ABSTRACT

A socially recognisable signifier for wealth and class in Southeast Asian consciousness, ornamental birdkeeping often focuses on exotic avian species to enhance the status symbolism of this practice. For the past five years, contemporary Vietnamese urbanites have renewed interest in and refocused birdkeeping on a non-exotic avian native to the region: the red-whiskered bulbuls, widely considered a ‘bird of the people’ (chim bình dân) in the words of participants. Popular media have recognised the return of ornamental birdkeeping as a healthy cultural practice that encourages mental stimulation, yet the favouring of a native, non-exotic species quite amenable to a variety of living and economic situations (dễ nuôi), I argue, is remarkable in its reimagination of the high society associations of this tradition. Further, this article will demonstrate that the increased popularity of raising red-whiskered bulbuls reflects a rapidly urbanising Vietnam wherein holistic ideals of nature, characteristic of and integral to Vietnamese consciousness, underline human-nonhuman interactions from city to country, and are caught amid a transition from industrial modernity, with its nature-culture binarism, to a postmodern period fraught with uncertainties.

摘要

观赏鸟类是东南亚意识中的社会公认的财富和阶级的象征，它通常侧重于外来鸟类，以增强这一习俗的地位象征意义。在过去的五年中，当代越南城市居民对该地区的一种非异国情调的鸟类重新产生了兴趣，并将鸟类的注意力重新集中在该地区：红须bulb，被广泛认为是“人民的鸟”（chimbìnhdân）。的参与者。大众媒体已经认识到观赏性鸟类保育的回归是一种鼓励精神刺激的健康文化习俗，但我认为，非常适合各种生活和经济状况的本地非外来物种的饲养是令人瞩目的（dễnuôi）重新构想上流社会的这一传统。进一步，