Reimagining national identity in neoliberal education: Truyện Kiều, femininity and discourse in Vietnamese textbooks

This article examines the construction of national identity within Vietnam's neoliberal education framework, specifically how femininity is portrayed in Vietnamese textbooks via the classic poem ‘Truyện Kiều’. Drawing on Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) and an intersectional perspective, it scrutinises the discursive representation of womanhood in the original text Truyện Kiều versus its depiction in the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET)’s national textbooks. The article situates its analysis within the historical context of Vietnamese nationalism, tracing gender and sexuality relations from pre-colonial bilateral kinship systems through Confucian patriarchal norms to twentieth-century feminist and anti-imperialist movements. It also explores the influence of neoliberal reforms, notably the 1986 Đổi Mới policy, on national identity construction and femininity portrayal in educational materials. Through this critical examination, the article unveils how neoliberal ideologies and nationalist narratives intersect, reconfiguring perceptions of gender and national identity in Vietnamese education.