A Diaspora Under Two Flags

2025-12-08

Vietnam’s long civil war produced two different migration streams to Europe – one of students and workers sent to the former socialist countries of Russia, Czechia, and East Germany, and another of refugees sent to France, West Germany, and North America. Today, these Cold War polarities live on in separate ethnic enclaves, often referred to as “Little Hanois” (associated with the red flag) and “Little Saigons” (the yellow flag). A growing number of Vietnamese Buddhist temples try to bridge these divisions but often end up forced to accommodate these differences, linked to competing Buddhist associations with their own political histories and contrasting ethnic nationalisms.

L’immaginazione personale e teologica di Pha. m Công Tac

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · 2024-06-01

Il testo esplora il ruolo dei movimenti religiosi nel contesto post-coloniale, concentrandosi sul Caodaismo in Vietnam e sul suo leader, Phạm Công Tắc. Sottolinea l'innovazione e l'attivismo del Caodaismo nel promuovere una nuova idea di cittadinanza e purezza personale, opponendosi agli stereotipi orientalisti e sostenendo un programma anti-coloniale. Tắc è descritto come un innovatore che ha profondamente influenzato la nascita della nuova religione, ma la sua leadership ha anche causato divisioni all'interno della comunità. Il testo collega Tắc a teorie antropologiche e post-coloniali riguardanti il nazionalismo e la resistenza contro la dominazione francese, talvolta paragonandolo a M.K. Gandhi.

Race as a Religious Destiny: the Vietnamese as “God’s Chosen People” in French Indochina

2023-03-23

In 1926, a new syncretistic religion was founded by the educated but dis-enfranchised Vietnamese employees of the French colonial administration in Saigon, Indochina. “Caodaism” (the worship of the “highest power”) was officially called “The Great Way of the Third Era of Redemption” (Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ), and presented an Asian fusion of millenarian and monotheistic beliefs. Caodaists adopted the idea that one race or people may be “chosen” for a special spiritual mission from Christian teachings, but inverted the sense in which it was applied. Instead of talking of a “mission civilisatrice” or a “white man’s burden”, Caodaists argued that Asia was the true home of all religious teachings and the Vietnamese, having experienced the most intense colonization in East Asia and the most repressive colonial regime, had for this reason been honored with the mission of announcing the single origin of all religions to the rest of humanity. I call this idea of the Vietnamese as the “new chosen people” an idea of race as a religious destiny, and situate it within the context of debates about syncretism, mimicry and the deification of white heroes. A discourse initially phrased in terms of race, and influenced by turn of the century notions of Social Darwinism, was transformed by the 1940s into one of nation and a “national religion” which would also be realized as a global faith of redemption. The historical development of these notions is traced from 1920 to 1954, with reflections on the relationships between race, religion and nation from the perspective of colonial and postcolonial studies.

On not eating onions and grains: conspicuous non-consumption in the new Vietnamese religion of Caodaism

2023-08-16

Spirit Possession in Buddhist Southeast Asia: Worlds Ever More Enchanted

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology · 2022 · 2 citations

• History
• Ancient history
• Philosophy

"Spirit Possession in Buddhist Southeast Asia: Worlds Ever More Enchanted." The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 23(4-5), pp. 417–418

Chapter 4 Can a Hierarchical Religion Survive without Its Center? Caodaism, Colonialism, and Exile

Berghahn Books · 2022

• Sociology
• History
• Sociology

Refugees in the Land of Awes

2021-01-01

On not eating onions and grains: conspicuous non-consumption in the new Vietnamese religion of Caodaism

Food Culture & Society · 2021-08-23

The conspicuous consumption of luxurious foods and goods is a way to display an elite standing in the material world. In Asian religions, the conspicuous non-consumption of certain foods can mark an elite standing in the spiritual world. Caodaism is a new Vietnamese religion founded in the early 20th century which combines Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism with Theosophy, French Spiritism and Roman Catholicism. Caodaism today is the third largest religion in Vietnam (after Buddhism and Catholicism) and has 6 million followers worldwide. Observations at a Caodai vegetarian restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City prompted me to investigate the differences between the temporal restrictions of its “exoteric” branch (which emphasizes proselytizing, building cathedrals, and fighting for social justice), and an “esoteric” branch (which focuses on self-cultivation, spiritual discipline and séances). Exoteric Caodaists practice vegetarianism for 6–10 days a month, but Esoteric Caodaists avoid not just meat and animal products but also onions, garlic, caffeine, chilis, refrigerated water and sometimes even rice. Associated with the Buddhist avoidance of five pungent vegetables and Taoist avoidance of the five grains, the conspicuous non-consumption of all of these is a sign of elevated spiritual rank in this syncretistic faith and the ability to have “conversations with divinities” in meditation or spirit seances.

Contributors

2021-01-01

and was research fellow in Oxford, Rabat, Paris, and Dakar.In her current research, she studies the role of the Catholic Church in

13. Caodai Exile and Redemption: A New Vietnamese Religion’s Struggle for Identity

Rutgers University Press eBooks · 2020-12-31 · 3 citations