ABSTRACT
This is the introductory chapter of the book, which is a study of the history and consequences of the revolutionary campaign to transform culture and ritual in northern Vietnam. Based upon official documents and several years of field research in Thinh Liet Commune, a Red River delta community near Hanoi, the book provides the first detailed account of the nature of revolutionary cultural reforms in Vietnam as how those reforms continue to animate contemporary socio-cultural life. The year 1986 marked a watershed in modern Vietnamese history. The Vietnamese government and Communist Party, after years of evidence that their collectivist economic policies were failing, endorsed the Renovation policy (Doi Moi) that advocated the dismantling of the command economy and allowed for the introduction of what some would eventually call ‘socialism with market characteristics.’ The book explores the multiple disputes and debates over culture, morality, and ritual that exist in the northern Vietnamese community.
