Modernity and my mum: A literary exploration into the (extra)ordinary sacrifices and everyday resistance of a vietnamese woman

Frontiers

Volumn 25, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 1-25

  Huỳnh, Kim ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 7644240074     PISSN: 01609009     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (80)

1. "M̂ôt trǎm con gái không b̀ǎng cái dái con trai." Recounted by Vân. All translations are by the author unless otherwise indicated.
2. An at once complementary and contrasting biographical essay about Thi′êt's modernity journey can be found in Kim Huỳnh, "Fathers, Flags and Modern-Day Fanaticism: A Short Story about Cold War Grand Theories and Ordinary Vietnamese-Australian People," Alternatives 28, no. 5 (December 2003): 517-44.
3. Vân Huỳnh, interview with the author, August 16, 2003.
4. Richard K. Ashley, "Living on Border Lines: Man, Poststructuralism, and War" in International/Intertextual Relations: Postmodern Readings of World Politics, ed. James Der Derian and Michael Shapiro, 259-322 (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989), 260.
5. Ashley, "Living on Border Lines," 261.
6. Pham Vǎn Bích, The Vietnamese Family in Change: The Case of the Red River Delta (Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999), 111-18.
7. A. Terry Rambo, "Black Flight Suits and White Aó Dàis: Borrowing and Adaptation of Symbols of Vietnamese Cultural Identity" in Borrowings and Adaptations in Vietnamese Culture, ed. Truong Buu Lâm, 155-223 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1987).
8. For a discussion of matriarchal pre-Neolithic Vietnamese society and its transition to more patriarchal social structures, see Mai Thi Tú and Lé Thi Nhâm Tuýêt, Women in Vietnam (Hà Ńôi: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1978), 12-30. For more of the H̀ông Dúc legal code, see pages 34-35 and 40-41.
9. While it is not suggested that matriarchies or patriarchies are based on physical stature alone, archaeologists have found prehistoric remains of women in North Viêt Nam who are over six feet tall, wearing bronze bracelets around their wrists. It is arguable that the sociopsychological legacy of this matriarchal society has contributed to the fact that, even after the millennium of Chinese rule over Viêt Nam from 111 B.C. to 939 A.D. and subsequent periods of strong patriarchal Confucian influences, Vietnamese woman have enjoyed more private and public power than their Chinese counterparts (there was never any foot-binding in Viêt Nam, for instance). Another factor would be the arduous nature of agricultural life in Viêt Nam, which made female subservience a socioeconomic liability. See Mai and Lê, Women in Vietnam, 12-30.
10. Vân Huỳnh, interview with the author, May 2, 2002.
11. Alexander B. Woodside, Community and Revolution in Modern Vietnam (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), ix.
12. Vân Huỳnh, interview with the author, May 2, 2002.
13. Vân Huỳnh, interview with the author, May 2002. Edited and translated by the author.
14. For a bilingual edition (Vietnamese and English), see Nguỹên Du The Tale of Kìêv, trans. Huỳnh Sanh Thông (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983)
15. For a more elaborate English translation, see Nguỹên Du Kìêu, trans. Michael Counsell (Hà Nôi: Nhà Xúât Ban Th́ê Giói, 1994).
16. The radicalism of portraying a prostitute as a heroine at that time cannot be overstated. It is thought that the story is an allegorical justification of Nguỹên Du's turbulent journey through political life. Nguỹên Du lived to see the Lê dynasty be overthrown by the Tây Son rebellion and then the coming to power of Gia Long. He served as an official for both the Lê and Gia Long, contravening the traditional expectation of court officials to show complete loyalty to one dynasty. In Kíêu he suggests that necessity, and indeed a higher virtue, might demand in certain circumstances that strict mores be broken.
17. Nguỹên Du, Kíêu, 616-24.
18. David G. Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial 1920-1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), 155.
19. Dǎng Tŕân Côn, Chink Phu Ngâm Khúc (Biên Hòa: Nhà Xúât Ban D́ông Nai, 2001). Wives who were commonly left to take care of a family while their husbands were at war have been lauded as "Ministers for the Interior." Mai and Lê, Women in Vietnam, 69.
20. Dǎng Tŕân Côn, Chink Phu Ngâm Khúc (Biên Hòa: Nhà Xùât Ban D́ông Nai, 2001). Wives who were commonly left to take care of a family while their husbands were at war have been lauded as "Ministers for the Interior." Mai and Lê, Women in Vietnam, 69.
21. Thíêu Phu Nom Xuong as recounted by Vân. Also known as The Wife of Mr Truong [Vo Chàng Truong].
22. McHale argues that it is not clear when or even if any distinct or monolithic notion of Confucianism was adopted by the Vietnamese. Nevertheless, he maintains that "Vietnamese deeply understood a few key Confucian notions such as the tù dúc (Four Virtues) and tam tòng (Three Submissions) and spoke frequently about filial piety and loyalty." Shawn McHale, "Mapping a Vietnamese Confucian Past and Its Transition to Modernity" in Rethinking Confucianism: Past and Present in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, ed. Benjamin A. Elman, John B. Duncan, and Herman Ooms, 397-430 (Los Angeles: University of California, 2002), 401.
23. "Tai gia tòng phu / Xúât gía tòng phu / Phu tu tòng tu." Recounted by Vân with reference to Phan Ḱê Bính, Viêt Nam Phong Tuc [Vietnamese Customs] (TPHCM: NXB Tông Hop D́ông Tháp, 1990), 63-64, and Trinh T. Minh-hà, Framer Framed (New York: Routledge, 1992), 83.
24. "Tai gia tòng phu / Xúât gía tòng phu / Phu tu tòng tu." Recounted by Vân with reference to Phan Ḱê Bính, Viêt Nam Phong Tuc [Vietnamese Customs] (TPHCM: NXB Tông Hop D́ông Tháp, 1990), 63-64, and Trinh T. Minh-hà, Framer Framed (New York: Routledge, 1992), 83.
25. "Phân gái tù dúc ven toàn, / Công, dung, ngôn, hanh, giu gìn chǎng sai." Recounted by Vân with reference to Phan Ḱê Bính, Viêt Nam Phong Tuc, 64, and Trinh, Framer Framed, 83.
26. "Phân gái tù dúc ven toàn, / Công, dung, ngôn, hanh, giu gìn chǎng sai." Recounted by Vân with reference to Phan Ḱê Bính, Viêt Nam Phong Tuc, 64, and Trinh, Framer Framed, 83.
27. Translated by the author with the assistance of Uyên Loewald. The four virtues were espoused in the fifteenth century by Nguỹên Trái. "Công là du' mùi xôi, thùc bánh, / Nhiêm-nhât thay duong chi mui mũi. kim. / Dung là nét mât ngoc trangnghiêm, / Không tha-thíêt, không chìêu la-ta. / Ngôn là day trinh thua vâng da, / Hanh là duòng ngay-thao kính tin. Xua nay ḿây ke dâu hìên, / Dung, công, ngôn, hanh là tiên phàm-tr̀ân." Nguỹên Trãi, Gia Húân Ca [Family Education Ode] (Sài Gòn: NXB Tân Viêt, 1953), 26-27.
28. "Che la che ĺây, con gái bay ngh̀ê: / Ng̀ôi lê là môt, dua côt là hai, theo trai là ba, / ǎn quà là b́ôn, tŕôn viêc là nǎm, hay ǹǎm là sáu, láo táo là bay." Recounted by Vân and translated by the author with the assistance of Uyên Loewald. Another version can be found in Trinh, Framer Framed, 82.
29. My theorizing of everyday resistance has been influenced by Michel de Certeau's work on "subverting from within" and "tactical" behavior as the "art of the weak." See Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, trans. Steven F. Rendall (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 30-37.
30. A political-anthropological analysis of everyday resistance that has also been particularly influential in my thinking is provided by James C. Scott. Scott argues that everyday resistance can be characterized as acts that "require little or no coordination or planning; they often represent a form of individual self-help; and they typically avoid any direct symbolic confrontation with authority or with elite norms." James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 29.
31. See also James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).
32. A study that concentrates on female forms of everyday power can be found in Susan Carol Rogers, "Female Forms of Power and the Myth of Male Dominance: A Model of Female/Male Interaction in Peasant Society," American Ethnologist 2, no. 4 (November 1975): 727-57.
33. Vân Huỳnh, interviewed by the author on May 5, 2002.
34. She is variously referred to as Triêu Âu, Triêu Trinh Vuong, Triêu Trinh, or Bà Triêu.
35. "Tôi muên cuoi con gió manh, / Dap duòng sóng dũ), / Chém cha trang-kình o bê Dông, / Quét bò coi dê cùu dân ra khoi noi / D́âm dúôl chu kh̀ông thèm b́ǎt chuóc Nguòi dòi cúi d̀âu cong lung làm tì-thíêp cho nguòi ta ..." Cited in Trinh, Framer Framed, 63, and Marr, Tradition on Trial, 198-99. Revised by Vân.
36. "Tôi muên cuoi con gió manh, / Dap duòng sóng dũ), / Chém cha trang-kình o bê Dông, / Quét bò coi dê cùu dân ra khoi noi / D́âm dúôl chu kh̀ông thèm b́ǎt chuóc Nguòi dòi cúi d̀âu cong lung làm tì-thíêp cho nguòi ta ..." Cited in Trinh, Framer Framed, 63, and Marr, Tradition on Trial, 198-99. Revised by Vân.
37. Marr, Tradition on Trial, 198-99.
38. Marr, Tradition on Trial, 199.
39. Chinese records make no mention of Lady Triêu, noting only an uprising of barbarism that was wiped out as a matter of course. Keith Weller Taylor, The Birth of Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 90.
40. Marr, Tradition on Trial, 199.
41. I b i d.
42. Taylor, The Birth of Vietnam, 39-40, 334-39. This account also asserts that they did not commit suicide but were caught and beheaded.
43. Phan Bôi Châu, Tuóng Trung Nũ) Vuong: Truyên Pham H̀ông Thái [Drama of the Trung Queens: Story of Pham H̀ông Thái] (Hà Nôa 1967). Cited in Marr, Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 200.
44. Marr, Tradition on Trial, 200.
45. Cited in Trinh, Framer Framed, 51; Marr, Tradition on Trial, 210.
46. Cited in Trinh, Framer Framed, 51; Marr, Tradition on Trial, 210.
47. Marr, Tradition on Trial, 201.
48. Cited in Marr, Tradition on Trial, 201.
49. Staking a jackfruit can lead to premature ripening.
50. "Qua Mít / Thân em nhu qua mít trên cây / Da nó xù xì, múi nó d̀ây / Quân tu có thuong thì dóng coc / Xindù ng mái mó nhua ra tay." Cited in Tr̀ân Khai Thanh Thuy, Lam Bàn Tho H̀ô Xuân Huong: Hay Bǎm Sáu Cái Nõn Nuòng Xuân Huong [Discussing the Poetry of H̀ô Xuân Huong] (Hà Nôi: Nhà Xúât Ban Vǎn Hóa Dân Tôc, 2002), 32. The author's translation with reference to the following sources: John Balaban, trans., Spring Essence: The Poetry of H̀ô Xuân Huong (Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2000), 36, and Trinh, Framer Framed, 82.
51. "Qua Mít / Thân em nhu qua mít trên cây / Da nó xù xì, múi nó d̀ây / Quân tu có thuong thì dóng coc / Xindù ng mái mó nhua ra tay." Cited in Tr̀ân Khai Thanh Thuy, Lam Bàn Tho H̀ô Xuân Huong: Hay Bǎm Sáu Cái Nõn Nuòng Xuân Huong [Discussing the Poetry of H̀ô Xuân Huong] (Hà Nôi: Nhà Xúât Ban Vǎn Hóa Dân Tôc, 2002), 32. The author's translation with reference to the following sources: John Balaban, trans., Spring Essence: The Poetry of H̀ô Xuân Huong (Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2000), 36, and Trinh, Framer Framed, 82.
52. "Qua Mít / Thân em nhu qua mít trên cây / Da nó xù xì, múi nó d̀ây / Quân tu có thuong thì dóng coc / Xindù ng mái mó nhua ra tay." Cited in Tr̀ân Khai Thanh Thuy, Lam Bàn Tho H̀ô Xuân Huong: Hay Bǎm Sáu Cái Nõn Nuòng Xuân Huong [Discussing the Poetry of H̀ô Xuân Huong] (Hà Nôi: Nhà Xúât Ban Vǎn Hóa Dân Tôc, 2002), 32. The author's translation with reference to the following sources: John Balaban, trans., Spring Essence: The Poetry of H̀ô Xuân Huong (Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2000), 36, and Trinh, Framer Framed, 82.
53. Vietnamese drifting dumplings are made of sticky rice and often have a sweet red bean paste in the middle. The poem can also be interpreted as referring to the nation.
54. "Bánh Trôi / Thân em thì tŕǎng, phân em tròn / Bây nôi ba chìm vói nuóc non / Ŕǎn nát mâc dâu tay ke' nân / Mà em ṽân giũ) t́âm lòng son." The author's translation with reference to Balaban, Spring Essence, 32-33, and the assistance of Uyên Loewald.
55. Danny J. Whitfield, Historical and Cultural Dictionary of Vietnam (Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1976), 109; Marr, Tradition on Trial, 209; Trinh, Framer Framed, 57.
56. Danny J. Whitfield, Historical and Cultural Dictionary of Vietnam (Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1976), 109; Marr, Tradition on Trial, 209; Trinh, Framer Framed, 57.
57. Danny J. Whitfield, Historical and Cultural Dictionary of Vietnam (Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1976), 109; Marr, Tradition on Trial, 209; Trinh, Framer Framed, 57.
58. Trinh, Framer Framed, 56. There is also evidence that H̀ô Xuân Huong had a romantic relationship with the author of The Tale of Kìêu, Nguỹên Du. See "H̀ô Xuân Huong, Nàng là Ai?: Nh́ât Uyên Pham Trong Chánh tra lòi phong v́ân Dâng Tíên" ["H̀ô Xuân Huong, Who Was This Woman? An Interview with Pham Trong Chánh by Dâng Tíên"] in Viêt Luân [The Vietnamese Herald], 1777 (May 16, 2003) 46-47.
59. Trinh, Framer Framed, 56. There is also evidence that H̀ô Xuân Huong had a romantic relationship with the author of The Tale of Kìêu, Nguỹên Du. See "H̀ô Xuân Huong, Nàng là Ai?: Nh́ât Uyên Pham Trong Chánh tra lòi phong v́ân Dâng Tíên" ["H̀ô Xuân Huong, Who Was This Woman? An Interview with Pham Trong Chánh by Dâng Tíên"] in Viêt Luân [The Vietnamese Herald], 1777 (May 16, 2003) 46-47.
60. Her poems are now taught quite openly and extensively in Vietnamese high schools.
61. "Trò-i sinh voi, Tròi sinh co."
62. Vân Huỳnh, interview with the author, May 5, 2002.
63. Hoàng Dao (1906-1948, born Nguỹên Tu ò Long). Hoàng Dao, "Mu òi Dìêu Tâm Niêm" [The Ten Concepts], first printed in the journal Ngày Nay [Today] between late 1936 and early 1937. Cited in Kim N. B. Ninh, A World Transformed: The Politics of Culture in Revolutionary Vietnam, 1945-1965 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), 21. Ninh provides the following elaboration of the other nine concepts that "reflect a fervent desire to move away from what Hoàng Dao felt to be the backward and stagnant past: People should believe in the possibility of progress; live life with some kind of ideology rather than simply following what had gone before; engage in social work to break away from the dosed nature of village and family; complement education with a strong will; provide a more equal role for women in society; attempt to gain a scientific mind and break away from superstitions; know that a career is more important and useful than fame; maintain a healthy body; and recognize the need for an organized mentality." Ninh, A World Transformed, 258 (note 22).
64. Nh́ât Linh and Khai Hung, Gánh Hàng Hoa (Hà Nôi: Vǎn Hoc, 1994). Nh́ât Tinh (1906-1963, born Nguỹên Tuò Tam) was Hoàng Dao's brother. The title could also be translated as Shouldering Flowers, Shouldering Flowers for Sale, or The Burden of Flowers.
65. Nh́ât Linh, Doan Tuyêt: Tiêu Thuýêt [Breaking the Ties: A Novel] (Hà Nôi: Nhà Xúât Ban Dai Hoc và Giáo Duc Chuyên Nghiêp, 1988). There are, of course, many editions.
66. Nh́ât Linh, Breaking the Ties, 68.
67. For more details on this practice, see Toan Ánh, Phong Tuc Viêt Nam: Tù Ban Thân Dên Gia Dình [Vietnamese Customs; From the Person to the Family] (Co So Xuât Ban Dai Nam, 1985), 348.
68. Nh́ât Linh, Breaking the Ties, 118.
69. Ibid., 128. "L̃ê nghi thì phai cho ra l̃ê nghi, phai trên ra trên, duói ra duói."
70. Ibid, 144. " Dánh nó ch́êt di cho tôi. Ch́êt d̃a có tôi chiu toi."
71. Translated in Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam, 141.
72. H̀ô Chí Minh (1890-1969) was the father of the modern Vietnamese nation. He was born Nguỹên Th́ât Thanh and used a number of pseudonyms throughout his life, the most popular being Nguỹên Ai Qúôc (Nguỹên the Patriot), Bác H̀ô (Uncle H̀ô) and H̀ô Chí Minh (He who is enlightened). H̀ô Chí Minh adopted the court metaphor in 1925 to condemn French colonialism. He ends his prosecution with a call to the Vietnamese youth to stand up and be modern: "And what are our Youth doing? It is sad, very sad to say so: They are doing nothing. Those who are without means dare not leave their villages; those who have any, wallow in their laziness; and even those who are abroad think only to satisfying the curiosity of their age! Poor Indochina! You will die, unless your old-fashioned Youth comes to life." H̀ô Chí Minh, "French Colonization on Trial" in On Revolution: Selected Writings, 1920-1966, ed. Bernard B. Fall, 68-123 (New York: Praeger, 1967), 123.
73. Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam, 143.
74. I b i d.
75. Ibid., 145.
76. Nh́ât Linh, Doan Tuyêt, 169. "Ngày nay em doan tuyêt vói cái dòi cũ."
77. Vân Huỳnh, interview with the author, June 13, 2003.
78. H̀ô Biêu Chánh, Ngon Co Gió Dùa (Los Alamitos, CA: 1977). He wrote around sixty novels and short stories during the 19205 and 19305 and was also a painter. Truong Buu Lâm suggests that like almost all Vietnamese modernist novelists during the first three decades of the twentieth century, H̀ô Biêu Chánh was uncritical of the French colonial presence in Viêt Nam. The primary battle, H̀ô Biêu Chánh believed, was not against the French but against Vietnamese backwardness, and in this fight, French intervention was largely beneficial. And so, writers of that era "limited their narrative ... to problems of personal and professional ethics, to family relationships, mainly to the issue of free love versus parental choice, for men and for women as well." Truong Buu Lâm, Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism, 1900-1931 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), 4.
79. H̀ô Biêu Chánh, Ngon Co Gió Dùa (Los Alamitos, CA: 1977). He wrote around sixty novels and short stories during the 19205 and 19305 and was also a painter. Truong Buu Lâm suggests that like almost all Vietnamese modernist novelists during the first three decades of the twentieth century, H̀ô Biêu Chánh was uncritical of the French colonial presence in Viêt Nam. The primary battle, H̀ô Biêu Chánh believed, was not against the French but against Vietnamese backwardness, and in this fight, French intervention was largely beneficial. And so, writers of that era "limited their narrative ... to problems of personal and professional ethics, to family relationships, mainly to the issue of free love versus parental choice, for men and for women as well." Truong Buu Lâm, Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism, 1900-1931 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), 4.
80. Vân Huỳnh, interview with the author, June 12, 2003.