In modern Vietnam, the Ly-Tran dynasties (11th -15th centuries) are framed as the “renaissance era” of national art, a harmony of folk traditions and foreign influences shaped by “de-Sinicization” and religious impacts. This construction position Ly-Tran visuality as both cultural peak and political foundation. However, this assumption overshadows alternative temporalities, hybrid forms, and marginalized voices that do not fit the golden-age framework. At the center is the question: How has the medieval past been mobilized as a temporal and cultural anchor for the modern Vietnamese nation? To address this question, this paper adopts a dual methodology. First, I use visual analysis of communal houses, folk paintings, and ceramics to trace continuities from Dong Son motifs to Ly-Tran artistic innovation. Second, I employ discourse analysis of socialist-era scholarship and cultural policy to examine how these artefacts were reclassified as symbols of the people’s creativity and the national spirit. This paper argues that this “sacred visuality” functions as both heritage and ideology. It symbolically elevates the people as agents of creativity while simultaneously placing interpretation under state control. This dual role legitimizes the present by projecting a timeless national identity rooted in the medieval past, but it also constrains the diversity of Vietnam’s visual traditions by privileging a single narrative. By situating Vietnam’s medieval art within modern cultural discourse, this study contributes to wider debates in the humanities about how visual culture, memory, and temporality are mobilized in postcolonial contexts to negotiate identity, heritage, and legitimacy.

Authors:
Bao Anh Nguyen, Waseda University, Japan

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Posted by James Alexander Gordon

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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