Việt Nam: a cultural journey An ALL presenta6on by Lê Trung Chính Corvallis, OR, April 6, 2017 www.le-mail.org Objec&ves of the presenta&on: • Overview – Current geopoli=cal issues – Snap shots of modern Việt Nam • Cultural excursions – Carved by history – Tradi=ons; language; arts and literature; cuisine

• Q & A and perspec6ves from invited guests What’s in a culture ?

What fascinates me What factors shape a culture? about a culture? • Geography • Appreciate the Loca=on ways it expresses Lay of the land and climate itself – Fes=vals and • Intercourse with other people rituals trade wars – Arts, literature “assimila=on and graLing” – Social policies • How it faces its challenges • Understand its Internal upheavals values and beliefs “globaliza=on”

Compara&ve snapshots and sta&s&cs

2015 Data (World bank and WHO) Vietnam Philippines China

GNI per capita ($ at Purchasing Power Parity) $ 5030 $ 7820 $ 16,000 (in US $ dollar) (compared to US: $55,000) ($1980) ($3550) ($7,900)

GDP annual growth (%) 6.7 5.9 6.9

Life Expectancy (male/female) 71/81 65/72 75/78 Maternal mortality (/100,000) 54 114 27 Human Development Index score 0.683 0.682 0.738 (ranking/ 188 countries) (115) (116) (70) CO2 emission (metric tons per capita) 0.7 1 7.6

Total health expenditures ($ PPP) 390 329 731

Internet use per 100 people 53 37 50.3 % of people using a smart phone 36 26 51 Environmental costs of a booming economy (Source: World Bank, 2015)

Saigon 1960’s HCMC 2000 HCMC 2015 Challenges • Geo-poli6cs: – How to survive as a small fish in a big pond • Climate changes – Severe weather swings: droughts and flooding – Mekong delta in danger as upstream dams are built, deforesta=on leads to soil erosion, and sea level rises • Civil right issues – Authoritarian , single party system – Treatment of ethnic and other minori=es, and religious freedom • Fragile socio-economic gains – Weak financial and civil governance – Pollu=on; corrup=on; widening wealth gaps Living in the shadow of a giant big brother you don’t really trust…

Whose Sea? Champa Sea / Biển Đông / South China Sea

(Cartoon source: The Economist, April 2012) Early History of the Vietnamese na&onal iden&ty

• Đồng Sơn culture (6th c. BCE - 2nd c. CE) – First seblements (Văn Lang) in Red River Valley and surrounding hills – Rice cul6va6on, metal weapons, bronze cas6ng, drums. – Cơ Loa and Âu Lạc, Nam Việt states in North (3rd c. BCE) – Kingdoms of Funan and Cheula in Central and South VN (Sa Huynh culture, Hindu, Sanskit)

• Formal domina&on by the Chinese Han (year 111 BCE-939 CE) – “Yue” (Việt) = “those from beyond”; “Nan” (Nam)= South – Governance by a Sino-Viet elite administra6on, indirect rule based on taxa6on, access to trade and local products. Early History: A thousand years of Chinese domina7on

Temple of Đình Tin Hoàng, Hùng Vương Mausoleum, Hao Lu, Ninh Bình province, Nghĩa Linh Mountain, 10th c.(photo by JP Dalbera) Phú Thọ province “Thăng Long” Imperial Palace, 10th c. (photo by Ko Hon Chiu) Spread of Buddhism 4-6th century CE 1rst century CE

Tibet: 7-11th cent. 2nd century CE

King Ashoka (268-232 BCE) Birthplace (5th or 6th century BCE) 11-14th century CE 3rd century BCE Taoist and Buddhist pilgrimage and temples in Việt Nam

Long Sơn Pagoda, Nha Trang

Hà Nội Thiên Mụ Pagoda - 1601 (Huế)

Casted in 1710 (Weighs 3285 kg) Independent Đại Việt states

• In 939 CE, Ngô Quyền defeated the Chinese at the river bable of Bạch Đằng

• Succession of Lý (1009-1225), Trần (1225-1400) and Lê (1428-1788) dynas6es, with colonial southern expansion into Champa kingdom; and NW annexa6ons of Lao and Tai territories

• A house divided (16-18th c) : Mặc, Trịnh, Nguyễn dynas6es: Civil wars, Tây Sơn rebellion (1771-1792) and southern expansion into Khmer empire

• 1802: Gia Long unified the country and started the last imperial dynasty, the Nguyễn (un6l 1958) Chinese impact on Vietnamese culture • Cultural assimila&on – Classic Chinese religions and philosophies – Language and wriben scripts: Chữ Hán (Vietnamese words wrilen in Chinese characters with Vietnamese pronuncia=on); and Chữ Nôm (indigenous demo=c script of spoken Vietnamese words)

• Governance: – by an urban, male-dominated elite, educated in the Confucian model; rural administra6on under much more local elder control – Confucianism used to legi6mate power of the elite

• Technical: – Agriculture (irriga=on, dikes), and manufacturing (glass, ceramics, fabrics, weapons)

Việt Nam: its own imperialist history

Đai Việt kingdom Southern Expansion: Đại Nam c.1450 939-1760 CE 1830’s

(Source: Christopher Goscha. “Vietnam – A New History”) Việt Nam: Ethnic composi&on

(Source: Le Thanh Khoi, “Histoire du Viet Nam: des origines a 1858”) Dao women and Hmong girl, Sapa

Hmong girl/photo from Ethnology Museum, Hà Nội Chàm Civiliza6on The Crea6on of French Indochine

Cochinchine (1858 -74)

Cambodia (1863-1907)

Annam (1883-85)

Tonkin (1883-85)

Laos (1890-93)

(Map source: Christopher Goscha) French Indochine (1858-1954)

•Colonial administra6on Exploita=on of raw materials and human resources Forma=on of an elite social class of civil servants “Mission civilisatrice”: Na=ves as “barbarians” but…”in reality, we don’t control the conquered country” (French Admiral and Governor Louis Bonard, 1862)

•Cultural impact, with the introduc6on of Chris=anity a roman alphabet (Quốc Ngữ) a Westernized educa=onal and administra=ve system

•Unintended legacies

Chris6an faith

Church in Vĩnh Long; Saigon Central Cathedral; and church in Phảt Diệm (Photos by SC Clarkson; Huynh Thu, and Lê Thành Khôi) Why “the West won”…

Eastern teachings Western values

• Buddhism 1. Emphasis on progress: o Purifying our inner self o Science o Technology • Taoism 2. Individualism, promo&ng o Harmony with Nature o Compe66on o Crea6vity • Confucianism 3. Democra&c ins&tu&ons o Social order, loyalty built on Public educa6on o Conformity Rules of law Remembering “the war”

America’s “Vietnam War” Vietnam’s “American War” (and civil war) 58,000 military deaths Hollywood movies and Es6mated 3.5 million military veterans’ stories of and civilian deaths redemp6on Unsolved environmental destruc6ons The “Vietnam Syndrome”: Moving beyond silenced wounds The shadow of this first defeat looms heavily over The VC Saga: US global military policies, • Episode 1: Việt Cộng yet lessons are have not been fully learned • Episode 2: Venture Capitalists

Cultural excursions

• What’s behind a language: – Social structures and values – Ethnic and na6onal iden6ty

• How does a culture express itself – Fes=vals and rituals – Arts, literature – Social policies

• Understanding its values and beliefs

The many components of Vietnamese spirituality

Classical •Mythology Chinese and •Deified heroes and heroines Hindu •Local rituals philosophies •“Cosmic order” and astrology and religions • Animist genies, gods Western and demons cultural grazs

Ancestral Worship, the strongest social cohesion The Vietnamese language

• Austro-Asia6c family • Monosyllabic • Very simple grammar • Very concise structure, yet full of nuances • Very tonal, thus quite musical

Example: • Ma / Má / Mả / Mã / Mạ (ghost/cheek/tomb/horse) Vietnamese wrigen languages

• Classical Chinese characters (chữ nho, chữ hán) • Chữ Nom: : Chinese characters set to na6ve vocabulary Used from 13th century up to early 20th century • Quốc Ngữ

Roman alphabet applied to spoken Vietnamese to transcribe it phone6cally. Uses set of accents to express the musical tonality of the spoken language

Be careful how you twist your tongue…

“Việt Nam muôn năm!” (Long lived Vietnam!) Is what LBJ really wanted to say

But it came out as: “Vịt nam muốn nằm!” (The Southern duck wants to lie down!) (Oops!) What’s in a language? – A social order The many faces of “I”, “me”, and “you” Younger Older Even older

Anh (brother) Em (younger sister, younger brother) Chị (sister) Ông Bà nội Ông Bà ngoại ố (father) Con (son, daughter) B (Grand pa, grand ma) Mẹ (mother) (Mr, Mrs)

Uncles and aunts: ụ ụ Cháu (grand child, Cậu; Mợ C ông, c bà niece, nephew) (great-grand father, Cô; Chú great grand mother) Bác (or any very old person) Terms of endearment : never “tôi” !

Ông bà grand pa; grand ma Anyone of the older genera=on Mr and Mrs

Con, cháu son, daughter; grand children Anyone of the younger genera=on

“Anh”: older Brother “Em” : younger brother or sister

Anh-Em also used as husband/ wife boy/girl cour=ng

(llustra=ons by Nguyen Thi Hop & Nguyen Dong) Tradi&ons and Rituals

Wedding ceremony

Tết

Funeral prayers

Mid-autumn fes6val Ancestor worship Learning the five greatest virtues through legends and folktales Nhân (compassion) Lễ (proper behavior) Nghĩa (Righteousness, honesty) Trí (wisdom) Tín (trustworthliness) Truyện Trầu Cau (The story of the Betel Leaf and the Areca Nut) Performing arts Hát tượng / hát bội (opera) Hát chèo (sa=rical musical theater) Cải lưng (theater, popular in Mekong delta) Quan Hồ (popular group chorusing) Ca trụ (Chamber music)

Puppet show

(Photo courtesy of Lê Thành Khôi) Hà Nội’s Art Museum and Galleries

Ngày Mùa (lacquer pain=ng by Nguyễn Hoàng Kim) Tranh sơn mài (lacquer pain&ngs)

Hai thiếu nữ trên đồng lúa (1942) by Nguyễn Tiến Chung

Thiếu nữ mặc áo ài hồng (Cng Quốc Hà)

French legacy: Beyond the façade

Hà Nội Opera House, built in 1901-1911 (modeled aLer le Palais Garnier, Paris)

“The Soul of Việt Nam: A Unique Culture Show at the Opera House” Saigon Opera House, built in 1900 Hồ Chí Minh City, 2011 The true soul of Việt Nam resides here

Chùa Một-Cột, built in 1049 (One-Pillar Pagoda) Hà Nội (Silk pain=ng) Un-intended legacies of the French coloniza6on of Viet Nam • Quốc Ngữ: Romaniza&on of the wrigen language: to break Việt elite away from Chinese domina=ng influence, and to facilitate missionary and colonial administra=on from Confucius to Voltaire

• “Western Enlightenment” giving way to Eastern na&onalism : “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”: from Robespierre to Hồ Chí Minh

• Linguis&c graoing and culinary assimila&ons Quốc Ngữ How the “Na=onal Script” unleashed a cultural revolu=on on the Vietnamese very own terms

• Romanized wri6ng system transcribing Vietnamese language, inten6onally first used by the Portuguese for religious conversion (1527). • In 1651, a French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes published the first Portuguese-La6n-Vietnamese dic6onary.

• 1865: First Quốc ngữ newspaper (Gia Đình Báo) by Petrus Trương Vĩnh Ký • 1882: Officially replaced Chinese character in governmental correspondence • 1907: official educa6onal use What’s in a language? - Iden&ty Quốc Ngữ and the power of mass literacy

The birth of mass media Newspapers, magazines Novels

Prolifera6on of socio-poli6cal ideas Literary and poetry clubs Na6onal iden6ty Civil rights Women’s movement A revolu6onary Intelligentsia Peasant revolts (1908; 1930) Vũ Trọng Phụng (1912-39)

“A rickshaw puller knows all the cruelty of human beings far beler than a scholar. A room boy knows more about the debauchery of humanity than a surgeon. A servant understands more clearly the behavior of human beings Phan Chu Trinh (1872-1926) Phan Bội Châu (1867-1940) than a realist writer.” (“Đi Tây”- Go West!) (“Đong Du”- Go East) “Nhất nước, nhì phân, Ca Dao: Ba cần, tứ giống’ Common people’s wisdom in verses (“First water, second manure, third labor, fourth seeds” )

“Nhìn trên mình có bằng ai, Nhìn dưới lại thấy chẳng ai bằng mình”

(“I look ahead, there are a lot of people beler off than me. I look back, there are people who wish they can have what I have.”)

Trong đám gì đẹp bằng sen, Lá xanh bông trắng lại chen nhị vàng. Nhị vàng bông trắng lá xanh, Gần bùn mà chẳng hôi tanh mùi bùn.

(Nothing is more beau=ful than the lotus, Green leaves, white flowers and yellow pis=ls. Yellow pis=ls, white flowers, green leaves, Lying close to the mud, yet never affected by its smell.) Role of women • In its early history, Vietnam was a matriarchal society. Women dei6es figures and heroines were, and con6nue to be widely worshiped.

• The Confucian culture was The Trưng Sisters, 40 CE overwhelmingly patriarchal, although domes6c affairs remained in feminine hands.

• Since the early 20th c. the role of the Vietnamese women is again elevated, and in ci6es, gender parity is the War=me propaganda poster (1960) norm. What’s in a language? – Cultural graFing

French roots of some common Vietnamese words

Cà rốt (carobe) áo so mi (chemise) Sà lát (salade) Crà vát (cravate) Bò (boeuf) áo măng tô (manteau) Bơ (beurre) tóc fri z (cheveux frises) Fro-ma (fromage) Đàn gui ta (guitare) Cà Phê (café) Đàn pia nô (piano)

Súp (soupe) xich-clô (cyclo) Khoai tây (potatoes) tắc xi (taxi) Hành tây (bulb onions) Gà rô6 (roasted chicken) What happened in Việt Nam during the 20th century?

1908-1954: The most violent war of de-coloniza6on

1945-1975: The most divisive civil war in its history, and its painful azermath

1952-1975: The most brutal conflagra6on of the Cold War

1968- 1979: The meltdown of Eurasian communism at its Indochinese fault-line: the Chinese-Russian Soviet divide.

1975-early 1990’s: Poli6cal and economic isola6on, and the biggest refugee exodus in its history. “We are going to bomb them back to Stone Age…” General Cur7s LeMay, 1965

Phong Nha, Quảng Bình province

“Heaven and Earth” (Silk pain6ng)

Agent Orange and other herbicides

Children of Agent Orange, Cam Nghia Clinic, Quang Tri Prov. 1998/photo by PJ Griffiths,in “Magnum”) War legacy: a country of amputees Common themes in the Vietnamese literature and musical lyrics • In life and in death, one carries a heavy burden of responsibili=es and du=es (to family, community and country) • Karma and aLer-death loom deeply in our consciousness

• Man-made conflicts, especially war, dominate the spiritual realm of human existence

• Life, love and losses are three inseparable words, and constant forces in our renewal. Triple Awards at 1999 Cannes Film Fes=val

INDIEFAB Pham Duy (1921-2013) Book of the Year Award, 2014 The role of food in the Vietnamese culture

Happiness: “Vui trong lòng” (“happy in my soul/stomach”) The next inquiry azer a gree6ng:” Ăn cơm chưa?” (“Eaten rice yet?”)

“Com gia dinh” (the family meal”) “The Street Vendor” Land of Plenty Characteris&cs of Vietnamese cuisine:

- Freshness and balance - Abundance of raw vegetables and fresh herbs - Counter-play of flavors (especially in sauces) - Dis=nct regional ingredients (especially fruit) - Aesthe=c presenta=on - Harmonious fusion of foreign influences Nứơc Mắm (fish sauce)

Phú Quốc Island

(Photos from VN internet travel agencies) Phở (?”Pot-au-feu”) “Vietnam’s contribu=on to human happiness” (according to Hữu Ngọc, Vietnamese scholar, age 95)

Photo by Heinz von Holzen (“The Food of Vietnam”) Bánh mì (pain de mie) Nem cuốn (Fresh spring rolls)

Nem rán (chả giò) (Fried rice paper spring rolls)

Photo by M Fountoulakis (“Vietnamese Street Food”)

Photo by Heinz von Holzen (“The Food of Vietnam”) Concluding thoughts on the culture of Vietnam

• A mosaic of peoples, ethnic tradi6ons, and languages, brought together by interlocking forces of nature and historical events out of its own control

• A deep seated culture of resistance to foreign invasion and colonial domina6on, yet

• An ever evolving culture of grazing and assimila6ng values and prac6ces that are helpful to survive, without loosing one’s iden6ty and sense of community. Western views of the Vietnamese people

• “Le crâne est généralement bradycephalic et de mediocre capacite’…” (P Huard and M Durand, in Connaissance du Việt- Nam, 1954)

• “The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does the Westerner” (Gen. William Westmoreland, US Military Commander of US forces in VN, 1964-68; US Army Chief of Staff (1968-72) Where great powers misjudged Việt Nam

• Chinese Imperialism – “Mandate from Heaven” to pacify its Southern borders

• French coloniza6on “Mission civilisatrice”

• American “containment” and na6on-building models: – “Domino theory” (Pres. D Eisenhower, 1954) – “I took my American beliefs with me into these Asian struggles, as Tom Paine would have done.” (Gen. Edward Lansdale, Vietnam CIA sta=on Chief, 1955) – “We will bomb them back to the Stone Age” (Gen. Cur=s LeMay, 1965) Eternally my people: “Con cháu”, Hoà Bình Province (Photo courtesy: Project Vietnam, Am Acad Ped, 2002)