Minorities Onstage: Cultural Tourism, Cosmopolitanism, and Social Harmony in Northwestern Vietnam

This article examines the recent proliferation of ethnic minority–themed music and dance shows for tourists in the Sapa district of northwestern Vietnam. Based on 18 months of fieldwork in the region, the research considers how the musical cultures of the Hmong, Yao, and other minority groups in Sapa have been commodified and repackaged as part of Vietnam’s flourishing tourism industry in the early twenty-first century. Two case studies illustrate how traditional performance practices, which some of the ensembles claim to be preserving, are being adapted to cater to tourists’ desires. Although the state-directed folkloricization of these indigenous traditions might reflect a celebration of the cultural cosmopolitanism of Sapa, its major trajectory is national unity via a calculated promotion of social harmony in northwestern Vietnam.