Cultural politics of teaching and studying White Tai language in the northwest upland of Vietnam
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Abstract
Using ethnographic data collected during July 2007-July 2014 in the northwestern uplands of Vietnam, this paper discusses two issues. First, the dominant ideology of the Vietnamese state with respect to ethnic minority groups has been propagated to White Tai people through White Tai language teaching and studying, which is argued in this article as the dynamics of language politics. Second, the cultural politics of White Tai people in Mai Châu province, in the northwestern region has been determined during five periods of time: before and during French colonial time, nation building period, during socialism, the liberal market period up until the present. According to the field-based data, the White Tai are proud of being Vietnamese citizens, yet they do not want to be considered unequal due to the use of language. During this era of liberal economics, the Vietnamese state has taken a crucial role in reviving ethnic languages; however this effort is considered an attempt to control such sub-cultures by placing it under the state's focus. This process reduces the White Tai language to a “thing” through the reconstruction and promotion standardized Tai language. This amounts to the clever use of “Kinh-ization” which posits White Tai culture as being inferior to Black Tai culture, as well as to Vietnamese culture. However, the politics of teaching and studying White Tai discussed in this paper seeks not to resist the notion of nation-state and/or to accentuate cultural boundaries. Rather, it involves a process of negotiation to secure rights and dignity through the use of White Tai language in multilingual, and multicultural Vietnamese society.
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