Week 2: Leslie Do

Leslie Do
ASA 189F, National Aesthetics
Dr. Valverde
1/10/2015

Week 2: Generating Questions about Viet Nam's National Aesthetics from Examining the Rebranding of 17th Century France

              Although the remaking of a nation-state's image may have occurred many centuries ago, the processes, factors, and historical contexts that contributed to a country's national aesthetic can be used to speculate about possible national images of developing countries -- such as Viet Nam. For instance, during the 17th century, post-war France utilized King Louis XIV's sense of aesthetics to make itself into a nation of refinement in order to economically compete on the level of Britain and Germany (DeJean, 2.) According to Abott Payson Usher's essay "Colbert and Governmental Control of Industry," governmental authorities of France (such as Minister of Fiances of France Jean-Baptiste Colbert) implemented authoritarian "rules and regulations" that support an absolute monarchy, institutions that set the standard of products through government-approved training, and shop rules that meet the quality of refinement (Usher, 238.) For example, the French government built its national image of refinement by institutionalizing consistent, "higher standards of instruction and taste" in the Academy of Painting and Sculpture and many fine arts institutes (Usher, 238.) Therefore, the connection between the French governmental-controlled, institutional standardization of products and the (re)branding of a nation-state can be applied to predictions of Viet Nam's national aesthetic alongside its challenges -- such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Viet Nam's current rivalry with China for the Paracel Islands (Conner, 2016.) To illustrate, how will the global standardization measures of the TPP impede the Vietnamese government's sovereign capacity of standardizing its products and halt the development of  a particular national image? Consequently, since urgent actions of international competition and alternative economic policies (besides initiating high tariffs) strengthened France's national image, what economic policies (such as protectionism), strategies and actions of international competition, and trade regulations will reinforce the development of Viet Nam's national aesthetic in the midst of escalating tensions between Viet Nam and China over contested islands (Whiteman, 198;Conner, 2016)? 

Bibliography 

Connor, Neil. "Japan and Philippines Join Vietnam in Voicing Anger over China ‘test Flight’ in Disputed Islands." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 5 Jan. 2016. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.

DeJean, Joan E. "Introduction: Living Lux." The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. New York: Free, 2005. 2. Print.
Usher, Abbott Payson. "Colbert and Governmental Control of Industry in Seventeenth Century France." The Review of Economics and Statistics(1934): 238. Print.

Whiteman, J. J. "Trade and the Regeneration of France, 1789-91: Liberalism, Protectionism and the Commercial Policy of the National Constituent Assembly." European History Quarterly (2001): 198. Print.