Cu Chi tunnels: Vietnamese transmigrant's perspective

Abstract

Made famous during the Vietnam War as underground passages of the Viet Cong guerillas, the Cu Chi Tunnels historical site is a tourist attraction, commonly associated with a kind of low-brow entertainment aimed at foreign visitors. This article expands the scholarship of this site using auto-ethnographic and qualitative survey research methods. Aimed at agitating Cu Chi’s kitsch and political associations, the author considers the Vietnamese market economy and the reversed-migration flows, in order to contextualize Cu Chi as an identity-negotiation nexus for transmigrant Vietnamese professionals. Particular focus is placed on how visitation to Cu Chi tunnels and the abstention of visitation can allude to the participant’s heritage affiliations. Show more