Hanoi, Vietnam · International Paper Presentation
Culturally Intelligent Storytelling at the 15th Biennial ACFEA Conference
At the 15th Biennial ACFEA Conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, Ned Legaspi read his paper, “Culturally Intelligent Storytelling: A Southeast Asian Lens on Narrative, Identity, and Engagement.” The host was the Asian Consumer and Family Economics Association. Also, the trip was paid for in full by the UP Office of International Linkages.
The presentation brought a Southeast Asian cultural lens into an international, interdisciplinary conversation on consumers, families, identity, engagement, and contemporary social change.
From Submission to Presentation
A Southeast Asian Framework Entered an International Conversation at the ACFEA Conference
The paper had to get in first. After that, the ACFEA Academic Committee accepted it into the official program of the ACFEA Conference. It passed blind review, so the readers did not know who wrote it.
Then, at the ACFEA Conference, the paper sat beside research on money, families, technology, and health.
Because of that, a Southeast Asian view got a hearing. So it asked why people trust some stories and doubt others.
In the end, a framework built from Southeast Asian experience was treated as research, not as a local side note.
Conference Session
Session 2A at the ACFEA Conference: Comprehensive Issues
Session Information
An Interdisciplinary Panel
- Session Chair
- Maxwell Hsu, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA
Ned Legaspi's Paper
Culturally Intelligent Storytelling: A Southeast Asian Lens on Narrative, Identity, and Engagement
The paper asked one question first. How does culture change the way a story is heard? So the answer was simple. A story can travel far and still stay close to the place it came from.
Also, this talk was an early step. Later, the ideas in it grew into the C3 Bamboo Framework.
Session 2A Program
Four Papers Across Storytelling, Economics, and Human Flourishing
Conference Theme
Economic Issues Faced by Contemporary Consumers and Families
The ACFEA Conference looked at how big changes in society and in money affect families across Asia and beyond. So the program was wide.
Climate Change
First, this theme looked at risk, energy, and spending. So the questions kept coming back to what families can afford when the weather turns.
Population Aging
Second, this one covered health, savings, and care at home. Because people live longer now, family money has to stretch further.
Digitalization
Third, this one covered artificial intelligence, online money, and online selling. Then it asked who gets left behind.
International Conference Context
Hosted in Hanoi by ACFEA and Vietnam National University
The Asian Consumer and Family Economics Association ran the ACFEA Conference. Also, the local host was the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts at Vietnam National University in Hanoi.
Besides the hosts, scholars came from Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East. So the week was full of keynote talks, panels, country reports, and open discussions.
Before Hanoi, Ned had never brought culturally intelligent storytelling to an academic audience outside the Philippines. After the ACFEA Conference, more rooms followed.
Travel Grant
UP OIL Paid For the Trip to Hanoi
Ned did not pay for this trip. Instead, the University of the Philippines Office of International Linkages, known as UP OIL, gave him a travel grant. In fact, it covered everything. Airfare, hotel, conference fee, and food.
Still, he wants that said out loud. Many Filipino researchers write good papers, of course. But fewer can pay for the plane ticket. So a grant is often the only reason a Filipino voice reaches a room like that one.
So without UP OIL, this paper would have stayed home.
Event Archive
A Southeast Asian Framework Presented on an International Stage
In short, this page is a record of the day the work was read in Hanoi, in front of scholars from many fields. Before that day, the paper had never left the country.
It also shows where the work is going. First, start with Southeast Asian experience. Then bring it into a wider room.
The Road Here
Two countries in three weeks. Three weeks after Tokyo, the 15th Biennial ACFEA Conference took the work to Hanoi and put it in front of researchers who study families and household economics, not media. So it was a different discipline, but the same question about what travels.