Ethnic Identity and Citizenship under Vietnam’s Communist State

• In Event: Citizenship in the Peripheries: Identities in SE Asia (Mini-Conference 1/3)

Abstract

The historiography of Vietnam’s nationhood has been one of multiethnic diversity yet unity in its resistance against colonization and foreign aggression. The narrative resonates Benedict Anderson’s view of the nation whereby “it is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship” (1983: 6-7). In this article, I deconstruct this narrative by highlighting the historical continuity of diverging origins and patterns of assimilation of two ethnic groups in Vietnam: the Hoa (ethnic Chinese) in the Southern region and the Montagnard in the Central Highlands. I argue that these factors have important consequences for why some ethnic groups are more likely to revolt than others. While both groups have maintained strong within-group ethnic identities and networks, the Montagnards have on several occasions mobilized to call for a separatist state while the Hoa have not. The politicization of the Montagnard ethnic identity can be traced back to their origin as an upland indigenous group and increased marginalization caused by state land expropriation. By contrast, the Hoa in the South were predominantly Chinese immigrants concentrated in urban areas who have engaged in commercial trade and continued to benefit economically under market liberalization. These historical differences in the formation of their ethnic identity have conditioned the respective propensity of the Montagnard and the Hoa to revolt.

Authors

• Nhu Truong, McGill University

• Duy Trinh, Princeton University