CLASS, GENDER AND side, including the patriarchal concepts THE REPRESENTATION and the system. The post-war writers use the pictures of unhappy OF PEASANT WOMEN women in the remote villages to criticise IN VIETNAMESE and ridicule the rhetoric and promises LITERATURE* of the revolution. The Emergence of Peasant Montira Rato** Women in Abstract Traditionally, Vietnamese women have The paper seeks to explore how peas• been controlled by the Confucian ant women are portrayed in Vietnamese concepts of three submissions and four literature and tries to highlight that, virtues. The three submissions divide a throughout the development of Modem 's life into three stages: when she Vietnamese literature, the way in which is young, she has to obey her father; peasant women are portrayed is closely when she is married, she has to depend related to political agendas and ideologi• on her husband; and if her husband dies, cal struggles. It also proposes that the she will have to listen to her eldest son. construction of peasant women in The four virtues include, labour-which Vietnamese literature is not only gen• constitutes skills like cooking, sewing der-based, but also class-bound. In the and embroidery, physical appearance, period between 1930 and 1945, the appropriate speech and proper victimisation of peasant women was behaviour. However, it is argued that used as a tool to criticise the colonial these Confucian doctrines were strictly administration. In the 1945-75 period, applied only to upper-class women literature took part in mobilising the whereas women from lower classes, force of peasant women in the building especially peasant women, suffered, to ofa socialist nation. However, post-1975 a lesser degree, from these Confucian literature reflected the failure of the influences. Communist government and its Socialist ideology to eradicate the For example, Arlene Eisen Bergman residue of the old values in the country makes an observation in her study on Vietnamese women that, 'Peasant women were by no means simply sorrowful victims of feudal . * This article is based on Chapter 3, 'Peasant Women' in Ph.D. thesis entitled Their songs expressed their anger and 1 ' and the countryside is Post-1975 also gave strength to their resistance.' Vietnamese Literature'., SOAS, University of London, 2003. 1 Bergman, Arlene Eisen. Women of ** Lecturer in Vietnamese Department of . Second edition. San Francisco: Eastern Language, Faculty of Arts, People Press, 1975.P.35. Chulalongkom University.

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Tran Quoc Vuong also states in his book traditional Vietnamese village very Truyen Thong Phu Nu VietNam (The much depended on the status of her Tradition of Vietnamese Women) that husband, as Jamieson describes: the peasant family was based on the harmony between husband and wife. He The village status hierarchy was then supports his argument with this formally restricted to men only. proverb; thuan vo thuan chong tat bien Strictly speaking, women were Dong cung can (the harmony between not even members of the vil• husband and wife can dry the Eastern lage. A woman's status level, in Sea).2 It is also generally assumed that the sense of the way people working in the rice fields and sometimes treated her, depended upon her earning extra money from being small age, her reputation and her traders in markets allowed a peasant background. But basically, a woman more freedom both inside her woman took her husband's household and in the public sphere. status. Women were, in fact, commonly addressed and Nevertheless, a different view is referred to by their husband's proposed by the historian David Marr, status, title, or role.4 who points out that although women in peasant families might not have to According to Marr, it was not until the endure Confucian norms as much as did 1920s that the debate on women's rights upper - and middle-class women, they apparently began in Vietnam. A num• were not necessarily better off. Young ber of magazines and j oumals during daughters from peasant families were this period, such as Nam Phong (South• sold as servants, concubines, or prosti• em Ethos), were dedicated to the issue tutes becauseof family poverty. There of women's rights. However, the focus were also cases of tenants' wives or of these magazines was mainly restricted daughters being harassed or raped by to the interests of upper-class women. 5 landowners or mandarins. 3 Moreover, in Also, it can be observed that the empha• a peasant family, the main labour in the sis on women's issues in this period rice fields was normally undertaken by reflected the decline of women. In spite of the fact that women and the increasing influence of West• played a vital role in the family's liveli• ern ideas of egalitarianism and individu• hood, their status both in the family and alism. In literature, the individual in society was still lower than that of pursuit of happiness is contrasted with men. The position of a woman in the Confucian doctrine, which emphasises

2 Tran Quoc Vuong.Truyen Thong Phu Nu 4 Jamieson, NeilL., 'The Traditional Village Viet Nam (The Tradition of Vietnamese in Vietnam' in The Vietnam Forum, no.7. Women). Hanoi: NXB (Nha Xuat Ban = New Haven: Yale Asian Studies, Publishing House) Phu Nu, 1972. P. 12. 1986. P.100. 3 Marr, David G. Vietnamese Tradition on 5 Marr, David. Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945. Los Angeles: University Trial, 1920-1945. P. 202. of California Press, 1984. P. 197.

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the duty of a person towards his or her never emancipate themselves. family and society. Arranged marriage So, it is necessary to fight the is strongly opposed, whereas freedom feudalists or religious customs in love and marriage is promoted. The and superstitions in their way, novel To Tam [1925] by Hoang Ngoc give women workers and peas• Phach and the works by Tu Luc Van ants inventive political educa• Doan (The Self-Reliant Literary Group) tion, arouse their class con• published between 1933-1936, such as sciousness and enable them to the novel Doan Tuyet (Breaking the Tie) join the organisations of the [1935] by Nhat Linh, portray middle• working class. Political work and upper-class women who were tom must be carried out not only in apart by love and filial piety. 6 However, towns but also in the country• the bourgeois movement to modernise side, among the poor peasants Vietnam and the demand for the and all working women.. .To individual pursuit of happiness against rally the women of all social Confucian ethics did not give much strata, women's organisation attention to peasant women. Women should unite them in the from the lower classes, such as peasants struggle for their own rights and and workers, are almost absent from the for their complete emancipa• works by urban-based writers. tion. These organisations shall enrol working women, workers' It was the Indochinese Communist Party wives, women small traders, that eagerly put problems of!ower-class and all those who cannot join women to the fore during the 1930s. It the workers' and peasants' was clearly stated in the report from the organisations.7 (sic.) plenary session of the Party held in October, 1930 that: The influence of Marxist ideology on the emancipation of women is shown in The party must free women the articles by Phan Khoi and Nguyen from bourgeois ideas and elimi• Thi Chinh published in the women's nate the illusion of equality magazine Phu Nu Tan Van numbering between the sexes expanded in 160 (21-07-1932) and number 162 bourgeois theories. At the same (04-08-1932), respectively. Phan Khoi time, it must enable women to comments that the only way to emanci• participate in the revolutionary pate women is to change people's nhan struggles of the workers and sanh quan (way of thinking). Nguyen peasants. This is an important Thi Chinh argues that women's task. For if women do not take liberation is related to luat tien hoa cua part in these struggles, they can Iich su (historical development) and nen

6 For further discussion on these works, see 7 Mai Thi Tu and Le Thi Nham Tuyet. chapter 3 in Jamieson, NeilL. Understand• Women in Vietnam. Hanoi: Foreign Lan• ing Vietnam. Berkeley: University of Cali• guages Publishing House, 1978. Pp. 116- fornia Press, 1995. 117.

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mong kinh te (economic foundation). Property and the State [ 1884]. This book Therefore, to liberate women it is played an important role in making necessary not only to change their way policies and forming ideologies on of thinking, but also to reduce their gender and family in Communist states, working hours and increase their wages. Vietnam included.9 In his well-known By doing so, there would be a conscious• work, Engels explains that the subordi• ness of women's rights among working• nation of women is related to material class women who, unlike women from inequality and the ownership of private the middle-class, were still not aware of property. He argues further that the abo• the ongoing debate.8 However, it was not lition of the family-based economy, and until the mid-1930s that working-class the provision of social services cover• and peasant women had a chance to ing domestic chores and childcare participate in the women's movement. would free women from gender inequal• Under the liberal policies of the ity. This was because the large-scale in• Popular Front government in France dustry system would break down the (1936-1938), the Indochinese Commu• kinshipand patriarchal family system, nist Party launched a programme called which ideologically has had a signifi• 'chi em binh dan' (common sisters). Its cant influence on men and women alike. main issue was to demand equal pay and As he postulates: eight weeks of paid maternity leave. The programme focused on the masses of The emancipation of woman female workers and peasants. In fact, will only be possible when the belief that the emancipation of woman can take part in produc• women could be accomplished by the tion on a large, social scale, and introduction of large-scale industry, domestic work no longer claims reflected in Nguyen Thi Chinh's article, anything but an insignificant is ideologically inherited from Engels' amount of her time. And only work, The Origin of the Family, Private now has that become possible through modem large-scale industry, which does not merely

8 These two article were later printed in Thanh Lang (ed.). 13 Nam Tranh Luan Van Hoc ( 1932-1945) ( 13 Years of Literary De• received considerable attention from Com• bate). Volume 3. city: NXB munist leaders elsewhere as well as in Viet• Van Hoc, 1995. 134-145. nam. For instance, in the book, The Devel• opment of Capitalism in Russia, Lenin de• 9 In his writings on the woman's issue, Ho scribes how peasant women and working• Chi Minh made several references to class women were exploited. But he stated Engels' ideas, and explicitly revealed his that the large-scale industry and working in admiration to this Marxist philosopher. For factories would help emancipate women example, see Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chu Tich from the patriarchal system. In , Mao• voi Van De Phu Nu (President Ho Chi Minh Tse-Tung regarded women as the most op• and The Woman Question). Hanoi: NXB pressed people in society, as he wrote in Phu Nu, 1960. In fact, the emancipation of 'Report on an Investigation into the Peas• women, especially those from lower classes, ant Movement of Hunan, I 927'.

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permit the employment of women had no right to the ownership of female labour over a wide property, and only men were entitled to range, but positively demand it, inherit the family's land and while it also tendstoward end• property. 11 The following folksong can ing private domestic labour by support Vu Ngoc Phan 's argument and changing it more and more into illustrate how an older unmarried a public industry.10 peasant feels about the issue of inheritance as the years pass: Engels' analysis of from the standpoint of historical mate• The star of the third watch rialism provides the insight that the is above my head (11 pm-lam)• oppression of women is complex. It also old unmarried girl helps us to understand how historical, Yet, I'm still staying at political, social and economic to enrich my father conditions determine the unequal When my father gets rich, relationship between men and women, he does not divide his wealth who are the agents of production and evenly reproduction. As Engels points out, the And as a girl what share do oppression of women is also related to you think I get? 12 the structures of the mode of produc• tion and social class, which are also Thus, the rise in the status of peasant main factors in the oppression of women and the emergence of peasant women. Thus, the oppression of women women in literature were due to the should not simply be ascribed to male influence of Marxist ideology and chauvinism. In the same way, it is not Communist movements in the 1930s. By always true that all women are sisters. the late 1930s, urban-based middle-class In Vietnamese feudal society, poor writers began to feel that their own class peasants, men and women alike, were was corrupt, and that their lives were equally oppressed by both male and fe• trivial and meaningless. They turned to male members of the landowning class. the countryside and peasants for a place to escape from turmoil in the corrupted Engels' explanation of the relation city. The countryside was considered as between gender inequality and the a source of morality. Therefore, it is not ownership of private property was well received in Vietnam. For example, Vu Ngoc Phan, a scholar and an expert in Vietnamese folk literature, explains that 11 Vu Ngoc Phan, 'Nhung Tieg Phan Khang peasant women traditionally had to cua Phu Nu Nong Thon trong Dan Ca Viet listen to their fathers, husbands, male Nam' (Rural Women's Voice of Resistance siblings or even their sons because in Folk Songs) in Tap San Nghien Cuu Van Su Dia, no. 6, 1955. P. 41. 12 Ngo Vinh Long. Vietnamese Women in 10 Engels, Frederick. The Origin of the Society and Revolution: The French Family, Private Property and the State. Lon• Colonial Period. Vietnamese Resource don: Lawrence&Wishart, 1972. P. 221. centre: Massachusetts, 1974. P. 8.

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surprising that the members of Tu Luc daughters or lovers of the male protago• Van Doan (The Self-Reliant Literary nists. In the literary works written dur• Group) criticised the manners and atti• ing the period of 1930-1945, it is com• tudes of bourgeois women and mon for peasant women to be described romanticised peasant women for their as stupid and credulous, and they were self-sacrifice and diligence. For often depicted as the victims of exploi• example,in the short story Hai Ve Dep tation and rape by feudal landlords or (Two Beauties) [ 1936], Nhat Linh men from the city. shows that city , Dung, Lan and Tuyet, were living a dissipated life. Some male writers were unable to avoid Their existence was pointless. They the influence of Confucian bias against might look beautiful, but their beauty women. It is not difficult to find traces came from their make-up and clothes. ofgender-biased ideology influenced by Compared to the simple but genuine the Confucian concept of patriarchy in beauty of the rural women, the beauty their works. For instance, the well• of urban women was fake and superfi• known writer Nguyen Cong Hoan might cial. have to accept that peasants were a main force for the revolution, but he could not At the same time, the Realist and wholeheartedly admire them because of revolutionary literature became domi• their backwardness and unrefined man• nant in Vietnamese literary circles and ners. In his works, male peasants are public debates.Realist and revolutionary described as ignorant and superstitious, writers attacked the colonial regime for but peasant women are depicted as its oppressive policies towards local being even worse. For example, in his people, and criticised the feudal system well-known novel, Buoc Duong Cung as backward and outdated. A new type (Impasse) [ 193 9], the wife of Pha, the of literature turned its hope for the protagonist, is portrayed as stupid and future to peasants, with the expectation gullible, and the author did not bother that the salvation of the nation would giving her a name. She did not believe be accomplished by the masses. How• that having an injection could protect her ever, when writing about peasants, from epidemic diseases. As the author writers normally referred to male peas• clearly pointed out, her death is due to ants, whereas peasant women played her ignorance and superstition. 13 only a minor role and were normally included in the stories as the wives, The oppression of peasant women came a topic that received considerable 13 Gender bias can be observed through Nguyen Cong Hoan's works. He was Hoan conservatively pointed out that a strongly against the idea that women should bewomen should try to persevere and learn be free from familial piety and have the right how to be a good wife and daughter-in-law to choose their own partner. For example, in instead offollowing the Western model and his novel o Giao Minh (Miss Minh, the demanding freedom. The discussion of this School Teacher) [1936], which was written novel can be found in Jamieson, NeilL. Un• to respond to the novel Doan Tuyet (Break• derstanding Vietnam. Berkeley: University ing the Tie) by Nhat Linh, Nguyen Cong of California Press, 1995. Pp. 144-154.

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attention from petty-bourgeois and there was the foundation ofthe Vietnam middle-class male writers in the late Women's Union, which is still active to 1930s. However, their ultimate goal was, the present day. These women's in fact, to condemn the corruption of organisations share two main purposes: local officials and criticise the policies to support the revolution and to defend of the colonial government, such as the women's rights. 15 Therefore, the move• tax system. The historian, Hue-Tam Ho ment for and the Tai, observes that writing by male struggle for national independence are writers about the oppression of women closely linked. The liberation of women during the 1920s and 1930s was a means was largely a political end. According of expressing their frustration about the to Marr, the policy of gender equality political situation in colonial society and and the contribution of women were criticism against colonial administra• important weapons employed by the tion. As she explains: Party in the post-1945 period. 16 Litera• Gender acted as a coded lan• ture, which is also regarded as a politi• 17 guage of debating a whole range cal weapon by Vietnamese leaders , of issues without overstepping unavoidably took part in these women's the limits imposed on public movement campaigns, as will be discourse by colonial censor• discussed in the following section. ship. The French rhetoric of empire which represented Peasant Women in Wartime France as the country, Literature the Governor-General as a father figure, and the colonial In the thirty years of wartime literature people as of various (1945-1975), the portrayal of peasant stages of immaturity met its women altered dramatically from the match in the Vietnamese previous period: namely, from being literary practice at commenting victims of economic oppression in a on the human condition colonial society women became instead through the device of female the agents of production and political 14 characters. activities. This change in the represen• tation of peasant women was due to the In 1941, the Women's Association for Communist government's determination National Salvation was founded. It to pacify the South and to establish aimed to unite Vietnamese women from all classes in order to fight against the 16 Marr, David. Vietnamese Tradition on Japanese and the French troops. 1946 In Trial, 1920-1945. P. 192. 17 For example, Pharo Van Dong pointed out, 14 Hue-Tam Ho Tai. Radicalism and the Ori• 'In Ideological struggle, art is really a sharp gins of the Vietnamese Revolution. Cam• weapon because its effect is very deep and bridge, MA : Harvard University Press, lasts very long.' From To Quoc Ta, Nhan 1992. P. 90. Dan Ta, Su Nghiep Ta va Nguoi Nghe Si (our Nation, Our People, Our Cause and the 15 Mai Thi Tu and Le Thi Nham Tuyet. Artists). Hanoi: NXB Van Hoc, 1969. P. 99. Women in Vietnam. Pp. 324-325.

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agricultural collectivisation, as a part of based on his experiences and encoun• the process of Socialist development. As ters with peasant women in the South will be shown in the following especially in the areas occupied b; paragraphs, peasant women were often foreign troops. His novels and short portrayed as warriors and labourers on stories repeatedly show how patriotism collective farms. and responsibility to the nation can turn an ordinary peasant girl into an Peasant Women as Guerrilla effective guerrilla fighter. Fighters For example, the storylines of his well• The Communist government in the known short stories; Nguoi Me Cam North, under the policy ofliberating the Sung (Armed Mother) [1965] and Me South and unifying the whole of Viet• Yang Nha (Mother Is Not Home) [ 1966] nam, sent troops and revolutionaries to are based on the real story of a patriotic Vietnamese peasant woman, Nguyen propagate Communist ideology in the Thi Ut. The writer praised Nguyen Thi Southern areas, and not only men but Ut for being brave and patriotic. As also a number of women were recruited emphasised in both short stories to join the movement, notably the Nguyen Thi Ut loved her husband and famous long-hair army. 18 It is estimated children no less than did other women that there were 840,000 women guerril• ' but still she regarded the national cause las in in 1952, and as the first priority. She joined the 140,000 female fighters in the South in guerrillas and fought energetically, even 1950.'9 Most of them came from peas• when she was pregnant. ant families. Through the character, Nguyen Thi Ut, The female fighters are vividly the author draws a triangular connection portrayed in a number of novels, short between class struggle, women's Iibera stories and reportages, notably in the tion, and national independence. works by the revolutionary writer Nguyen Thi Ut is born in a poor Nguyen Thi. He worked as a revolution• peasant family and is, at the age of eight, ary cadre in the Southern region, and sold to a landowning peasant, Ham Gioi. worked closely with peasant women in She has to work as a servant and is badly this area. Many of his characters are treated. One day, due to hunger she steals a piece of meat. The landlady beats her brutally and asks her to return 18 For more detail, see Taylor, Sandra C. Viet• the meat. As she has already swallowed namese Women at War: Fighting for Ho Chy the meat, the cruel woman makes Minh and the Revolution. Kansas, Univer• Nguyen Thi Ut vomit. Nguyen Thi Ut sity Press of Kansas, 1999. is freed when the liberation forces come 19Mai Thi Tu, 'The Vietnamese Woman Yes• to the village. Then, Nguyen Thi Utjoins terday and Today' in Michael Klein (ed.). the guerrillas. As a young girl, she The Vietnam era: Media and Popular Cul• begins to realise that women are prone ture in the US and Vietnam. London and to sexual harassment by the soldiers of Massachusetts: Pluto Press, 1990. P. 193.

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the foreign troops and the Southern men in the village were recruited to fight regime. Nguyen Thi Ut soon under• in the war. It is reckoned that, during stands that fighting for national freedom the war, women made up 80-90 per cent is necessary because this would of the members of the agricultural co• guarantee that she would not have to operativesY The importance of peasant tolerate oppression from the landown• women for the new agricultural system ers and harassment from the enemy. was clearly stressed by the Vietnamese leader Le Duan: According to Tran Trang Dang Dan, a literary critic, the characterisation of Ours being mainly an agricul• Nguyen Thi Ut exemplifies the tural economy, the main task of qualities of Vietnamese women exalted the drive for socialist transfor• by Ho Chi Minh. During the war against mation in the immediate future the American troops, Ho Chi Minh used is to turn our backward agricul• four words to describe the characteris• ture into a co-operat- ivized, and tics of Vietnamese women: anh hung subsequently, mechanised and (heroic), bat khuat (indomitable), trung modern agriculture.Who are hau (faithful), and dam dang (respon• the labourers that directly carry sible).20Whether or not Nguyen Thi was out the socialist revolution in aware ofHo Chi Minh's description of the countryside? They are the the ideal woman and should be consid• poor and middle peasants, half ered as a genuine writer or merely as of whom are women. It may be war propagandist, he contributed a great said that our women peasants deal in conveying the sacrifice and are shouldering a bigger heroism of peasant women. workload than men. A great number ofthem have thus taken Peasant Women as Agricultural a direct part in the socialist Labourers revolution now unfolding in the countryside. 22 After the land reform programme and agricultural collectivisation were intro• Therefore, peasant women duced in North Vietnam in the 1950s, unsurprisingly became a main focus in literature. A number of short stories and novelists and short story writers emphasised the role of peasant women novels, notably those written after in agricultural production. It is evident agricultural collectivisation was introduced into the countryside, stress that the collective farms had to rely on women's labour whilst almost all the that it was necessary for peasant women to take part in economic and political activities. Two short stories by Ngo

20 Tran Trong Dang Dan. Gop May Dong vao Van Hoc (The Contribution to Litera• 21 ture). Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1999. Ibid., p. 195. P. 246. 22 Le Duan, 'We Must View the Women's Question from a Class Standpoint'. P.113.

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Ngoc Boi, Chi Ca Phay (Madame Bright that the government wanted to promote: Skin) [ 1961] and Chi Than (Madame namely, she understands the purpose of Than) [1970] are good examples of this the revolution and how it is necessary literary trend. for women to share revolutionary tasks. Unlike other women in the village who Ngo Ngoc Boi wrote Chi Ca Phay (Ma• moan when their husbands leave to fight dame Bright Skin) in order to awaken a in the war, Chi Than not only stays calm, social consciousness among peasant but also helps remind other women that women. Chi Ca Phay is described as a they have important tasks to do while typical Vietnamese peasant woman: their husbands are away, including hard working, thrifty and conservative. increasing the production of the Chi Ca Phay, a widow, never intends to co-operative. remarry but a number of men are interested in her. She tries hard to stay Ngo Ngoc Boi was not the only writer un married and takes good care of her who underlined the conservative men• only son. However, the author does not tality of peasant women, especially in consider her behaviour admirable. terms of love and marriage. A similar Instead, he indicates that she is ideologi• theme is also found in the novel, Di cally influenced by Confucian ideas. Buoc Nua (Take Another Step) [1960], According to the Confucian norms, a by Nguyen The Phuong. The author widow is not encouraged to remarry and criticises the conservative notion that is even regarded as property of her late did not allow a widowed woman to husband's family. Chi Ca Phay is also remarry, but which required her to stay criticised for her attempt to arrange a and work for the family of her late hus• marriage for her 11 -year-old son. band. The story reveals the difficult life Through the viewpoint of Cu Hiep, a ofHoan, a widow with two children. Her respectable old man in the village, Chi mother-in-law has sympathy for Roan, Ca Phay does not need to worry about but she does not want Roan to do any• her son or prepare anything for his fu• thing that would go against traditional ture because he is now a child of the practices. The narrator shows that one collective. So, his future will be secure. problem of achieving gender equality is For the author, Chi Ca Phay and other that gender prejudices are deeply rooted female peasants should change their in women's mentality. Towards the end ideas about the upbringing of children of the novel, Nguyen The Phuong and try to be a part of the collective. emphasises that it was Communist cadres and the co-operative system that In depicting Chi Ca Phay, the author brought happiness to peasant women endeavoured to point out the conserva• and emancipated them from conserva• tive characteristics of Vietnamese tive ideas preventing them from ' di buoc peasant women , whereas the character nua', or 'remarrying'. Chi Than is to contrast with Chi Ca Phay and represent an ideal model for The similarity between these two sto• Vietnamese peasant women. Chi Than ries is not a coincidence. Both authors represented the image ofpeasant woman reflect the Communist government's

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attempt to improve the social status of and serenity. Similar to Ngo Ngoc Boi, women. After the Communists took con• Vu Thi Thuong served the national trol of the northern part of the country, cause and responded to the they introduced two main policies that government's policy on rural develop• were believed to be perfect solutions for ment in her writing. However, her works the emancipation of women, especially express a better understanding of those from the peasantry. The first policy women in the countryside. For instance, was to change some legislative issues in the short story Tu Moi Can Nha Nhu on marriage and the family, and the sec• The (From Each House Like That), ond was agricultural collectivisation. published in the same collection, the The law on marriage and family, passed theme is to call for women's support in in 1960, stated that polygamy was ille• taking charge in political and social gal. Ho Chi Minh himself also paid tasks. The story argues that peasant attention to this issue. As he commented: women who did not join the revolution, or remained passive, did so not because Failing to free women they were conservative or selfish,but means failing to liberate half of because they did not have enough humanity. Failing to free confidence. The author suggests that women means that the building peasant women need to be encouraged of socialism is half completed ... and assured that they could work and The law on marriage aims at contribute to society as well as men. freeing women, that is, liberat• ing half of society. As women As reflected in her short stories, Vu Thi are emancipated, we must eradi• Thuong often asserts that government cate feudal and bourgeois programmes in the 1960s, such as Ba ideology in men.23 dam dang or the 'Three Responsibili• ties'24 and 'Three Ensures'25 move However, changing men's ideology, as ments, were helping to improve the Ho Chi Minh suggested, was not simple, status of peasant women in village as reflected in the collection of short stories, Bong Hoa Sung (Water Lily) [ 1967] by the writer Vu Thi Thuong. She 24 uses the water lily as a metaphor for the It required women to take part in the pro• duction of collective farms and other activi• beauty of Vietnamese peasant women. ties while men went to the battlefield. At first glance, people may not consider Women were also expected to take charge the water lily to be beautiful, however, of all family affairs, and support the fight• if they take time to look at it more care ing against foreign invaders. See more in Mai fully, they will see that this kind of Thi Tu, and Le Thi Nham Tuyet. Women in flower is no less beautiful than others. Vietnam. P. 258. Moreover, its beauty contains modesty 2s It included; ensure timely planting, ensure good teclmiques and ensure cultivation in ac• cordance with the plan. See more in Glori• ous Daughters of Vietnam. 2 volumes. 23 Quoted in Bergman, Arlene Eisen. Wom en Hanoi: The Vietnam women's Union, 1975. of Vietnam. P. 215. P. 27.

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society. Owing to these movements, At the end ofthe story, the author points more women were being elected as lead• out that a woman who wants to achieve ers of local communities. However, a public confidence and acceptance must main problem as regards women taking also confront the patriarchal ideology control oflocal organisations was from which prevails in her own family. Like the social attitudes towards women.26 In Mui, in order to carry on a political task, general, people did not believe that she needs to be confident and to fight women could be as good leaders as the against old-fashioned ideas and biases, men. For example, in the short story even from her own husband. As Vu Thi Chung Toi ...(We ... ), the old man Gang Thuong emphasises, it is important for is pleased when his daughter gets gender prejudice to be solved first at the elected as the chairman of a co-opera• household level. tive. But, at the same time, he is wor• ried that, as a girl, she will be unable to Another interesting story, which is based manage the co-operative and gain on a similar theme, is Yo Chong Chi Doi respect from people in the village. Simi• Truong (The Unit Leader and Her Hus• larly, in the short story Cau Chuyen Xay band). People in the village and officials Ra Khong Tranh Khoi (Inevitable Con• in central administration all agreed that flict) [1966], Vu Thi Thuong shows us Mrs. Vinh was qualified to be the leader how a peasant woman is struggling to of a production unit. The only reason be accepted as a leader of a village com they did not want her to take the munity. Through the character Mui, position of leader was because she was who is appointed as the chairperson of a woman. They decided that, in theory, a cooperative, the author reveals that it her husband should take the title of unit is difficult for a woman to hold politi• leader while in practice Mrs. Vinh would cal office, not because of her lack of do the job for him. Owing to the 'Three ability but because of the way she is Responsibilities' movement promoting perceived. For Mui, it is even worse the role of women in the village because her confidence is undermined community, Mrs. Vinh was finally by her own husband. He is proud of his wife, but is still concerned that she might not be capable of completing the task by herself and will need his assistance. ideas. The struggle against these attitudesnot must occur in both the spheres of culture and ideology. How should we go about eliminat• 26 This problem was recognised by the Pre• ing these vestiges? Uncle Ho said mier Pham Van Dong. Follow is the quota• recently that in some places women tion from his speech in February 1967: and wives were still badly treated. Though we are a socialist coun• try, a heroic nation with an This is not an isolated phenom• enon, but a rather common one advanced and civilised ideology unfortunately. and political regime, we still have From Pham Van Dong. Some Cultural Prob• many shortcomings concerning lems (speeches). Hanoi: Foreign languages women. These are the remnants of Publishing House, 1981. P. 44 .. old, fe udal and backward

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elected as the unit leader. The follow• celebrated by writers as the first time in ing conversation shows how women are Vietnamese history that women from discriminated against by gender bias in lower classes, in particular from the village corrununity: peasantry, had been given a sense of pride and dignity. The writers high• A man, about 30 years old, lighted the fact that peasant women had suddenly asked: the right to join agricultural co-opera• ' Why didn't we elect her tives and were given land and tools. The as our unit leader since Mr. Bai Corrununist system of'work points' also resigned last time?' allowed peasant women to earn points One person answered: and to receive a share from the harvest 'Probably because at that according to how much work they did. time she just gave birth to a This also enabled them to be a part of baby... ' the corrununity. They did not have to Another person argued: take their husbands' status or name as 'No, it was not because of they had in previous periods. However, giving birth, but I guess it's be• while responding to government policies cause she was sick.' on rural development and mass Mrs. Man, who is well• mobilisation, literature did not fail to known for being outspoken, raise an intriguing question as to could not stand these specula• whether or not agricultural tions any longer, and had to in• collectivisation and government terrupt the conversation: campaigns on women movements had ' It was not because she brought about gender equality in the gave birth or was ill. It was only countryside. As discussed earlier, because in those days you men throughout this period writers argued discriminated against us that Vietnamese peasant women still women. There was no differ• suffered from the patriarchal concept, ence among cadres. You never and that it was, in fact, never success• wanted to vote for us. Just only fully abolished. 28 now with the 'three responsi• bilities' prograrrune, and also if Some have concluded that the women's you don't let women in, who movement in wartime Vietnam was will work in this production unit when men are going to join the 28 army?' 27 According to Mai Thi Tu, the policy of promoting women cadres did not fully achieve its goals. She notes that in 1960 The decade of 1960s, the period of 1, 150 women were elected to the manage• Socialist construction and establishment ment committees of co-operatives in Hai of collective farms, was generally Duong province. But this number was only 11 per cent of the total membership, whereas 27 Vu Thi Thuong. Vo Chong Chi Doi Truong the target was 30 per cent. See more in Mai (The Leader Unit and Her Husband) in Bong Thi Tu, 'The Vietnamese Woman Yesterday Hoa Sung: Tap Truyen Ngan. Hanoi: NXB and Today' P. 195. Van Hoc, 1967. P. 45.

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geared not towards liberation, but to ex• by drawing women into productive ploitation. For instance, Stephanie labour seems a cruel joke, a formula for Fahey argues that the Vietnamese total exhaustion rather than for libera• leaders regarded the woman question as tion. ' 32 These comments are by no part of the agenda for national struggle means overstatements. However, it is and socialist society.29 David Marr men• difficult to determine categorically tioned in his book that 'it was often whether or not the invention of a pointed that if all Vietnamese were stereotype of peasant women in litera• oppressed to some degree, then ture contributes to the process of this Vietnamese woman were the most exploitation. Throughout the period oppressed of all. ' 30 A similar comment between 1945-1975, literature was was made by another historian, Douglas subordinated to the political struggle, Pike, who put it bluntly that 'the women and the reflection of peasant women in were in truth the water buffalo of the literary works was intended to highlight Revolution. ' 31 Christine White shares the importance of socialist construction the same view and asserts that '[T]he and economic development in rural Leninist route to Women's emancipation areas. The link between the images of peasant women in the literature and the political agenda of nation-state building Another example of sexual inequality in is evident. Nevertheless, one can say that agricultural co-operatives is revealed in Tran during the wartime period the contribu• Thi Van Anh's article, as follows: tion of peasant women and realisation of their problems were raised and In practice, however, coopera• discussed in literary works to an unprec• tive heads assigned work accord• ing to their perceptions of workers' edented degree. Vietnamese writers took abilities. Thus, women were more part in the mobilisation of peasant likely to be assigned traditional women in the struggle and establishment women's work, such as transplant• ing, weeding, manuring, harvesting and animal-breeding. In general, women's work received fewer work points. One workday 29 Fahey, Stephanie, 'Vietnam's Women in for transplanting earned ten points, the Revolution Era' in Sen, Khrisha and and one workday for fertilising Maila Stivens (eds.). Gender and Power in received eight. Men's work earned Affluent Asia. London and New York: them more points: one workday for Routledge, 1998. P. 225. ploughing received twelve points 30 Marr, David G. Vietnamese Tradition on and one workday for a carpenter Trial, 1920-1945. P.191. earned fourteen . 31Pike, Douglas.Viet Cong: The Organisation For more information, see Tran Thi Van Anh, and Techniques of the National Liberation 'Women and Rural Land in Vietnam' in Front of . Massachusetts: The Tinker, Irene and Gale Summerfield (eds.). M.I.T Press, 1966. P. 178. Women's Right in House and Land: China, 32 Quoted in Pham Van Bich. The Vietnam• Laos and Vietnam. London: Lynne Rienner ese Family in Change: The Case of the Red Publishers, 1999. P. 99. River Delta. Surrey: Curzon, 1999. P. 64.

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of agricultural collectivisation, but their on women in Vietnam, sympathy for peasant women was some• explains that the failure of the govern• how undeniably real. ment policy to emancipate women in Vietnam was caused by the fact that it Peasant Women in Post-1975 over-simplified the problem. The Viet• Literature namese Communists believed that gender inequality could be solved if men changed their attitudes. However, the This part of the article will focus on the problem was never properly resolved depiction of peasant women depicted in and it still occurs in post-war society post-1975 literature, and will study the mainly because 'men, like other privi• main factors underlining the changes leged groups, do not give up power in and continuities in the representation of the family or anywhere else because peasant women. An early remark is that they are expected to change their the transformation of the socio-political attitudes. ' 33 context from wartime into peace had a significant effect on the change in the In her interesting work Patriarchy and representation of peasant women in Socialist Revolution in China, Judith literature. It can be seen in the literary Stacey argues that Socialism cannot works discussed in the following para• emancipate women. In fact, Socialism graphs that there is an attempt to is rather compatible with a patriarchal de-politicise the depiction of peasant gender-biased system. This is because women, while the issues of gender bias a patriarchal family economy and patriar are more openly discussed. chal consciousness are important ele• ments in building a Socialist society.34 What is often reflected in the post-war The author describes Chinese society as literary texts is the fact that peasant 'patriarchal socialism' which means 'the women in Vietnam are still burdened by socialisation of most, but not all, social and gender prejudices arising productive activities in the context of from the Confucian concept of patriar• sustained, but reformed, patriarchal chy. Post-war writers, such as Le Luu, authority over women, marriage, and Nguyen Khac Truong and Duong domestic economy' .35 This explanation Huong, use their writings to expose the patriarchal, kinship and family systems that are still practised in the rural areas 4 of Vietnam. Through the period of 3 Stacey, Judith. Patriarchy and Socialist Socialist development, patriarchy might Revolution in China. Berkeley, Los Angeles have been challenged, reformed or and London: University of California Press, refined, but it was obviously never 1983. Pp. 265-266. abolished. For example, in her research 35 Ibid., p. 217. According the Marxist feminist Michele Barrett, the sociologist Max Weber described the term 'patriarchy' as ·a particular form of household 33 Barry, Kathleen (ed.). Vietnam's Women organisation in which the father dominated in Transition. London: Macmillan Press, other members of an extended kinship 1996.P.l2. network and controlled the economic

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can also be applied to the social context ant families to be more independent ofVietnam. Vietnamese rural society is from the state, it brought back the old structured with feudal relations of power pattern that the husband became the in which seniority and filial piety are still head of family and had the right to make significant. In a family, the husband has decisions on household business. More• control and authority over his wife and over, women had a minor role and children. Kathleen Barry describes the almost no power in the Vietnam Peas• relationship in Vietnamese family as ants' Association, one of the largest follows: social organisations in Vietnam. Almost ... the family in Vietnam all its members were men because they today is charged with feudal were given their role as the head of the relation of power, and is struc• household.37 The family-based system tured around the veneration of also had an effect on women because elders and filial piety. Family the assistance subsidy to women for feudalism is a stage in the his• reproductive activities during the sociali torical development of the st period was decreased.38 patriarchal family, just beyond slavery, where lord, or in the In fact, the ideology of patriarchy was case of family, husband, holds still exercised during the period of complete control and authority Socialism (1945-1975). If we look back over the household, whose at the slogans and programmes launched mem- bers,children and wife, by the Vietnam Women's Union aimed serve him. He may be ruthless at mobilising women, especially from or beneficent, but he is not held the lower classes, we can see that accountable outside his private women were required to share social fieldom: ~ each man's home is responsibility with men rather than to his castle' .36 be encouraged to demand complete freedom. To a certain extent, the The family economy system has been wartime programmes, such as the 'Three restored since new land laws were Responsibilities', are comparable to the passed in 1988 and 1993. According to Confucian doctrines of three submis• the new laws, land would be allotted to sions and four virtues instructing women peasant families, and this replaced the how they should behave. This is in fact work points system, which allowed individuals to earn work points accord• ing to the amount of work that he or she 37 Tran Thi Que, 'Gender Issues in Vietnam's was assigned. Although it allowed peas- Development' in Norlund, Irene et al. (eds. ). Vietnam in a Changing World. Surrey: Curzon, 1995. P. 199. production ofthe household.' See more in Barrett, Michele. Women's Oppression To• 38 Tran Thi Van Anh, 'Vietnam' in Tinker, day: Problems in Marxist Feminist Analy• Irene and Gale Summerfield (eds. ). Women's sis. London : Verso, 1980. Pp. 10-11 . Rights in House and Land: China, Laos and Vietnam. London: Lynne Rienner Publish• 36 Barry, Kathleen (ed.). Vietnam's Women ers, 1990. P. 101. in Transition. P. 11.

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a new way to set a patriarchal standard love triangle between Son, Phuc and and impose it on women. Consequently, Ham increased the hatred between the it can be concluded that patriarchy might two families. As the author describes: have been challenged, but it was never abolished in Vietnamese rural society. The old people said: the conflict Vietnamese peasant women still have to caused by marriage and struggle against patriarchal thinking and ricefield will take ten thousand the kinship system, and this is an years to revenge. This means enduring theme to be explored, debated nothing can make people hate and challenged in the post-1975 liter• each other longer than conflkts ary works. about marriage and land. The Trinh Ba and Vu Dinh cannot To begin with, let us take a look at the share the same mat because of award-winning and best-selling novel these two things! In those days, Manh Dat Lam Nguoi Nhieu Ma (A Plot people from the two families of Land With Many People and Ghosts) fought in the middle ofvillage's by Nguyen Khac Truong. Here, it is pagoda during the village fair. shown that patriarchal ideology and the Their forefathers fought kinship system still play an important because of land and position. role in Vietnamese society. Ancestor The position of village chief is worship is still commonly practised in small, but it is about dignity, Vietnam, especially in rural areas. If the winning and losing between ancestor of one family makes an oath, two families. It also means who whatever it is, his children have to fol• will get the heads of chickens low it and pass it to later generations, and pigs, and who will get the mainly through the patri-lineal line. It best seat at the village hall. Both is generally believed that disasters will sides have been competitive. In occur if a member of the family breaks the generation of Phuc, it is the family's rule or disobeys the . It is weird that these ancestor's order. In this novel, the two families spy and trick each author tells us how a peasant woman other tirelessly.39 becomes a victim of an ancestor cult conflict and patriarchal concepts. After Son marries Ham, she finds no happiness in her life. For Ham, his wife The story begins with a love triangle. is a reminder that he is inferior to Phuc Son, a beautiful girl, had a secret rela• because Phuc slept with Son before he tionship with a married man, Vu Dinh married her. The conflict of ancestor Phuc. Her parents forced her to marry cults also has an influence on the love Trinh Ba Ham, a rich peasant in the relationship between Dao, Ham's village. The Trinh Ba and Vu Dinh have been enemies for generations, and people from these two families have 39 Nguyen Khac Truong. Manh Dat Lam been competing with each other for Nguoi Nhieu Ma (A Plot of Land with Many political positions in the village. The People and Ghosts). Hanoi: NXB Hoi Nha Van, 1999. P. 25.

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daughter and Tung, a member of the Vu This theme is also emphasised in Duong Dinh family. The Trinh Ba family used Huong's famous novel, Ben Khong Son as a tool to destroy the Vu Dinh. Chong (A Watering Place for Women The trick is that the Trinh Ba family with No Husband) [1990]. This work accuse Vu Dinh Phuc of having an shows that the interference of parents affair with Son. Ham and his relatives in the courtship and marriage of their demand that in order to get Phuc, a party children remains widely practised and cadre, removed from his political acceptable in the countryside of Viet• position, Son should appear at the meet• nam. 4 1 In the novel Ben Khong Chong ing of party members and the village (A Watering Place for Women with No committee and indict Phuc of using his Husband) Nghia and Hanh decide to get position to force her to have an affair married in spite of the disapproval from with him. Son decides not to comply their families. The conflict between the with this plan because she cannot bear two families starts when a girl from the to be humiliated by the rumours and Nguyen clan is raped by a man from the gossipof other villagers. Instead, she Vu clan. The Nguyen vow that they will chooses to commit suicide to escape the get revenge and regard the Vu as their battle between the two families; how• enemy. Although this incident happened ever, her death does not lessen the long ago and the animosity between antagonism of other villagers . members of both sides decreased, the Instead, she chooses to commit suicide Nguyen are still reluctant to give their to escape the battle between the two blessings to the relationship between families; however, her death does not Nghia and Hanh. The marriage is lessen the antagonism Ham is con• strongly opposed by the male members cerned about the death of Son less than of the Nguyen clan. They consider it is about his image and dignity. He is infu• the duty of men to protect the pride of riated by the fact that his rival, Phuc, the clan and make sure that the ances• receives the news of Son's death and tors' instructions are followed. For them, reaches her body before him. The this marriage is humiliating for the clan. excerpt below shows how self-centred The attitude of female members of the and chauvinistic he is: Nguyen is milder. In fact, they even have sympathy for Nghia and Hanh, but they Trinh Ba Ham is angry not are afraid that disobeying the oath of the because of the death of his ancestors would bring about misfortune. beautiful wife. It is because he Duong Huong argues that it is not the realised that he was always late! oath or offending the ancestors that can Vu Dinh Phuc always comes cause disaster for the family, but rather first and is ahead ofhim! Even the death of Son, Phuc 41 According toLe Thi, a Vietnamese soci• witnessed before him.40 ologist, marriages in agricultural society are arranged by parents, and sometimes have to be approved by the whole lineage. See more in Le Thi. The Role of the Family in the Formation of Vietnamese Personality. Hanoi: 40 Ibid., pp. 286-287. The Gioi Publishers, 1999. P. 25.

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the dark side of human beings: namely, that is not because of the curse or oath hatred, anger and jealousy. An old mem• of ancestors. In the case of Nghia and ber of the Nguyen family is jealous of Hanh, it is the war that robbed them of Nghia because he is the head of the clan. their happiness. The old man burns the communal house where the whole clan comes to worship A similar theme is also reflected in the ancestors, and then spreads the rumour controversial novel by Duong Thu that the ancestors punished the clan for Huong, Nhung Thien Duong Mu (Para• allowing Nghia to marry Hanh. dise of the Blind) [1988]. As shown in Duong Thu Huong's novel, in a peasant The favouring of over girls is also family, Que always has to yield to her mentioned in Duong Huong's novel, younger brother's demands simply Ben Khong Chong (A Watering Place because he is the only heir in the for Women with No Husband). Nghia's family. She is ready to sacrifice every• mother arranges for him to divorce Hanh thing she has for her brother, even her and marry another woman. She is des• marriage or the education of her own perate for a grandson who will continue daughter. She prefers her daughter to the family line. Interestingly, people in starve and live modestly in order that the village, including Hanh herself, tend she can spare some money to support to believe that it is Hanh's fault for not her brother and his two sons. This is having a son to carry on the family's line. because of the traditional belief that only Nobody asks question about Nghia's a son can carry forward the family's possible infertility. When a couple don't identity and honour. This is not some• have a child, it seems that the wife is thing new, but a continuation of the long the first person to be blamed. It is even tradition of prejudice against women. As the right of her mother-in-law to look is clearly shown in popular sayings: 'one for a new wife for her husband. boy you can inscribe a descendent, ten girls you can write nil' and ' when there Duong Huong's novel strives to fight is but one man, you can call it a pres• against this bias when the narrator re• ence; but ten women together will be lates how Nghia's injury from fighting counted as none' .42 Another well-known in the war caused his infertility. The author includes this detail in order to show that it is not always a woman's fault when she can not have a baby. Also, onwards because it was difficult for the rul• ing class to follow the standards of Confu• cian precepts. However, Confucianism was ~ 2 It is translated from Vietnamese 'Nhat restored again in 1802 under the Nguyen Dy• Nam Viet Huu, thap nu viet vo'. Cong Huyen nasty, and since then patriarchal ideology re• Ton Nu Nha Trang says that these patriar• asserted itself in Vietnamese society. See chal. concepts are influenced by Confucian more in Cong Huyen Ton Nu Nha Trang, teaching. Confucianism was highly favoured 'The Makings of the National Heroine' in during the Le dynasty, but then lost its The Vietnam Review (no. I, Autumn-Win• popularity from the sixteenth century ter 1996), p.403.

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expression is 'a hundred daughters are this study of the representation of peas• not worth a single testicle.' 43 ant women in Vietnamese literature. First, the way in which peasant women The criticism against the kinship are portrayed is closely related to the system and the revelation of the true political agenda. In the period between status of women in peasant families 1930 and 1945, the victimisation of reflected in post-197 5 Vietnamese peasant women was used as a tool to literature mark a new change in the criticise the colonial administration. In representation of peasant women. In the the 1945-75 period, literature took part wartime literature, writers never in mobilising the force of peasant described the concrete problems of women in the building of a socialist peasant women. Some writers, such as nation. Post-1975 literature reflected the Nguyen The Phuong, Ngo Ngoc Boi and failure of the Communist government Vu Thi Thuong, mentioned that the and its Socialist ideology to eradicate problems of peasant women were the residue of the old values in the coun• mainly caused by conservative ideas, but tryside, including the patriarchal they simply concluded that these prob• concepts and the kinship system. Thus, lems would be soon resolved when more it can be said that the construction of women were promoted to take charge peasant women in Vietnamese literature in the political administration, as is not only gender-based, but also discussed earlier in this article. How• politically bound. ever, the short stories and novels written in the post-197 5 period confirm Secondly, the stereotypes of peasant that the introduction of Socialist large• women changed through the transition scale industry and promotion of of the socio-political context from war women's roles in the agricultural to peace. The wartime literature co-operatives could not completely emphasises masculine qualities, change the patriarchal view about whereas the post-1975 literature tries to women and permanently elevate their revitalise feminine characteristics. social status in village community. This According to the literary texts, after the is because the problems of peasant war ended, women were expected to women are deeply rooted in the family. return to a home-making role rather than continuing with their social and politi• **** **** **** cal activities. This is just another way to reinforce patriarchal standards Some conclusions can be drawn from imposed on women.

43 In a study of the Vietnamese family, Pham Thirdly, the representation of peasant Van Bich reveals that peasant women, not women in Vietnamese literature is also only upper-class women, are also influenced interrelated to the issue of social class. by Confucian teachings, especially It can be observed that the problems of their' ideas of gender hierarchy'. For more peasant women are more emphasised in information, see Pham Van Bich. The Viet• literary works by male writers originat• namese Family in Change: The Case of the ing from peasant backgrounds than by Red River Delta. P. 245.

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female writers from the middle-class. It of peasant women are entirely shaped is noticeable that the works written by by men's ideas and experiences. The female writers in the post-war period humanist concept of male writers may respond to the problems that concerned enable the exposure of patriarchal middle-class women in urban areas. influences and the sufferings of peas• ant women in literature, but an attempt The Vietnamese literary scene contin• to liberate women is not yet evident in ues to be dominated by male writers. the male-dominated literary world. Female writers are few and remain in Although the stories of Vietnamese the background. That is why, in male• peasant women are the inspiration for produced texts, the construction of many literary works, peasant women do peasant women is never free from a not write. It is unfortunate that peasant gender-biased vision and the stereotypes women cannot represent themselves.

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