Sự hoàn thiện bản thân theo chủ nghĩa tân tự do ở việt nam trường hợp của wechoice award

This is a humanityoriented research carried out with an aim to explore the neoliberal self and selfrealisation in context of Vietnam, and how they are constructed in the popular annual award WeChoice Award (WCA) presented by VCCorp, a Vietnamese media, and communication company. Adopting the Foucauldian’s theories of discourse analysis, this thesis reconstructs the historical conditions that have given rise to the neoliberal self in Vietnamese society. This is achieved through a process analysing a series of historically situated practices, with an emphasis on the economic reformation (Doi moi) launched in 1986 with the introduction of the market economy, marking the entrance of neoliberalism in Vietnam. Central to the study is the attempt to identify technologies that the awardwinning individuals, called the “Inspiring persons”, of WCA, use to constitute themselves through transformative narratives. It also tries to explain what selfrealisation means in this specific context. The findings of the study reveal that the wave of Westernisation and cultural enlightenment in the early twentieth century, the Economic reformation (Đổi mới), followed by the wave of globalisation have given rise to the preference to the new kind of self that is the combination of neoliberal theories and socialist theories about the self. It also reveals that WCA awards have constituted the self based on four technologies, which are (1) rationality, (2) autonomy and responsibility, (3) entrepreneurship, and (4) selfesteem and positivity. As for selfrealisation, the program almost equals this to dreamrealisation, with an emphasis on authenticity and a kind of fullness that reconciles personal and collective interests. However, how WCA presents these discourses is rather too idealistic, lacking senses of specificity and practicality.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES

GRADUATION PAPER

NEOLIBERAL SELF-REALISATION IN VIETNAM

AND THE CASE OF WECHOICE AWARD

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HOÁ CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

SỰ HOÀN THIỆN BẢN THÂN THEO CHỦ NGHĨA TÂN TỰ DO Ở VIỆT NAM: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA WECHOICE AWARD

Giảng viên hướng dẫn: ThS Nguyễn Diệu Hồng Sinh viên: Trần Mỹ Linh

Khoá: QH2015.F1.E2

HÀ NỘI - 2019

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Trần Mỹ Linh, QH2015.F1.E2, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited

in the library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Date

as invaluable advice that help me untangle many concepts and ideas step by step

I would also like to thank, allow me to call you my grandpa, grandpa Thua Hy You shed light on and showed me the way when I was all lost and hopeless

Thank you teacher Tu for helping me to find my inner peace and keep sanity

Thank you, Jack, for having been there for me, challenged me intellectually, and supported me emotionally Your unconditional love, support, and trust mean a lot

Finally, I am in debt to my family and friends Words cannot express my gratitude my mom, dad, aunt Lan, to my sisters Bu, Tom, Jo; my friends Quynh, Quyen, Remy, and Leonie Thank you for being so understanding and taking so well care of me Especially, mom, thank you for always doing the extra work so

I can focus on my project I am forever grateful for you

Thank you

ABSTRACT

This is a humanity-oriented research carried out with an aim to explore the neoliberal self and self-realisation in context of Vietnam, and how they are

constructed in the popular annual award WeChoice Award (WCA) presented by

VCCorp, a Vietnamese media, and communication company Adopting the Foucauldian’s theories of discourse analysis, this thesis reconstructs the historical conditions that have given rise to the neoliberal self in Vietnamese society This is achieved through a process analysing a series of historically situated practices, with an emphasis on the economic reformation (Doi moi) launched in 1986 with the introduction of the market economy, marking the entrance of neoliberalism in Vietnam Central to the study is the attempt to identify technologies that the award-winning individuals, called the “Inspiring

persons”, of WCA, use to constitute themselves through transformative

narratives It also tries to explain what self-realisation means in this specific context The findings of the study reveal that the wave of Westernisation and

cultural enlightenment in the early twentieth century, the Economic reformation

(Đổi mới), followed by the wave of globalisation have given rise to the

preference to the new kind of self that is the combination of neoliberal theories

and socialist theories about the self It also reveals that WCA awards have

constituted the self based on four technologies, which are (1) rationality, (2) autonomy and responsibility, (3) entrepreneurship, and (4) self-esteem and positivity As for self-realisation, the program almost equals this to dream-realisation, with an emphasis on authenticity and a kind of fullness that

reconciles personal and collective interests However, how WCA presents these

discourses is rather too idealistic, lacking senses of specificity and practicality

TABLE OF CONTENT

Acceptance Page

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

Table of Content iv

List of Figures vi

Key to Abbreviations vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the Research 1

1.2 Research Problems and Questions 4

1.3 Theoretical Framework 4

1.4 Mode of inquiry 6

1.5 Significance of the Study 6

1.6 Overview of the Chapters 7

CHAPTER 2: THE CONCEPTION OF THE SELF AND SELF-REALISATION 8

2.1 The Conception of the Self 8

2.2 Self-realisation 9

2.3 The Constitution of the Self & Self-realisation in Neoliberal Discourse 11

CHAPTER 3: A HISTORY OF THE CONCEPTION OF THE SELF AND SELF-REALISATION IN VIETNAM 15 3.1 The First Half of the 19th Century and Earlier: Confucianism and the

3.2 The Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century (1858 – 1945): 17

the Cultural Enlightenment and the Self-Liberation Movement 17

3.3 From 1945-1986: 20

War and Individual Freedom 20

3.4 From 1986 until Now: 22

Neoliberalism and the Continuity of the Self-liberation Movement 22

CHAPTER 4: THE CONSITUTION OF THE SELF AND SELF-REALISATION IN WECHOICE AWARD 28

4.1 The Constitution of the Self in WCA 30

4.2 Meaning of Self-realisation to Neoliberal Individuals 37

4.3 Discussion on WCA’s Constitution of the Neoliberal Self and Self-realisation 40

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 42

REFERENCES 45

APPENDIX ……… 52

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I give a brief account of the background of my research, announce the research problems and questions, describe my mode of inquiry, discuss the significance of my study, and offer an overview of the chapters

1.1 Background of the Research

By the mid-1980s, the newly reunified Vietnam had been facing serious macroeconomic imbalances that were evident in macroeconomic instability, hyperinflation, budget deficit, chronic food shortages and widespread poverty (Turner & Nguyen, 2005) In respond to these challenges, the Communist Party,

in 1986, mandated the Economic Reform policy (Đổi mới), shifting the centrally

planned economy to the market oriented one This had been proven to be a wise

and timely move, as shortly after the implementation of Đổi Mới, at the national

level, Vietnam underwent a remarkable economic growth spurt, along with social and cultural liberalisation (Freeman, 1996; Nguyen & Turner, 2005)

Simultaneously, at the individual level, Đổi mới offered new selfhood to many

of the Vietnamese population, especially the young (Nguyen, 2017; Turner & Nguyen, 2005) To be more specific, it opened up more opportunities, while also presented new set of demands for each person By the time, adopting the slogan

“prosperous people, strong nation”, the government emphasized that one could contribute to the wealth of the country by becoming affluent individually In such spirit, it went further to articulate its intention to “place young entrepreneurs at the forefront of socio-economic development” (Turner &

Nguyen, 2015) That is to say, in the era of Đổi mới, Vietnamese people started

to gain and exercise greater power to decide their destiny according to their free will Meanwhile, they were also required to be more autonomous, or, in other words, more self-contain, self-reliance and to have more self-responsibility Accordingly, the people of this new age of Vietnam needed to be self-made ones

Such perception has become more and more popular over the past two decades

in Vietnam, evident in the seemingly ceaseless rise in demand for and the ubiquity of personal development courses, self-help books, or the public admiration for successful self-made entrepreneurs These successful individuals have been recognised in different ways, namely via broadcasted talk shows such

as Talk Vietnam, and Contemporaries (Người đương thời), and a wide range of national and private awards WeChoice Award, the selected case of this study, is

one among those awards

In 2014, WeChoice Award (WCA) was introduced to the Vietnamese

public by VCCorp, a Vietnamese media, and communication company, primarily as an annual award that honours persons and projects that inspire and have a positive impact on the community Besides the humanitarian values,

WCA also claims to be the voice of Vietnamese youth, acknowledging and

promoting positive trends among the young generation (wechoice.vn, 2018) For such purpose, they include award categories, such as After the course of four

years, WCA only gains more popularity From 2017 to 2018 alone, the number

of nominations submitted has increased by 520%, from 500,000 to 2,600,000 nominations This development is attributable to VCCorp’s collaboration with

VTV24, the Vietnamese national news centre, officialising WCA as a national

TV program Two subprograms, including The inspirational journey (Hành

trình truyền cảm hứng) and WeTalk, which are the weekly broadcasted TV show

and monthly talk show at university respectively are also added, spreading the

popularity of WCA From 2014 to 2018, each year, WCA follows a specific

theme, namely “Be different to be successful (Khác biệt để thành công)”, “The inspiring journey” (Chuyến xe cảm hứng), “The inspiring boat” (Cánh buồm cảm hứng), “Calm” (Bình tĩnh sống), and “The heart’s hidden sun” (Mặt trời ẩn trong tim) With such themes, centre to the awards are still the categories of the

“Inspiring persons” and the “Inspiring ambassadors” The “Inspiring stories”,

which can be roughly described as the journey to success, all spread out the beautiful messages about self-acceptance, self-trust, and ultimately self-realisation The focus of a meaningful life, as can be interpreted from these messages, is now put on the individual self From a personal perspective, the life

stories of various “Inspiring persons” portrayed in WCA really inspire me to be

more of, and even more than who I am as a unique individual However, this is

not about ruthlessly follow what one wants and ignore others Indeed, WCA often

put the individuals into relation with those around, triggering one’s sense of responsibility as part of a community More often than not, interestingly, one can fulfill the responsibility by being oneself, drawing and working what one

has It, proven by artist Do Chi Hieu, one inspiring ambassador of WCA, starts

from the individual

The factor that sets WCA apart from many other awards available now in

Vietnam lies in its neoliberal nature To elaborate this point, I choose to compare

WCA with The Young Faces of Vietnam Award (YFVA) given that this is, based

on my research, the only other non-sector specific award that recognises successful individuals allows to some extend the participation of the public via online voting platform The critical differences between these two awards are found in four major components, which are the organiser, nominating and voting procedure, eligibility, and claimed aims First, regarding the organiser, while

YFVA is hosted by the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, a state-owned institute, WCA

is published by VCCorp, a private joint stock company Second, while the results

of YFVA are based on audience’s online vote and board of judges’ decisions

equally, WCA decides its winners based 100% on the audience’s vote Third, considering eligibility criteria, WCA seems to be more opened as it imposes no age limit like the other one Finally, the primary aim of YFVA recognise

individuals with excellent achievements that contribute to Vietnam’s

development when that of WCA is to recognise the most popular individuals,

events, products that have a huge influence on the community Apparently, while the former is more state-centred, the latter is more individual-centred In short,

from this comparison, WCA represents the distinctive characteristics of

neoliberalism since it, to a certain extent, independence from the state and rests the decision in the hand of the market – the audiences, the Internet users

Therefore, I find WCA an optimal space to explore how the neoliberal

individuals are constituted and the ways neoliberal thinking is embedded and practiced in Vietnamese societies nowadays

1.2 Research Problems and Questions

In this paper, I attempt to explore the historical conditions that have given rise to the neoliberal self in Vietnamese society This is achieved through

analysing a series of historical events, with an emphasis on the Economic

Reformation (Đổi mới) launched in 1986 with the introduction of the market

economy, marking the entrance of neoliberalism in Vietnam I also conduct a qualitative analysis of how this neoliberal self and especially the concept of self-

realisation are constituted in WCA

To put the aims of my thesis in the form of questions, I ask:

1 What are the historical conditions that have given rise to the conception

of the neoliberal self and self-realisation?

2 How are the conception of the self and self-realisation manifested in

the WeChoice Award?

In my paper, I attempt to answer these questions I also hope the understanding I offer can reveal the ways neoliberal thinking is embedded and practiced in Vietnamese society

1.3 Theoretical Framework

Considering that my research problems and questions are taken from a

construct narratives around neoliberal self-realisation in Vietnam and analyse the award That are used in my paper are discourse, self and technologies of the self

A discourse in the Foucauldian realm is collective thoughts that is put into language (Fendler, 2010) However, it is not limited only to verbal articulation, but anything that is understandable to us in a specific context, for discourse is historically specific This notion qualifies the “self” and “self-realisation” as discourses because they are understandable and have been expressed and interpreted differently in different historically situated practices Another feature

of discourse is that it is produced by a network of subjects (Fendler, 2010) For example, the discourse that this paper focuses on, neoliberal self-realisation is produced by different subjects, including “self”, “neoliberal”, and those among others The interactions between these subjects are what Foucault phrases as power relations That is to say, studying a discourse, from a Foucauldian perspective, requires adopting the genealogical approach and attending to the power relations of the subjects that produce the discourse

Additionally, regarding the subject matter of my thesis, I draw mainly on Foucault’s understanding of the self, and especially the technologies of the self

as the means human beings use to produce and constitute themselves in a certain historical context

All in all, in my thesis, I will adopt genealogical approach to recount the network of historical events that underpin the formation and transformation of the concept of the self and self-realisation Furthermore, I use his understanding about the technology of the self as the framework based on which I examine, analyse, explain and evaluate the way the self is constituted in the specific case

of WeChoice Award

1.4 Mode of inquiry

This graduation thesis is a humanities oriented study Thus, it does not follow established steps of scientific research methodologies, but guided by my research interest and theoretical perspective My mode of inquiry can be described as the process of critical reading and writing to produce an essay I draw on a wide series of news, research, books, articles, TV series that is related

to my research focus Especially, all published articles about the “Inspiring

persons” of WCA since its launch in 2014 are analysed I hope to see how it

constitutes the neoliberal self, and the self-realisation discourse then and now, when it has become much more well-organised, consistent, and somewhat complete in terms of the messages it conveys to the public

The population of my research is 40 selected “Inspiring person” of five consecutive years since 2014 until the end of 2018 Each of the subjects has their

own featuring article on the official websites of WCA Links to related news are also included there Throughout the course of four years, WCA has been

consistent in the way it portrays the subjects in these articles by providing transformative narratives of the “Inspiring persons” In other words, each of the persons has its own story that follows a specific pattern: they have changed from rather inadequate to be successful people There is a consistent theme of living one’s dream, working hard against all odds to live life to the fullest in this program

For this thesis, I offer my subjectivity along the process of synthesizing, interpreting analysing the materials

1.5 Significance of the Study

The findings of this study are of contemporary significance to the understanding of self-realisation, especially in the media discourse, under neoliberalism, which is influential in diverse spheres of life in the world in

Additionally, by providing such insights into the dissemination of neoliberalism

in Vietnamese society, the study is also expected to contribute to the

understanding of local variations of neoliberal discourse

1.6 Overview of the Chapters

After chapter 1, chapter 2 reviews the understanding of the concept of self, self-realisation and vehicle of self-realisation before fitting these concepts

in the context of neoliberalism

Chapter 3 outlines and explains historical events and trends that gave rise

to the conception of self and self-realisation in Vietnamese society The genealogical account provided in the chapter proves that it was not until the early twentieth century that the concept of the self an individuality emerged in Vietnamese culture The development and transformation in the understanding

of this concept has continued until the present time in a non-linear path and been profoundly affected by both national and international trends at the time

In chapter 4, I analyse the narratives in the official articles about the

“Inspiring persons” of WCA to see how the concept of self-realisation is

constituted I also examine the influences of neoliberalism on the way the individuals are constituted or constitute themselves

Finally, chapter 5 summarises the historical conditions that given rise to the concept of self and self-realisation in Vietnam in the context of

neoliberalism, briefly comments on how WCA contributes to the phenomenon,

and discusses the limitations of the study

CHAPTER 2 THE CONCEPTION OF THE SELF AND SELF-REALISATION

This chapter lays the groundwork for my thesis by defining what the concepts of “the self” and “self-realisation” denote However, I have to admit that these concepts are rather difficult to pin down to an unequivocal meaning Therefore, instead of providing a clear-cut definition, I attempt to base on the discussion from a range of relevant literature to bring to the fore the complex nature of the examined concepts Thereby, in the first part, my discussion will draw the distinction as well as the interdependence of the three concepts of

“self”, “individual”, and “person” In the second part, I discuss the subsections underpinning the concept of “self-realisation” before making sense of the concept in the neoliberal context

2.1 The Conception of the Self

In the literature concerning what the term ‘self’ really denotes, some scholars raise the contradistinction between the ‘self’ and the ‘person’, arguing that while the former refers to inwardness, deep internal values, and private life, the latter is associated with outwardness, superficial appearance, and public life (Ferrera, 2001) In his article, Harris (1989) adds another concept of ‘individual’ into the discussion and distinguishes among the three terms According to him,

‘individual’ is defined as ‘member of humankind’, denoting the characteristics

of ‘normal’ individuals that distinguish itself from other being based on culturally divergent criteria Meanwhile, ‘self’ is considered ‘locus of experience’ In this sense, there is an emphasis on the duality of the self

In one aspect, the self is subject, author of behaviors known to their author as the latter’s own and so distinguished from the behaviors of any other someone

In its other aspect, the self is an object some aspects of which are brought within its own purview by the normal human capacity for noticing one’s noticing (Harris, 1989, p 602)

In the discursive discourse on the self, the continuity of the self and of identity is also brought into consideration The identity is a ‘unity upon the diversity of our self-experiences for the sake of feeling secure and reassured’; it transforms over time, as a ‘transcendental feature inherent in all human beings’ (Ferrera, 2001, p.11241) Finally, the concept of ‘person’ is understood as ‘agent

in society’ Drawing on ethnographical accounts of the use of the three terms,

he argues that they are interrelated in conceptualizing ‘human being’

Considering the fact that the concept of self-realisation, as I justify in the later part, cannot exist in the absence of either of the biological, psychological and social aspect of the human being, I draw on Harris’s finding on the inter-relatability of the three concepts, which are “individual”, “self”, and “person”,

to refer to the subjects chosen for this study Each subject is a distinguishable individual, a cultural and historical construction, an accumulation of various investments, namely education, nutrition, and training, as well as love and affection (Foucault, as cited in Hamann, 2009) I, thus, use the three terms interchangeably throughout my discussion

2.2 Self-realisation

It is important to understand what it means for a person to attain realisation This matter has been seen through various types of lens offered by different traditions of thought throughout history The full definition I use in this paper will only become clear in subsections as I present below

self-2.2.1 Authenticity

The conception of authenticity as the underpinning of self-realisation emphasizes the liberation of the self from constricting forces of the society, roles, and institutions, etc (Ferrara, 2001) This view necessitates the need to live

an authentic life, in which the individual projects to the world a “true self” living creatively (Winnicott, 1965) In this light, the individual is both the designer and

material of his own life Consequently, according to aesthetic modernist, namely Baudelaire and Nietzsche, his end-product must be in opposition to established ones that conform to the demands of society and culture (Ferrera, 2001) Whereas, drawing on the understanding of Mounier’s personalism or Habermas’s intersubjective view of subjectivity, whose views supported by authors such as Rousseau Schiller, Herder, Kierkegaard, it is impossible to set apart the social expectations, roles, and institutions from the individual’s perception of self-realisations they contribute to the sensible of “self-realisation”

in certain historical context

2.2.2 Fullness

There is an inherent sense of fullness in self-realisation

First of all, Elster (1986) associates this fullness with Marx’s ideas of an individual bringing to actuality all of his powers and abilities to achieve the good life The author expresses and justifies his favour on the idea of developing oneself into a master of one trade (in opposition to the jack-of-all-trades)

Second, according to the consequentialist point of view, as Ferarra (2001) cited, the degree of fullness a person’s life may reach depends greatly on the impact it has on the external world Meanwhile, as indicated by exemplary proponents, the measure of fulfillment is provided by success in meeting ‘a challenge that carries a unique significance for the person’, independently of the impact of such success on the external world

2.2.3 Freedom

In his work, Elster (1986) put a great emphasis on the role of freedom in the process of self-realisation as a whole He argues that being free to choose whatever power and ability an individual wishes to work on whenever he feels right, is the fundamental conditions that render self-realisation possible

Otherwise, if the choices are not made out of the individual’s own will but of others, it will no longer be self-realisation

2.2.4 Actualisation and Externalisation

Elster (1986) also points out the two more different aspects of realisation, which are self-actualisation and self- externalisation Regarding the

self-former, he claims that it is conditioned by two pari passu processes – the

development and deployment of the subject’s abilities and powers in order to become “all that one is capable of being to develop ones fullest potential” (Kaur,

2013, p 1062) As for the latter, externalisation, this process matters for, as explained by Elster, it is not enough to only deploy an ability outside of the public domain He considers this ‘consumption’ rather than self-realisation Thus, to attain self-realisation, there is a need for the subjects to make known their abilities and powers to other people, or in other words, bring themselves to the public domain This argument is strengthen by Hegel’s assertion:

The most important value for human beings is self-esteem Self-esteem derives largely from the esteem accorded one by other people Esteem requires something that can be esteemed, some form of externalisation of one's inner self It is of no avail to be a "beautiful soul" if the soul remains ineffable and mute; the self must be made part of die public domain (Elster, 1986, p.118)

To summarise, the five subsections discussed above, including authenticity, fullness, freedom, actualisation, and externalisation are essential to render self-realisation possible In other words, only by satisfying all of the five subsections can one claim to attain self-realisation

2.3 The Constitution of the Self and Self-realisation in Neoliberal

Discourse

This part offers a brief account of how neo-liberalism developed out of the classical liberalism, and how human beings in the apparatus of neoliberalism constitute themselves

2.3.1 Neo-liberalism

The classical liberalism established itself since the late eighteenth century as the

“outstanding doctrine of Western civilisation” (Lasky, 1936, p.9) It trusted the role of ‘the invisible hand of the market’ as the drive of economic development; they call for the rational basis of self-determination as the prerequisite of self-development, and responsible power as the corollary of liberty, while demanded minimum state intervention (Turner, 2008) However, by the early twentieth century, in light of the decline of the laissez-faire liberalism and the rise of collectivism from the 1930s which not only breached the fundamental values of individual liberty but might also bring about economic catastrophe, liberals urged and initiated the revival of liberalism, with reconsiderations on the role of the state and the free market This somewhat new variant liberalism developed into the then known “neoliberalism”, coined by Alexander Rustow, a German economist to distinguish the pro-collectivist liberal ethos from the classical liberalism (Turner, 2008) The emergence of neoliberalism in the 1930s and 1940s was the backlash of collectivism This ideology continued to develop until

it came to dominance in the Western societies by the 1970s, before spreading its influence throughout the rest of the world with the wave of globalisation until

now

2.3.2 The New Selfhood Offered by Neoliberalism

As can be seen from the account above, individual liberty and economic efficiency are the most important factors that underpin neoliberal dogma Such notion is supported by David Harvey when he defines neoliberalism:

Neoliberalism is in the first instance a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade (David, 2007, p.2-3)

This quotation highlights the idea that under the influence of neoliberalism, individuals are given greater capacity for freedom for self-development They have greater power to decide their destiny according to their free will, not others’ Meanwhile, with greater power comes greater responsibility Indeed, the individuals is required to be autonomous, which can be roughly interpreted as to

be more self-contained, self-reliance with the absolute self-responsibility The competitiveness of the market-oriented society that neoliberals advocate also requires perpetual and consistent improvement of the self to maximize its values

to meet the requirements of the neoliberal society (Olssen, 2006)

To conclude, in the neoliberal apparatus, the self is constituted as free and autonomous This is not an absolute freedom, though, but one ‘governable via continual self-monitoring and self-disciplining’ (Besley, 2010; Gershon, 2011; Kiersey, 2009; Rose, 1999; Walkerdine, 2003)

2.3.3 The Constitution of the Self in Neoliberal Discourse

The last notion from the previous part touches on an important aspect when it comes to the discourse of the neoliberal self – that is how the self is constituted According to Michael Foucault, individuals produce themselves based on the so-call “technology of the self” This is one of the four technologies, which are technology of products, technology of power, and technology of sign systems, that a human employs to operate in the society according to the French philosopher Essentially, “technology of the self” refers to the methods and techniques that human uses to produce and regulate their bodies, thoughts, and ways of being to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, and so on This technology is indeed a product of the interplay between the

“micro-relations of the people and microstructures of forces of power” Guitart, 2010, p.11) Therefore, though on surface, technology of the self appears to be a means of self-training to achieve personal goals, it is actually a method to integrate the self into the normative society In other words,

(Esteban-governmental and social administrative structures, representing themselves in norms of thought and behaviour, formulate humans’ understanding of themselves and of how to constitute themselves accordingly Additionally, Foucault also stated that in certain historically situated practice, technology of the self is subject to a certain type of domination The interaction between them

is known as governmentality, and as Hamann put it, “Neoliberal governmentality is the strategic production of social conditions conducive to the constitution of Homo economicus, the form of subjectivity which traces its roots

in traditional neoliberalism” (2009, p.38)

3.1 The First Half of the 19 th Century and Earlier: Confucianism and the Constrained Self

In the following discussion, I pin point main force that influenced Vietnamese civilisation that contributed to this phenomenon – Confucianism Entering Vietnam as early as 111 BCE, is Confucianism, which was introduced

and reinforced in Vietnam by Chinese rulers over the next millennium

During their rule, Chinese leaders carried out many comprehensive projects to assimilate the then Nam-Viet people (Goscha, 2016), including the introduction and integration of Confucianism as the dominant dogma The teaching of Confucianism was profound, though could be highlighted in three main features, namely the strict conformity to hierarchy, the stress on correct behaviours, and the disparity between the elite and the ordinary This practice affected Nam-Viet and later, Vietnamese people’s sense of “self” and

“individuality” It is noteworthy, however, that at the time, these concepts had not came to the Vietnamese language yet, but much later in the first decades of the twentieth century (Marr, 2000)

Regarding the first two features, under the strict Confucius hierarchical ruling scheme, unless they were the one who were endowed the power, the individuals did not have the right to make any decision, even those that were most fundamental to their existence and well-being, including the matter of life

or death, picking a partner to get married to, and so on The parts of the society

that could decide were the fathers, the authorities, the royal family and ultimately, the king To illustrate, the father’s power extended to the degree that,

as described in Nguyen (2017, p.312): “the father possesses the absolute power

in educating, punishing his children; arranging their marriages without their consent; deprive their heirship, [ ]” This quotation illustrates the lack of personal freedom and the important of roles in the Confucian hierarchical social system People were trained to obedient individuals who must fulfil their

ascribed roles by abiding by sets of correct behaviours, such as the way of

gentlemen, or three obedience and four virtues for woman

As for the last feature, strict hierarchical practices divided the society into two main classes, which were the officials and the ordinary The former group, made up of scholars, which were highly respected in Confucian culture, was considered the rulers, while the latter was the ruled The rulers could enjoy many advantages, for example, in a village festival, they would always get the nicest piece of pork (Nguyen, 2017) They were the ones who had the power and were above the rest of the population Therefore, many Vietnamese would not mind going the extra mile to earn a position in the authority board, either by learning hard to pass the Confucius examination, or involving in corruption The intellectual path was, as a result, the only path that led to a fulfilling life to the majority of Vietnamese who were still struggling with poverty All these practices led Vietnamese people to value intellectual professions more than any other ones while showing disgust and disrespect towards vocations such as manual work, and especially trading (Nguyen, 2017)

To conclude, the Vietnamese individuals in this period preferred likeness, non-differences among each other; they sought harmony and avoid conflict, prioritized the sense of belonging and neglected the need for self-liberating Meanwhile, they were also highly constrained The consciousness of one’s self independently was barely developed Indeed, the concept of “individual” had

belonging to something more significant Therefore, to realise oneself meant to fulfil their role within their family, community, or, in other words, to become a responsible member of the society, and a loyal citizen of the nation

3.2 The Late 19 th Century and Early 20 th Century (1858 – 1945): the

Cultural Enlightenment and the Self-Liberation Movement

The first three decades of the 20th is a critical period whose many events contributed to the establishment of the self-liberating movement in Vietnamese society These years fall into the normal phase of the French colonial paradigm (1886 – 1919) By this time, the French had accomplished their pacification

comprehensive exploitation and enlightenment projects The enlightenment aspiration which stimulated critical cultural and educational reforms is the most important to our discussion in this paper

In fact, in order to gradually replace the Chinese influence with the Western one, the French authorities carried out various profound educational reforms, focusing on three main points as following

First, they opened a lot more Franco – Vietnamese schools in urban and rural areas alike where they followed a westernised syllabus, and used only French and “chữ quốc ngữ” as the official language of instruction

Second, with more schools, and important reformed educational policies including the abolishment of the male-exclusive examination system, French colonial education was extended to a wider range the Vietnamese population, opened doors to women, the other half of Vietnamese population that were previously excluded completely from the academic sphere under the Sino – Vietnamese system For about twenty years since the mid-1920s, there had been

an increase of 5000 intellectuals (Goscha, 2016) nationwide In 1934, thanks to the new educational system, Vietnam had its first women doctor, Henriette Bui Quang Chieu

Third, the combination of the expansion of education, the popularisation

of “chữ quốc ngữ”, and the introduction of printing offered Vietnamese population new realms of knowledge: new scientific ideas, technological advances, literary models, and most important of all, new philosophical horizons

This philosophical encounter was fundamental to the rise of liberal movement taking place in Vietnam in the early 1930s It was then that individualism and then-traditional liberalism gained access to Vietnamese peoples’ life We are discussing about the two cultures in their most humanist form Their guiding principles focused on freedom of choice and freedom of action, and the stress on ‘individual worth as well as their ability to improve themselves and the society through rational thoughts’ (Goscha, 2016) instead of blind obedience like before All of these ideas, despite being obviously exotic to the locals at the time, were quickly latched on by Vietnamese young intellectuals

Actually, the concern about the self and self-liberation was first brought

to the public notion in the 1920s by Nguyen An Ninh in his personal speech in Sai Gon:

You must struggle against your milieu, against the family that paralyzes your effort, against this vulgar society weighing you down, against the narrow, hampering prejudices that stop at every turn your actions, against ignoble, humiliating, terribly humiliating and lackluster ideas which lower your race with every passing day […] The greatest idealists have always conseuled those who want to follow them to leave ‘the house of their fathers’ And we, too, the youth today, must also leave the house of our fathers We must leave our family, free ourselves from this society, separate from our country […] That is to say that once we, the Annamese who have been given the chance to be conscious

of our own worth, the highest possible form of worth being that of the individual and the law governing the world, when we will return to Annam (Goscha, 2016)

This quotation is an urging call for the liberation of the individual from

prejudiced, repressive society, accusing it of impeding individual growth The individual is thus encouraged to fight for their freedom by becoming independent, autonomous and self-conscious

The individual-liberating movement, led by a group of intellectuals known as The Self-strengthening Literary Movement (Tự Lực Văn Đoàn), then busted in the following decade in Hanoi The group consisted of seven key members, who were Nhat Linh (Nguyen Tuong Dam), Hoang Dao (Nguyen Tuong Long), Thach Lam (Nguyen Tuong Lan), Khai Hung (Tran Khanh Du),

Tu Mo (Ho Trong Hieu), The Lu (Nguyen Thu Le), and Xuan Dieu (Ngo Xuan Dieu) They were all chidren of mandarine families, highly educated, and were perfectly at ease at both French and “chữ quốc ngữ” The group also invited other like-minded intellectuals working as artists, writers, poets, and cartoonist

to join the Vietnam’s first published liberation of the individual on the cultural front

Their prime goal, as put by Khai Hung, was to urge the individuals to

“achieve liberation, break with the oppressive structures that had, by fooling him, led him down the wrong path […] The individual must decide for himself” (Goscha, 2016)

To realise such goal, they established two notable newspapers in ‘chữ

quốc ngữ’, which were Phong Hóa (Culture) and Ngày Nay (The

Contemporary) The two regular newspapers featuring essays that diminished

and assaulted Confucian traditions, while promoting Westernisation and the liberation of the individual They went further to establish a set of work ethics featuring ten principles, all of which promoted originality, traditional values, and

“individual freedom”

Especially in this period, the individuals became notably more expressive and vocal First, to free up the expression of the individuals, many of the authors

started to use the personal pronoun ‘I’ – ‘tôi’ in their writings and communicated very personal feelings to the public, which was not the case in the earlier era (Marr, 2000) Additionally, apart from the unconventional use of the personal pronoun, the authors expressed their long to ‘walk free’ in numerous novels whose main characters at the beginning were victims of the oppressive hierarchical system, but eventually managed to break free, even with an extreme

solution as suicide Some of the typical examples in this genre are To Tam by Hoang Ngoc Phach, The midst of spring by Khai Hung, and Breaking the ties by

Nhat Linh

To conclude, in this period, Vietnamese people, especially the intellectuals in urban area had become more aware of the self and self-worth There emerged a new definition of self-realisation here, which was closely linked to the liberation of the individual from the suffocating hold of the old order

3.3 From 1945-1986: War and Individual Freedom

The self-liberal movement during the 1930s cooled down in the next few decades as there were more pressing matters emerged: the warfare Decades of war affected the individual liberty profoundly In underwent the process of marginalisation and oppressively normalisation, which are discussed below

This was marked with the Japanese occupation of Vietnam, as part of its immediately war plan against China, and of its long-term imperial plan across Indochina While the Japanese tried to force their own imperial propaganda, other powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, and Vietnamese neighbor, China, actively promoted their own cultural diplomacies in Vietnam Meanwhile, the French also fought hard to maintain its colonial culture

So, during this time, there were more of ideologies whose fundamental values undermined the individual liberty instilled in Vietnam, than those

promoting sense of independence and liberation That is not to mention, the methods and schemes that all parties, even the French and its personalism, used

in their competition for Vietnamese hearts and minds were rather oppressive and controlling at the core Meanwhile, regarding the internal condition in Vietnam, incessant wars and the national liberty being at risks were the two factors, as discussed earlier in this paper, contributed to the re-emergence of collectivism

in Vietnam during this period The individual needs and interests became subsidiary as the priority was then to reclaim the national independence

When the war was over in the North, the Vietnamese government adopted

a Leninist communist approach in forming a new independent, liberal, and happy Vietnam One obvious problem was that, according to Nguyen (2017), Vietnamese government was rather authoritarian and totalitarian Two of the policies that are most important to the subject matter of this paper is the central planning and state provision ones These had been the practices in Western Europe in the earlier years of the 20th century, and criticized by Western neoliberals, including Hayek, Lippman, and so on, to be detrimental to human freedom While communist economic planning is closely linked to dictatorship (Hayek, 2001; Finer, 1946), state provision posed a threat to freedom as the service based mainly on welfare policies that coerced individuals into a paternalistic and authoritarian system, falling to take into accounts individual needs and interest (Hayek, 2001) They, as, Hayek argued, indicates a social vision that is incompatible with a free society

Then, the unification of the whole Vietnam in 1975 marked the leaders’ achievement of the territorial state known as “modern Vietnam” today Ever since then, the Communist Party had implemented throughout the country socialist precepts of Marxism and Leninism, which had been applied in Northern Vietnam after the defeat of the French forces in 1954 The ruling scheme adopted

by the party was acknowledged by its own members at the Sixth Congress in

1986 to indicate a tendency to “control the whole show” (Thayer, 1992) Moreover, the decision-making process was also mainly conducted by a few chosen political elite, though there were quite evident attempts nationwide to incorporate a variety of state members through informal consultations (Gainsborough, 2011) Furthermore, worried about the fragile nature of their newly unitary states, the communist and their Confucian predecessor were determined to impose unflinching loyalty right down to the lowest levels of state and society They wanted people in command, and direct rule

One example is how the Party controlled how writers, poet, etc represented the war The war had to be glorified, etc and anyone trying to bring the ugly, deadly face of the war or the party to light would be shut down It was not the case in the south though, under the rule of the republic of Vietnam government

In this period, once again, Vietnamese people fall back into the net of oppression, collective interests, lack of self-awareness and lack of motivation to attain self-realisation, which were understandable in the rather gloomy context

of the newly independent, but isolated and struggling nation

3.4 From 1986 until Now: Neoliberalism and the Continuity of the liberation Movement

Self-The period from 1986 until the time this paper was conducted can be considered the continuity at a higher and more comprehensive level of the self-liberation movement launched in the 1930s but disrupted by warfare and a prolonged period of close-door policy

There two major factor that explain the need for a new kind of self is Vietnam’s economic reform in neoliberal direction, and the explosion of the information technology services, namely the Internet, satellite radio and cable

TV, fostering the third wave of globalisation in Vietnam

With regard to the former factor, by 1986, the prospect of Vietnam had not been positive The socialist economic model, not being implemented as robustly as in the Soviet Union, the prolonged Vietnam – American war, the border conflicts with China in 1979, the occupation of Cambodia from 1979 to

1989, as well as the weakening Soviet Union put great pressure on the local economic environment and even led to “very serious macroeconomic imbalances” (Irvin, 1995, p.726) This was evident in uncontrollable inflation and budget deficit, along with severe food shortage and poverty In such a situation, economic reform appeared to be inevitable In the Sixth National Communist Party Congress taking place in December that the state initiated the

critical economic renovation program called Đổi mới which was in accordance

with the global neoliberal trend

The priority of Đổi mới was to alleviate the country’s economy by

converting the central control economic system to a market-oriented one through

a range of strategies These included decentralisation, de-collectivisation, diversification, fostering multi-sector economy, private ownership, and foreign trade and investment More importantly, the focus then was shifted to the development of the individuals, especially the young With its slogan

“prosperous people, strong nation”, the government emphasized that one can contribute to the wealth of the country by becoming affluent individually In such spirit, it went further to articulate its intention to “place young entrepreneurs at the forefront of socio-economic development” (Turner & Nguyen, 2015) That is to say, it was not until the economic reform in 1986 that the personal wealth, as well as individual liberty, became of greater matter than

in the collective culture before It was then the time for heightened awareness of the individual Such a heightened awareness of the self is inherent under the influence of neoliberalism around the globe (Ferge, 1997; Layton, 2010; Nafstad, 2002) It provided the conditions for and imposed contemporary