HANOI

Abstract

The article discusses the role that cities

play in constructing and mediating

particular historical accounts. Drawing on

fieldwork experiences from Hanoi and

Kathmandu it adopts a comparative

perspective and explores how history is

mediated, experienced and interpreted

through the physical organisation of the

city. History is conceptualised both chronologically

as sequences of events that can

be traced in the physical environment of

the city and as a temporally specific

narrative about the city and the wider

society of which it is part. The article

throws light on the impact different

political regimes have had on the built

environment and how this has informed

the social organisation and human use of

urban space in Hanoi. Comparing this

with the social and physical organisation

of Kathmandu two particular issues

become salient, firstly the way in which

the influence of foreign powers is physically

manifest in the city; secondly how

specific places, as national symbols of

unity, frame everyday activities in the city.