Environmental and Resource Degradation Associated with Small‐Scale Enterprise Clusters in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam

The paper reports on an empirical study of the environmental and resource degradation observed in small‐scale handicraft clusters in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. Most entrepreneurs in these clusters face important challenges, including depletion of natural resources, linked to acute shortages of capital and land. Such issues are identified as the main cause of overcrowding, poor working conditions and extreme environmental degradation. The study also highlights some industrial ecology practices at the enterprise level, and assesses the role played by the government in providing incentives for enterprises to invest in new technology and pollution control. Drawing from the analysis of a questionnaire survey of 56 handicraft enterprises, the study identifies the major constraints they encounter in adopting new environmentally clean technologies and engaging in environmental management. Shortage of capital and lack of knowledge about the benefits of new technologies were viewed as the most important barriers, followed by shortage of skilled workers, poor market conditions and scarcity of land appropriate for industrial production.     

中国对日、韩、越三国科举的影响

China’s imperial examinations greatly influenced the East Asian world. Japan imitated it during the eighth to tenth centuries; its subjects include xiucai, mingjing, jinshi, mingfa, as well as medicine and acupuncture. Korean imperial examinations are the longest and most comprehensive ones among other East Asian countries. Vietnam was the last to abolish the imperial examinations. All three East Asian countries imitated China in their imperial examinations, which greatly raised their cultural levels. Translated by Yang Chunyan from Xueshu Yuekan 学术月刊 (Academic Monthly), 2006, (12): 136–142     

《拙公语录》的编者、版本、内容及文献价值--对域外一份鲜为人知的汉文史料的初步探讨

《拙公语录》由拙公和尚之弟子明行禅师将拙公和尚在越南宣讲佛法的法语和答问编集而成,主要载录拙公的生平及佛学思想,可能成书于1686年前后,是在国外发现的一本鲜为人知的珍贵汉文古籍。它对越南历史文化、中越文化交流史、越南华侨华人史、我国区域史的研究具有重要的参考价值。     

Nations-of-intent: from counterfactual history to counterfactual geography

The locations of international borders reflect political aspirations as well as power politics and attempts to bring state boundaries in line with nations. The expulsion of Singapore from Malaysia and the exclusion of the Philippines from the United States indicate the power of narrowly defined borders to govern national identity. The concept ‘nations-of-intent’ allows us to explore counterfactual borders as a way of examining how political aspirations translate into national borders. The paper explores three Asian cases – Malaysia, Mongolia and Vietnam – and makes reference to Indonesia in considering how different senses of what was possible and desirable in the context of decolonization generated different ideas about where borders should lie. This approach also allows us to interrogate losing forces retrospectively about the policies they would have followed within different border configurations.     

Reinhold Niebuhr and Richard John Neuhaus on Religion and Democracy in the United States

Abstract

Richard John Neuhaus, like Reinhold Niebuhr before him, understood the vital civic role that religion plays in democratic society. As pastors and public intellectuals, both men were committed to public or civil forms of religion that, at their best, could inform, inspire, or chasten American political thought and action. There are crucial differences, nevertheless–between Niebhur’s and Neuhaus’s historical contexts, theological outlooks, political positions, and attitudes toward the American project–that help to explain their distinctive legacies and different receptions within the academy. However much Neuhaus admired Niebuhr, these differences suggest why Neuhaus was not the Reinhold Niebuhr of his day.     

‘DOING FAMILY’

Drawing on a case study of married female migrants from two rural villages of Hung Yen province to Hanoi City, Vietnam, this paper investigates the implications of female migration on gender roles and relations within families. The paper shows that wives' migration changes gender roles and relations within the family. Being on the move, migrant wives become the main breadwinners while their husbands left behind take on the role of carers. The migrant wives acquire a stronger voice in family matters and a strong sense of pride, worthiness and earned respect, whereas their husbands experience a loss of power. However, these changing gender roles and relations rarely result in family fragmentations; instead, families are still being sustained as migrant wives ‘do family’. By ‘doing family’, they can exploit their increasing power in an acceptable manner, so that patriarchal family ideals are not openly confronted. This paper provides a more nuanced understanding of the implications of female migration on families, i.e. the simultaneity of the reproduction of and the change in gender roles and relations within families.     

在“同种”与他邦之间:杨成志对越南民俗的考察及其方法论启示

20世纪20年代末,杨成志赴滇开展民族调查,往返途中在越南停留月余,收集了不少关于越南的文字、实物与影像材料。此后他根据相关材料撰文对越南社会、历史与文化进行了总体性介绍,成为首位研究越南的中国人类学家。这不仅是中国人类学、民俗学的一笔学术积累,亦彰显出杨成志的家国情怀与其越南研究的方法论意义,迄今仍对中国人类学的海外研究深具借鉴价值。     

"特种战争"与中国"援越抗美"的初步酝酿

为了遏制共产主义在东南亚的扩张,维护美国的全球霸权,1961年5月,美国总统肯尼迪公然发动了对越南的“特种战争”。面对美国在“南大门”的战争挑衅,中国政府从无产阶级的国际主义和维护越南独立和统一的立场出发,在政治、经济、外交和军事等方面积极支持越南人民的抗美爱国斗争,并应越南党和政府的请求,开始了“援越抗美”的初步酝酿,最终确立了“美国走一步,中国走一步;美国出兵,中国也出兵”的基本原则和立场。     

Rubber plantations and their implications on gender roles and relations in northern uplands Vietnam

Abstract

In recent years, rubber plantations have been strongly promoted in the northern uplands of Vietnam–especially in the northwest, where it is an ill agro-ecological fit–with an aim to improve ethnic minority livelihoods and to modernize peasants by transforming them into rubber workers. A large area of land has been taken away from farmers to make way for rubber plantations. This land acquisition and agrarian transformation have impacted local people and their livelihoods in various ways. Drawing on ethnographic research, in combination with interviews with authorities and studying related documents, this article focuses on the gendered consequences of rubber plantation in northern uplands Vietnam. It argues that the process of becoming a rubber worker and adapting to the new way of living has indeed added new roles and responsibilities for women. At the same time, it has undermined men’s values and reshaped gender relations both within and outside the home.     

MICRO-CREDIT AND DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHERN VIETNAM

Geographical development economics as reflected in the recent report by World Bank (2009) Reshaping Economic Geography (henceforth WDR-2009) and Sachs' (2005) End of Poverty has placed geographical factors of distance and density at the core of economic development. However, development geography has largely moved beyond a paradigm of modernity. This article seeks to narrow the above disciplinary divide and suggests that explanations of distance and density are not irrelevant but will need to be better integrated to local knowledge, practices and power relations in development schemes which are valued by development geographers. The latter is examined in the context of micro-credit programmes in two lagging areas, Soc Son and Vinh Loc, in northern Vietnam. Drawing from interviews and surveys of 160 female participants, we show that micro-credit, WDR-2009 and Sachs' geographical variables significantly affect poverty levels. However, qualitative interviews also reveal that the effects of distance, density and micro-credit schemes are constituted differently in the two areas. Relative to their Vinh Loc counterparts, Soc Son's participants experience less distance and density problems but are confronted with greater vulnerability to coercive relations of rule. In contrast, the approach to rule in the more geographically distressed area of Vinh Loc is underscored by flexibility and compromise which seek to cultivate conditions that sustain local livelihoods.