Volume 9 of the Kyoto Area Studies on Asia brings together the author's selected writings about Vietnam from the past forty years. The book opens with an autobiographical account of his history as a Vietnam researcher that sets each of the selections into the context of the time and situation in which it was written.

The writings are grouped into five topical sections: cultural history, religion, and cultural ecology; the Vietnamese village; the impact of the war on South Vietnamese society; Vietnam's development prospects in the its reform period; and problems of development in Vietnam's mountains.