The Politics of Travel Writing: Pham Quynh’s National Project and the Landscape of the Imperial Capital at Hue, Vietnam

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pham Quynh’s essay ‘Ten Days in Hue’ (‘Mười ngày ở Huế’) was his first travel writing, and the first travel writing published in the journal Nam Phong, leading to the publication of many other travel accounts. ‘Ten Days in Hue’ is traditionally read as having such values as objectivity and meticulousness, as well as offering an important ethnographic contribution for later studies. While somewhat agreeing with such observations, this paper points out that Pham Quynh's account more often manipulates the landscape of Hue, appropriating it to serve his national project. The landscape under his gaze is not really described with complete objectivity but is actually imbued with nationalist ideology. Comparing his writing with Phan Khoi’s, and in the end with insights borrowed from John Berger, this reading of Pham Quynh's ‘Ten Days in Hue’ promises to open a window to explore how travel writing could manifest as nationalist ideology.