Renovation or Maintaining: Conflicts and Negotiations in Festival in a Village in Northern Vietnam

Tóm tắt

This paper focuses upon gender relations in a particular village in Northern Vietnam, based on analysing a performance activity that is part of the village pagoda festival. In the context of đổi mới (the period of renovation), wealth capacity is lauded and the village women, who are excellent businesspeople, have increasingly gained respect within the community. This has been an instrumental factor facilitating a completely new activity for the women in one of the village festivals. Their achievements demonstrate their creativity and entrepreneurship, and their contribution to the village‟s renovation-oriented identity economically and in other spheres. The conflicts and negotiations, however, show the complexity of the gender relations in their village. While socio-cultural developments have provided women with more opportunities, challenges remain resulting from lingering prejudices that are thought to to have been completely wiped out.