Dreaming of Money in Ho Chi Minh City

Allison J. Truitt

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780295804620
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Social Sciences

The expanding use of money in contemporary Vietnam has been propelled by the rise of new markets, digital telecommunications, and an ideological emphasis on money's autonomy from the state. People in Vietnam use the metaphor of "open doors" to describe their everyday experiences of market liberalization and to designate the end of Vietnam's postwar social isolation and return to a consumer- oriented environment. Dreaming of Money in Ho Chi Minh City examines how money is redefining social identities, moral economies, and economic citizenship in Vietnam. It shows how people use money as a standard of value to measure social and moral worth, how money is used to create new hierarchies of privilege and to limit freedom, and how both domestic and global monetary politics affect the cultural politics of identity in Vietnam. Drawing on interviews with shopkeepers, bankers, vendors, and foreign investors, Allison Truitt explores the function of money in everyday life. From counterfeit currencies to streetside lotteries, from gold shops to crowded temples, she relates money's restructuring to performances of identity. By locating money in domains often relegated to the margins of the economy-households, religion, and gender- she demonstrates how money is shaping ordinary people's sense of belonging and citizenship in Vietnam.

INDEX

1-đồng notes, 115

1-hào notes, 31

$2 bills, 77–78

2-hào notes, 31

20-pastre note, 24f

50-đồng notes, 35

$100 bills, 62, 65, 76, 85, 105–6

100-đồng notes, 29f, 32f, 37, 115

100-piastre note, 30f

200-đồng coin, 117–18

200-đồng notes, 94, 115

500 đồng notes, 34f, 115

500 piastre notes, 25–26

50,000-đồng notes. See fifty-thousand-đồng notes

200,000-đồng notes, 118, 123

500,000 đồng notes, 116–17, 118

ancestor consciousness. See spirit money

animal imagery, 33, 34f

anthropologists, perspectives of, 6–8

Army of the Republic of Vietnam, 9, 34. See also military backgrounds, disadvantages/advantages

Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), 119–20

ATMs, 120–25, 168n19

Bà Chúa Kho, 95–96, 99

Bà Chúa Xứ, 95–96

bad luck vs. misfortune, 141–42

bangles, gold, 70, 138

Bank of Indochina, 22–23, 25, 32

bank sector, retail, 119–25, 168n17, n19. See also National Bank of Vietnam; State Bank of Vietnam

bars, gold, 69, 70–71, 105–6

battlefield story, dollarization, 65

Bến Thành market, 106–7

Bến Tre market, 52, 55

Bernard, Paul, 25

big money, 76, 114–16

billboard slogans, 8–9

black market label, 48

blessings, temple deities, 94–99, 130–31, 136. See also spirit money

borrowed money, supernatural powers, 95–99

Bourdieu, Pierre, 165n1, 167n11

branded objects, value assessment, 106

Bretton Woods system, 32, 63–64, 68

Buddhism, 99

Bùi Giáng’s money, 84–85, 93

burning of money, 27, 33, 87, 88f, 95, 101–2

buying hope, lottery tickets, 130–34

Cambodia, 20, 30, 165n34

capitalism, global, 3, 6, 9–10, 12–13, 15–16, 148–49

ca...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on Place Names
• Introduction
• One: The Making of Vietnamese Money
• Two: Renovating Households
• Three: Dollars Are for Keeping
• Four: Summoning Spirits
• Five: The Qualities of Money
• Six: Dodging, or Street-Level Strategies for Personal Gain
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index