi province as a case study, this paper will examine the tensions and consequences of the interaction between official definitions of virtue and local systems of value during the cooperative period (1959-1986). Then, focusing on the period since the 1986 introduction of the reform policies in Viet Nam, the paper will further explore the manner in which the turn to 'market socialism,' with its attendant endorsement of individual production and wealth accumulation, is further transforming both official and local notions of what is ethical and what is virtuous. As will be shown throughout, the dynamic and complex discourse on virtue in contemporary northern Viet Nam has been profoundly influenced by the at times complementary, at times contentious, interaction between local values and the agenda of the state.

Session 13: Gender and Revolution in Viet Nam: Bullets, Buddhas, Or Ballots

Organizer: Sandra C. Taylor, University of Utah

Chair and Discussant: Thi Thanh Nguyen, Nguoi Viet Review

This panel addresses several issues of contemporary importance in Viet Nam in the period from 1954 to the present. Each deals with gender, self-perceptions, but the papers differ according to the discipline of the participant. They have in common the theme of the relationship between gender, ideology, and ongoing debates within Viet Nam over what was, to the winners, a revolution.

The paper by Sandra C. Taylor considers the so-called long-haired warriors of the years 1957-75: their interaction with male combatants (Americans and Vietnamese), their self-perception, and the impact of communist ideology on their determination to win the revolution. The paper by Miriam Frenier seeks to understand the role of Buddhism in contemporary Viet Nam as it pertains to women's belief system and freedom to worship. The paper by Linda Yarr concerns a contemporary issue: to what degree do laws written for and about women in fact give them legal rights?

All papers are part of ongoing projects and should be considered as works in progress.

Women Revolutionaries in Vietnam: Ideology, Tradition, and Necessity

Sandra C. Taylor, University of Utah

Women played a significant role in Vietnam's successful socialist revolution. This paper seeks to explore the ideological foundations of their support for revolutionary activity, especially in the context of traditional Confucian prescribed roles.

Second, the paper will examine the nature of women revolutionaries, the roles they played, and the way in which men regarded them. Their exploits as liaison operatives, intelligence operators, nurses, cooks, and fighters will be touched upon, using as source material oral histories conducted in Vietnam as well as relevant secondary material.

Third, the paper will conclude with a comment on Vietnam's honoring of its women heroines. It is the author's belief that once victory was achieved, women resumed their traditional roles as wives and mothers, subordinate to men. New roles they took, such as physicians, were not particularly honored by the new regime, and they were not allowed to take roles in the government, with one notable exception. Rather, they were relegated to power within the Women's Union, an organization that had operated since 1930. Although powerful, this organization deals only with females and does not attempt to compete in the male sphere.

Quan Am, Women and Vietnam's "Mother Buddha"

Miriam D. Frenier, University of Minnesota, Morris

The Buddhist faith is a complex belief system in which women have always played a role. As it was accepted in Vietnam, gradually a female concept of a goddess mother, the special protector of women, emerged. This female figure, whose role in the original Buddha legend is vague, has emerged as a potent force in Vietnam, which allowed the re emergence of Buddhism as part of its opening in 1985.

This paper seeks to outline Vietnamese Buddhism, to define what a Lady Buddha is, to explore the origins of the Lady Buddha in the Vietnamese belief system, and to unravel the manner in which it functions in socialist Vietnam today. The paper explains the function of the Boddhisattva and shows that the Lady Buddha is viewed as a Boddhisattva, sharing gender traits that are both female and male. Source materials include oral interviews conducted in the Saigon area of Vietnam, as well as books written by contemporary Vietnamese authors.

Legal Supports for Gender Equality in Vietnam: Past Gains and Present Prospects

Linda J. Yarr, The American University, Washington, DC

Since the struggle for independence, the leadership of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has professed its commitment to realizing equality between the sexes. One yardstick of the seriousness of this commitment is the series of constitutional and legal provisions designed to support equal treatment of women in the home, work place, and arena of public life. At the same time, responding to strong cultural norms, protective legislation and family policies have been enacted to secure the welfare of women as mothers.

The rapid changes brought about by the new economic renovation policies have both opened certain opportunities for women and presented new constraints and challenges to the implementation of the state's goals in achieving gender equality. This paper will analyze the development of legal provisions on behalf of women and investigate the current trends that are working both for and against the official goals.

Session 93: Environment and Development in Vietnam

Part One (See Session 113)

Organizer: Michael R. DiGregorio, University of California, Los Angeles

Chair: A. Terry Rambo, East West Center

Discussant: Neil L. Jamieson, Winrock International

Environment and Development in Vietnam

A. Terry Rambo, East-West Center

The recent lifting of the U.S. embargo was accompanied by a virtual flood of speculation in the media about Vietnam's development potential. Most appraisals were quite optimistic with some suggesting that the country will be Asia's next miracle economy, an instant "NIC" needing only an infusion of U.S. investment capital to achieve overnight prosperity. Such hyperbolic claims are both misleading and potentially harmful. They are misleading in that they downplay or wholly fail to take into account the many difficulties that Vietnam must overcome while overstating the factors, particularly the country's supposedly vast treasury of unexploited natural resources, that favor rapid economic development. Such claims are potentially harmful in that they divert attention from the need to solve the pressing problems of poverty, overpopulation, environmental degradation and decay of the administrative system. To the extent that such claims are accepted as true by the Vietnamese people, they may contribute to rising expectations of rapid improvement in living conditions that may lead to widespread public discontent when reality fails to conform to dreams.

This paper draws on fieldwork conducted on human environment interactions in the Red River Delta, the Midlands, the northwestern Highlands, and the Mekong Delta. It presents a deliberately contrarian view of Vietnam's development prospects, emphasizing the many threats to long-term sustainable development.

The Human Ecology of Sustainable Land Use in the Red River Delta of Vietnam

Aran Patanothai, Khon Kaen University, Thailand

The Red River Delta of Vietnam is an area of dense human settlement and intensive land use. In the past, villagers have been able to increase production sufficient to cope with increased population. Whether further increases in population can be supported by the land and whether current high levels of production can be sustained are questions which have yet to be answered This paper attempts to answer these questions in the specific context of an agricultural village, Nguyen Xa, in the densely settled Red River delta province of Thai Binh. It draws upon fieldwork jointly conducted in 1991 and 1992 by researchers from the Southeast Asian Agroecosystem Network (SUAN), The Program on Environment at the East West Center, and the Center for Natural Resources Management and Environmental Studies at Hanoi University.

The results of this research revealed that land use in Nguyen Xa was intensive. Almost all the cultivated land was devoted to the production of the village's two crops of rice per year. In addition, about 40 percent of the village's agricultural land produced a third crop in the dry winter season. With the availability of irrigation water, the use of high yielding varieties, and the heavy application of manure and chemical inputs, crop yields were quite high. Rice yields of 6 7 tons per hectare were quite common.

Though production relied heavily on manual labor of villagers, it could not be characterized as backward by any stretch of the imagination. The agricultural system of Nguyen Xa village was technically sophisticated. An outstanding feature in this regard was the elaborate forms of nutrient recycling employed by the villagers. Just about every nutrient possible was captured and recycled to the field one way or another. Though analysis of soils revealed a potentially debilitating accumulation of potassium and a gradual depletion of phosphorous, land thus appeared to be managed sustainably.

Despite these past successes, research indicated that the agricultural potential of village lands may have already been reached. A simulation of rice yields showed that farmers in Nguyen Xa were already achieving 80 percent of their crop's genetic potential and that further yield increases were not likely. Expansion of the area sown in a third crop was also unlikely.

To compensate for the limits reached in agricultural production, villagers have been seeking additional income through subsidiary activities. Reliance on these activities has been increasing in recent years and has generated good incomes to the villagers. With little room left for improvement in agriculture, subsidiary activities may be the only long term means of coping with the pressures of an increasing population.

The Social and Environmental Impacts of Development in the Da River Watershed of Northern Vietnam

Le Trong Cuc, Hanoi University

The Da (Black) River watershed encompasses an area circumscribed by the northwest to southeast running summits of the Son La and Hoang Lien Son ranges in northwestern Vietnam. It is an isolated area of strongly dissected river valleys and limestone mountains. The population of the watershed, 973,282 persons in 1989, is sparsely settled and diverse. Although 23 ethnic groups live in the watershed, only five of these, Thai (42 percent), Kinh (lowland Vietnamese; 18 percent), Hmong (17.5 percent), Muong (9.5 percent) and Dzao (4.8 percent), comprise the overwhelming majority.

Each of these ethnic groups occupies a distinct agroecological zone. The Thai, Muong, Tay and Kinh practice irrigated rice cultivation in the fertile valleys within the watershed. The Hmong, Dzao, and Kho Mu people practice sedentary shifting cultivation on the high slopes. In addition, many Kinh migrants raise industrial crops on state farms in the more accessible areas and the highland plateaus found in Moc Chau, Mai Son and Phong Tho districts.

The Hoa Binh hydroelectric dam, which has created a reservoir covering 200 square kilometers at depths of 115 meters, is the single largest project in the watershed. The rising waters of the reservoir have forced the relocation of 58,000 people belonging to 9,305 households in nine districts along its 30 kilometer length and flooded 11,000 hectares of agricultural land, including 4,000 hectares of irrigated rice fields.

The loss of lowland agricultural land has been matched by a loss in upland forest as displaced persons migrated upward with the rising waters. The Ministry of Forestry estimates that 2,000 hectares of forest are lost each year as the former valley farmers turn to upland swiddening. The erosion caused by these practices has reduced the life expectancy of the Hoa Binh hydroelectric dam from 300 to 80 years.

A second, larger dam is now being planned for construction at Son La, also on the Da river. This dam, which would flood 58,277 hectares, the majority forest land, under a maximum depth of 265 meters of water, would force the relocation of 120,411 people.

Under the impact of such massive changes in the physical and social landscape of the Da river watershed, one has to question the significance of the various agriculture and forestry programs established by the state and non governmental organizations. While valuable in their own right, when compared to the large scale displacement brought about by dam construction, these efforts provide insufficient compensation. An alternative approach would examine the benefits of dam construction compared to other forms of energy against the likely impact of such construction on the environment.

Gendering the Environment: Resource Utilization in the Highland District of Da Bac, Vietnam

Nghiem Phuong Tuyen, Hanoi University

Gender has a profound and complex influence on resource identification and use. Gender work and gender knowledge of the environment, seen through the differing perspectives of men and women, affect the way each identifies, values, appropriates and uses resources. In much of the world, women have responsibility for growing and collecting food. medicines, fuel, and housing materials. In other words, they are often active in producing or collecting for household subsistence. These activities regularly expose women to primary resources-water, wood, land, wildlife-thus giving them an acute awareness to negative changes in the quality of those resources locally. Men, on the other hand. are typically more active in commercial agriculture than women and more often employ unsustainable methods of utilizing resources.

This paper will draw on fieldwork conducted in Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province in the northwest uplands of Vietnam. It will discuss the roles of women in Da Bac as it pertains to the use of land, forests and forest products, water sources and labor.

Session 113: Environment and Development in Vietnam

Part Two (See Session 93)

Organizer: Michael R. DiGregorio, University of California, Los Angeles

Chair: Le Trong Cuc, Hanoi University

Discussant: A. Terry Rambo, East West Center

National Development and Landscape Formation in Vietnam

Jeffrey Romm, University of California, Berkeley

Economic growth in Vietnam, as in other places, affects the intensity and distribution of activity over space and the level and distribution of well being among people. Such impacts change the qualities of environmental assets, for better and for worse, and the social capacities to invest in or conserve natural as well as human resources. This paper reports on a study of relations between development policy, spatial growth patterns, and related impacts on the quality, intensity and distribution of activity and environmental assets. Understanding these relations may help to achieve development policies that incorporate concerns about social distributions and their environmental consequences. Using data drawn primarily from Vinh Phu province, the study also identifies means by which rural people seek to control, manage or compensate for developmental forces that modify the circumstances in which they live.

The Environmental Impacts of Rapid Industrial Transformation in Vietnam

Dara J. O'Rourke, University of California, Berkeley

With recent government reforms and the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo, Vietnam is currently experiencing a significant transformation of the industrial sector. While industrial development will likely bring benefits for the general population, there is significant potential for adverse environmental and health impacts of industrial expansion.

Already in fact, industrial development, involving both changes in domestic industry and growth of foreign direct investment, is having significant impacts on the people and environment of Vietnam. Vietnam's trajectory of industrialization-which is impacted by historical circumstances, state policies, international pressures, conditions and constraints at the firm level, and social pressures-is creating unique problems for development planners. Attempting to understand the process of industrial transformation and the constraints on specific actors involved in industrialization is a critical first step in developing appropriate policy responses for protecting the environment during rapid industrial development.

This paper reports on a study of environmental impacts of industrial transformation in Vietnam. The paper will begin by introducing some of the primary factors driving industrialization in Vietnam, the current development model (and underlying theories) proposed by the Vietnamese government, and the current geography of industrialization. Current production technology levels, and the resulting environmental impacts of production, will be described for two case study industries. The paper will also evaluate institutional structures being developed to respond to environmental problems.

The paper will then discuss some policy options for de-coupling environmental impacts (such as pollution levels) from industrial development. Opportunities for pollution prevention and more environmentally sound industrial development will be explored. Finally, government goals and activities aimed at balancing economic growth, environmental quality, and equity issues will be discussed.

Design and Reality in French Plans for the Development of Dalat

Robert R. Reed, University of California, Berkeley

During the heyday of imperialism in South and Southeast Asia, Westerners founded and maintained more than 125 costly hill stations situated at elevations between 350 and 3,000 meters above sea level. Conceived as sanitaria for colonists, colonial administrators and their families suffering from debilitating endemic illnesses and epidemic diseases, most highland health resorts rapidly evolved into highly segregated social enclaves and recreation centers reserved for European elites. Some strategically situated hill stations, having emerged as growth poles in the rugged mountain realms, were gradually transformed into multifunctional hubs of administration, education, transportation, commerce, agricultural development, forestry, and mining. The foremost of these, tropical Asia's 'summer capitals,' became the periodic seats of western imperium as national and provincial governments moved to the highlands during the heat of monsoonal Asia's dry season.

By the 1930s, Dalat, a French colonial hill station in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, became renowned as one of the finest mountain resorts and administrative complexes in Asia. Established late in the colonial era (c. 1900), its founders and developers explicitly patterned France's premiere station d'altitude after the models of Simla (India), Buitenzorg (Java), Nuwara Eliya (Sri Lanka), and Baguio (Philippines). Although conceived as an exclusive recreational preserve for Europeans, its long-term design wisely called for and anticipated the conversion of Dalat into a diversified urban center with functional linkages throughout the southern Central Highlands of Vietnam.

At least five urban plans (Champoudrey, Hebrard, Pineau, Lagisquet and Decoux) were drawn to orchestrate the development of Dalat. These designs, which adapted principles of European and American urban planning to the specific conditions of the colonial highlands, included spatial organization by function areas and the separation of non-compatible uses, a general layout intended to promote environmental harmony, segregation of ethnic communities, and comprehensive zoning regulations. With the expulsion of the French from Indochina, the Vietnamese began transforming Dalat into a center for domestic tourism and a key secondary city in the highlands, a place it holds today.

This paper will explore the utility of these plans in directing the growth of Dalat, paying particular attention to the pressures placed upon the city through internal migration, domestic tourism and more recent development of Dalat as an international destination.

The City as Resource: Recycling and the Peasant Economy of Northern Vietnam

Michael R. DiGregorio, University of California, Los Angeles

Scavenging and junk buying have frequently appeared in development literature as symbols of urban environmental deterioration, human degradation and lost hopes. Beyond these images, however, lies a reality in which these disparaged occupations provide refuge for the unemployed, a secure economic niche for particular ethnic, caste, or territorial communities, material inputs for local industries, commodities for export, and a means of diverting large amounts of recoverable materials from landfills and composting plants.

This paper, which applies a political ecology framework to the analysis of scavenging and junk buying in Hanoi, Vietnam, suggests that these two occupations are best understood in the dialectic processes of socio-ecologic change. The large-scale withdrawal of the state from its former redistributional role in favor of market allocation has prompted changes in both the physical arrangement of space-farms, forests, and cities-and the social structures that, in turn, adapt and adapt to them. Communes and cooperatives are giving way to household enterprises and capitalist corporations. Land, which can now be privately held, has leap-frogged in value, prompting a reorganization of urban and rural space along the lines of most profitable use. The need for cash income to purchase goods and services formerly provided by the state has also worked its way across the landscape as government agencies engage in money-making endeavors, such as the operation of guest houses, to supplement their state budgets and rural families migrate, either permanently or on a temporary basis, in search of income earning work.

Scavenging and junk buying provides a wide window into these processes of socio-ecologic change as they are occurring at this rare moment in Vietnamese history. Though not unique in any sense, these two occupations bridge rural and urban lifespace, linking territorial communities in cycles of urban and agricultural work. Nearly half of all those employed in scavenging and junk buying, roughly 3,000 people, are members of farming families who use work in Hanoi to supplement their agricultural incomes. The majority, or about 2,500 people, come from a single district, Xuan Thuy district in Nam Ha province, approximately 120 kilometers from Hanoi. Residents of Xuan Thuy rely on relatives and village mates living in Hanoi, many of whom are the sons and daughters of Xuan Thuy natives who came to work for the Sanitation Company in the 1930s, to provide housing and training. Change in the organization of agricultural production combined with increasing income needs and the opening of economic space, have set conditions under which the urban side of the Xuan Thuy community could offer work to their rural counterparts and the rural side could be willing to engage in low-status urban work.

Despite the apparent economic and ecologic benefits of scavenging and junk buying, the system as it currently appears is threatened from a number of sources. To address these threats, recyclers need the social and political standing that would allow them to stake out a position in society and evolve with changing conditions.

Session 121: Individual Papers: Southeast Asia

Organizer: John R. Bowen, Washington University

Chair: Michael Aung-Thwin, Northern Illinois University

The Quest for Oil in Vietnam

Robert Cambria, Cambria Consultants

From the Bay of Tonkin to the South China sea, Vietnam is potentially rich in oil and gas. Interest in Vietnam's energy resources grew when in 1974 Royal Dutch Shell and Mobil struck oil in the White Tiger field off the coast of the then republic of South Vietnam. After liberation, in a joint venture with the USSR, more potential sources of oil and gas were found even in the Red River Delta.

Owing to Vietnam's war in Cambodia and lack of technology and wherewithal to exploit its energy resources, Hanoi could not begin developing its energy sector. However, with doi moi, economic reforms have attracted capital from abroad to speed up the country's economic development. Oil and gas resources are the area which draws most foreign investment, and according to Hanoi's own projections such infusions of capital will accelerate rapid economic growth.

For foreign oil companies, public and private, in the region and Europe and the USA, Vietnam is a source of reserves which will lessen reliance on OPEC countries. For its ASEAN neighbors assisting exploitation of such reserves allows them to tie Vietnam into an economic network which brings Hanoi's interests into harmony with theirs. Yet, such potential riches are a source of tension with China, its powerful neighbor to the north, whose presence has since millennia defined the notion of what is Vietnam.

Oil and gas have a further attraction for modernization of one of the world's poorest countries, as well as to strengthen the hold of one of the few, remaining Communist parties in power in the world.

Population Growth and Sustainable Development Challenges During Socio-Economic Transition in Vietnam

Nguyen Minh Thang, University of Washington

Even though national production has achieved remarkable results in recent years, the high population growth rate of around 2.2%-2.3% per year since 1990, with TFR around 3.8 children per women, is one of reasons eliminating an improvement in the standard of living. The environment and development in a number of various aspects-economics, health care, education, etc.-has been heavily pressured by a speedily increasing population.

In turn, the socio-economic development during the Vietnam's tremendous transition and new world order has significantly influenced demands for children in Vietnamese society in many directions.

High fertility levels and attitudes on demands for more children, mainly in rural areas and more highly in the Mekong river delta in south Vietnam, showed little hope in terms of the considerable fertility decline in coming years, even though the family planning program would be improved greatly.

That does not rule out the need for effort regarding the family planning program. Moreover, the population and family planing program needs to be improved and focused on generating further awareness and the attitudes of people regarding the preferred number of children and family size as soon as possible, so that the population structure could be positively changed by the year 2000, in order to create a fundamental to remain a maximum level of fertility decline after 2000.

In addition, based on the updated survey data and prospective for changes in terms of demand for children in Vietnam, I have produced the updated projection for population growth up to the year 2000. This study also address the national policy and main measures to achieve the target of reducing TFR down to 3 children by the year of 2000 and to a replacement level by 2015.

Role of the State: The Case of the Vietnamese Textile and Garment Industry Since the Late 1980s

Ngoc (Angie) Tran, University of Southern California

Recent writings on Vietnam have been claiming optimistically that Vietnam has the potential to become yet another tiger in the Asian Pacific region. It seems natural that given the success of the East Asian Newly-Industrialized Countries (NICs), Vietnam would try to learn if it can replicate that experience.

Given specific circumstances in Vietnamese political economy which is shifting from a very high level of state intervention (a centrally-planned economy) to a lower level (a more market-oriented system), the relevant questions to pose are: to what extent can the Vietnam state learn from the experience of the East Asian NICs? Given the role of the "developmental state" in these economies, can the Vietnamese state play a similar role? What are the necessary conditions for effective state intervention in a more open socialist economy?

In order to address these questions, this paper will examine the relevance of the developmental state framework to the case of Vietnam. Specifically, it will use examples from the Vietnamese Textile and Garment Industry (VTGI) to illustrate the arguments and key issues faced by the Vietnam state in making the transition since the late 1980s. The VTGl is chosen because: first, it is a major job creator and a foreign exchange earner, and it has the potential to be integrated with the rest of the economy; second, the VTGI fits into the overall pattern of the textile and garment industry's global sourcing, and hence can demonstrate how well Vietnam faces new challenges.

In terms of organization, this paper will first present the developmental state framework and specifically the model of the East Asian NICs. Second, it will apply this model to Vietnam, and discuss to what extent the Vietnam state can learn from the experience of the East Asian NICs. Finally, this paper will provide an illustration of the role of the Vietnam state, from the developmental state framework, in the case of the Vietnamese Textile and Garment Industry.

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