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When the Đại Gia (Urban Rich) Go to the Countryside: Impacts of the Urban-Fuelled Rural Land Market in the Uplands

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The Reinvention of Distinction

Part of the book series: ARI - Springer Asia Series ((ARI,volume 2))

Abstract

The following chapter describes the dynamics of a particular group of wealthy and propertied people (đại gia) who have moved into the uplands of Vietnam and the impacts of their arrival on local relations and livelihoods. Recently, the rural uplands, particularly the areas near the city with beautiful natural landscape, have witnessed the emergence of expensive villas equipped with luxury amenities of the đại gia. The chapter argues that the đại gia is a particular group belonging to middle class which has greatly expanded after the introduction of open door policy (Đổi Mới) in the 1980s.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.massogroup.com/cms/content/view/2743/313/lang,en/. Accessed 15 December 2009.

  2. 2.

    Since August 2008, Mê Linh district, four communes of Lương Sơn district, and the entire area of Hà Tây province have become part of Hanoi as a result of the geographical expansion of the capital.

  3. 3.

    The 1993 Land Law states that land belongs to the state and the state allocates use rights of the land to individuals. Any land transaction has to be approved by the government otherwise it is considered illegal.

  4. 4.

    The 1991 Forest Protection and Development Law classifies production, protection, and special-use forests. The latter two are designated for protection of watershed, soil, environment, and nature conservation, and protection of ecosystem. The government may contract the land in protection and special-use forest to individual households, not for production purposes (e.g. food crop production) but for forest protection. The Law stipulates that alienation of the land in protection and special-use forest is not allowed. Land transactions occurring in the absence of the government’s permission are illegal, with the parties involved in such a transaction subject to fines and/or imprisonment depending on the impact of the transaction on ecosystems.

  5. 5.

    These million USD high profile corruption cases have been well featured in the country in recent years. There are a large number of government officials committed to corruptive practices from infrastructure projects and have been sent to jail.

  6. 6.

    Batdongsan.com.vn, 25 August 2009.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Lisa B. Welch Drummond and Van Nguyen-Marshall for their useful comments and editorial supports. The writting of this paper was financially supported by the project Challenges of Agrarian Transition in Southeast Asia (ChATSEA). Professor Tania Li from University of Toronto provided useful supports during the writing of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Finance and Trade Program, Forest Trends Association, Hanoi, Vietnam

    To Xuan Phuc

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  1. To Xuan Phuc
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Correspondence to To Xuan Phuc .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of History, Trent University, West Bank Drive 1600, Peterborough, K9J 7B8, Ontario, Canada

    Van Nguyen-Marshall

  2. , Department of Social Sciences, York University, Keele Street 4700, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Ontario, Canada

    Lisa B. Welch Drummond

  3. , Department of Sociology, The University of Western Ontario, London, N6A 5C2, Ontario, Canada

    Danièle Bélanger

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Phuc, T.X. (2012). When the Đại Gia (Urban Rich) Go to the Countryside: Impacts of the Urban-Fuelled Rural Land Market in the Uplands. In: Nguyen-Marshall, V., Drummond, L., Bélanger, D. (eds) The Reinvention of Distinction. ARI - Springer Asia Series, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2306-1_9

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