Fragments of the Present

"In one of the first in-depth accounts of a society long rendered virtually inaccessible by war and political closure, Philip Taylor explores how the southern region of Vietnam was integrated politically and conceptually into the unified nation. Showing the ways in which modernity has been adapted as an indigenous identity in Vietnam, he traces the recent volatile path of such self-identification.". "A case study of the diversity of ways in which social, political and economic change is interpreted locally, Fragments of the Present is an important guide to the challenges to global integration faced by the world's remaining Communist states."--BOOK JACKET.