Week 7 Blog - Winnie Chen

The history of Vietnam consists of a vast terrain of local agricultural communities and culture (Phung Nguyen Culture), but the context started to see a modern shift through bronze technology and foreign hegemony. With modern advancements and the shift in environment of culture, Vietnamese national identity comes into question. From K.W. Taylor’s “A History of the Vietnamese,” Taylor takes a look at how Vietnamese identity forms and what defines “Vietnamese” but origins, history, and current practices. Rather than finding collective identity, Taylor argues that the construction of a southern or Vietnamese identity is a notion of resistance to the hegemonic powers that control Vietnam; according to Taylor, the “urge for connections with the past is a means of self-affirmation, not a scholarly endeavor” (Taylor 3). The idea of Vietnamese identity is very complicated because it functions with the need to know the Vietnamese language, but there are other social and political instances that prevent the formation or understanding of what is truly Vietnamese. Within these hegemonic forces that alter Vietnamese identity, education is an important factor in developing and understanding Vietnam. Given this claim, Vietnam’s national aesthetic is the education system and higher education. As Vietnam is a relatively new player in development and technological advances, education plays an important role in consumption abroad, cross-border delivery, commercial presence, and the movement of natural persons, as discussed in George Nguyen and Anna Shillabeer’s “Issues in Transitional Higher Education Regulation in Vietnam” (pg 638). Education is an important institution for achieving maximum national aesthetic because education will push a curriculum and model dedicated in developing Vietnam’s economic standing on an international spectrum. At the same time, maximum national aesthetic will be achieved as long as education is not altered to change the meaning and understanding of Vietnamese identity. Whereas education furthers development, it is important to regulate and not skew the practices and ideas that make up Vietnam.

Works Cited

Nguyen, George, and Anna Shillabeer. Issues in Transnational Higher Education Regulation in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City: RMIT International U Vietnam, 2013. Print.

Taylor, K.W. Introduction, A History of the Vietnam. Cambridge UP, 2013. Print.

Image: http://www.jod.uk.com/media/1191/halong-vietnam-hero.jpg?width=1280