Identity in Flux: Tourism and the Semiotics of Hmong Cultural Symbols in Sa Pa

Abstract

This paper explores how tourism reconfigures the semiotic meanings of Hmong cultural symbols in Sa Pa, northern Vietnam. Drawing on selective qualitative data from interviews and field observations, it analyzes the transformations of dresses, the khèn (bamboo flute), and community festivals as signs—shifting from indexes of lived practice to icons of visual consumption and, ultimately, to symbols redefined by local actors. Using a heritage semiotics framework (Bendix, 1997; Smith, 2006; Waterton & Smith, 2010), the study traces three semiotic states—Seen, Staged, and Redefined—and argues that Hmong youth and artisans actively reclaim semiotic agency by reinterpreting these symbols. The paper contributes a typology of semiotic shifts in living heritage under tourism influence and highlights implications for semiotic literacy in sustainable cultural interpretation..