CINEMA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF VIETNAMESE CULTURE AND SOCIETY (LATE 19TH CENTURY TO EARLY 20TH CENTURY)
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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.15153Abstract
This article examines the role of cinema in the process of cultural modernization in Vietnam from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, aiming to clarify that cinema functioned both as an instrument serving the French colonial “civilizing mission” and as a space for cultural reception and creativity within indigenous society. The study focuses on analyzing how cinema was organized and controlled under colonial cultural policies, as well as how Vietnamese people received and transformed this new artistic medium. The research applies a historical method combined with an interdisciplinary approach integrating history, cultural studies, and sociology, while employing discourse analysis based on archival materials, contemporary newspapers, and related scholarly works. The findings show that cinema quickly became an important urban cultural institution, with a rapidly expanding theater system reaching approximately 51 cinemas in 1932 and nearly 60 cinemas by 1939, contributing to the formation of urban aesthetics and modern lifestyles. At the same time, Vietnamese society actively localized cinema by incorporating traditional cultural elements and national discourse into artistic creation. The study concludes that cultural modernization through cinema was a bidirectional process shaped by the interaction between colonial power and the adaptive and creative capacities of Vietnamese society.Downloads
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