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Beyond 'propaganda': Images and the moral citizen in late-socialist Vietnam

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

Bayly, S 

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pThis article forges connections between two vibrant areas of current research within and beyond Asian studies: visual anthropology and the anthropology of morality and ethics. Its focus is on achieving moral citizenship as represented in Vietnam's visually spectacular capital, Hanoi, and on images as active and morally compelling, not mere reflections of the challenges of late-socialist marketization. The case of Vietnam compares intriguingly with other contexts where visuality has been fruitfully explored, including India and post-socialist Eurasia. The question asked is how images, both personal and official, can work either to provide or deny the viewer a quality of moral agency which they feel to be their due. The answer is found in the intertwining of silence and speech in relation to images. This includes what is said and unsaid in regard to public iconography, including memorial statuary and state message posters. It is proposed that the visuality of the urban street space is a continuum involving significant interaction with the intimacies of home and family image use. The article also seeks to add to our methodological ideas about treating fieldwork photographs as a basis for interaction with interlocutors, hence as active research tools rather than mere adjuncts to observation and analysis.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

44 Human Society, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 36 Creative Arts and Writing, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour

Journal Title

Modern Asian Studies

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0026-749X
1469-8099

Volume Title

54

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J00202X/1)
British Academy (SG163079)
Fieldwork was funded by the British Academy (Grant Ref. SG163079). I also gratefully acknowledge past support under ESRC award RES-000-22-4632 for a joint project with Prof. Long on ‘The Social Life of Achievement in Indonesia and Vietnam,’ and prior awards from the Cambridge University Evans Fund and CHRG scheme, and the British Academy/ASEASUK.