
Publications

Book
2022 Seeding the Tradition: Musical Creativity in Southern Vietnam. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press

For artists, creativity plays a powerful role in understanding, confronting, and negotiating the crises of the present. Seeding the Tradition explores conflicting creativities in traditional music in Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta, and the Vietnamese diaspora, and how they influence contemporary southern Vietnamese culture. The book centers on the ways in which musicians of đờn ca tài tử, a “music for diversion,” practice creativity or sáng tạo in early 21st-century southern Vietnam. These musicians draw from long-standing theories of primarily Daoist creation while adopting strategically from and also reacting to a western neo-liberal model of creativity focused primarily—although not exclusively—on the individual genius. They play with metaphors of growth, development, and ruin to not only maintain their tradition but keep it vibrant in the rapidly-shifting context of modern Vietnam. With ethnographic descriptions of zither lessons in Ho Chi Minh City, outdoor music cafes in Cần Thơ, and television programs in Đồng Tháp, Seeding the Tradition offers a rich description of southern Vietnamese sáng tạo and suggests revised approaches to studying and understanding creativity.
For further details, please see this page:
For the audio and visual examples referenced in the text, please navigate to this page: https://www.weslpress.org/seeding-the-tradition/
Erratum
The publication accidentally omitted an acknowledgement. A previous version of Chapter Seven appeared as ‘Tradition, Still Remains: Sustainability through Ruin in Vietnamese Music for Diversion’, Ethnomusicology Forum 25(2): 146–171. The author thanks Taylor & Francis for its kind authorisation to republish a revised version of this article.
Research Articles
2021 ‘Awakening the Soul with the Left Hand: Narration and Healing in Vietnam’s Diasporic Traditional Music’, Ethnomusicology 65(1): 62–85
2020 ‘Outing the Methodological No-No: Translating Queer Space to Field Space’ in Queering the Field: Sounding Out Ethnomusicology, edited by Gregory Barz and William Cheng, 120–139. New York: Oxford University Press.
2018 ‘Laughter, Liquor, and Licentiousness: Preservation through Play in Southern Vietnamese Traditional Music’ in The Routledge Companion to the Study of Local Musicking, edited by Suzel A. Reily and Katherine Brucher, 321–333. New York and London: Routledge.
2016 ‘Tradition, Still Remains: Sustainability through Ruin in Vietnamese Music for Diversion’, Ethnomusicology Forum 25(2): 146–171
2016 ‘From Nameless to Nomenclature: Creating Music Genre in Southern Vietnam’, Asian Music 47(2): 138–171
2016 ‘Căn phòng lưu giữ kỷ niệm’ [The Studio of Memory] in Nguyễn Vĩnh Bảo: những giai điệu cuộc đời [Nguyễn Vĩnh Bảo: Melodies of a Life], edited by Nguyễn Thuyết Phong, 261–264. Hồ Chí Minh City: NXB Hồng Đức
2013 ‘When Charisma Sustains Tradition: Deploying Musical Competence in Southern Vietnam’, Ethnomusicology 57(1): 87–114
2012 ‘Virtually Audible in Diaspora: The Transnational Preservation of Vietnamese Traditional Music’, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 7(3): 122–156
2012 Introduction to a special issue on the Vietnamese diaspora titled ‘Epic Directions for the Study of the Vietnamese Diaspora’, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 7(3): 1–6


Book Reviews
2023 Review of Stan BH Tan-Tangbau and Quyền Văn Minh, Playing Jazz in Socialist Vietnam: Quyền Văn Minh and Jazz in Hà Nội (2021), Journal of Asian Studies 82(2): 291–293.
2022 Review of Lonán Ó Briain, Voices of Vietnam: A Century of Radio, Red Music, and Revolution (2021), Yearbook for Traditional Music 54(2):165–167
2017 Review of Lauren Meeker, Sounding Out Heritage: Cultural Politics and the Social Practice of Quan Họ Folk Song in Northern Vietnam (2013), Asian Music 48(1): 121–124
2015 Review of the compact disc titled Vietnam Le Don Ca Tai Tu: Musique de Chambre du Delta du Mékong (2014), Yearbook for Traditional Music 47: 218–219
2011 Feature book review of Trần Văn Khê, La musique Vietnamienne traditionnelle (1962) and Pham Duy, Musics of Vietnam (1975), Journal of Vietnamese Studies 6(3): 180–186
2011 Review of Barley Norton, Songs for the Spirits: Music and Mediums in Modern Vietnam (2009), Asian Music 42(1): 129–133
Editorials
In addition to my research publications and book reviews, please find the Ethnomusicology Forum editorials I have co-authored on this webpage.

Popular Press and Commentaries
2022 ‘Call to Action on Proposed OfS Cuts’ on the British Forum for Ethnomusicology webpage
2021 ‘Thinking of Music as Social Activism’ on the University of Birmingham webpage
2015 Contributor to ‘Suy nghĩ về Giáo sư Trần Văn Khê’ [Reflecting on Professor Trần Văn Khê] on the BBC Vietnamese webpage
2015 ‘Conversation, Change, and Compromise at Western Michigan University’ on the Western Michigan University – American Association for University Professors Blog.
2014 ‘Interview with Composer P.Q. Phan, Part I: Expression and Works’ on diacritics.org
2014 ‘Interview with Composer P.Q. Phan, Part II: Cultural Expression and Authenticity’ on diacritics.org
2014 ‘Resonance, Disruption and Houston Grand Opera’s Bound’ on diacritics.org
2009 With Lê Đình Bích, ‘Cải tiến đàn sến ba dây’ [The Improved Three-Stringed Đàn Sến] in Thanh Niên [Youth]