Chasing Shadows: Gender, Tourism, and Everyday Corruption in Vietnam’s Northern Borderlands

This article examines corruption in Vietnam’s northern borderlands as transparency reforms reshape ethnic minority livelihoods in tourism and state modernization. Drawing on multi-sited feminist ethnography (2017–2024) in Lào Cai province and Sa Pa, findings reveal corruption as an intersectional, gendered institution—practices through which access is negotiated under shifting rules, discretionary enforcement, and unequal legitimacy. Clean tourism and anti-corruption campaigns can curb visible bribery yet also multiply licenses, inspections, paperwork, and language tests that heighten surveillance for those least able to comply, especially ethnic minority women. Women trekking guides, vendors, and homestay operators shoulder navigation as carework, using calibrated gifts, envelopes, detours, and relational labor to prevent delays, fines, humiliation, or livelihood restrictions. Some call this “our clean”: a local ethics of integrity and harm reduction that protects households and community standing. The article reframes anti-corruption as distributive governance and advances a feminist ethics of transparency attentive to uneven development and local agency.