North-South by East-West

Peter van der Veer, Tam Ngo

- completed -

This project studies the interactions and mutual understandings of North-Vietnamese and South Vietnamese in Germany after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The North Vietnamese have come to East Germany as students and guest workers from one Communist country to another. The South Vietnamese have come to West Germany in fleeing a Communist regime. After the Fall of the Wall, they are confronted with each other, with their memories, and with a post-communist situation in Germany and a post-socialism with Vietnamese characteristics in Vietnam. The fieldwork is primarily carried out in Berlin. This fieldwork will be expanded with work among the Vietnamese in the Netherlands and in France.