Papers by Tuan Hoang
The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, Volume 3: Endings and Aftermaths, 2024
The fall of Saigon marked the end of the Vietnam War as well as the most dramatic turning point i... more The fall of Saigon marked the end of the Vietnam War as well as the most dramatic turning point in the history of the Vietnamese diaspora. From the mid 1970s and the early 1990s, tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees were resettled in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. Their lives were defined by concurrent and overlapping experiences of national loss, family separation, and difficulties among their loved ones in Vietnam amidst their own survival and adaptation in the new societies. They constructed their exilic identity through a host of media and built exilic communities through internal migration. Starting in the late 1980s, legal migration led tens of thousands of other Vietnamese to Little Saigon communities. In turn, they have enlarged the economic and political prowess of those communities, and helped to shift the collective experience from an exilic identity to a transnational identity.
Rising Asia Journal, 2024
The fall of Saigon marked an abrupt loss of a state and national identity for tens of thousands o... more The fall of Saigon marked an abrupt loss of a state and national identity for tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees. As they faced an exilic and diasporic existence in the United States they wrote, performed, and recorded a substantial amount of music. Much of this music reflected
Rising Asia Journal, 2024
FIFTY YEARS SINCE NATIONAL REUNIFICATION And the End of the Vietnam War wenty-seven years after t... more FIFTY YEARS SINCE NATIONAL REUNIFICATION And the End of the Vietnam War wenty-seven years after the end of the Vietnam War, Trần Quang Hải (1944-2021), an ethnomusicologist and active performer of traditional music in the postwar diaspora, published an article in an Australian-Vietnamese publication about modern Vietnamese popular music. Focusing on Western-style popular music rather than traditional Vietnamese music that he was known for, the author divided the history of modern Vietnamese music into the following eras.
Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 2022
Scholarship about Vietnamese Catholicism has long been contentious and controversial. Until recen... more Scholarship about Vietnamese Catholicism has long been contentious and controversial. Until recently, the bulk of this scholarship focused on the evangelization of European missionaries, the persecution of missionaries and native Catholics by precolonial Vietnamese dynasties, and the often-close relationships between missionaries and French colonial author
Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 2022
Marian devotionalism was the most popular faith practice among twentieth-century Vietnamese Catho... more Marian devotionalism was the most popular faith practice among twentieth-century Vietnamese Catholics. Yet its contents were not uniform but reflected shifting realities of church history and Vietnamese history. In particular, the period 1940–1975 witnessed a monumental movement that associated Marianism with anticommunist nationalism among many Vietnamese Catholics. This development came from a combination of several interlocking factors, some global and some local. The development indeed reflects a pattern of interactions between the global and the local in the history of Vietnamese Marianism. It further illustrates the agency of Vietnamese Catholics, who welcomed ideas and beliefs from the global church yet also actively shaped them to further the destiny of their national church.
The Republic of Vietnam, 1955-1975: Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building, 2019
He has also edited the following volumes for the Association of Core Texts and Courses: Tradition... more He has also edited the following volumes for the Association of Core Texts and Courses: Tradition and Renewal: Continuity and Change in Core and Liberal Arts Programs (forthcoming); and (with Daniel Nuckols) Bridging Divides, Crossing Borders, Community Building: The Human Voice in Core Texts and the Liberal Arts (forthcoming). Since the end of the Vietnam War, many former government officials, military officers, and prominent cultural figures from the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) have published memoirs. Researchers have exploited some of these memoirs, especially those in English such as In the Jaws of History by Bùi Diễm, the former ambassador to Washington. In the diaspora, and to a lesser extent, there have been many more Vietnamese-language memoirs targeted at Vietnamese readers. An example comes from a contributor to this collection: the two-volume memoir by Vũ Quốc Thúc. For linguistic and other reasons, however, only a small number of scholars and researchers have used these memoirs. There are several problems among these memoirs, especially those written by political and military figures. They include the strong intention of the authors, stated or otherwise, to justify their action in the past. Rather common among people on the losing side after a long and complex armed conflict, the memoirists tend to absolve themselves from contributing to major problems during the war and the eventual demise of South Vietnam. They instead place the blame for those problems on the communists, the Americans, and other noncommunist South Vietnamese, including the RVN leadership at the top. Having Vietnamese readers in mind, the memoirists also tend to affirm and assert their personal virtues such as righteousness and
The Vietnamese Diaspora in a Transnational Context: Contested Spaces, Contested Narratives, 2022
In May 2000, the ethnic periodical Việt Báo [Vietnamese Daily], also known as Việt Báo Daily News... more In May 2000, the ethnic periodical Việt Báo [Vietnamese Daily], also known as Việt Báo Daily News, announced that it was beginning an essay contest called Viết Về Nước Mỹ: Writing on America. Founded in the early 1990s and based in Westminster, California, the site of the largest Little Saigon in the US, the daily announced that this contest would carry prizes totalling $10,000 in cash plus items worth another $10,000.1 The requirement for entering the contest was two to five pages of recollection or reflection, which could be typewritten or 'handwritten on single-side' pieces of paper.2 The announcement stated that 'writing on America' was 'simply a general theme' and that writers were free to choose what they'd include in their essay, 'as long as [the topic] is related to the United States'. Writers were asked to submit five lines of biographical details. Finally, selected entries were to be published in the print or online edition of the daily, or both. Some of the published essays would be further chosen for a special collection in book form. Any profit from the book sale would be used as part of the award money for the next contest.3 Two days after the announcement, Việt Báo received its first entry from an eighty-nine-year-old man who had migrated to the US in 1988 through the Orderly Departure Program (VVNM, 2000, 28). Another 323 entries followed during the first three months; that number had risen to over 800 three months later. The submissions vary in topic and emphasis. Some are descriptive, about one or two episodes, while others articulate more general thoughts and feelings about the immigrant experience. Many are short and amount to vignettes or sketches, but some are longer and more detailed. About a quarter of these essays were selected for publication in the paper's new column also called 'Writing on America'. For inclusion in the first volume, ninety-seven pieces from ninety different writers were chosen from the initial 324 entries (VVNM, 2000, p. 6). Reflecting eager reception to the contest, the collection was published in November 2000 rather than in 2001, as originally planned. Hard copies quickly sold out and the collection was reprinted three times in the next five years, while new volumes were also published. In addition to these annual paperback collections, Việt Báo published a hardcover volume of the 'best of
Rising Asia Journal, 2021
The sight of the South Vietnamese flag in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 has aroused curiosity... more The sight of the South Vietnamese flag in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021 has aroused curiosity and criticism. Missing in the commentaries, however, is the multiplicity of its symbolism to Vietnamese Americans who had come to the United States as refugees or immigrants. Although its visual symbolism is forever tied to the history of the former Republic of Vietnam, its underlying meaning has changed to reflect the experience of Vietnamese after the fall of Saigon, not before.
U.S. Catholic Historian, 2019
American Catholic Studies, 2019
Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 2016
This dissertation addresses the subject of noncommunist political and cultural ideology in urban ... more This dissertation addresses the subject of noncommunist political and cultural ideology in urban South Vietnam during 1950-1975. It contributes to the historiography of the Vietnam War, specifically on the long-neglected Republic of Vietnam (RVN) that has received greater attention in the last decade. It makes the argument that the postcolonial ideological vision of most urban South Vietnamese diverged greatly from that of the Vietnamese communist revolutionaries. This vision explains for the puzzling question on why the communist revolutionaries were far more effective in winning the minds and hearts of Vietnamese in countryside than in cities. At the same time, this vision was complicated by the uneasy relationship with the Americans.
The dissertation examines four aspects in particular. First is the construction of anticommunism: Although influenced by Cold War bipolarity, anticommunism in urban South Vietnam was shaped initially and primarily by earlier differences about modernity and post-colonialism. It was intensified through intra-Vietnamese experiences of the First Indochina War.
The second aspect is the promotion of individualism. Instead of the socialist person as advocated by communist revolutionaries, urban South Vietnamese promoted a petit bourgeois vision of the postcolonial person. Much of the sources for this promotion came from the West, especially France and the U.S. But it was left to urban South Vietnamese writers to interpret and promote what this person ought to be.
The third one concerns the development of nationalism. Urban South Vietnam continued to uphold the views of nationalism developed during late colonialism, such as the elevation of national heroes and the essentialization of Vietnamese civilization. Noncommunist South Vietnamese urbanites were influenced by ethnic nationalism, although they also developed the tendency to look towards other newly independent nations for nationalistic inspiration and ideas about their own postcolonial nation.
The last aspect has to do with the relationship with Americans: The views of urban South Vietnamese on the U.S. were generally positive during the early years of the RVN. But there was also wariness that burst into resentment and anti-Americanism after Washington Americanized the war in 1965. The dissertation looks into two very different urban groups in order to extract the variety of sources about anti-Americanism.
Book Reviews by Tuan Hoang
Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2022
Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese Buddhists who resettled in the Gulf South have gathe... more Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese Buddhists who resettled in the Gulf South have gathered for worship in rented apartments, mobile homes, converted garages, vacant offices, fishing camps, even vacant lots. They have also raised funds to build a number of temples, especially during the 2000s, in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. In the process, Vietnamese refugees and immigrants have built an indelible Buddhist presence in a region that previously knew little about this religion. How this presence came to be and what it meant in practice for the Vietnamese form the backbone of this important monograph by the anthropologist Allison Truitt.
Journal of Asian Studies, 2021
While an investigation was one thing, a mass execution was quite another. To explain it, Clulow p... more While an investigation was one thing, a mass execution was quite another. To explain it, Clulow points to a last-minute change in leadership. The governor, Herman Van Speult, was a veteran administrator. Yet Shichizo's testimony so dismayed him that he left the investigation and trial to Isaaq de Bruyn, the chief legal officer. In the most chilling chapter of the book, Clulow follows de Bruyn in his daily round of tortures. Although De Bruyn projected confidence, he soon proved shockingly ignorant of Dutch law and VOC regulations. He ignored both the checks against wholesale torture and the standard procedure of preparing written questions and recording the prisoners' answers. Above all, his prisoners were denied a chance to validate their confessions after recovering from waterboarding. Poignant indeed were the statements from two Englishmen who used a book and on the back of a letter to protest their cruel treatment and innocence. In the end, the Dutch officials hesitated to execute the Englishmen, knowing full well that the news would strain and possibly rupture the Anglo-Dutch alliance. Van Speult toyed with sending the prisoners to Batavia, where the case could be reviewed. But in the end, mounting anxieties about these interconnected uprisings overcame his reservations, and the prisoners were beheaded.
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Papers by Tuan Hoang
The dissertation examines four aspects in particular. First is the construction of anticommunism: Although influenced by Cold War bipolarity, anticommunism in urban South Vietnam was shaped initially and primarily by earlier differences about modernity and post-colonialism. It was intensified through intra-Vietnamese experiences of the First Indochina War.
The second aspect is the promotion of individualism. Instead of the socialist person as advocated by communist revolutionaries, urban South Vietnamese promoted a petit bourgeois vision of the postcolonial person. Much of the sources for this promotion came from the West, especially France and the U.S. But it was left to urban South Vietnamese writers to interpret and promote what this person ought to be.
The third one concerns the development of nationalism. Urban South Vietnam continued to uphold the views of nationalism developed during late colonialism, such as the elevation of national heroes and the essentialization of Vietnamese civilization. Noncommunist South Vietnamese urbanites were influenced by ethnic nationalism, although they also developed the tendency to look towards other newly independent nations for nationalistic inspiration and ideas about their own postcolonial nation.
The last aspect has to do with the relationship with Americans: The views of urban South Vietnamese on the U.S. were generally positive during the early years of the RVN. But there was also wariness that burst into resentment and anti-Americanism after Washington Americanized the war in 1965. The dissertation looks into two very different urban groups in order to extract the variety of sources about anti-Americanism.
Book Reviews by Tuan Hoang
The dissertation examines four aspects in particular. First is the construction of anticommunism: Although influenced by Cold War bipolarity, anticommunism in urban South Vietnam was shaped initially and primarily by earlier differences about modernity and post-colonialism. It was intensified through intra-Vietnamese experiences of the First Indochina War.
The second aspect is the promotion of individualism. Instead of the socialist person as advocated by communist revolutionaries, urban South Vietnamese promoted a petit bourgeois vision of the postcolonial person. Much of the sources for this promotion came from the West, especially France and the U.S. But it was left to urban South Vietnamese writers to interpret and promote what this person ought to be.
The third one concerns the development of nationalism. Urban South Vietnam continued to uphold the views of nationalism developed during late colonialism, such as the elevation of national heroes and the essentialization of Vietnamese civilization. Noncommunist South Vietnamese urbanites were influenced by ethnic nationalism, although they also developed the tendency to look towards other newly independent nations for nationalistic inspiration and ideas about their own postcolonial nation.
The last aspect has to do with the relationship with Americans: The views of urban South Vietnamese on the U.S. were generally positive during the early years of the RVN. But there was also wariness that burst into resentment and anti-Americanism after Washington Americanized the war in 1965. The dissertation looks into two very different urban groups in order to extract the variety of sources about anti-Americanism.