First Impressions, Lasting Passions: Anthropological Fieldwork in 1990s Rural Vietnam

Anthropological fieldwork is often considered a rite of passage for researchers, marking the transition from theoretical learning to the lived experience of immersing oneself in a community to understand its culture, history, and social dynamics.As part of downsizing in preparation for my impending retirement -what the Swedes poetically term dstdning or 'death cleaning' -my old fieldwork notebooks from the 1990s reappeared from their long-forgotten hiding place.These handwritten notes, weathered by time but rich with vivid observations, transported me back to my very first anthropological fieldwork in a Vietnamese village.Revisiting those pages not only brought back memories of that formative experience but also rekindled reflections on how it shaped my enduring passion for the anthropology of Vietnam.This article revisits that early fieldwork, exploring both the traditions I encountered and the personal journey that began in that small village almost three decades ago.