From being doubted to being loved: an experience of doing ethnography fieldwork in village communities in contemporary Northern Vietnam.

Abstract

Villages and rural community are main themes in history, ethnology and some other social sciences. The socio-economic life of Viet villages, especially the ones in the Red River lowland and midland, have been through continuing and drastic changes in the last half of the past century. This leads us to ask whether ethnographic approaches and fieldwork in villages need to be adjusted to the new context? This article presents some personal experiences of doing long duration fieldwork in a Northern midland village where many events occured since the innovation process started, among which land disputes were very common and land is considered most valuable mean of production and property in agricultural societies. The author thereby focuses on discussing ethnographic fieldwork in contemporary village communities.