AAS-in-Asia, Seoul

Here comes “The Nation’s grand Festival”: Borderlanders, do your duty

• In Event: Border Crossings, (Non-) Citizenship, and Rights

Abstract

In Vietnam, May 22nd 2016, which was the day of the national general election of the deputies to the 14th National Assembly and the members of the People’s Councils at all levels, was embellished by the government with the dainty name “the Nation’s Festival”. At the end of the day, the official record announced the unprecedented highest rate of 98.77% eligible voters participating in the election. Voting is the duty of each and every eligible citizen, which was the utmost spirit with which the propaganda for this election had been going on for months. This paper presents the occurrence of this big event of the nation at its borderland, in specific a commune where a considerable part of the population involved in illegal working and living in China. How, under the tight pressure of the central government, did the local officials manage their work, and how did the local inhabitants fulfil their citizen duty are the two questions that this paper focuses on. It was in this special moment that citizens’ rights was crystalized and magnified at the same time; and through which an understanding of borderlanders’ perspective on citizenship could be achieved. Border crossing in its forms of women trafficking, illegal labour, and war refugees; and its relations to state territory, citizenship and nationalism is briefly discussed.

Author

• Vuong Ngoc Thi, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Ethnic and Religious Diversity