The Divine Eye and the Diaspora: Vietnamese Syncretism Becomes Transpacific Caodaism - Softcover

Janet Hoskins

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0824851404 ISBN 13: 9780824851408

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press, 2015

Synopsis

Caodaism is a new religion born in Vietnam during the struggles of decolonization, shattered and spatially dispersed by cold war conflicts, now trying to reshape the goals of its four million followers. Colorful and strikingly syncretistic, it incorporates elements of Chinese, Buddhist, and Western religions as well as more recent outstanding world figures like Victor Hugo, Jeanne d’Arc, Vladimir Lenin, and (in the United States) Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.

The book looks at the connections between “the age of revelations” (1925–1934) in French Indochina and the “age of diaspora” (1975–present) when many Caodai leaders and followers went into exile. Structured in paired biographies to trace relations between masters and disciples, now separated by oceans, it focuses on five members of the founding generation and their followers or descendants in California, showing the continuing obligation to honor those who forged the initial vision to “bring the gods of the East and West together.” The syncretism of the colonialperiod has been transformed by the experience of exile into a diasporic formation, at the same time that Caodaism in Vietnam has emerged from a period of severe restrictions to return to the public arena. Caodaism forces us to reconsider how anthropologistsstudy religious mixtures in postcolonial settings, since its dynamics challenge the unconscious Eurocentrism of our notions of how religions are bounded and conceptualized.

About this title

Review:

Centering on the notion of 'Transpacific religion, ' Hoskins pairs the biographical profiles of five founding generation adherents with those of their diasporic successors, also depicting the wider contexts of both. In doing so, she skillfully weaves a brilliantly engaging narrative, outlining the complex history and nature of this movement in Vietnam and overseas. . . . This is an essential reading for the student of Vietnamese religions and those dealing with East Asian new religious movements in general.-- "Religious Studies Review, 42:1 (March 2016)"

Hoskins's book is a tour de force. It is a deep history, which incorporates a wide-range of primary and secondary (including film and fiction) sources in Vietnamese. It is a complex ethnography with photographs, interviews, and an intimate portrait of a community that has survived despite emerging from and growing up in one of the most violent places of the 20th century. It is a well-crafted historiography of the ways in which tourists, scholars, novelists, and politicians have depicted, often wrongly, this apparently very odd religion. . . . This book should be essential reading for students and scholars of modern Vietnam Studies and diaspora studies.--Justin McDaniel, University of Pennsylvania "SOJOURN Symposium, 31:3 (November 2016)"

Rich in historical-ethnographic data, The Divine Eye provides scholars of Southeast Asia with a nuanced and sympathetic understanding of the syncretic tradition of Caodaism. Hoskins engages with and builds on the scholarship of religious syncretism and transnationalism, examining not only the historically conditioned process of religious imagination, but also how diasporic communities rearticulate and rework religious messages and boundaries to 'manage and overcome religious differences and geographical challenges.'--Dat Manh Nguyen, Boston University "Southeast Asian Studies, 7:1 (April 2018)"

Hoskins demonstrates that what others have observed as an outrageous religion was, in fact, a drive that was serving a specific function for its community at every point. In short, the first half of Caodaism's history served to liberate a colonized Vietnam and the second half alleviated the tensions of exile and migration. . . . The Divine Eye and the Diaspora is an impressive project, one that demonstrates the importance of long-term ethnographic research and the expertise that can only be obtained from years of participant observation.--Torang Asadi, Duke University "Nova Religio, 20:2 (November 2016)"

The Divine Eye and the Diasposa is meticulously researched, richly detailed and engagingly written, making accessible to Angolophone readers the world of Cao Đài believers overseas and in Vietnam. Her deeply sympathetic portrayal is especially welcome given the complexity of Cao Đài religion and the misunderstandings to which its equally complicated history has given rise.--Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Harvard University "SOJOURN Symposium, 31:3 (November 2016)"

[T]he rich ethnographic work of the book promises to provide several questions that are ripe for classroom discussion and further analysis. . . . While the book is certainly a contribution for the specific study of the Cao Đài religion and the Vietnamese diaspora, it also provides a good amount of material to discuss with students and fellow researchers in the fields of history, anthropology, religious studies and diaspora studies.--William B. Noseworthy "New Mandala, 13 September 2015"

There is much to praise in The Divine Eye and the Diaspora. It addresses foundational issues in the study of religion, diaspora, and decolonization. It links the study of the Cao Đài comparatively to debates over how to study such topics, thus "de-provincializing" the study of Vietnam and the Vietnamese. It is intellectually satisfying: it aptly brings people as theoretically different as Jean Baudrillard, Stuart Hall, Pierre Bourdieu, and Max Weber into a dialogue over a major diasporic religion. At the same time, Hoskins wears her learning lightly. Even when one quibbles with her, this book gives much food for thought, and I recommend it to readers enthusiastically.--Shawn McHale "The Journal of Asian Studies, 78:2 (May 2019)"

About the Author:

Janet Alison Hoskins is professor of anthropology and religion at the University of Southern California, USA.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0824851404
• ISBN 13: 9780824851408
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320