Despite its 3,000 kilometre coastline, few people see Vietnam as a maritime country. In A Maritime Vietnam, Li Tana presents a powerful new argument about Vietnamese history: that key political changes resulted from the impact, economic and otherwise, of the sea. This is a finely layered account covering the two millennia before colonisation that radically restructures how we understand the role of the maritime and trans-regional in Vietnam’s early history. Drawing on exhaustive research of Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese sources, Li reveals that it is only when viewed against the background of the sea that Vietnam’s past can be properly understood. In contrast to traditional perceptions of an inward-looking society dominated by Chinese cultural influence, Vietnam was shaped by dynamic littoral economic and cultural contact.
Li Tana is currently a senior fellow at the College of Asia and Pacific Studies, the Australian National University. She is interested in the maritime and environmental histories of Vietnam and southern China, from the 2nd BCE to the late 19th centuries. Her works include The Nguyen Cochinchina (SEAP, Cornell 1998); Water Frontier: Commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong Region, 1750-1880 (co-ed with Cooke, 2004), Gulf of Tongking Through History (Co-ed. with Cooke and Anderson, 2011), and Anthony Reid and the Study of the Southeast Asian Past (Co-ed with Geoff Wade, ISEAS, 2012).
Participants are asked to read the Introduction and Chapter 8 of A Maritime Vietnam. The book can be accessed and downloaded via the UBC Library: https://go.exlibris.link/3zRS5Hk4. If you encounter trouble accessing the readings, please email qhuang98@mail.ubc.ca to enquire about PDF files.
The conversation will begin with brief remarks from Professor Li about the motivation behind the book. Participants will be invited to share their own reflections, thoughts, and connections made with the assigned chapters. Light lunch will be provided. All are welcome; no RSVP required.
Professor Li will also be giving a talk on her book on the same day, from 3 PM to 5:30 PM. For more information, please visit https://sppga.ubc.ca/events/event/maritime-vietnam/.
