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An Alternative Periodization of the Vietnamese Past

Fri, March 17, 12:45 to 2:45pm, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Floor: Lower Concourse, Grand Ballroom East

Abstract

One of the ways in which Vietnamese history is periodized in Vietnam today is in terms of the times when Vietnam was either “independent” or under the control of some foreign power. This periodization begins with an independent period in antiquity, followed by a thousand years of “Chinese rule,” followed by roughly another thousand years of independence during the “feudal period” (disrupted briefly by a short Ming Dynasty occupation in the early fifteenth century), followed by a period of French colonial rule and Japanese occupation during World War II, and ending with a period of independence from 1945 to the present.

This paper will argue that this style of periodization is designed to erase from the past certain aspects of Vietnamese history, such as the enduring presence of divisions among groups of Vietnamese-speaking peoples, and the repeated appropriation of foreign ideas and techniques to control and/or suppress those divisions. If, however, we allow these aspects of Vietnamese history to come to the fore, what we can envision is an alternative periodization, one in which every period of division is followed by a period of more centralized control that is indebted to the use of new foreign ideas and techniques.

While the goal of this paper is not to argue that one style of periodization is better than another, it will hopefully demonstrate that different periodization schemes can shed light on different aspects of the Vietnamese past.

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