Constructing a Wet Market: Historical and Political Insights from Vietnam

• In Event: National and Transnational Global Health Policy: Towards a Healthier World

Abstract

How are “wet markets” made? Taking a social constructivist approach, this paper explores how food marketplaces are defined and perceived by both domestic and international actors. With the emergence of COVID-19 being linked to places known as “wet markets,” or “traditional markets,” large international organizations and the U.S. government have turned their attention to these food marketplaces with the key goal being to increase or improve member states’ regulation of these markets. However, this vision of state regulation rests upon particular technical ideals about disease monitoring programs, nutrition, and hygiene standards within marketplaces, with little acknowledgement of the historical regulatory context. This paper attempts to rectify this gap by focusing on the political story of traditional marketplaces in a single country case study.

Because this is an under-researched topic, I have conducted an in-depth singular case study of Vietnam, a country often overshadowed and under-explained in comparative authoritarianism because of scholars’ reliance on China. However, in the context of understanding dynamics with international organizations, Vietnam is a case far different from China, and lessons from its story may be more applicable to a wider range of countries than has previously been considered. I hypothesize that international reputation acts as a key mechanism shaping perspectives of traditional marketplaces among Vietnamese decisionmakers. In contrast to democracies, Vietnam is absent of a civil society, middle class, and bureaucracy which are independent from the ruling Communist Party. Vietnamese political leaders are not responding to domestic pressures to upgrade and improve food systems; rather, they seem to be facing the international community in particular ways.

To test my hypothesis, I first trace the regulation of traditional marketplaces from the early 20th century until present day, finding that marketplaces have for the most part remained outside the formal state purview despite the country’s experience with state-run command economy. I then illustrate how experts in Vietnam and at the international level vary widely in their understanding of traditional marketplaces. Present-day Vietnamese perspectives on traditional marketplaces rely on distinct ideas of tradition, often anti-colonial narratives that emerge from Vietnam’s colonial and post-colonial history, while international perspectives are based on Western understandings of food regulation and marketplace.

I find that aspects of the Vietnamese food system take on duality—parts are either inward, domestic-facing, or outward, international-facing. This is illustrated by the types of evidence about traditional marketplaces found by international actors, the strong reputation of Vietnamese food exports, and the ways in which ideas of nationalism are invoked when Vietnamese actors report on and communicate about traditional food marketplaces and food traders. This indicates that there is political work being done to keep marketplaces available in their current form to satisfy some domestic need, whilst simultaneously operating through other channels to satisfy the needs international researchers and donors. This may mean that states which are under higher pressure to join the international community, especially non-democracies without domestic pressure to change social policy, may be superficially appeasing international interests.

My findings come from a variety of qualitative evidence collected over the course of eight months of fieldwork conducted from January-September 2023, including semi-structured interviews with public health professionals, observations and interviews with traders in marketplaces in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and primary and secondary historical sources. A total of 25 interviews were conducted with public health and food safety professionals in Vietnam, and five interviews were with experts from international organizations leading programs at the intersections of food safety, nutrition, and zoonotic disease spillover and at this research stage are still on-going.

This project expands our understanding of public health regulation in low- and middle-income countries. It also illustrates the promulgation of particular ideas about democratic governance, economic development, and food, coming from international organizations. This is especially important as issues of public health and social constructions of food consumption become increasingly resonant globally.

Author

• Emma Louise Willoughby, University of Michigan