Bounded Performances: Cultural Tourism and Negotiated Authenticity in Northern Vietnam

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.25.2.2026.4239

Keywords:

cultural tourism, bounded performativity, negotiated authenticity, Northern Vietnam, tropical tourism, tourism ethnography

Abstract

In tropical postcolonial regions, tourism has reconfigured cultural life through selective visibility. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork (2022–2024) in H’mong, Muong, and Kinh communities, this article examines how identity becomes choreographed for consumption yet remains bounded by community-set thresholds. Practices once sacred—bride-taking, stilt-house hospitality, Quan Họ singing, or Hầu Đồng trance—are transformed into choreographed visibility. Rather than cultural loss, such bounded performativization reflects a survival logic that preserves symbolic autonomy through partial exposure. Methodologically, the study integrates affective ethnography with media analysis to map how tropical materialities—humidity, light, and sound—mediate performance. Conceptually, it advances a framework that recasts performance as ethical endurance: identity lives on by learning how to be staged without surrender.

Author Biographies

Quoc Viet Tran, Hanoi Metropolitan University, Vietnam

Tran Quoc Viet is a senior lecturer and researcher in folklore and cultural anthropology at Hanoi Metropolitan University, Vietnam. His work focuses on ritual performance, intangible heritage, and ethnic minority cultures in Southeast Asia. He has conducted extensive fieldwork on indigenous festivals, spirit possession, and oral traditions in Northern Vietnam. Dr. Viet is particularly interested in the intersection between cultural transformation and tourism, with publications addressing performative identity, soft assimilation, and staged heritage practices.

Van Tuan Bui, Hanoi Metropolitan University, Vietnam

Bui Van Tuan is a scholar in Cultural Studies and Vietnam Studies, formally trained at Vietnam National University, Hanoi. He currently serves as Vice Director of the Institute and Director of the Vietnam Studies Program at Hanoi Metropolitan University. His research centers on cultural identity, national narratives, and the politics of representation in postcolonial Vietnam. He has contributed to interdisciplinary studies on ethnic relations, heritage education, and regional cultural development. With a background in both education and cultural studies, Dr. Tuan brings a critical lens to contemporary processes of identity negotiation in Vietnamese society.

Thi Thu Huong Le, Hanoi Metropolitan University

Le Thi Thu Huong is a senior lecturer and historian at Hanoi Metropolitan University. Her academic interests encompass Vietnamese history and culture from ancient to modern times, memory studies, and the historiography of colonial and postcolonial periods. She has published on the transformation of rural communities, state heritage policies, and the cultural legacy of war. Dr. Huong’s work often explores the intersection of official narratives and vernacular memory, especially in the context of cultural heritage and historical preservation.

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Published

2026-04-11

How to Cite

Tran, Q. V., Bui, V. T., & Le, T. T. H. (2026). Bounded Performances: Cultural Tourism and Negotiated Authenticity in Northern Vietnam. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 25(2), 166–192. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.25.2.2026.4239

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2026): Tourisms’ Tristes Tropiques: Cultural Landscapes

Section

Articles

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