Vietnamese new year rice cakes: Iconic festive dishes and contested national identity

Abstract

Vietnamese banh Tet (New Year rice cakes) are the most prominent culinary icons of the most important Vietnamese festival. This article examines the sociocultural ideas of contemporary Vietnamese national identity expressed by these dishes, and explores the implicit and complex ways by which they take part in developing Vietnamese cultural identity and nationalism. In terms of the "Imagined Communities" analytical framework, this food item serves as an important means for practicing and "concretizing" national identity. Copyright © 2005 The University of Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.