Fragments of the present : searching for modernity in Vietnam's south / Philip Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, Philip, 1962-

Series:

Southeast Asia publications series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic conditions.

Social conditions.

History.

Vietnam, Southern--History.

Vietnam, Southern.

Vietnam, Southern--Social conditions.

Vietnam, Southern--Economic conditions.

Vietnam--Politics and government--1975-.

Vietnam.

Politics and government.

Southern Vietnam.

Physical Description:

xii, 237 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Crows Nest, NSW : Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with Allen & Unwin ; Honolulu : University of Hawai'i Press, 2001.

Summary:

In one of the first in-depth accounts of a society long rendered virtually inaccessible by war and political closure, Philip Taylor explores how the southern region of Vietnam was integrated politically and conceptually into the unified nation. Showing the ways in which modernity has been adapted as an indigenous identity in Vietnam, he traces the recent volatile path of such self-identification.

The post-war government's policies towards southern Vietnam's international cultural exchange altered from initial rejection to qualified embrace. However, the state policies drew criticism from many locals with different ideas about their own identity as 'modern', as they were concerned about the impacts of economic liberalisation and political authoritarianism. Taylor pays particular attention to the many dimensions of Vietnamese music as a rich response to profound historical and social upheavals, the policies which saw much popular music being banned on the grounds that it was not authentically modern, and the ways Vietnamese people imagined and talk about their identity and history through the reference point of music.

A case study of the diversity of ways in which social, political and economic change is interpreted locally, Fragments of the Present is an important guide to the challenges to global integration faced by the world's remaining Communist states.

Contents:

1 Neo-colonialism as poison 23

2 Renunciations of socialism 56

3 Indigenising modernity in Nam Bo 89

4 Reinventing modernity as threat 119

5 Civilisation in the orchard: The unpublished history of a Mekong delta village 159.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-227) and index.

ISBN:

0824824172

OCLC:

44681868