Visualizing Vietnam: From the Past to the Present

If you take the Thống Nhất 1 (Reunification 1) train from Hà Nội to Hồ Chí Minh City, or vice versa, you can literally “see” Việt Nam, and this can help you “visualize” (in your mind) the country. Similarly, if you look at a map you can also “visualize” Việt Nam. However, trains and the type of maps that we are familiar with today are both “modern.” They were both introduced into Việt Nam in the late nineteenth century.

So what did Việt Nam “look like” before that time? How did people “see” or “visualize” (in their minds) Việt Nam prior to the late nineteenth century? What effects did new ways of visualizing the land bring? This is the topic that this talk will cover. In the process, it will introduce some of the ways that scholars have talked about this issue of “visualizing” a nation.

Liam Kelly

in dialogue with

The Appendix (Phụ Lục) on the project Reunification-1 Journey

Date: 10 July 2016
Time: 4.30PM – 7PM
Address: Nhà Sàn Collective, 15th Floor, Hanoi Creative City, 1 Lương Yên, Hai Bà Trưng dist., Hà Nội