The future of anthropological cinema—A modest polemic

This paper uses photo‐elicitation to study the relationship between two sub‐populations of Vietnamese refugees; the highly entrepreneurial Chinese‐Vietnamese and the more numerous ethnic Vietnamese.

Drawing from in‐depth interviews based upon photographs of Vietnamese and Chinese‐Vietnamese refugees, the project seeks to find if and how refugees can visually determine a person's ethnicity, the traits respondents associate with either of the two sub‐population, and if younger, Americanized refugees understand ethnic boundaries differently than the older, Vietnam‐oriented generation.

Result indicate that the Chinese‐Vietnamese and ethnic Vietnamese generally can determine the ethnicity of persons shown, that their characterizations of both themselves and the “other” group are fairly consistent, and that ethnic boundaries appear to be of diminishing importance with the passage of time in the U.S.     

Songs of Our Spirits: Possession and Historical Imagination among the Cham in Cambodia

The currently flourishing spirit possession cult among a group of Cham in Cambodia has multiple cultural meanings. On the most explicit level, the ceremonies aim at healing a suffering person whose condition medical treatment has proved insufficient to cure. But since the state of health or illness is intimately connected to the state of the person's primary social relations, both the 'patient' and his or her close kin are all symbolically purified from evil in the course of the ritual proceedings. The mediums are possessed by spirits of members of the royal court of the historical Champa kingdom. Through the representations of the semi-mythical past of Champa, more specifically its royalty and court culture, the possession cult also tells us that healing is a question of bringing present-day Cham into concordance with their ethnic origins, and a question of symbolically reunifying ethnicity and lost national autonomy. It is suggested that the historical imagination displayed in the ceremonies addresses not only the ancient military defeats of the Cham by the Vietnamese, but also the people's more recent sufferings under the Khmer Rouge, and that the cult provides an arena for coming to terms with both ancient and recent experiences of victimisation as well as complicity, suffering as well as guilt, and for expressing ethnic consciousness and pride.     

The Role of Premigration Status in the Acculturation of Chinese–Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans

Drawing from fifty in‐depth interviews, this research examines the role of existing parental language knowledge on the ethnic identity negotiation of two ethnically distinct children of immigrant groups—Vietnamese and Chinese–Vietnamese—whose families have emigrated from Vietnam to the Southern California region of the United States. While previous research focused primarily on the influence of premigration status on first‐generation immigrants, this article considers how a central aspect of premigration status (intranational ethnicity) applies specifically to the children of first generation immigrants. By taking the premigration approach of comparing the experiences of different ancestral‐origin groups from a single nation (the intranational ethnicity perspective), this analysis suggests that a family's premigration ethnic status shapes the 1.5 and second‐generation's ethnic self‐identification choices through the mediation of parental language knowledge. Specifically, for the children of immigrants with twice‐minority status (Chinese–Vietnamese Americans), parental language knowledge serves as an easy ethnic identity default during these children's early self‐identification process.     

Vietnamisation of Southern Vietnam during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

From the third decade of the nineteenth century, the central court of the Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam implemented an ambitious ethnic programme in southern Vietnam, where diverse ethnic groups had co-existed. Under this policy, Khmer, Chinese and other ethnic groups of southern Vietnam were forced to assimilate into the Vietnamese. They had to learn Vietnamese language, dress in Vietnamese style, and follow Vietnamese ways of life. Non-Vietnamese cults such as those symbolised in pagodas, shrines, and statues were also targets of the assimilation policies. Chinese settlers in this region experienced severe discrimination from the central court, forcing them to be reborn as Vietnamese. Vietnamese southerners, who had once been against the central court, willingly joined the vanguard of Vietnamising other ethnic groups. Southern Vietnam, which had previously been ethnically heterogeneous with about 30-35 per cent of non-Vietnamese areas and probably a similar proportion of non-Vietnamese people to the total southern population, began to be actively Vietnamised from this period. This policy, in fact, resulted in ethnic segregation and intense clashes between the two groups: Vietnamese and Non-Vietnamese. On the other hand, this process was an important motivation for Vietnamese southerners to strengthen their affiliation to the king in Hue.     

‘Vietnam is my country land,China is my hometown’: Chinese communities in transition in the south of Vietnam

Studies of Southeast Asian Chinese are voluminous; yet, those about the Chinese in Vietnam are comparatively few. This article provides an updated account of the Chinese Vietnamese with focuses on the Chinese associations in the South of Vietnam and the shifting Chinese identity. Many have discussed the Chinese Vietnamese who fled Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s, however, little is known about the plights of the Chinese inside Vietnam during those decades. This article elaborates on their situations in the post-unification decade in Ho Chi Minh City and the subsequent changes after the doi moi reforms in the 1990s. It will show how a liberalized economy and accommodative ethnic policies have resulted in a more proactive relationship between the Chinese minority and the Vietnamese society, which consequentially led to changes in the relationship between the Chinese in Vietnam and China.     

Chinese,Japanese or ‘Oriental’?: Vietnamese-passing in ‘super-diverse’ London

The young British-born Vietnamese are a relatively invisible group in ‘super-diverse’ London who are often misidentified in their everyday encounters. Eluding more straightforward processes of ethnic or racial assignment, the young Vietnamese ‘pass’ in various different ways as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai or ‘Oriental’. Drawing upon primary interview data and participant observation, this article traces ‘passive’ and ‘deliberate’ forms of passing to highlight how intersecting processes of class, gender and place enable/engender different kinds of passing. It is argued that Vietnamese-passing challenges more ‘celebratory’ readings of (super-) diversity by concealing (and depoliticising) difference and erasing Vietnamese voices rather than allowing for their proliferation. It is suggested that practices of passing may become more common in super-diverse societies, as markers of visible difference become increasingly complex and less determinable, especially among newer, non-colonial migrant groups who are more ambiguously positioned within existing identity regimes.     

Other Attractions in Vietnam

This paper analyses the place of highland ethnic minorities in Vietnamese visual culture. For decades, artists have appropriated markers of ethnic difference in propaganda posters about national unity and progress. Vietnamese notions of ethnic groups draw on a historical trajectory that involves colonial racial classifications as well as the anti-colonial notion of 'the people'. The inclusion of ethnic minorities in official portrayals of the people draws on the historical conditions of nation building and an armed struggle for independence. Equally important, the visual appropriation of the markers of ethnic and national difference projects national progress through the mapping of backwardness on highland ethnic groups. The recent emergence of the same ethnic markers as an international tourist attraction draws on similar progressivist narratives, and the growing market in souvenirs recycles visual exercises in national unity as a just-discovered Other Vietnam.     

Leaving Care with “Cultural Baggage”: The Development of an Identity within a Transnational Space

Abstract

The transition from care is a critical phase for care leavers in general, and even more complex for those who have arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied minors and belong to an ethnic minority group. The aim of this article is to examine unaccompanied minors' experiences of leaving care, and to explore the experience in relation to perceptions about ethnicity and culture within a transnational space. Interviews were completed with 11 care leavers who had been received in Sweden as unaccompanied minors. The results show that these young people have to deal with multiple adjustments. Conquering obstacles as care leavers involves not only resolving general issues such as reintegration into society, but also adjustment to perceived and created views of how to become Swedish. From the young people's point of view, this seems to be necessary to make a successful transition from care into adulthood.     

Academic achievement of Vietnamese American adolescents: A community perspective

This article investigates influences on academic achievement among Vietnamese American high school students. Theorists have offered a variety of explanations for Asian American academic success, and characteristics of individual families have received particular attention in many of these explanations. Here, it is argued that the academic success of Vietnamese American students may be understood as the product of “social capital,” or tightly integrated sets of associations, within Vietnamese American communities. If this is the case, it is further argued, high levels of scholastic performance among Vietnamese American youth should be proportionate to their involvement with an ethnic community. The article uses data from a specific Vietnamese American community to find whether community involvement by adolescents and their families is in fact associated with academic achievement. Participation in an ethnic church, proportion of friends who are Vietnamese, and attendance at after‐school Vietnamese classes are used as indicators of adolescents’ community involvement. Membership in ethnic community organizations is used as an indicator of parental community involvement. Findings support the contention that the involvement of Vietnamese American adolescents and of their parents in the ethnic community are strong predictors of academic achievement and that the structure of individual families promotes scholastic performance primarily by promoting community involvement.     

I DANCE TO YOU: REFLECTIONS ON IRIGARAY'S I LOVE TO YOU IN PILATES AND VIRTUOSITY

This essay engages Luce Irigaray's view of love as carnal and relational labor, and her ethics of that love, as they emerge in her book I Love to You: Sketch of a Possible Felicity in History. Of particular interest is the 'to' in her formulation 'I love to you'. This 'to', the author argues, is deployed by, or reverberates between, dancing, observing and writing bodies. It is a technology of corporeal intimacy, a protocol for reading and re-imagining the love story of dance criticism. Two sites offer illustrations of opposing views of Irigaray's 'to'. The first, the Pilates studio, links 'to' to the metaphoric, sometimes proprietary intimacy of working with a practitioner body to body. The second, a decidedly 'anti-Irigaraian' love story, explores virtuosity as a romance between dancer and critic, one in which the latter is seduced by, and envelopes the former as 'you who will never be, yet must be mine'.     

World View and Abortion Beliefs: A Replication of Luker's Implicit Hypothesis*

According to Kristin Luker, at the heart of an individual person's beliefs concerning abortion lies a cherished, taçit, and essentially coherent world view. While Luker used the in-depth interview as a way to explore this otherwise unexamined phenomenon, this study attempts to replicate and analyze her implied theory by using a statistical methodology. By drawing on several variables found in 1990 General Social Survey data, Luker's conception of world view is operationalized in the data through both a linear regression model and a factor analysis model and compared with respondents’views on abortion. Both models are found to support Luker's hypothesis, as a clear association between world view and abortion beliefs is established.     

Assimilation,multiculturalism, hybridity: The dilemmas of the ethnic chinese in post-suharto Indonesia 1

The dominant discourse in accommodating the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia during Suharto's regime was one of assimilation, which forcefully aimed to absorb this minority into the national body. However, continuous official discrimination towards the Chinese placed them in a paradoxical position that made them an easy target of racial and class hostility. The May 1998 anti-Chinese riots proved the failure of the assmilationist policy. The process of democratization has given rise to a proliferation of identity politics in post-Suharto Indonesia. The policy of multiculturalism has been endorsed by Indonesia's current power holders as a preferred approach to rebuilding the nation, consistent with the national motto: ‘Unity in Diversity’. This paper critically considers the politics of multiculturalism and its efficacy in managing cultural diversity and differences. It deploys the concept of hybridity to describe as well as analyze the complex identity politics of the ethnic Chinese in contemporary Indonesia.     

If you look like me,I'll talk to you: a preliminary study of ethnic identity and inter‐ethnic interaction among women in Singapore

In Singapore, government policy is for equal but separate development of the four major ethnic groups—Chinese, Malay, Indian and other. In this study, I attempt to gain some preliminary views of how strongly women identify with their own ethnic group and how freely they are prepared to interact with people from other ethnic groups in non‐work‐related situations. I confine my study to females for two reasons. One is that traditional ethnic dress is common among females in Singapore but much rarer among men, and this makes a strong non‐verbal statement of identity. The second reason is to avoid differences between males and females, which I did not wish to pursue within the limits of this exploratory study. The findings of my pilot investigation indicate that intra‐ethnic spontaneous interaction is more likely to occur among women who display a strong national identity. Moreover, younger women, who were exposed during their school years to the government's recent drive to nurture ethnic and cultural differences, are less open to inter‐ethnic interaction than are women in their 30s and older, who grew up when the government drive was towards creating one common national identity for the people of Singapore.     

Negotiating Conflict through Music: The Case of the Tsonga Tingoma Ritual

Abstract

Tingoma is a three-day ritual conducted by Tsonga people to facilitate communication between the living and their Ancestor spirits, and to ensure that there is no disharmony between the beings in these two realms. Using a tingoma conducted for Eunice Maluleke as a case study, we argue that this ritual not only negotiates tension within an individual (body and spirit), and between an individual and his or her Ancestor spirits, but also functions as a site through which larger social and political tensions are addressed. Further, we propose that the structure of tingoma as it is practiced today inscribes and negotiates inter-ethnic tensions of the past. In the second part of this article we examine the ways in which tingoma has been affected by, and engages with, more recent power struggles and related identity politics, specifically those relating to the religious and political affiliations of people residing in South Africa's Limpopo province since the early 1980s.     

“The Scum of the Scum of the Scum”: Rose Romano's Search for Sisterhood

This article explores the interplay of ethnicity and sexuality in poet Rose Romano's work, especially as she engages in a complex, and, at times, highly debatable identity politics. In her poetry, Romano denounces the oppression she experiences as a lesbian, a Sicilian American, and even as an “olive” ethnic in the lesbian publishing community. Particularly interesting is her strained relationship with the multicultural lesbian community due to disagreements around the concept of race, and, consequently, of racial hierarchies. With her poetry, Rose Romano questioned all kinds of categorizations that do not take into account the complexities of her multi-faceted identity.     

Resettlement and Border Crossing: A Comparative Study on the Life and Ethnicity of Vietnamese in Australia and Japan

Abstract: This paper deals with the life world and ethnic identity of Vietnamese residents who entered and settled in Australia and Japan as refugees after the end of the Vietnam War. It focuses on how social and cultural conditions in the host countries and global influences affect the lives of overseas Vietnamese and consequently transform their ethnic identities. Through this comparative research study conducted in Australia and Japan, I have focussed on Vietnamese religion, social networks, perceptions of the homeland and the host country, notions of Vietnamese identity between generations, and images of Vietnamese in the media of the host country. I explore the features of each host society in accepting refugees and also the commonalities and differences in how the overseas Vietnamese construct their life world and ethnic identity. I also discuss the “location of Vietnamese identities” in Australia and Japan. I will also rethink the meaning of “settlement” and “crossing borders” related to the politics of Vietnamese identities that confirm the importance of investigating the effects of displacement on the life of the Vietnamese diaspora in contemporary world context.     

LIFTING THE SPIRITS OF THE NATION: BRITISH BOXERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE NATIONAL SPORTING HERO AT THE TIME OF THE NAPOLEONIC WARS

In September 2003 a leading British broadsheet Sunday newspaper ran a leader headed “This Sporting Life” and “Cheers for two heroes of our time,” in which it acknowledged the ability of two current, young sporting heroes to “inspire hope” and “to lift the spirits of the nation.” Nearly 200 years ago, Tom Cribb, a pugilist, was similarly described as a “hero” and his exploits were described as having “national” significance after he had defeated a black pugilist from the United States. This essay uses contemporary sources to examine the life of Tom Cribb and the public response to him, and asks whether he was the first British national sporting hero and what characteristics he may share with modern sporting heroes. The National Sporting Hero (NSH) does not necessarily come from the same ethnic group that makes him a hero, but once acquired, the status is likely to last well beyond the normal sporting career and may last for life. A NSH will have had success against a formidable opponent and provoked feelings in the general public that develop from interest to admiration, pride, gratitude, and eventually affection and will also garner public recognition beyond those who normally follow sport and a willingness of the public to overlook personal flaws. This supports Richard Holt's view that unlike heroes from other spheres whose genius makes them appear “special creatures,” sporting heroes are seen to be “more like us.” Perhaps they give us hope and lift our spirits because we see in them ourselves, not perhaps as we are, but as we would like to be.     

Intergenerational Experiences of Discrimination in Chinese American Families: Influences of Socialization and Stress

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the mechanisms by which Chinese American parents' experiences of discrimination influenced their adolescents' ethnicity‐related stressors (i.e., cultural misfit, discrimination, attitudes toward education). We focused on whether parents' ethnic‐racial socialization practices and perpetual foreigner stress moderated or mediated this relationship. Participants were 444 Chinese American families. Results indicated no evidence of moderation, but we observed support for mediation. Parental experiences of discrimination were associated with more ethnic‐racial socialization practices and greater parental perpetual foreigner stress. More ethnic‐racial socialization was related to greater cultural misfit in adolescents, whereas more perpetual foreigner stress was related to adolescents' poorer attitudes toward education and more reported discrimination. Relationships between mediators and outcomes were stronger for fathers than for mothers.     

Values on Paper,in the Head,and in Action: On Max Weber and Value Freedom Today

This article starts out with a summary of Weber's views on value freedom, by emphasizing: (1) that value freedom constitutes a special constellation of values; and (2) that value freedom makes it possible for the social scientist to theorize on the basis of new and more extensive knowledge than if she had simply stated her own values and focused the analysis around these. The latter point emerges most clearly in Weber's instructions for how a social scientist should proceed when carrying out an analysis of her own preferred social policy. After the section on Weber's views on value freedom, an attempt is made to update his views. This is done by arguing that the impact of values (and value freedom) differs, depending on where these can be found: on paper, in the head of the social scientist, or in her actions. “Actions,” in the context of value freedom, refer to the research process and especially to the element of theorizing. Value freedom helps to guide the research into new and fruitful directions and to steer it clear of propaganda.     

Moses and nation-building Zora Neale Hurston's Moses,Man of the Mountain and Edward Said's Freud and the Non-European

Abstract

This article examines the significance of the representation of Moses as an Egyptian in Zora Neale Hurston's Moses, Man of the Mountain and Edward Said's Freud and the Non-European. Pairing Hurston and Said continues Said's project of seeing authors 'contrapuntally', so exposing imperialism as a neglected, if submerged, context for Hurston's response to nationalism in Moses. I argue that Hurston's novel cannot be read as a straightforward critique of race-based nationalism. Although Moses is of a different ethnic group to the Hebrews he leads, Hurston's portrayal of his rule is haunted by imperialism, in which one ethnic group exploits another. In this sense, Moses, Man of the Mountain bears the signs and strains of her struggle against racialist thinking.