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UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Visible Invisibility: Case of the Indians in Vietnam Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8qx4h546 Author Pham, Chi P. Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Visible Invisibility: Case of the Indians in Vietnam A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Chi P. Pham June 2016 Dissertation Committee: Prof. Dr. Hendrik Maier,Committee Co-Chairperson Prof. Dr. Christina Schwenkel, Committee Co-Chairperson Prof. Dr. Mariam B. Lam Prof. Dr. David Biggs The Dissertation of Chi P. Pham is approved ------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- Committee Co-Chairperson ------------------------------------------- Committee Co-Chairperson University of California, Riverside AKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation received financial assistances from the Graduate Division and Center for Ideas and Society (University of California, Riverside, United States), Institute for Humane Studies (George Mason University, United States), Group of Vietnam Studies (United States), and École française d'Extrême-Orient (France). This dissertation is the product of research conducted at libraries and archives in Vietnam: National Archive Center 1, 2 and 3; Archive Centers of Hanoi People’s Committee and Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee; Center of Cinema Studies and Archive, National Library, General Library, Social Science Library, Library of Vietnam Institute of Literature, and Military Library. The dissertation’s author is in debt to a number of individual researchers, officials, writers, and Indian descendants in Vietnam, India and England. However, in the framework of this dissertation, I can only mention professors from the University of California, Riverside with great gratitude; they are David Biggs, Mariam B. Lam, Christina Schwenkel and Hendrik Maier. iii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Visible Invisibility: Case of the Indians in Vietnam by Chi P. Pham Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature University of Calfornia, Riverside, June 2016 Prof. Dr. Hendrik Maier, Committee Co-Chairperson Prof. Dr. Christina Schwenkel, Committee Co-Chairperson The “Indians” include people, who are (descendants of) those who, since the second half of the nineteenth century, migrated from French-British India to then-Indochina- Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Although the Indians have been in Vietnam for generations and have participated in economic and political revolutions of Vietnam, they have always been perceived by ethnic Vietnamese as "kẻ hút máu" [bloodsucking beings] -- unwelcome migrants who are materialistic, exploitatory and most of all foreign. Many Indians have become Vietnamese citizens; arguably, they do not belong to any categorized ethnic groups of Vietnam. This dissertation assumes the virtual invisibility of the Indians in Vietnamese writing and society originates in the way Vietnamese nation-makers have made these persons visible in the wake of the formulaic metaphor "bloodsucking Indians" and the quest for national sovereignty and prosperity since the colonial time. The metaphor refers to the imagined association of the Indians with colonialism and capitalism – identified as "non- socialist" and "non-hegemonic" state structures of Vietnam. The dissertation suggests a iv complex view on colonial legacies in Vietnam: Vietnamese nation-makers retain the metaphor in attempts to retain the overriding socialist and independent goal of historically differing Vietnamese nationalisms and the concurrent invisibility of the Indians; as such, the remains of colonial knowledge are the strategic choice of Vietnamese nation-makers. Moreover, in making visible the Indians by presenting how they have been made invisible, the dissertation critically addresses current debates about postcolonial scholarship and the Others' visibility and audibility and about complex associations of literary studies, diaspora studies and ethnic studies with nationalism. The choice of Vietnamese writing as the primary source of this dissertation stems from the scholarship on the performativity of language and the Vietnamese traditional belief in writing as a sharp weapon in national and class struggles. Interview is also a source essential in examining material impacts of the metaphor of bloodsucking Indians in Vietnamese nation-building. The dissertation develops into seven chapters, analytically centering on the formation and continuation of metaphoric associations of the Indians with capitalism and colonialism, the main causes of the virtual invisibility of these people in Vietnamese writing and society. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1 Categorization of “Indians”in Colonial and Postcolonial Vietnam 1. Categorization of “Ấndians” in Colonial Vietnam ……………………………15 2. Categorization of “Ấndian” and Postcolonial Nation-Building……………….34 Chapter 2 Constructing Enemies of National, Democratic Revolutions: Formation of Blood Sucking “Chàvà”, “Sét ty” and “Tây Đen” as Metaphors of Capitalists and Colonialists 1. Constructing a Target of Reformist Anticolonialism: Modern and Foreign “Chà và,” “Sét ty” and “Tây en”……………………………………………58 2. Constructing Enemies of National and Class Struggles: Formation of Greedy Bloodsucking “Chà và,” “Tây en” and “Sét ty” as Metaphors of Feudal Landlords and Colonial Capitalists ………………………………… ………..83 Chapter 3 Continuing Class and National Struggles: Bloodsucking "Sét-ty" and "Chà gác dan” Metaphors in Writing of South Vietnam 1. Bloodsucking “sét-ty”: Continuing “Class Struggles”………………………..107 vi 2. Ấndian Guardian Characters: Struggles against the U.S.’s New Form of Colonialism……………………………………………………………………….126 Chapter 4 Constructing a Socialist Figure of Vietnam: “Vô sn hóa” (Proletarianizing) the Indians 1. The Indians, Old and New, in Vietnamese Socialist Realist Writing (1954- 1975)......................................................................................................152 2. "Vô sn hóa" (Proletarianizing) "Capitalist Ấndians:” Ấndians as thợ in New Vietnamese Society …………………………………………………………170 Chapter 5 The Nation and Images of Indian Diaspora in Post-1975 Vietnamese Writing: Dead, Voiceless and Haunting Remains 1. Becoming Beloved Remains of a Lost Nation: Unreal Images of the Indians……..…………………………………………..……………… …194 2. Becoming Hateful Vestiges of Decayed Colonialism vs. Patriotic Heroes of the Revolution: Dead, Voiceless Images of the Indians………………… 207 3. Remains of Dead Indians in Present-day Vietnamese Writing: Echoing Images of Indian Bloodsuckers and the Quest of Nation-Building..……219 vii Chapter 6 The Rise of “n kiều” (Overseas Indians) in Vietnamese Historiography: Haunting Colonialism and Uncategorized Indian Descendants 1. Rise of “n kiều” (Overseas Indians) in Contemporary Vietnamese Writing and the Socialist, Independent Nation-Building in Reform Era…………………………………………………………………….. ….231 2. Absence of Uncategorized Indian Descendants in Contemporary Vietnamese Writing and New Categorization of “Ấndians” ……………..244 3. Ghost of Bloodsucking Entities, Uncategorized Indian Descendants, and Postcolonial Nationalism……………………………………………… …265 Chapter 7 Disappearing Indians: The Making of Indian Food and Vietnamese Nationalism 1 Constructing Colonial Association of the Indians’ Food Practices………………………………………………………………………279 2 Overthrowing Colonial Foods……………………………………………….295 3 Vanishing Uncategorized Indians………..………………………………… 308 Afterword …………………………………………………………… …………317 Bibliography…………………………….…………………………………….....329 viii INTRODUCTION Theă“Indians”,ăaăsmallăandămarginalizedăgroupăinăVietnam,ăincludeăpeopleăwhoăareă (descendants of) those who, since the second half of the nineteenth century, migrated from French-British India to then-Indochina- Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Although the Indian population has been in Vietnam for generations and has participated in the economic and political revolutions of Vietnam, they have usually been perceived very negatively by ethnic Vietnamese as "kẻ hút máu" [bloodsucking beings] -- unwelcome migrants who are materialistic, exploitative, and most of all, foreign. Many Indians have become Vietnamese citizens; arguably, they do not belong to any categorized ethnic group in Vietnam. To be precise, ethnic Indians have not been categorized as one of the ethnic minorities since the socialist Vietnamese government's systemizations of the "ethnic composition of Vietnam," initiated in 1958. They do not fit within the term "Vietnamese" that is used in the expression "fifty-four Vietnamese nationalities” (54 dân tộc Việt Nam). Members of the fifty- four ethnic groups, as described in the portal of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, share common blood ancestors. Accordingly, all ethnic minorities are counted as "younger brothers" of ethnic King, the oldest brother, in the "brotherhood of fifty-fourănationalities"ăină“theănationallyăextendedăVietnameseă family"ă(ại gia ìnhăcácădânătộc Việt Nam). As the myth suggests, they are "descendants of LạcăLongăQuânăandăÂuăCơ,ăhatchingăoutăofăaăhundredăeggs, half of them following their mother to the mountains, the other half accompanying their father to the sea" (CommitteeăforăEthnicăMinorityăAffairs’ăPortal). This criterion of family