Situating Vietnamese Transnationalism and Diaspora

Abstract

This review examines Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde’s conceptualization of “transnationalizing Viet Nam.” It pays attention to Valverde’s field research in both the United States and Vietnam, which allowed her to observe how transnational networks of music and the Internet forged collaborations among individuals in both countries, despite severed US—Vietnamese diplomatic ties. It also examines the book’s treatment of the centrality of anti-Communism in Vietnamese diasporic politics and discourse, understanding Valverde’s analysis of anti-Communist hostility and violence as an argument about the limits of ideological inflexibility in Vietnamese American communities. In addition, this review also juxtaposes Valverde’s discussion of anti-Communism with other Southeast Asian American Studies scholars who interrogate the term’s many meanings to foreground the larger project to which Valverde’s project contributes—a critical approach alert to the long histories and multiple migrations that characterize overseas Vietnamese and compels a model of Vietnamese transnationalism and diaspora that is attentive to both pre-and post-Vietnam War contexts