Tan’s in Việt Nam!

My second return to Sapa did not exude the same shock and awe as it did the first time. The misty mountains, the meandering rivers, even the terraced hills did not command the same silent reverence as it once did (like a month ago). I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to consider such beauty to be “normal background scenery.”

On the other hand, this second visit to Sapa was not for tourism, but for research on ethnic minorities. I am not in this class, but I convinced the teacher that I would be useful as an interpreter for the language impaired. (Those who know me well know that my Vietnamese isn’t THAT great.)

Perhaps the most obvious sign in of change in Sapa is the slow, steady, encroachment of Vietnam’s most numerous ethnic group- the Kinh (ie, the “Vietnamese”). Even twenty years ago, Sapa was simply a sleepy town full of ethnic groups like the H’mong, the Zhao, and Tay. Each group has a vibrant culture and equally vibrant clothing to match their distinct languages. Some H’mong people understand more English than they do Vietnamese.

But as the years pass and the ethnic groups become more exposed to the Kinh and tourists, there is an inevitable process of “cultural homogeneity.” In real life terms, it means that the Kinh have recently begun a trend in coming to the nearby villages of Sapa, buying the best land, and treating the locals with contempt. These Kinh settlers usually set up a shop that sells the most basic necessities that the locals need, making the Kinh (for better or for worse) an indispensible part of contemporary Sapa society.

The Kinh dominate politics and they sit at the top of every socioeconomic situation. Coupled with their contempt for the minority cultures, there seems to be a vague pressure on the locals to become more Kinh and less Tay, Zhao, or H’mong. In fact, there seems to be a pervasive perception, even among the ethnic minorities that the ethnic groups with the most status are those that live in the lowest land. The Kinh are the lowland people and therefore have the most status. Next come the Tay, who look down upon the Zhao and then the H’mong. The H’mong live in the highest regions of Vietnam’s northern mountains. There seems to be a grave danger in losing an ethnic minority culture in favor of the dominant Kinh. There is a Vietnamese term for this process: “Kinh Hoa”, which loosely translates to “Vietnamization.”

The question remains, then, is whether tourism and/or the Kinh encroachment does Sapa any good. Gerard, the EAP director, has lived in Vietnam for five years, and he has noticed that Sapa is continually changing with better roads and electrical lines that extend deeper into the country. One H’mong home had a TV from which the children watch Cartoon Network. Ban Ho, the remote village that needed 5 hours to hike to, has tin roofs instead of the traditional thatched ones. The people are more knowledgeable about neo-natal care, and they know that having less children means less poverty. (They also know that there is a huge fine for breaking the government decree of “two children max”.)

All of these developments are the direct result of the exposure to the Kinh. And candidly speaking, poverty sucks. Starving sucks. Having no clothes sucks. And though the Kinh and tourists bring some contempt, they also take away many, many things that suck.

The other night, I talked to some Zhao ladies who wanted to sell some Zhao bags. I told them I wanted the bag that was the most Zhao in design. They laughed and said it was all Zhao. They also added that three years ago, they never made these bags in such huge quantities. It can be argued then, that tourists may be driving an actual spread of the Zhao culture. Then again, closer inspection of the bag reveals that the bag is partially made of H’mong material, H’mong dye, and H’mong design. Only the central design is Zhao. That’s “cultural homogeneity” for you.

Cultural homogeneity is perhaps part of a bigger phenomenon called globalization. I suppose it means that this interaction between some ethnic groups in a small region of a developing country is simply interesting trivia in the greater scheme of things. I argue, however, that this situationis eerily similar to the Vietnamese in America. My friend Brian (AKA El Brian) once posed, “If all the Vietnamese [in America] are going to college, getting good jobs, and moving up the socioeconomic ladder, who will stay back and manage Little Saigon [a sort of Vietnamese enclave in Orange County, CA]?” Who will indeed? Already most of my Vietnamese friends do not speak Vietnamese well. Heck, I don’t speak Vietnamese well.

Ask me one day about the Xa Pho people. It is a fascinating story about education, ethnic relations, government decrees, and environment.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2005 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Super Xanga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.