The Twinning of the East: Notes on South Korea-Vietnam Sister Cities
IIAS Research Fellow My Hang Thi Bui (PhD, Seoul National University) shares her research findings on the interconnectedness of two South Korea-Vietnam sister city pairs. She offers a new perspective on the global urban knowledge landscape transcending European-American hegemonic centres.
Dr Yoonai Han from the Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) will moderate the Q&A.
You can join online or in person in the IIAS conference room from 13:00 to 14:30 p.m. CET (Amsterdam Time).
Registration is required due to limited seating and to receive the Zoom link.
The Lecture
Sister cities, or town twinning, refers to a formal agreement between two localities made by various groups—from local officials to civil, regional, or international organisations—and serving various ends—from advancing mutual understanding and friendship to promoting trade.
This study examines the politics of urban spaces configured and reconfigured under the framework of sister cities between South Korea and Vietnam. It includes the remaking of memorial places, the making of welfare places, and the (un)making of commercial places.
Drawing on site observation and in-depth interviews conducted in the two sister city pairs of Yongsan District and Quy Nhơn City, and Namyangju City and Vinh City, the research findings emphasise how these sister city establishments and placemaking are embedded within inter-Asian interconnections involving historical ties, contemporary flows of investment and human mobility, and domestic and intraregional geopolitics.
This study introduces a radiant interurban constellation of the Global East, where cities within the region are unceasingly intertwined and oriented toward one another, offering a reimagined perspective on the global urban knowledgescape that transcends Euro-American hegemonic centres.
The Speaker
Dr My Hang Thi Bui is a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) at Leiden University. Her research focuses on inter-Asian engagements and includes political geography, migrant studies, and urban studies. She received a PhD in Geography from Seoul National University in South Korea and previously served as a Research Fellow at the Seoul National University Asia Center (SNUAC). She has published work on marriage migration regimes, migrant placemaking, intra-group diversity, and ethnic entrepreneurship.
Registration (required)
You can join online or in person in the IIAS conference room.
Registration is required due to limited seating and to receive the Zoom link.