Pratiques médiatiques et préservation culturelle sélective dans la province de Lào Cai, Vietnam (note de recherche)

In Lào Cai province (Vietnam), the Hmong and the Yao have to negotiate with social, cultural and economic development initiatives of the Vietnamese state as well as with its selective cultural preservation policy which defines the appropriate behaviours for ethnic groups. One branch of the Vietnam Television (VTV5) has been founded in 2002 to support those national development projects. In collaboration with VTV5, the Minister of Sport, Culture and Tourism (MSCT)'s provincial department organizes projections in villages and produces audiovisual material that depict ethnic minorities representing the image of development as envisioned by the Vietnamese state. Within this process of politicization of culture, this article analyzes the capacity to act (the agency) of actors in these organizations which vary according to their position in the political and media structure influenced by the social and cultural relation between the majority and the ethnic groups.