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Making Families Across the Ethnic Divide: Khmer- Kinh Intermarriage in Vietnam

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Making Families Across the Ethnic Divide: Khmer- Kinh Intermarriage in Vietnam Making Families across the Ethnic Divide: Khmer- Kinh Intermarriage in Vietnam Lan Thai Huynh Phuong A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University November 2015 Department of Anthropology School of Culture, History and Language Australian National University ii Making Families across the Ethnic Divide: Khmer- Kinh Intermarriage in Vietnam Lan Thai Huynh Phuong A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University November 2015 Department of Anthropology School of Culture, History and Language Australian National University iii iv Statement of Originality To my best of my knowledge, except where otherwise noted, this thesis is entirely a result of my own research. Lan Thai Huynh Phuong November 2015 v Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents for their endless love and support. vi Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to many people who have patiently been with me on this long academic journey. My thesis could not be done without their constant encouragement and support. I am most grateful to Mr. Vo-Tong Anh and Mr. Ken Philips for their endless stimulation and support to my academic journey in Australia. Without their stimulation, pursuing PhD studies may still be in my dream. My greatest debt is to my main supervisor, Dr. Philip Taylor, for his bunch of rich, fruitful and insightful discussions and comments, endless support, and valuable advices throughout my PhD studies. It is hard to express my whole gratitude to Philip Taylor as he is an extremely generous and exceptionally kind supervisor. My special thanks are to his careful and patient reading on my drafts. I also would like to thank my supervisory panellists, Dr. Iwu Utomo, Professor Peter McDonald and Professor Kathryn Robinson for all their encouragement, invaluable suggestions and durable supports during my study in the Australian National University (ANU). I am also indebted to Philip Taylor for bringing me to Anthropology family, where I met many beloved and friendly scholars, staffs and other PhD scholars. Special thanks to Jo for her kind and useful helps with administration stuffs and great thanks to all academic staffs in the department of Anthropology, CHL for such a friendly and familial environment. Many thanks to fellow PhD scholars—Yen Le, Thu Le, Duy Thanh Vo, Udeni Appuhamilage, Xuan Dong, Viet Quan Ha, Erna Herawati, Liang Chen, Tiffany Cone, Andrey Damaledo, Visisya Pinthongvijayakul, Annie McCathy, Stella Hutagalung, Roger Casas Ruiz, Wahyuddin Halim and Geng Li, Gita, and Poonnatree for their friendship and supports over the years in the department. This thesis would not be possible without the willingness and generosity of my interlocutors. My sincere thanks are due to all of them for being tolerant to my repetitive visits and being so kind and generous in spending hours insightfully sharing their conjugal stories and experiences. In addition, I am very grateful to Australia Award Scholarship for their generous financial support for my PhD studies in Australia. My special thanks are also vii to Gina Abarquez—the manager of Australia Award Scholarship in ANU— for her endless supports and care during this long academic journey. My endless love to my husband and my beloved sons for always being with me, for all their love and endless support that undoubtedly helped me retain my sanity throughout hard times for my studies. My special thanks are to my sisters for their never-ending support and encouragement. I also would like to sincerely thank Ms. Diana Glazebrook for her kind help in editing my thesis. Finally, but by no means least important, I would like to express my thanks to all others whose names do not appear herein but who helped me to carry this thesis to full completion. viii Abstract This thesis investigates intermarriages between ethnic Khmer and Kinh people in a province of southern Vietnam. Khmer-Kinh interethnic marriage raises paradoxes, for the very possibility of such unions is sometimes questioned owing to the socio-economic gaps and assumed differences in cultural practices between these groups, their historical tension, and mutually unfavourable stereotypes. Nevertheless, this type of marriage is real and has been increasing in recent years. This thesis aims to explore the facilitating factors behind this type of marriage; how Khmer-Kinh couples experience their relationship with each- other and with their families; and how ethnic identity is transmitted to the children of such unions. It demonstrates that Khmer and Kinh couples engage in a dynamic process of negotiating multiple constraints and adapting to differences to make their marriages viable. This thesis draws upon in-depth interviews and observations from a field study undertaken by the author in 2012 in An Giang Province. Thirty-five Khmer-Kinh interethnic couples took part in the study that examined marriages in rural and urban areas as well as ethnically segregated and ethnically mixed settings. The participants were drawn from diverse socio- economic backgrounds and included couples made up of individuals of similar and dissimilar socio-economic standing. The findings highlight that geographical and socioeconomic disparities are significant barriers to Khmer-Kinh interethnic marriage. Historical tensions also have led to the development of pejorative stereotypes between the ethnic groups, which significantly impede the formation of such intimate unions. The findings unpack the complex factors and conditions facilitating the incidence of Khmer-Kinh interethnic marriage, highlighting the significance of modernization and development factors in bridging the geographical, social, cultural and psychological gaps between groups, and the role of new marriage markets and personal experiences in facilitating such conjugal unions. By examining couples’ relationship with each-other and with their families, I found two core factors—class disparity and cultural differences—account for many of the tensions ix and conflicts arising in their marital life. The findings also highlight the differential capacity of spouses and their families to cope with cultural differences. Educational level, residential location, ethnicity, gender expectations and practical utility were influential factors shaping the capacity of spouses to cope with the cultural differences encountered in their married lives. The study further highlights the dynamics and variation in the transmission of language, identity and heritage to the children in Khmer-Kinh families, finding that all interviewed couples supported the proposition that their children embrace both cultural identities and acquire multicultural capacity. Nevertheless, the findings show that such transmission to these mixed children is shaped not only by individual choices or familial preferences but also by several other factors including gender, socialization context and socio-economic factors. The thesis confirms that regardless of the socio-economic disparities, preconceptions and cultural differences between these groups, such unions are possible and viable in contemporary Vietnam. The study uncovers the sources of tension in their marriages and reveals that when conflicts do arise, most of the couples in this study make multiple negotiations and adaptations to make their relationship last. x Table of Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. vii Abstract ................................................................................................................................. ix List of Maps ........................................................................................................................ xiii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... xiv List of Tables........................................................................................................................ xv Chapter 1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Motivation of the Study ............................................................................................ 2 1.2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 6 1.2.1 Barriers to Interethnic Marriage .................................................................................... 6 1.2.2 Factors Facilitating Interethnic Marriage ...................................................................... 8 1.2.3 Living with Difference ................................................................................................ 11 1.2.4 Children’s identity ....................................................................................................... 15 1.3. Methodology ................................................................................................................. 20 1.3.1 Data Collection............................................................................................................ 20 1.3.2 Sampling ..................................................................................................................... 25 1.3.3 Field Sites .................................................................................................................... 28 1.4 Structure
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