Reassembling French Colonial Heritage in Postcolonial Hanoi: Towards Co-creative Urban Futures

Abstract

This article analyses the restructuring of French colonial heritage in Hanoi as adaptive cultural–economic infrastructure rather than static preservation or commodified form. Combining postcolonial, posthumanist and cultural industry perspectives, it frames heritage as a more-than-human assemblage where people, materials, technologies and institutions co-produce meanings and functions over time. Based on archival research (1902–1945), ethnographic fieldwork, 12 interviews and a survey (N = 156) comparing resident–visitor perceptions, the study situates Hanoi within postcolonial adaptation strategies in Algiers, Phnom Penh and Vientiane. Findings identify Hanoisation – a localised re-signification and hybridisation of colonial remnants – and the Co-creative Heritage Assemblage, which views heritage as continuously reshaped by material–technical–affective entanglements and multi-actor governance. Quantitative and qualitative evidence reveals divergent engagement patterns and four thematic clusters: materiality and embodied memory, technological mediation, cultural–economic activation and community emotions. Together, these concepts offer a transferable framework for Global South cities, reconciling cultural memory with market integration and technological mediation to support sustainable urban futures.