Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Brenda Yeoh, Asia Research Institute and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore.

ABSTRACT

Drawing on an ethnographic research in Vietnam and Taiwan, this study reveals interesting contradictions between the seemingly homogeneous stereotypes of Vietnamese women’s sexuality, on the one hand, and the multiplicity and fluidity of actual sexual practices in real life contexts, on the other hand. First, the presence of a number of chaste migrant women in our study challenges the common stereotype of female migrants as hypersexual and promiscuous menaces on the loose. Second, we question the emphasis on women’s material greed and instrumentalism in normative discourses about Vietnamese women’s engagement in extramarital relationship. While for some women in our research, sexual liaisons outside marriage are indeed orchestrated for financial gains, for others, extramarital sex is principally sought as a form of self-actualisation or an exploration of sexual pleasure and freedom that is absent from their marriage. The study emphasises the highly contextual nature of sexual norms and practices as well as the intersectionality of race, class and gender in the social construction of female sexuality in the context of transnational labour migration.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Hoang Lan Anh is Lecturer in Development Studies at the School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne. She obtained her MA and PhD degrees in Development Studies from the School of International Development, University of East Anglia, UK and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis from 2008 to 2010. Her scholarship on migration, development, family and gender in Vietnam and Southeast Asia has been published in international peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Migration and Ethnic Studies, Social and Cultural Geography, Gender and Society, Geoforum and Asian Studies Review. She has recently completed a research project on migration, gender and sexuality in Vietnam and Taiwan and is working on a book project on Vietnamese irregular migrants in Russia.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP Mr Jonathan Lee via email: jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg