The emergence of the modern nation-states of Vietnam
This dissertation examines the emergence of modern Vietnamese nation-states through the transformation of a Confucian civilizational grammar centered on giáo hóa (moral edification). Rather than interpreting Vietnamese modernity as a linear rupture with the imperial past or as a simple process of Westernization, it argues that modern state-building projects were profoundly shaped by the strategic preservation, reinterpretation, and redeployment of older imperial concepts.
Drawing on conceptual history and close readings of Sino-Vietnamese, classical Chinese, French, and modern Vietnamese sources, the study traces the semantic and political reconfiguration of giáo hóa from the early Nguyễn dynasty to the postcolonial period, particularly as it was refracted through the modern idiom of văn minh (civilization). It demonstrates how this civilizational language functioned as a flexible political resource that could be mobilized across imperial, colonial, nationalist, and revolutionary contexts.
The dissertation shows that văn minh did not simply replace earlier Confucian notions of moral governance, but rather absorbed and re-articulated them within new historical narratives and institutional frameworks. Competing political actors invoked civilizational discourse to claim moral authority, historical continuity, and legitimacy for divergent visions of the Vietnamese nation-state.
By foregrounding conceptual continuity, adaptation, and contestation, this study offers a new perspective on Vietnamese modernity. It contributes to broader debates on empire, civilization, and nation-state formation, and highlights the importance of indigenous intellectual traditions in shaping modern political imaginaries beyond models of rupture or imitation.