The North Vietnamese government failed to assimilate the Chinese community in North Vietnam before the late 1970s mainly because of the influence of China. The Vietnamese attempt to speed up the assimilation process and the collapse of Sino-Vietnamese alliance after the reunification of Vietnam in 1975 caused the exodus of most ethnic Chinese in North Vietnam to China. In general, the relationship between the Vietnamese state and the Chinese community in North Vietnam was shaped by the relationship between China and Vietnam, and as a community between two nations, the Chinese in North Vietnam both benefitted and suffered from the changing Sino-Vietnamese bilateral relations. 

Xiaorong Han earned his PhD in history from the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and is currently professor and head of Department of Chinese Culture, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has conducted research on the interactions between intellectuals and peasants and between state and ethnic minorities in China, as well as China’s relations with Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam. His publications include Chinese Discourses on the Peasant, 1900-1949 (SUNY, 2005), Red God: Wei Baqun and His Peasant Revolution in Southern China, 1894-1932 (SUNY, 2014), Zhongguo minzu guanxi sanlun [Essays on China’s Ethnic Relations] (Singapore, World Scientific, 2015), and numerous articles. He is also the editor-in-chief of China & Asia: A Journal in Historical Studies.

Introduction and moderation of the Q&A by Tansen Sen, Director of the Center for Global Asia and Professor of History, NYU Shanghai.

This event is cosponsored by the Center for Global Asia and the Global China Studies Program, NYU Shanghai.