Rethinking Approaches to the Study of the Central Highlands of Vietnam: A Review of Oscar Salemink's the Ethnography of the Central Highlanders of Vietnam and Gerald Hickey's Window on a War (Book Review‪)‬

Despite the compendium of material available on the histories of Vietnam, the Indochina wars, and developments in post--doi moi Vietnam, writings in the English language about the Central Highlands of Vietnam remain limited.(1) Yet, two developments in post--doi moi Vietnam have rekindled the interests of Vietnam observers on the Central Highlands. First is the rapid expansion of coffee production in the highlands which led to Vietnam becoming the most important robusta coffee exporter in the world market (Tan 2000). The precedent of this development is the phenomenal migration of people from other parts of the country up to the "red hills" (for a detailed account, see Hardy 2003). The second is surfacing public outcry over political rights, religious issues, and land claims by old inhabitants of the highlands, referred to as Montagnards by some and Highlanders by others. Most notable is the wave of protest demonstrations against state policies that took place in early 2001 (Human Rights Watch 2002). (2) Oscar Salemink's book is timely as it provokes critical discussions concerning our understanding of the highlanders and calls for a rethinking of approaches in studying the Central Highlands. Gerald Hickey's new book, while mainly a memoir of his days of conducting research in Vietnam, provides us with an in-depth view of why and how he came to see the Central Highlanders as he did but more importantly, urges us to approach the study of the Central Highlands and its inhabitants from a different angle. Studies on the Central Highlands