This paper was presented at the 13th Annual Singapore Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian Studies on July 25, 2018 at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
Presentation title: Reading and Misreading: From Temple of European Knowledge to Public Space of Vietnamese Modernity and Social Life, 1919-1941
Slides: Cindy Nguyen Hanoi Central Library Reading Room ARI NUS July 2018 Final
Please cite all images and parts of the paper to Cindy A. Nguyen
Video of Presentation:
Q&A:
Abstract:
This talk examines the transformation of library reading in colonial Vietnam from a symbol of French modernity to an everyday practice of Vietnamese modernity and social life. Focused on the 1920’s and 1930’s Central Library Reading Room in Hanoi, I demonstrate the ways in which Vietnamese students, urban readers, and administrators challenged and redefined the meaning of the library into a Vietnamese space of public sociability, self-learning, and global knowledge.
Continue reading “READING AND MISREADING – Presentation at ARI NUS, Singapore July 2018”