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Conference Paper: Interests, institutions and identity: the evolution of Minh Huong identity (ca. 17th-20th Centuries)
Title | Interests, institutions and identity: the evolution of Minh Huong identity (ca. 17th-20th Centuries) |
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Authors | |
Issue Date | 2011 |
Publisher | Association for Asian Studies, Inc.. |
Citation | The 2011 Joint Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS), Honolulu, HI., 31 March-3 April 2011. How to Cite? |
Abstract | In 1679, or 1682, a fleet commanded by Chinese loyalists to the long-dead Ming Dynasty landed on the shores of the Vietnamese domain of Dang Trong. Their resistance destroyed, they sought refuge from the country’s overlord; granting it, he settled them in the “southern frontier” lands of the Mekong Delta. Quickly, the “Ming Refugees”—or Minh Huong—became a powerful established interest within Vietnamese commerce, colonization and politics. Curiously, they remain understudied and misunderstood by both Vietnamese and Overseas Chinese specialists. This results from confusion about Ming Huong identity and origins, which this paper addresses by offering an alternative theory that focuses on the evolution of group identity and the interests and institutions that shaped it. Far from static, Minh Huong identity formed, metamorphosed, and all but disappeared through a series of adaptive responses that continually reshaped the content of Minh Huong interests, institutions and identity whenever “outside” circumstances challenged them. In this way, the Minh Huong evolved from the the merchant-driven Tang Chinese diaspora that developed in the chaos of 16th century maritime Asia, into a powerful merchant-bureaucratic class that exploited the institutions that Vietnamese matrilineage and Chinese patrilineage afforded them in order to advance its commercial and political interests. When their status eroded in the 19th century, the Minh Huong increasingly redefined their group as a minority ethnicity in defense of diminishing rights. Thus, the Minh Huong demonstrate the power of strategic representation in early modern Vietnam. |
Description | Southeast Asia Session 402: Networks Wide and Narrow: Early Modern Vietnam in the Larger World, 1700-1885 |
Persistent Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/136442 |
DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.author | Wheeler, CJ | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2011-07-27T02:16:07Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2011-07-27T02:16:07Z | - |
dc.date.issued | 2011 | en_US |
dc.identifier.citation | The 2011 Joint Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS), Honolulu, HI., 31 March-3 April 2011. | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/136442 | - |
dc.description | Southeast Asia Session 402: Networks Wide and Narrow: Early Modern Vietnam in the Larger World, 1700-1885 | - |
dc.description.abstract | In 1679, or 1682, a fleet commanded by Chinese loyalists to the long-dead Ming Dynasty landed on the shores of the Vietnamese domain of Dang Trong. Their resistance destroyed, they sought refuge from the country’s overlord; granting it, he settled them in the “southern frontier” lands of the Mekong Delta. Quickly, the “Ming Refugees”—or Minh Huong—became a powerful established interest within Vietnamese commerce, colonization and politics. Curiously, they remain understudied and misunderstood by both Vietnamese and Overseas Chinese specialists. This results from confusion about Ming Huong identity and origins, which this paper addresses by offering an alternative theory that focuses on the evolution of group identity and the interests and institutions that shaped it. Far from static, Minh Huong identity formed, metamorphosed, and all but disappeared through a series of adaptive responses that continually reshaped the content of Minh Huong interests, institutions and identity whenever “outside” circumstances challenged them. In this way, the Minh Huong evolved from the the merchant-driven Tang Chinese diaspora that developed in the chaos of 16th century maritime Asia, into a powerful merchant-bureaucratic class that exploited the institutions that Vietnamese matrilineage and Chinese patrilineage afforded them in order to advance its commercial and political interests. When their status eroded in the 19th century, the Minh Huong increasingly redefined their group as a minority ethnicity in defense of diminishing rights. Thus, the Minh Huong demonstrate the power of strategic representation in early modern Vietnam. | - |
dc.language | eng | en_US |
dc.publisher | Association for Asian Studies, Inc.. | - |
dc.relation.ispartof | AAS-ICAS Joint Conference 2011 | en_US |
dc.title | Interests, institutions and identity: the evolution of Minh Huong identity (ca. 17th-20th Centuries) | en_US |
dc.type | Conference_Paper | en_US |
dc.identifier.email | Wheeler, CJ: cwheeler@hku.hk | en_US |
dc.identifier.authority | Wheeler, CJ=rp00880 | en_US |
dc.description.nature | link_to_OA_fulltext | - |
dc.identifier.hkuros | 189029 | en_US |
dc.publisher.place | United States | - |