Subjects and Sojourners : A History of Indochinese in France

During the era of French colonial rule in Indochina, as many as two hundred thousand Indochinese sojourned in France. Subjects and Sojourners is a vivid and comprehensive social, cultural, and political history of this diverse group, which ranged from ruling monarchs to the most marginal laborers. Drawing from a range of rich but underused archives, Charles Keith explores how French colonialism extended Indochina's colonial society into France, where Indochinese subjects studied, labored, fought, and lived in imperial spaces and contexts that were profoundly different from those they had left behind. Time in France transformed these sojourners, and when they returned to Indochina, they in turn transformed colonial society. Indochinese, in short, did not simply encounter "France" in the colony: they went and lived it for themselves. Cover Tittle Page Copyright Dedication Content List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. To the Docks 2. Crossings 3. From Contact to Conquest 4. Cultural Sojourners 5. Labor Sojourners 6. Daily Life 7. Political Sojourners from Peace to War 8. Political Sojourners from War to Decolonization 9. Returns Coda. Final Voyages Notes Sources and Bibliography Index