Beyond ‘Propaganda’: Images and the moral citizen in late-socialist Vietnam

Abstract

This article forges connections between two vibrant areas of current research within and beyond Asian studies: visual anthropology and the anthropology of morality and ethics. Its focus is on achieving moral citizenship as represented in Vietnam's visually spectacular capital, Hanoi, and on images as active and morally compelling, not mere reflections of the challenges of late-socialist marketization. The case of Vietnam compares intriguingly with other contexts where visuality has been fruitfully explored, including India and post-socialist Eurasia. The question asked is how images, both personal and official, can work either to provide or deny the viewer a quality of moral agency which they feel to be their due. The answer is found in the intertwining of silence and speech in relation to images. This includes what is said and unsaid in regard to public iconography, including memorial statuary and state message posters. It is proposed that the visuality of the urban street space is a continuum involving significant interaction with the intimacies of home and family image use. The article also seeks to add to our methodological ideas about treating fieldwork photographs as a basis for interaction with interlocutors, hence as active research tools rather than mere adjuncts to observation and analysis.

When communist propaganda meets western public relations: Examining Vietnam’s government pandemic communication

“…Although authoritarian regimes can resort to tools of repression (i.e., censorship) to generate public compliance during a pandemic (Dien, 2021; Waldman, 2020), this does not mean that citizens will automatically and uncritically accept government regulations. Vietnamese people are well-known for not always complying with restrictions and regulations (Nguyen S, 2020); they are critical enough to identify and demonize propagandist content (Bayly, 2020; Dien, 2021; Nguyen-Thu, 2020).…”

“…Journalists assimilate self-censorship into their work to avoid harassment or monitoring (Mach and Nash, 2019;Nguyen-Thu, 2018;Thayer, 2014), by, for example, fudging the meaning of words or avoiding covering particularly perceived 'sensitive' or 'negative' issues (Marr, 1998). Ordinary citizens are particularly skillful at reading between the lines (Harms, 2016), spotting propaganda content, and rendering some official posters as fake and unwelcome (Bayly, 2020).…”

Rural Schooling and Good Life in Late Socialist Laos

“…Bayly's research (2020) on images and moral citizens with adults in Hanoi, Vietnam, sheds light on why it is so difficult to get to people's own understanding of state-produced images in contexts of late socialism-especially those used in school textbooks. According to Bayly, for her Hanoian respondents to admit that one is not clear about the meaning of lessons or images in moral education textbooks, or to point out any contradictions or alternative interpretations, is neither valued nor regarded as 'a sign of cleverness' (Bayly 2020(Bayly , 1582. Rather, it means the individual is at fault in the sense of 'I've failed to prepare properly and can't work out what I should have seen' (Bayly 2020(Bayly , 1583.…”

“…According to Bayly, for her Hanoian respondents to admit that one is not clear about the meaning of lessons or images in moral education textbooks, or to point out any contradictions or alternative interpretations, is neither valued nor regarded as 'a sign of cleverness' (Bayly 2020(Bayly , 1582. Rather, it means the individual is at fault in the sense of 'I've failed to prepare properly and can't work out what I should have seen' (Bayly 2020(Bayly , 1583. Therefore, in classroom spaces where the emphasis is on 'getting it right' , 'silence is a choice: a best option and an agentive one' (Bayly 2020(Bayly , 1582).…”

“…Rather, it means the individual is at fault in the sense of 'I've failed to prepare properly and can't work out what I should have seen' (Bayly 2020(Bayly , 1583. Therefore, in classroom spaces where the emphasis is on 'getting it right' , 'silence is a choice: a best option and an agentive one' (Bayly 2020(Bayly , 1582). Bayly's insights from Vietnam were reflected in our work with children in rural Laos.…”