Living with Heritage in Contemporary Vietnam

Stan BH Tan-Tangbau is Vietnamologist. He has carried out extensive research in Vietnam since 1997 about agrarian change in the Mekong Delta, coffee pioneer fronts, frontier and state formation in the Central Highlands, historical-geography of the transborder railway from Hải Phòng to Kunming in Yunnan (China), and jazz in Vietnam. His book, Chơi Jazz ở Việt Nam (OmegaPlus), won a Vietnam National Book Prize in 2023, while the original English edition, Playing Jazz in Socialist Vietnam (University Press of the Mississippi), came in second for the EuroSEAS 2022 Humanities Book Prize. Between 2009 and 2018, Stan founded and directed Kachin Life Stories, a public digital anthropology project he designed for the Kachin people originating from Myanmar, China, and India.

Phạm Quỳnh Phương is Associate Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University of Hà Nội. She is Author of many articles published in national and international journals and a number of books such as Hero and Deity: Trần Hưng Đạo and the Resurgence of Popular Religion in Vietnam (Silkworm Books), Gender, Empowerment and Development: Gender Relations from the Perspective of Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam (Thế Giới Publisher), Social Change in Contemporary Vietnam - A Study of the Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Movements (Social Science Publishing House). With over 25 years of experience in the field, Phương has dedicated her career to the study of cultural and social change in contemporary Vietnamese society, with a particular focus on issues related to ethnic minorities, intangible heritage, popular religion, gender and sexuality, and social movements.

Trần Thị An is Associate Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University of Hà Nội. She is Expert in Vietnamese folklore, cultural studies, and heritage studies. An has carried out numerous research projects and has published widely in Vietnamese and English, both in Vietnam and internationally. Her book, Characteristics of Folk Legends and Documentation of Vietnamese Folk Legends (Vietnam Social Science Publishing House, 2014), was awarded second prize by the Vietnam Association of Folk Arts and a Vietnam National Book Prize in 2015. An previously worked for 29 years at the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), where she served as Head of the Folklore Division in the Institute of Literature and Director of the Scientific Management Department of VASS.