By employing an intergenerational perspective, this article examines the ways in which memories about the war between Vietnam and the USA are engraved in the social and individual body in a northern Vietnamese rural community. Throughout the 1990s, Vietnam and the USA attempted to improve their postwar relationship. ne current atmosphere of coming to terms with a past of war through coexistence and reconciliation fosters ambivalences and ambiguities in young postwar generations. On the one hand, they have to reconcile themselves to the pain and bitterness caused by the war. On the other, they have to bridge the gap between themselves and their parents and grandparents concerning the extent to which they are able to forget the past and look toward the future', as one national postwar strategy recommends. The article thus highlights the complex ways in which war and postwar generations in local Vietnam attempt to remember and/or forget brutality, sorrow and anger, in order to come to terms with what in Vietnam is referred to as the American War.

This article examines men's use of physical punishment when interacting with their sons or grandsons in rural Vietnam. By drawing on two periods of anthropological fieldwork in a northern Vietnamese commune, the article analyses the ways in which violence is informed by, while also perpetually reinforcing, a masculine discourse. Vietnam has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and in this spirit virtually all men in the local community disapprove of the use of physical punishment when bringing up boys. However, a father or grandfather occasionally beats his son or grandson when it is deemed necessary to instil discipline in a boy. The article elucidates the ways in which the contradictions between ideals of nonviolent behaviour and actual corporal punishment have fed the construction of certain codes regarding men's beating of boys. Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications.

Vietnam's increased integration into the global market economy entails rapid and dynamic changes that foster new ways of acting, interacting and rendering the world meaningful. This article addresses the ways in which an ongoing process of transformation in contemporary Vietnam is epitomised by the ambivalence and ambiguity with which female sexuality is imbued. Female sexuality is ideally restricted to marriage and motherhood, meaning that females' premarital or extramarital sexual relations tend to be associated with the category of 'social evils' (te nan xa hoi). The category of 'social evils' is vague in definition and was introduced into Vietnamese society by virtue of what was seen as the country's increased involvement in a morally polluted world. By drawing on two periods of fieldwork (1994-1995 and 2000-2001) in a northern rural Vietnamese commune, this article highlights the ways in which female sexuality in a local field site is intertwined with anxieties about the forces of a global and 'poisonous culture' (van hoa doc hai) that may lead young women to transgress moral limits: For example, by having premarital sex. For many rural female adolescents sexuality thus means a need of self-imposed and/or governmentally imposed control in order to guarantee appropriate morality. For others, however, sexuality means the involvement in premarital sexual relations and, hence, a crossing of moral boundaries.

Gender-related studies on contemporary Vietnam are few in number, and most writing concentrates on socio-economic topics. This book's focus on the fundamental issues of gender roles is a significant contribution. Bruce M. Lockhart, National University of Singapore. Our knowledge of contemporary Vietnamese society is still limited, and studies of gender-related topics are few and far between. This book breaks much New ground on Vietnamese society that it will be of interest also to Vietnam specialists working on non-gender topics, as well as to non-specialists. Confucianism, colonialism and socialism have all contributed significantly to gender relations in Vietnam. More recently, political and social change associated with modernization and globalization have also had an impact. How do the Vietnamese display their social positions and their identities as male or female? This volume examines negotiations, and transgressions, of gender within Vietnamese society, looking at family, social and work relations, bodily displays, body language and occupation of space. Of special interest is a discussion of sexual harassment in schools and the workplace, and the strategies women adopt to deal with it, the first discussion of this issue by a Vietnamese scholar.

      Gender-related studies on contemporary Vietnam are few in number, and most writing concentrates on socio-economic topics. This book's focus on the fundamental issues of gender roles is a significant contribution. Bruce M. Lockhart, National University of Singapore. Our knowledge of contemporary Vietnamese society is still limited, and studies of gender-related topics are few and far between. This book breaks much New ground on Vietnamese society that it will be of interest also to Vietnam specialists working on non-gender topics, as well as to non-specialists. Confucianism, colonialism and socialism have all contributed significantly to gender relations in Vietnam. More recently, political and social change associated with modernization and globalization have also had an impact. How do the Vietnamese display their social positions and their identities as male or female? This volume examines negotiations, and transgressions, of gender within Vietnamese society, looking at family, social and work relations, bodily displays, body language and occupation of space. Of special interest is a discussion of sexual harassment in schools and the workplace, and the strategies women adopt to deal with it, the first discussion of this issue by a Vietnamese scholar.