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Traditional Vietnamese culture is like... Nguyen Cong Tru in his impoverished scholar days or struggling in the sea of adversity. It is exceptionally wonderful, yet the world knows little of it (because it is good in the spiritual sense, while humanity is accustomed to evaluating based on material success).
"Whether others recognize my worth or not,
I remain myself, regardless."
Very few, but there are people who do know "us". Not only do they know, but they have put that knowledge down in black and white. Reading the following remarks from an Italian missionary, a French colonial chief, some French scholars, a Japanese scholar, and three American intellectuals, surely many Vietnamese will feel somewhat gratified...
CRISTOFORO BORRI: VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE, CHINESE LANGUAGE
Tan Da once said: "Our national language, in terms of phonetics and rhyme compared to others, let's say Chinese, is very rich and distinct."(1)
Nearly 300 years before Tan Da, the situation regarding the merits of the two languages was already like that, as Cristoforo Borri notes.(2)
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Although the language of the people of Dang Trong (Cochinchina) is similar to the language of the Chinese, because like the Chinese they use monosyllabic words but pronounce them with different tones, there is a difference between the two languages: the language of Dang Trong is richer in vowels, therefore more gentle and mellifluous.(3)
PAUL DOUMER: MUST COMPARE VIETNAMESE WITH THE JAPANESE
Paul Doumer was the Governor-General of Indochina from 1897 to 1902; after returning home, he served as the President of France.
At the time Doumer made the following statement, the Vietnamese nation was in a defeated and humiliated state, while the Japanese nation was at the pinnacle of glory (having just achieved a great victory over Russia).
"Praise the keen eyes of one
Who can discern heroes in the dust of the world"!
But Doumer only knew vaguely that the Vietnamese were intelligent, courageous, and hardworking. He did not yet know about the deeply refined emotional culture that our ancestors had cultivated over generations.
The quintessence of the Hundred Viet is ours!
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Paul Doumer, the former Governor-General of Indochina, compared the Vietnamese to the Khmer, Lao, Thai, and other peoples (in Southeast Asia) and argued that one must go all the way to Japan to find a people worthy and similar to the Vietnamese. Both the Vietnamese and Japanese, according to him, are intelligent, hardworking, and brave. The Vietnamese can become brave and disciplined soldiers, exemplary workers, outstanding farmers (...) They far surpass other peoples (in Southeast Asia). Observing the Vietnamese and twenty other peoples, Doumer put forward a principle that those who are courageous while working are also courageous while fighting. If one is courageous in the face of fatigue, one is also courageous in the face of danger and death. E. Luro, one of the first French administrators and scholars in Southern Vietnam, also made similar observations. According to him, the Vietnamese take death lightly. They can walk to the guillotine with a calm face, holding a cigarette in their mouth. P. Cultru also thought so.(4)
PIERRE HUARD: VIETNAMESE PEOPLE SPEAK WITH THEIR EYES
Now, many Vietnamese are very accustomed to it, find it very natural, and even they themselves have become like that.
It is about the fact that Westerners speak with their whole body. Whenever they open their mouths, their foreheads wrinkle, their eyebrows arch, their faces turn side to side, their heads nod, and their two hands are raised, gesticulating as if performing... magic! A president presenting national affairs uses his hands, a pastor preaching uses his hands, and when a singer sings, oh my, they dance, wiggle, and shake, sparing no part of their body!
In the eyes of East Asians of old, that was very unseemly. Our elders valued a demeanor that was composed, calm, and discreet.
Facial expression is philosophy made manifest! They differ because humanity in East Asia inherently sees itself as a small, humble part of the whole, while humanity in the West is accustomed to seeing itself as... the center of the universe.
Facial expression is naturally also culture. The West thinks much, feels little. We think little, feel much. Looking at the "eloquent" hands of the West, one thinks of this reason or that argument. Looking into our "very expressive" eyes, one sees a whole heaven of emotion...
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The Vietnamese face is not very expressive (...) calm, even incomprehensible (...) a certain representation of the spiritual characteristics of the ancestors (...) A very special education over many centuries has contributed to creating this face (...) Their eyes (...) are very expressive.(5)
TOMITA KENJI: THE VIETNAMESE MOUTH
The Vietnamese language in The Tale of Kieu is beautifully and exquisitely refined.
It is not because of Nguyen Du that it is beautiful and refined. Surely when Nguyen wrote poetry, it was already so. The Tale of Kieu is the poetic genius of one person combined with the immense cultural achievements of an entire nation.
Vietnamese is a cultural achievement of the Vietnamese people. Our ancestors achieved that feat despite having effectively no writing system.(6) The Vietnamese language was "cultivated" into being, surpassing others, not by being written down, but only by being spoken. The great feat of building it belongs entirely to the mouth!
The mouth also built the very glorious "career of eating" for the Vietnamese. Mr. Tomita Kenji thinks we eat more uniquely than we speak. I don't think so. The reason foreigners have that impression is simply because eating is much easier to see than speaking. But he is still worth considering a kindred spirit.
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Professor Tomita Kenji of Osaka University of Foreign Studies, when introducing Vietnam, had a quite unique and amusing observation. He argued that the most powerful weapon of the Vietnamese people (...) is the mouth. With the mouth, stories, folk songs, and chants of the Vietnamese have transmitted the will of the people, encouraging them throughout the entire process of building and defending the country. And with the mouth, the Vietnamese also have their own way of eating. That is a bond that connects them, nurturing a sense of community for one another. He argued that the eating style of the Vietnamese sometimes carries even more national character than the language itself.(7)
STEVENSON AND GUY: VIETNAMESE CERAMICS ARE THE MOST SOUTHEAST ASIAN
For a long time, our ancient ceramics have been seen as truly "distinctive," and now reading this assessment is truly "a great relief"!
I recall the Handbook of Vietnamese Culture (1978) notes:
"We know that the Vietnamese pottery industry has a long history, but by the Ly dynasty (1010-1225) there was a great leap forward. Types of royal and civil wares, often including construction materials, were covered in brown glaze, celadon glaze, and ivory glaze, decorated with stylized or naturalistic sprigs, leaves, lotus flowers, and recessed or raised dragons, very delicately. The most distinctive are the celadon bowls and plates that archaeologists found at the Van Don seaport (Quang Ninh). This type of glaze is different from the Chinese Song dynasty celadon, from the glaze material to the crafting technique, and the firing temperature (...) Tran dynasty pottery glaze is even more beautiful, mostly white glaze as a base and decorated with eel-skin brown or cobalt blue glaze."
That was before Truong Chinh and Dang Duc Sieu saw the Chu Dau ceramic products salvaged off the coast of Hoi An and especially the ceramic relics unearthed in the Thang Long Royal Citadel...
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Vietnamese ceramics are a unique combination of indigenous creativity and some foreign elements from China, Khmer, Cham, and India. The decorative patterns, glaze types, manufacturing methods, and perhaps even the concepts of pottery, are quite different from China. Using the very good clay of the Red River Delta fine, low impurity, grey-white color the Vietnamese created the most delicate ceramic items in Southeast Asia.
This most meticulous research work on Vietnamese ceramics to date is the joint effort of experts from many countries, including Vietnam, Japan, the UK, France, and the USA (...)(8)
GERALD W. FRY: VIETNAM AND THAILAND
Until 1975, Vietnam had lacked the conditions for economic development for centuries. During that same period, Thailand had full conditions to develop its economy as it pleased. Yet, only a few decades after 1975, comparing the economic situation of the two countries, one must remark that the Thais could learn much from our country!
The Thais are of the Ai-Lao descent, part of the Hundred Viet with us. Moreover, while we are mainly Lac, we certainly also have significant Ai-Lao mixture. That means they and we are not only of the same race but are also closer by blood than to other Hundred Viet brothers.(9)
Why are the "business" achievements of the two sides so different?
In fact, we still surpass them in many other fields, not just in economic activity. Fine arts, music, literature, etc., they cannot match us. It seems we only concede to them in the quantity of religious architecture, specifically the number of pagodas.
Many pagodas, few earthly achievements...
But why, during the Northern domination, did our ancestors follow Buddhism but still not become passive in driving out the Chinese, and why, during the Ly and Tran dynasties, did the entire Dai Viet nation follow Buddhism yet earthly achievements remained so abundant?
I suddenly think of the extremely strong enterprising spirit of the nation that the challenging living environment in the North long ago, along with the terrible threats from the North, helped to form. Our ancestors surpassed other Hundred Viet brothers in that spirit. And surely it was that which caused Buddhism to have to "engage with the world" when entering our land, living with the nation instead of dragging the nation into endless contemplation...
So why did our kings eventually abandon Buddhism and follow Confucianism? Because Buddhism only reluctantly engaged with the world, whereas Confucianism was not really suitable for the needs of governing an ambitious country. Confucianism is inherently secular, which is truly suitable.
In short, thanks to a very difficult life, the Vietnamese have a very positive attitude, and thanks to that attitude, we have achieved many outstanding life accomplishments.
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In Southeast Asia, regarding the economy, Vietnam has become a formidable competitor to Thailand in many areas: tourism, electronics, textiles, rice exports, and other food products (including seafood), etc. For example, Thailand was the place where Nike (USA) located many factories; now, most of the company's production activities have moved to Vietnam (...)
In 1986, Vietnam decided to "renovate" and follow a capitalist economy. From then until now, Vietnam's economy has grown rapidly. With a current population of 91.5 million (double the population in 1975), Vietnam has a large, cheap, and very eager labor force to mobilize for building a modern industry...
In many respects, the country of Vietnam today makes me think of Japan in the past (...) The "new tiger" Vietnam is aggressively developing its economy, which is a challenge and also an opportunity for the Thais (to improve their own economy).(10)
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(1) See the article "Vietnamese and Chinese Phonetics" by Tan Da, on the gocnhin.net page.
(2) C. Borri speaks of the language of Dang Trong because he only stayed in Dang Trong, but of course, the special features he saw there belong to the Vietnamese language in general.
(3) Cristoforo Borri, "Cochinchina in 1621", translated and annotated by Hong Nhue, Nguyen Khac Xuyen, and Nguyen Nghi, HCMC Publishing House, Vietnam, 1998.
(4) Pham Cao Duong, History of the Vietnamese Nation, Vol. I: The Founding Period, Truyen Thong Viet Publishing, California, USA, 1987, pp. 26-27. PCD cites P. Doumer, L'Indochine francaise (memoirs), Vuibert et Nouy, Paris, 1905, p. 33; E. Luro, Pays d'Annam - Etude sur l'organisation politique et sociale des Annamites, Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1897, p. 56; P. Cultru, Histoire de la Cochinchine francaise des origines a 1883, Challamet, Paris, 1910, p. 22.
(5) According to Nguyen Van Huyen, in "Vietnamese Civilization", printed in 1944, translation by Do Trong Quang, Writer's Association Publishing House, Vietnam, 2005, pp. 44-45.
(6) The Nom script, until the time of Nguyen Du, was known only to a minority of Vietnamese scholars, and even then, it was very rarely used.
(7) Nguyen Xuan Hoa, "Thuc pho bach thien and 100 dishes cooked in Hue style", Perfume River the flow of culture - selection 1983-2003, Culture and Information Publishing House, Vietnam, 2003, p. 267. NXH notes that the above statement by Kenji was from a document circulated at the Asia-Pacific Art Forum held in Hyogo, Japan, in November 1996.
(8) Excerpted translation from "Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition", John Stevenson & John Guy, Art Media Resources, USA, 1997.
(9) The exception is the Lao people. Thais and Lao are considered the same: both are of the Ai-Lao descent who migrated from Yunnan.
(10) Excerpted translation from the article "Thais can learn much from Vietnam" by Gerald W. Fry, Professor of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, University of Minnesota, USA, published on nationmultimedia.com on August 27, 2012.
Source: Chim Viet canh Nam, http://chimviet.free.fr/vanhoc/thutu/thutn110_NguoiNuocKhacNhinTa.htm
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