Distilling culture into commodity? The emergent homemade alcohol trade and gendered livelihoods in Upland Northern Vietnam

Ethnic minorities in the uplands of northern Vietnam are experiencing rapid state- and market-induced economic and agrarian transformations. These communities are having to make important livelihood adaptations to adjust, while living at Vietnam’s economic and political margins. We analyse one such market-induced transformation that some upland communities are deciding to engage with, connected to an increasing demand for locally distilled alcohol. Against the backdrop of traditional production for domestic consumption, distilled alcoholic beverages are now (re)emerging as a cash-earning opportunity. Drawing on interviews and observations with ethnic minority Hmong and Yao women and men in Lào Cai Province, we analyse the degree to which household members have engaged with this market opportunity and the often complex reasons behind their choices. We reveal how an apparently simple shift in scale of a customary activity generates nuanced cultural, gendered and generational debates that, at times, are at odds with mere profitability