Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tho (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City)

In this talk, the speaker will present a total of four case studies to analyse the transformations and hidden discourses of ethnic Chinese (người Hoa 華人) rituals dedicated to public gods. Vietnam’s ethnic Hoa communities have proactively taken advantage of their long-lasting folk religions and ritual system to reserve and further the values of maintaining ethnic cultural identity and developing inter-ethnic exchanges. With their post-war economic status in decline, Vietnam’s ethnic Chinese have been learning to use their cultural traditions to secure their position in the local society. As a result, the Confucian concept of “Without ritual, there would be no morality” (道德禮儀, 非禮不成)  has now been re-formulated as “Without ritual, there would be no ethnic culture” (民族文化, 非禮不成) and been applied to adapt to local socio-political backgrounds in contemporary Vietnamese society.