Beautiful Customs, Worthy Traditions: Changing State Discourse on the Role of Vietnamese Culture

Abstract

This paper focuses on the changes in official discourse over the past halfcentury regarding the role of Vietnamese traditional culture. After the Communist Party's consolidation of state power, a project of building a new culture was introduced practice, with the aim of encouraging the 'positive' aspects of Vietnamese tradition while eliminating its 'negative' features. Among other 'relics of feudalism and superstition', village festivals were targeted and remained banned from the agenda of village ritual practice until their powerful resurgence during the reform period. In this paper, I discuss the different arguments employed in Party discourse regarding Vietnamese festival traditions from the 1950s to the late '90s. In particular, seek to show how in the doi moi era, the social sciences have informed this discourse by treating festivals as a 'communal culture activity' which contributes to the construction of national identity.