DSpace at VNU: Community-Based Videos and Migration Issues: The Case of the Thai Community in Hanoi

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Community-Based Videos and Migration
Issues: The Case of the Thai Community
in Hanoi
Nguyen Truong Giang
Published online: 24 Apr 2013.

To cite this article: Nguyen Truong Giang (2013) Community-Based Videos and Migration Issues:
The Case of the Thai Community in Hanoi, Visual Anthropology: Published in cooperation with the
Commission on Visual Anthropology, 26:3, 204-214, DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2013.775213
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Visual Anthropology, 26: 204–214, 2013
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ISSN: 0894-9468 print=1545-5920 online
DOI: 10.1080/08949468.2013.775213

Community-Based Videos and Migration
Issues: The Case of the Thai Community
in Hanoi
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Nguyen Truong Giang
After decolonization, Thai cadres from the Northwest and elsewhere in Vietnam
were appointed to government posts in Hanoi. The Thai community in Hanoi has
since grown into a large, closed community. The researchers and Thai community
members recorded, discussed and analyzed challenges of migration by highlighting
the voices and views of insiders. Migration to Vietnamese urban areas raises broader
global and regional issues not new to anthropology, including the preservation of
ethnic traditions, integration, and changing perceptions of social status. This
case study offers a new perspective on these issues, using the method of
community-based video and providing an opportunity for self-expression for the
Thai community.

COMMUNITY-BASED VIDEO: A NEW MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
AND PUBLIC SELF-EXPRESSION
Community-based video (CBV) is a new filmmaking approach in visual anthropology. Advances in small-sized, affordable digital video recording and editing
equipment have created new possibilities for voice and image recording. In
recent years community-based videos have been produced in several countries,
especially in China, the United States, Canada and Vietnam.1 CBV is an important contribution to the field of visual anthropology that leads to new trends in
anthropological research and ethnic studies.
In the 21st century anthropology is concerned with broad sociopolitical issues
such as human rights, gender equality, religious freedom, ethnic identity and
issues of ethnic and national borders. In this context community-based videos
set up close co-operation between researchers and the communities involved
during the filmmaking process. Because the stories told in these films are chosen,
NGUYEN TRUONG GIANG is a visual anthropologist at the University of Social Sciences and
Humanities, part of Hanoi National University. He also serves as a documentary filmmaker for the
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Dr. Giang’s films have been screened at various documentary film
festivals, including A Pottery Seller (in Vietnam, 2005), Stories About Festivals: Voices from
Communities (Smithsonian, 2008), We the Tai People (Yunfest China, 2009) and The Rag-andBone Man, A Peasant in the Town (Yamagata festival, 2011). E-mail: truonggiangvme96
@yahoo.com.vn
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expressed and edited by members of the communities themselves, they can be
seen as genuine representations from their own point of view. Consequently
the CBV approach addresses humanistic concerns in a fully participatory and

ethical manner.
This article explores the question of how a community-based video approach
provides a new means of communication and public self-expression. This question will be investigated through the case study of a CBV project with the Thai
community in Hanoi. The Thai CBV film is part of a larger ongoing project begun
in 2006 and expected to conclude in 2012 that includes films made on the subsidy
period in Hanoi, the Thai people in Hanoi and Dao people in Ha Giang.2
To date, much of the research on media in Vietnam has focused on the role of
newspapers, television, radio, publishing and government-issued magazines, all
of which strictly control information before releasing it to the public. These established media outlets have been heavily influenced by specific administrative
bodies so as to meet particular national objectives; and therefore there is a focus
on a scripted approach to the presentation of information so as to guide public
opinion. For example, filmmaking in Vietnam is structured so that overall the
film studio is in charge, followed by the film director, the script editors, the camera person, then the main actor=actress and others. Film ideas and content always
illustrate topics of current issues and events. There are very few films or videos
that are concerned with the feelings and lives of specific communities. In
this context, the collaborative, bottom-up approach of community-based videos
becomes a new means of communication in Vietnam.
Community-based video also uses new filmmaking methods. It is a collaboration between the researcher, who takes on the role of facilitator with a ‘‘seed’’
idea, and the people of specific communities, who take active roles in the whole
filmmaking process. Community members shoot film, discuss community concerns, express their opinions and attitudes, edit video content and structure
and provide key feedback in the creation of the rough-cut and final film. Original
footage and rough-cuts of the videos are screened so as to gather feedback that
will be incorporated into the final cut of the videos. These therefore present views
and opinions of insiders without the influence of outsiders. They are a
self-expression of the specific community, created from their stories and views,
real stories in real contexts; therefore the goal is to present a genuine portrait
through the real experiences of the lives of specific communities. Broader issues
and generalizations can be raised by the researchers but the specific illustrations,
stories and viewpoints are contributed and chosen by the communities.
OVERVIEW OF THE THAI COMMUNITY MIGRATION TO HANOI

Migration involves the movement of people and=or communities of specific
ethnicities from one place to another. In recent years, it has followed two main
trends: first, internal migration from rural to urban areas caused by the pull of
economic potentialities and possible employment; second, external or international migration from one country to another, prompted by political, kinship
or other reasons.3 Both trends have shaped the migrations of the Thai community
in the latter half of the 20th century.


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There are several reasons for the migration of Thai people from their home
villages in Son La and Dien Bien, in the northern highlands of Vietnam, following
the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. According to memories of Thai
people living in Hanoi after 1954, Deo Van Long, the Phong Th District Chief
in Lai Chaˆu province, who had co-operated with the French, pushed a portion
of the Thai community (mainly the noble Thai families and Thai people who
had served in the Thai battalions of the French colonial government) to migrate
to the south of Vietnam and settle down in Tung Nghia, Da Lat. These forced
migrants were those people who were unwilling to co-operate with the new
socialist government, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which had been
founded in the North following the August 1945 revolution and firmly established after the battle at Dien Bien Phu. Another part of the Thai community, consisting of wealthy families, was forced into exile in Laos, whence they moved on
to the United States or to Thailand; there they were concentrated mainly in Napanat village, Loi province, Udonthani, and Phetburi. In addition, some Thai noblemen went to France. However, at this time most of the Thai people, and
particularly those who had taken part in the Indochinese War of Resistance
against French colonization, stayed in their home villages in northwest Vietnam.
The migration of the Thai community to Hanoi occurred in two separate
waves, each with different motivations. The first wave came after 1954, following

the victory at Dien Bien Phu. This wave consisted of both Thai soldiers aiding in
the fight against the French, and Kinh (the Viet ethnic majority) cadres serving in
governmental bodies in the northwest provinces who brought their wives and
children to settle in Hanoi. The second wave began after 1975. In 1975, after
the defeat of the Americans and the reunification of North and South Vietnam,
the Northwest Autonomous Zone was dissolved. A number of Thai cadres
who had held official posts in that Autonomous Zone were subsequently
appointed to posts in the Central Government in Hanoi, to serve as representatives of their regions.4 During this period there were also a large number of Thai
students in universities and colleges, particularly those attending the Central Ethnic Pre-University.5 After graduation many students stayed in Hanoi to work in
government or academic institutions.6
A number of Thai people have also migrated to Hanoi through marriage: Thai
men who have married a Kinh wife, or vice versa. According to 1999 Hanoi population and housing statistics, the Thai community consisted of 800 people working in sectors such as: government administration, study and research, education
and training, trade and service, and art and performance. Over the course of
the several migration waves that spanned more than 50 years, Thai people have
created a close and cohesive community in Hanoi.

SELF-EXPRESSION OF THE THAI COMMUNITY’S STORY IN HANOI
Community-based video is a filmmaking method, as we have said, that is new to
Vietnam, differing from the approach discussed above. This method helps filmmakers identify typical constituencies within a community, learn which stories
are of importance to the community itself, record those stories (in both video


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and audio) with the help of the community, and develop ideas on the basis of
community suggestions.

Conventionally, the main tools used in ethnology and anthropology have been
notebooks and pens, with cameras when resources permitted. The primary methodology involves participant observation, detailed interviews, and household or
other surveys. The limitation of these methods relates to how difficult it can be to
access human feelings and body language. For example, one cannot capture the
intensity of religious rituals on paper alone. A camera however does record
something of the quality of the total experience, including the light, sound, movement, facial expressions and ideas. Thus film can help local communities to share
their views, ideas and experiences actively and confidently. As a result of this
project, the Thai community here accepts that film is an effective way to communicate its particular stories to a wider public audience.
This project, funded by the Ford Foundation, was realized as a collaboration
between an outside researcher (myself) and a member of the Thai community
in Hanoi, Tri.nh A Sinh, who was the core Thai researcher for the project. The
goals of the project were to help the Thai community find its own voice to
express its experiences in Hanoi. The community members selected to participate
in the project were chosen by the researcher and the core Thai participant in collaboration with the community as a whole. The participant group consists of
twelve members, each with varied jobs and social status. They include government administrators, scientists, architects, students, artists=singers=dancers,
retired people and housewives, ranging in age from 14 to 78. Some participants
are ethnic Thai and some are of mixed ethnic background, including both Thai
and Kinh. There are some families in which both spouses live in Hanoi but some
with husbands in Hanoi and wives in their home villages. The primary criteria
that helped define the Thai film group was that all members in this community
had close blood relationships; that is, they were relatives in the same clan and=or
from the same home villages (Son La, Lai Chau or West Nghe An provinces),
and=or they shared a workplace in some ministerial office. The selection of varied
members of the community in Hanoi enabled us to get multiple views and stories
as we posed open-ended questions and held focus-group discussions.
Thai migrants face a variety of challenges in adapting to the new life in Hanoi,
including a different language, different livelihoods, customs and traditions. This
community has to find a way to integrate into the majority ethnic culture but still
retain its own cultural identity. (These same challenges surface in many other
multi-ethnic countries.) It was in this context that we conducted numerous interviews and discussions among community members over the course of the study.

Within the limits of this article we would like to address some main issues and
stories that interest the Thai community and that came up in the research process.
Of particular interest to these people is the issue of discrimination by the Kinh
majority against Thai migrants in Hanoi. Questions on this issue were sensitive
but we got much feedback. We wanted to explore issues arising from discrimination the people might have suffered when they first came to Hanoi. Most of
the Thai people in our CBV group thought that these questions were too serious,
because when they first migrated to Hanoi they felt that the majority of Viet
people respected their cultural distinctiveness. The interview data however show


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that some specific forms of discrimination toward minorities in general and Thai
people in particular do still exist. We could divide the kinds of discrimination
experienced into four categories as follows:

Attitudes of Explicit Discrimination

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When I left my homeland in the highlands of the Northwest to mingle with the lowland
peoples in order to get an education and to improve myself, my friends at first always
teased me, calling me ‘‘Tho’’ or ‘‘Man person,’’ that is, ‘‘Man from the Forest,’’ and other
hurtful nicknames. It took a long time of living and studying together for the discrimination to fade away. [Interview with Mr. Trinh A Su, 48-year-old architect, December
18, 2006, in Hanoi]

Some Discrimination
When my youngest daughter, of course with my surname of Lu, went to school, people

believed that she was a Meo [Hmong] person and so she would not be such a smart
pupil . . . At first, when people did not know who you were, they thought of you in such
way. [Interview, March 11, 2007, with Mr. Lu Que, 67 years old, retired official of the
National Ethnic and Mountain Board]
People hesitated at our front doors, they liked to see how the Thai ethnic people spoke, ate,
and drank. They looked strangely at my Thai brocade bag. However, they did not show
any discriminatory attitudes. [Interview with Ms. Trinh Chi Na, 40-year-old coffee trader,
December 14, 2006]

No Discrimination
There is no discrimination. Truly. I have eaten Kinh rice, drunk Kinh water since I was
small. My parents took care of me only until I was 11 years old, since then I lived with
Kinh people. [Interview, December 16, 2006, with Mr. Cam Trong, 73 years old, ethnologist
(died in 2007)]

In March 2008 we met with the Thai community in Hanoi to discuss issues of
discrimination that had come up in our earlier discussions. Most of the community members thought that in the early years, when Thai people first moved
to Hanoi, there was some discrimination as the migrants did not have enough
information and knowledge to integrate well into a new cultural context. Over
time the Kinh majority got to know the Thai people through their work and personal contact, and thus began to accept the Thai so that discrimination faded
away.
Regarding the migration and integration process with the Viet majority in
Hanoi, many Thai people emphasize the struggle between preservation of traditional customs, feelings, habits and lifestyles and a pull toward the new culture
in the dynamic capital of Hanoi. The Thai have a proverb, hit mo nha tang, hit cau
nha vang (‘‘do not take leave of old customs, do not add in new ones’’). However,


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in this new cultural situation each family has different ways of adapting to the
new culture. Some families in which both spouses are Thai still follow a Thai
way of life: even after decades of living in Hanoi they have maintained almost
the same traditional ways of eating, drinking, clothing, daily communication
and religious practice. Typical examples are Mrs. Cam Thi Chau, Mrs. Dieu
Thi Nuoc, and Mrs. Ha Thi Nien, Prof. Hoang Luong’s wife. They speak in Thai
with their husbands and children, still wear traditional skirts with a short dress
(xua com), eat sticky rice at breakfast, and sleep on Thai mattresses brought from
their home villages. Mrs. Cam Thi Chau (Mr. Cam Trong’s wife, who is of the
Black Thai group from Son La Province) still rolls her hair on the top of her head
in the tang cau (the hairstyle of married Thai women). Mrs. Dieu Thi Nuoc ties
down her curl of hair in the style of the White Thai of Lai Chau. Mrs. Ha Thi Nien
always cooks steamed fish and makes sour bamboo, traditional Thai dishes, for
her family’s meals. When they talk with Kinh people they still speak with a
strong accent and are not fluent in Kinh pronunciation. Thus in coming into contact with them people might think that they just left their homeland in the northwest of Vietnam since they have kept all their original Thai characteristics.
Because these women, who followed their husbands to Hanoi, moved there as
adults and because they had the support of their husbands, conditions favored
the maintenance of cultural traditions within their families. In the words of
Mr. Trinh A Su, an architect, ‘‘I admire these people: they are pioneers in preserving cultural identity. These people don’t want to lose what makes them who
they are’’ [interview with Trinh A Su, December 18, 2006].
For current Thai youth and middle-aged mixed Thai–Kinh couples, however,
the preservation of ethnic identity has faded and they are more open to adopting
new cultural forms. This is in part a result of living in close contact with other
cultures and in part a result of the self-consciousness of Thai people in the face
of scrutiny by Kinh people, who wonder why the Thai lifestyle and customs differ from those of the majority. We know from interviews with Thais in Hanoi that
age and social status influence Thai feelings and ideas about cultural adaptation.
It is particularly evident among Thai women who married Kinh husbands. When

the wives become members of their husband’s Kinh families they must follow
strict Kinh traditions of those families because the role of the daughter-in-law
is a particularly well-defined one in Kinh culture; therefore they have to pay
attention to all daily activities, follow annual rituals on the first and fifteenth days
of lunar months, practice ancestor worship, and maintain clan relations with both
paternal and maternal sides of the family. They not only follow the new customs
of the Kinh majority but practice and play important roles in the new communities as well:
It is difficult to live in an established Hanoi family. Thus, I had to take care of everything in
daily life in order to teach my children when they were small customs such as [saying]:
‘‘please, yes please’’ and something like this, because we did not pay much attention to these
behaviors when we lived in the homeland. Then, the old women in Hanoi praised me as a
good mother in teaching my children. It is true that I tried to educate them in the Hanoi
way of life even though it was strange to me. I thought it was hard to follow this new and
different lifestyle. [Interview, March 10, 2007, with Mrs. Vuong Thi Thai, 58 years old, a Thai
from Lai Chau who married a Kinh husband living in the Old Quarter in Hanoi]


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There are some Thai traditions and customs that are impossible for these
women to practice in Kinh households, such as house ghost worshipping, or
some ritual medical treatments. Another Thai tradition that was not accepted
when they moved to Hanoi concerns the importance of Thai kinship relations,
expressed in the following phrase: ai noong, lung ta, nhinh xao (literally, ‘‘brothers
in the lineage, brothers of one’s wife, brothers of one’s children’s clan relations
and relations-in-law’’). These relations are central in Thai villages and are in fact

extended to all Thai people. That is, Thais living anywhere consider each other to
be relatives. To maintain close kinship ties, they often visit relatives living elsewhere, despite the distance. This can cause tensions in families that combine
Kinh–Thai spouses, in that there are a large number of relatives visiting from the
northwest coming to Hanoi. These visits could inconvenience their daily life or
even result in family disputes, because while Thais believe it is normal to have frequent and long-time visits from relatives, the Kinh feel it is not acceptable. There are
however some combined families of Thai–Kinh who respect and harmonize the
customs of both cultures. For instance, some Kinh husbands participate in worship
of their wives’ parents. As Mrs. Vuong Thi Thai (Hang Bong street, Hanoi)
explained, during the Tet holidays (the Lunar New Year) and=or on ancestorworshipping days, Thai people pray and pay respects in the Thai language.
Otherwise, in urban settings, Thai people seem for the most part to have left
their traditions behind because there are few opportunities to practice them in
daily life. Only during some communal festivals like the Lunar New Year celebration or Early Spring holiday does the Thai community in Hanoi gather
together and speak their language, wear Thai clothes, and eat traditional dishes.
On such occasions vital Thai identity is aroused in hearts and feelings. It is said,
with humor, that at such communal gatherings Kinh husbands sit down together
to listen to their wives’ ‘‘short-wave broadcasting’’ and wonder what they are
speaking about in the Thai language. These events are opportunities for Thai
women to relieve their homesickness, express their feelings for Thai ancestors,
and maintain ties to their Thai origins [personal communication, Mrs. Trinh Thuy
Tien, Thai Phong Tho, at a communal meeting, January 16, 2007].
Thai identity in the younger generation, those who were born and grew up in
Hanoi or who followed their parents to Hanoi when small, has faded. When they
live in a new environment it is hard for traditional cultures to be relevant; therefore
these young people have a limited knowledge of their grandparents’ and parents’
life back in the home villages. While youngsters also feel the need to understand
their cultures of origin, their parents rarely have time to impart knowledge of Thai
culture while living the busy life in a city like Hanoi. As Ms. Hoang Thi Quyen, a
30-year-old official at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, stated:
I have a number of Thai cousins who were born and grew up in Hanoi. They wish to know
and keep their Thai traditional cultures in mind. There are however no favorable contexts

in which to learn and understand their cultures, as their parents are too busy with their
daily lives. [Interview, September 24, 2008]

The Thai community in Hanoi is also very interested in the issue of using the
Thai language in daily life. Language and writing are fundamental factors in


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creating identity and are characteristic of each ethnicity. For example, this is
demonstrated in a quote from a workshop on the Thai written language ten
years ago:
One Thai woman, with the surname of Cam, from Son La province, who was formerly a
doctor in the central government office, has now retired and lives with her retired Kinh
husband, formerly a senior official in the Prime Minister’s office. Their family lived in
Hanoi and used to be the place where their friends visited and discussed ethnic and
mountain area issues. They have recently learned that one of their Kinh friends can not
only speak the Thai language fluently but also write Thai words and has a good knowledge of Thai culture as well. When this Kinh friend said that he had read the two great
cultural works of Thai ethnics—‘‘Song Chu Xon Xao’’ and ‘‘Khun Lu Nang ua’’—she was
so surprised, but then her smile faded quickly and her voice became serious: ‘‘Unlike
you, I am illiterate in my ethnic language.’’7

Now, a decade later, reading and writing Thai is not considered to be as urgent
an issue as using the language in daily life in Hanoi. There are few original Thai
families there where all parents and children are of Thai origin, and who use Thai
language in daily life and maintain that language with a second generation. These

families feel that the language provides them with an easy and natural way to
express their views [personal communication, February 6, 2007, Professor Hoang
Luong’s family]. The subsequent generations, the grandchildren, however, cannot speak Thai, but only speak the majority Kinh language (Vietnamese). Furthermore, the Thai language is rarely used in mixed-marriage families where one
spouse is Kinh and the other Thai, as this situation does not favor such communication. During the community discussions (CBV), a large number of Thai people
worried that the second generation would forget their Thai language and the
third generation could not speak any Thai at all. The reason they gave is that
in Hanoi it is rare to have time to speak in Thai. Moreover they felt that to preserve Thai culture, it is most important to keep the language, much more so than
to maintain Thai traditional dishes and=or clothes. Therefore the Thai community
here has tried its best to organize meetings, visits and discussions with the
participation of their children and grandchildren so as to preserve the language.
In September 2008, when we had a chance to visit the homeland in Lai Chau
province of the Thai people in Hanoi, I asked some questions of people there
about the frequency of use of the Thai language among the second and third generations of Thai in Hanoi. Surprisingly the same thing is occurring in some towns
in Lai Chau as is happening in Hanoi. In the central town of that province some
families in which both parents are Thai, and who have always lived in their
homeland, have children unable to speak Thai:
Even in my family, the eldest child knows some Thai language, but my younger daughter
only smiles as she doesn’t understand. Once, in the 30th day of the Tet [Lunar New Year]
holiday, when my husband and I cooked and spoke loudly in Thai but were not quarreling,
she thought that we might be arguing and asked us to stop as it was the Tet holidays and we
should gather together happily, not argue. At that moment we suddenly realized that we
were speaking in Thai and so our child could not understand. [Interview, September 14,
2008, with Vuong Kim Xuyen, 50 years old, Women’s Union of Lai Chau province]


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This story illustrates how difficult it is for their offspring to speak Thai when
they did not learn it from early childhood; and their parents did not pay much
attention to educating their children in the original language. In addition, the
youth think that they should focus on the Kinh language and that, once they
speak it fluently, they can learn Thai later. In these examples it can be seen that
the language is disappearing not just in the Thai community in Hanoi but also in
their homeland in northwest Vietnam. This evidence, the loss of the language in
both areas, gave the Thai CBV group much cause for worry and provoked a lot of
discussion.
Recently Trinh A Su, an architect, said that an interesting observation that
relates to the question above is that, when visiting overseas Vietnamese in the
United States, he found that a number of families are ‘‘very Vietnamese.’’ In these
families many Vietnamese children had been born in the United States, while
others had come to the United States before starting school. However, it surprised him that these children could not speak even a complete Vietnamese sentence. Their main language to communicate with everybody, even their parents,
is English. Their parents said, ‘‘We want our children to rise up and be fully integrated into the American society, so we encourage them to learn English as well
as they can. We sent them to private schools where many white American students also attended. Keeping them apart from Vietnamese people helps them
avoid picking up the negative behaviors of our people, so that when our children
go out, Americans will not look down on them . . . ’’
It is likely that this American phenomenon is similar to what has happened in
Thai families in Hanoi (it is also usual among Indian and Chinese settlers in the
United States). Since Thai parents want their children to be assimilated into Kinh
culture, they choose to push them to speak Vietnamese and learn Kinh ways.
According to Trinh A Su, it is a choice that helps each person to assimilate into
a new environment. However, this choice has a mixed ‘‘positive–negative’’ outcome that generally leads the individual to be fully assimilated. The process can
lead to loss of the original culture and language; that is, it is different from the
desired outcome of integration into a new environment while simultaneously
preserving one’s own ethnic cultural identity (‘‘ho`a nha.ˆp nhu’ng khoˆng ho`a tan’’).
This particular example sheds light on an overall picture of the global integration
of ethnicities in countries opening up to the world. Cultural exchanges always

bring about two sides of an issue: ‘‘preserving’’ and ‘‘losing’’ are significant
challenges for each of us when participating in global integration.
CHALLENGES, SOLUTIONS AND EFFECTS OF COMMUNITY-BASED VIDEOS
IN SPECIFIC COMMUNITY RESEARCH
Our research, using the method of community-based videos among the Thai
migrants in Hanoi, permits some conclusions to be drawn. Community-based
video is a new approach to the study of specific communities; but there are some
limitations to this approach. Many interesting stories may be collected from the
community but these come in the form of interviews: their primary interest lies in
the audio narratives of the interviewees. Thus they lack the kinds of varied visual
imagery that can be used to engage audiences.


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The power of image is obviously very important in filmmaking, but it seems
that in CBV this is yet to be realized. Film is said to be the seventh art, as it’s a
combination of all arts including pictures, music, and poetry and above all the
visualization of a story. This presents some challenges when creating video.
In contrast to CBV, traditional documentary or fiction filmmaking works with
scripts and screenplays that are fixed and prepared in advance. It is relatively
easy for editors to direct an audience’s feelings and their thinking. In other
words, more traditional filmmakers actively design, using ‘‘visual words.’’
Community-based videos are short on attractive images and settings, so risk
not being as interesting to an audience.
The Thai community suggested several solutions to this general lack of visual

imagery. In the CBV filmmaking process they felt that we should collect together
old film clips and photos kept in households or offices. They also suggested that
old photos of the Thai immigrants who had arrived in Hanoi in early 1954 and
the memorial objects brought from the far northwest and saved by their families
could be shown in the videos to illustrate their stories. It is worth noting that
these old materials are generally suitable to and support well their stories in
the CBV. These materials along with stories together create a community’s memory that can be presented in video.
The filmmaking group also discussed what types of music should be included.
First of all, they suggested songs beloved of the community in Hanoi and songs
with lyrics that complemented the film content. In this way these Thai discussed
seriously how to choose the music for their CBV.
Finally, the artistic aspect of a CBV also depends upon the sensitivity of the
filmmakers. The body language of the storytellers—their appearance, gestures
and countenances—convey important information. Therefore the camera-person
must be a keen observer and choose precisely the right angles and framing that
will help convey body language.
Our practical experience in filmmaking with this community highlights some
strong points of CBVs: they are true stories that do represent from their own
point of view the thoughts, feelings, ideas, worries and challenges faced by the
community. These videos also demonstrate the broader importance of telling
these stories, as they mirror stories and issues that many other ethnic minorities
face in cosmopolitan urban areas. In addition, the agreement, consensus and
collaboration between researchers and the community involved is the most
important illustration of the aim of CBV: ‘‘filmmaking with the community,
not filmmaking about the community.’’ The goal is to perceive real life and social
change, and the methods of CBV allow this goal to be reached in an ethical and
collaborative manner.
Currently, the community-based video of these Thai people has been edited
collaboratively by the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology researcher and some Thai
community members. We hope to present it to the public in the near future.

NOTES
1. Some examples include: in Alaska, ‘‘Kiputmen Naukurlurpet: Let It Grow Back,’’ a CBV
film on the disappearing Alutiiq language in an Alaskan village [Wendy Erd with the


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2.

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3.

4.

5.
6.

7.

N. T. Giang

Pratt Museum, Homer, Alaska, 2004]. In Yunnan, China, five filmmaking groups of the
Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences are working on CBVs concerning ethnic issues of
the Akha, Hmong, Mosuo (Bai) and Tibetan communities; to be completed by 2009. In
Hanoi, A Time to Remember and Difficult Times, CBV films on ‘‘Hanoi Life under the Subsidy Economy,’’ by CBV filmmaking groups of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology,
2006.
The project is funded by the Ford Foundation. The project films have been completed
and in 2009 were screened at the Yunfest film festival in China. At present the project
has been expanded to include filmmaking in communitites, screening in communities,

and teaching communities how to produce CBV.
The rural people migrated into the large cities in the boom periods such as to Chicago at
the end of the 19th century or to Shanghai at the end of the 20th century in response to
employment opportunities; and there were Vietnamese and Lao migration waves into
the United States, France and Australia after 1975 for political and other reasons.
Two Autonomous Zones were set up by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1954,
the Taˆy Ba˘´c Autonomous Zone and the Vi^e. t Ba˘´c Autonomous Zone. Both were
dissolved after reunification of the country in 1975.
The first and second cohorts at the Central Ethnic Pre-University were held in Ba Vi, in
the former Ha Son Binh province. Subsequently, the school was moved to Viet Tri.
Some students who stayed on include Mr. Lu Que, former Vice Governor of Son La
province, who moved to Hanoi to take up an appointment as Deputy Chairman of
the National Ethnic and Mountain Board; Mr. Lo Van Inh, former Governor of Lai Chau
province, who took the post of Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Farmer’s Association;
Prof. Hoang Luong, of Hanoi National University; Prof. Ha Van Thuyet of Hanoi
Polytechnic University; and Dr. Vi Van An, of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology.
Recorded in the story of Mr. Nguyen Lang, included in Trial discussion on the future of
Thai words and culture in Vietnam [Anonymous 1998].

REFERENCES
Anonymous
1998 Trial discussion on the future of Thai words and culture in Vietnam. Hanoi: Ethnic Culture Publishers.
Bui, Hoang Son
2007 New means of communication and the democratization process in Vietnam. Ethnology
Workshop in Quang Binh province, July.
Cu Chi Loi
2005 Rural to urban migration in Vietnam. Hanoi; unpublished paper.
Hanoi National University, Center of Cultural Research and Exchange
1998 Thai Culture and History in Vietnam. Hanoi: Ethnic Culture Publishers.
Pink, Sarah

2001 Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in Research. London, Thousand
Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Sofue, Takao
1988 Basic Problems in Developing Film Ethnography. In Cinematographic Theory and New Dimensions in Ethnographic Film. Paul Hockings and Yasuhiro Omori, eds. Pp. 151–164. Osaka:
Senri Ethnological Studies, 24.