Continuing the commitment to foster scholarly conversations on Vietnamese history, culture, and society, Journal of Vietnamese Studies has officially released Volume 21, Issue 2 (May 2026), builds upon the journal's longstanding contributions to interdisciplinary scholarship and ongoing discussions within the field of Vietnamese Studies.

This issue approaches Vietnam from a diverse range of perspectives, from the history of music and cultural regulation in Vietnam between 1945 and 1976, the effects of financialization on ethnic minority communities in the Central Highlands, to the ways in which alternative visions of Vietnam have been articulated through political discourse. In addition to original research articles, the issue features three book reviews examining important works on South Vietnamese literature, Vietnamese communities in post-socialist Eastern Europe, and contemporary debates surrounding sovereignty, migration, and refuge in a globalized world. Please see below for the full list of articles included in this issue.

Research Essays:

•Capitalist Music Brings Jail: Illegal Music in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945–1976) (Jason Gibbs)

•Financialization and Indebtedness of Coho-Chil Ethnic Minority Communities in the Central Highlands, Vietnam (Phạm Thanh Thôi)

•Voices from the Center: Lập Trường and the Imagining of an Alternative Vietnam (Nguyễn Dịu-Hương)

Book Reviews:

•Reading South Vietnam’s Writers: The Reception of Western Thought in Journalism and Literature (reviewed by Trinh M. Luu)

•Vietnamese Diasporas Along the Former Iron Curtain: From Builders of Socialism to Builders of Capitalism (reviewed by Seb Rumsby)

•Almost Futures: Sovereignty and Refuge at World’s End (reviewed by Wesley Attewell)

The full issue is available at:

https://online.ucpress.edu/jvs/issue/21/2