Imperial heights : Dalat and the making and undoing of French Indochina / Eric T. Jennings.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jennings, Eric T. (Eric Thomas), 1970-

Series:

From Indochina to Vietnam ; v. 4.

From Indochina to Vietnam : revolution and war in a global perspective ; 4

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Đà Lạt (Vietnam)--History.

Đà Lạt (Vietnam).

Đà Lạt (Vietnam)--Colonial influence.

France--Colonies--Asia--History.

France.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (372 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Intended as a reminder of Europe for soldiers and clerks of the empire, the city of Dalat, located in the hills of Southern Vietnam, was built by the French in an alpine locale that reminded them of home. This book uncovers the strange 100-year history of a colonial city that was conceived as a center of power and has now become a kitsch tourist destination famed for its colonial villas, flower beds, pristine lakes, and pastoral landscapes. Eric T. Jennings finds that from its very beginning, Dalat embodied the paradoxes of colonialism-it was a city of leisure built on the backs of thousands of coolies, a supposed paragon of hygiene that offered only questionable protection from disease, and a new venture into ethnic relations that ultimately backfired. Jennings' fascinating history opens a new window onto virtually all aspects of French Indochina, from architecture and urban planning to violence, labor, métissage, health and medicine, gender and ethic relations, schooling, religion, comportments, anxieties, and more.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Foreword by the Series Editors

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Escaping Death in the Tropics

2. Murder on the Race for Altitude

3. Health, Altitude, and Climate

4. Early Dalat, 1898-1918

5. Colonial Expectations, Pastimes, Comestibles, Comforts, and Discomforts

6. Situating the "Montagnards"

7. A Functional City? Architecture, Planning, Zoning, and Their Critics

8. The Dalat Palace Hotel

9. Vietnamese Dalat

10. Some Colonial Categories: Children, European Women, and Métis

11. Divine Dalat

12. The Maelstrom, 1940-1945

13. Autonomous Province or Federal Capital?

14. Dalat at War and Peace, 1946-1975

Epilogue

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613277640

9780520948440

0520948440

9781283277648

1283277646

OCLC:

707166267