March to the South - Nam Tien

Dear Giang

While I wait for your further reply, I have been intrigued by Viet Nam, ('nam' meaning south) as reference to being south of the middle kingdom - ie. China. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I am wondering if you could enlighten me a little more on this in relation to something i read by Oscar Salemink '(A) major part of the Vietnamese national narrative is the so-called Nam Tien, or March to the South, of the Kinh (Viet)' ['One country, many journeys' in 'Vietnam: Journeys of the Body, Mind, and Spirit', 2003]. I'd like to know more about this 'national narrative' which as far as I have thus read, is the 'story' used for the gradual movement south, of knowledge and power, when the Kinh gained independence from China, in the early 20th Century, and thus began their slow southward gain of conquest (for instance, their nineteenth century stronghold of certain power in Cambodia, Laos and Siam (Thailand).... a march that created great social divides between North and South Vietnam. Further reading I pulled from here: http://www.aseanfocus.com/publications/history_vietnam.html

This directional movement of knowledge and social assumption I am very interested in.

If I am to think about Vietnam today, i am struck by the local politics and divides between north and south Vietnam. Similar attitudes of social and cultural difference exist in China, between Shanghai and Beijing. Interestingly, both Shanghai and Saigon, were, at different periods and varying degrees, considered pearls of the Orient. These sites of ex-colonial power have now become associated with the engine rooms of commercial capital, while ideas of a so-called 'cultural' knowledge remains tied to the capital, to Beijing and Hanoi (both cities resting in the north). Not to get obsessed with geography here but I find this opens up some interesting analogies regarding the relationship between place, knowledge, liberalism and economy? In light of Vietnam's current financial woes, I am particularly keen to hear how ideas of 'knowledge' can be effectively created through cultural capital today in its heady push for market reform. How can artists, as participants in producing cultural capital, how can they contribute to changing/creating knowledge building systems? Be great to hear some artist proposals to this. I appreciate this is a hard space to tackle in Vietnam.... considering government control of information dissemination. Your comments? Anyone?

More later, so much more research required!
Zoe