Building a People’s Art is a ground-breaking work that brings together, for the first time, a curated selection of writings by Vietnam’s foremost wartime cultural theorists, Trường Chinh and Tố Hữu. These texts, which include sharp critiques of existing cultural practices, visionary calls for cultural revolution, and principles of art-making, are foundational to the establishment of Vietnamese socialist realism. The majority of these works, pivotal in shaping Vietnam’s cultural and artistic landscape during and after the war, have been translated into English for the very first time, offering readers a rare glimpse into the ideological underpinnings of Vietnam’s revolutionary art.

 

Building a People’s Art: Selected Works of Trường Chinh and Tố Hữu is scaffolded by a critical introduction by professor and researcher Ruehl Muller, unpacking the key principles of Vietnamisation, Scientification, and Massification: concepts that were central to the cultural and political strategies of the time. Muller’s introduction situates the translated texts within the broader context of Vietnam’s colonial history and its complex socio-political struggles, providing readers with a deeper understanding of the forces that shaped the nation’s artistic expressions. What makes this important book particularly striking is its visual component: nearly one-hundred never before seen artworks created by twenty-five Vietnamese artists from the era are included, offering a tangible portrayal of the techniques and styles that emerged during the war. These artworks not only complement the theoretical writings but also serve as a powerful visual documentation of a tumultuous and transformative period.

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“Building a People’s Art captures the complexity of 20th-century Vietnamese history through the writings of two major figures, Trường Chinh and Tố Hữu. Muller skillfully situates these ideological and cultural leaders within the confluence of European, Chinese, and Vietnamese traditions in which they lived. This book is invaluable to those seeking a deeper understanding of Vietnam’s history and present.”

—Dr. Linh D. Vu

Associate Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, and Centre for Asian Studies, Arizona State University

 

“Ruehl Muller’s Building a People’s Art is a remarkably rich contribution to the understanding of Vietnamese cultural history in the modern era, but far more than that. Through his translations of many texts by the key cultural theorists of revolutionary Vietnam, Trường Chinh and Tố Hữu, wonderfully framed by his elegant introduction, Muller presents a clear and passionate explication of the complex dialectic between classical Marxist theory, grounded in the historical conditions of 19th-century Europe, and the material realties of Vietnam in the era of its struggle for national liberation, as well as the dialectical relationship between the past and ever-developing present in Vietnam’s efforts to build a modern, socialist economy and society. Muller’s account illuminates the global challenges of adapting Marxist methods of analysis to the specifics of each and every struggle, rather than treating Marxism as a template or blueprint to be mechanically applied. This is a work of theory and analysis which deserves to be read by historians and revolutionary activists everywhere.”

—Dr. Ken Hammond

Professor of History, New Mexico State University