Representing Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Case Study on Living Presentations in the Mekong River - Connecting Cultures Program at the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Abstract: This thesis explores and analyzes the practice of interpreting living cultural traditions, known as living cultural presentation, at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Using a review of the literature, participant observation and questionnaire surveys via email as the main methods of data collection, the thesis discusses issues and challenges around the live displays at the Festival. Central to these issues are authenticity, politics of participation and politics of representation. A case study on the Vietnamese displays at the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival is employed to magnify these perspectives in further detail. This case study makes clear that although the participation at the Festival was evaluated as a success in a number of ways, delivery of the living presentations on the National Mall shows limitations inherent in the recontextualization, site restrictions, communication, as well as the Festival’s mode of presentation. However, the post-festival effects and the prospective brought about from participating in the Festival onto the lives of the tradition-bearers and the viability of their traditions, although some are challenging, are considerable. It is recommended that although source communities need to be encouraged to document, preserve and transmit their traditions, the notion of ‘performance’ is fraught with potential dangers, especially in relation to authentically ‘reproducing’ traditions for consumption. Questions of ethics, responsibility and change to traditions as a result of performance need to be considered.