Reproducing Vietnam: Television and National Imagination in the Post-Reform Era Giang Thu Nguyen BA Vietnam National University, MA Vietnam National University A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2016 School of Communication and Arts Abstract This thesis investigates the relationship between television and the national imagination in Vietnam after the 1986 Reform. Being a distinctive cultural product of the post-Reform era, television serves as an enabling site to understand how nationalist practices in Vietnam, once heavily constrained by warfare and socialist politics, have evolved and changed in the new era of peace, marketization and globalisation. I draw on the Foucauldian framework of governmentality to analyse television as a diverse set of technologies of power, with discourses, genres and practices that significantly involve and alter the governing of national subjects. Here the Vietnamese nation is understood not as a homogenous entity, but rather as plural and changing forms of cultural government enabled by the articulations of multiple realities, each centred on the regulating role of television.
The key concerns of this thesis are thus the multiplicity, rupture and the limits of nationalist practices in Vietnam as affected by the recent development of television. Using a combination of archival research, textual analysis and semi-structured interviews, I examine the various contexts, texts and actors of post-Reform television to delineate different patterns of national formation. I trace the historical trajectory of Vietnamese television from being a rare cultural activity before the Reform to becoming an important part of everyday post-Reform practice. In the context of this historical background, I investigate three major case studies of how selected Vietnamese television programs have intervened in the process of national formation.
The first compares two popular television dramas, Hanoian (“Người Hà Nội”) and The City Stories (“Chuyện Phố Phường”), to demonstrate how post-Reform television dramas enable different ways of remembering the national past, leading to the pluralisation of a sense of national belonging, with each version established within a distinctive setting of collective memory. The second case study examines Contemporaries (“Người Đương Thời”), one of the most famous talk shows on Vietnamese television. The direct connection made between personal success and national pride in this talk show demonstrates how the driving force of nationalism in post-Reform Vietnam is no longer a political duty, as seen in the previous socialist era, but rather a market impulse whereby each individual is treated as an active entrepreneur in changing a poor country. The last case study turns to the generation of national belonging by affect through the examination of As if We Never Parted (“Như Chưa Hề Có Cuộc Chia Ly”), a prominent Vietnamese reality show that reunites missing people.
This show permits the voicing of ordinary people’s traumatic experience, and in so doing offers the prospect of healing and reconciliation. But because national traumas are reduced to a matter of affective experience, the healing effect enabled by this reality show is mainly achieved on the scale of intimate feeling, leaving the question of systemic inequality unanswered. ii The case studies demonstrate how the nation continues to be an important point of public reference, reflecting the rich legacy of nationalist movements in the recent history of Vietnam, particularly pre-Reform socialism. At the same time, the post-Reform concept of the nation has departed from the previous model of socialist ideology—a model that was imprinted by warfare, collectivism and state monopoly.
Nationalist discourses are increasingly being shaped by personalising and marketising forces. The nation persists in the new era of marketisation and globalisation, but only at the cost of the destabilisation of the old socialist hierarchy. Such destabilisation allows the local, the national and the global to be integrated in a much more flexible and contingent manner, in which Vietnamese television operates as both an important component and a productive organiser. This thesis contributes to the field of cultural studies by investigating the work of television as framed by the rare combination of late-socialist politics and neoliberal globalisation.
I also provide a historical analysis of the impressive development of Vietnamese television after the Reform, something that has been surprisingly absent in the field of Vietnamese studies. Theoretically, I adapt Michel Foucault’s insights about power to understand nationalism, a topic rarely touched by Foucault or his followers. My empirical engagement with Vietnamese television also allows me to reveal some mismatch between Foucault’s perspective of power and the specific reality of late- socialist nationalism. While Foucault emphasises the divergence between governmentality and sovereignty, this thesis demonstrates how these two modalities of power are often complicit with each other, and how sovereignty retains a greater significance than Foucault often acknowledges.
iii Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution.
I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate, I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis.
iv Publications during candidature Nguyen-Thu, Giang. “Nostalgia for the New Oldness: Vietnamese Television Dramas and National Belonging.” Media International Australia 153 (2014): 64–72. Nguyen-Thu, Giang “Personal Wealth, National Pride: Vietnamese Television and Commercial Nationalism.” Commercial Nationalism: Selling the Nation and Nationalizing the Sell. Zala Volcic and Mark Andrejevic.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Publications included in this thesis No publications included. Contributions by others to the thesis No contributions by others. Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None.
v Acknowledgements I wish to express my deep gratitude to my principal advisor, Maureen Burns, for her inspiring guidance. Without her astute comments, which were always delivered with warm and sincere encouragement, this thesis would not have been completed. Being an international student who uses English as a second language, I appreciate the way Maureen patiently guided me through my academic writing, which I know was extremely time-consuming. Maureen left the best impression of the Australian academy in my mind.
My acknowledgement is also due to my associate advisor, David Carter, for his thoughtful comments in the development and completion of this thesis. Each meeting with David was always full of useful instruction and stimulating discussion. Catherine Lawrence has been the most wonderful friend I could ever wish for in a foreign land. I thank her for being my patient and critical test audience in almost all of my oral presentations.
I appreciate her spending time with me over a cup of coffee talking about our families, our studies and our dreams. I thank her for her careful reading of many of my drafts and her charming gifts for my little daughter each time we met. Cathi’s unfailing encouragement throughout my PhD candidature made me feel a very lucky person. My thanks is also to Nguyễn Như Huy, a friend in Vietnam who encourged me to embark on this PhD journey.
Only through our endless discussion about Vietnamese society could I formulate the very first ideas about my project. Huy reminded me that the task of an academic person is to raise a local voice in ways that can build a bridge between Vietnam and the world. I thank Gay Hawkins for inviting me to many enlightening events organised by the Centre for Critical Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland. I appriciate her suggestions for useful readings and her instruction on many of my theoretical concerns.
I thank Zala Volcic for discussing various aspects of nationalism with me and for her invitation to contribute to a book edited by her and Mark Andrejevic. My sincere thanks are due to the interviewees who participated in this study: Nguyễn Danh Dũng, Đỗ Thanh Hải, Đỗ Minh Hoàng, Nguyễn Khải Hưng, Bùi Thị Lan Hương, Tạ Bích Loan, Trần Ngọc Minh, Phạm Thanh Phong, Tạ Minh Phương, Bùi Thu Thủy, Nguyễn Phạm Thu Uyên. All of my interviewees are busy television producers, so I truly appriciate their participation. I thank Bùi Thu Thủy, Nguyễn Thu Yến, Tạ Bích Loan, Bùi Thị Lan Hương for their efforts to help me connect with many producer interviewees, and for their help that allowed me to access the archive of Vietnam Television.
This study is fully funded by the Australia Awards Scholarship. I thank the Australian Government for its generousity and support throughout my PhD. In addition to receiving an Australian Awards vi Scholarship, I also acknowledge the receipt of the 2015 Dr John McCulloch Memorial Prize as part of the annual Work-in-Progress (WiP) Conference organised by the School of Communication and Arts at the University of Queensland. I thank the Shephard family for their wonderful hospitality and love.
All my love and gratitude is to Tuấn, my husband, who quit his job in Vietnam to stay for four years in Australia to support my study. His care, calmness and maturity provided me with homely security that reduced so much stress during the PhD journey. I also thank my daughter Hà, who patiently waited for me every day to finish my work before I turned to her for reading and chatting. I thank Khôi, my newborn son, for bringing so much joy and hope in the last year of my candidature.
I thank my father and my mother-in-law for their love from Vietnam. I dedicate this thesis to my mother, who passed away in the first month of my PhD journey. Her unconditional support for my study and my dream stays with me forever. July 2016 vii Keywords Vietnamese television, Vietnamese nationalism, Vietnamese Reform, Doi Moi, Foucault, governmentality, subjectivity.
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC) ANZSRC code: 200299, Cultural Studies not elsewhere classified, 80% ANZSRC code: 190204, Film and Television, 20% Fields of Research (FoR) Classification FoR code: 2002, Cultural Studies, 80% FoR code: 1902, Film, Television and Digital Media, 20% viii Contents Abstract. ii Declaration by author. vi A Note on Diacritics and Names. xi List of Vietnamese Television Programs Mentioned in the Thesis.
xiv Introduction: Nation, Television, Governmentality. 1 The Case Studies: Text and Context. 3 Everyday Nationhood: Beyond the Politicised Image of Vietnamese Nationalism. 5 Television and the Nation: Questioning the Prohibition Model.
10 Putting Things Together: From Discourse to Governmentality. 14 National Formation as Cultural Government. 22 Chapter 1 Television Dramas and the Return of Normalcy. 26 Pre-Reform Television: A History of Disruption and Scarcity.
26 The Rich Also Cry and the Return of Normalcy. 30 Television Dramas as Tactical Resistance. 34 Television Dramas, Everyday Life and the Dispersal of Power. 42 Television Dramas: Technology of Domination and Technology of the Self.
45 Chapter 2 Nostalgia for the New Oldness. 50 Early Vietnamese Television Dramas and the Charm of Nostalgia.