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Publications
Ouvrages
Ouvrages
Hanoi. City of the Rising Dragon.
Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,
2002, 187 p.
with G. Boudarel (1926-2003), foreword by William J. Duiker,
translated by Claire Duiker
Hanoi. City of the Rising Dragon.
Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,
2002, 187 p.
with G. Boudarel (1926-2003), foreword by William J. Duiker,
translated by Claire Duiker
§ A City which Remembers
Flowering of Poets and Novelists
Hanoi
is also a land of culture, and in the 1930s experienced an incredible
blossoming of poets, novelists, and journalists. There is now renewed
interest and appreciation for these writers who, for decades, were
ignored or suppressed. Paradoxically, their rise was made possible by
their anti-colonialist ideas, which were hidden for a time so that
they could devote themselves to literary creation and the
re-examination of the cultural traditions of the past. They used two
newspapers as a forum for their ideas,
Phong hoa [Manners,
created in 1932, and
Ngay nay [Today], which was created in
1934 and reached a circulation of more than ten thousand—a
considerable number at the time. The figurehead of these progressive
writers was without contest Nguyen Tuong Tam, also known under his
pseudonym Nhat Linh. He took over the head of an
editorial committee made up of his two younger brothers, Nguyen Tuong
Long and Nguyen Tuong Lan ,
and with Tran Khanh Giu (alias Khai Hung), the poet Tu Mo, the
artists Nguyen Gia Tri and Nguyen Cat Tuong (alias Lemur), as well as
the poet The Lu. Together they elaborated an ambitious plan of action
and formulated simple and daring mottoes in order to develop a
literature in
quoc ngu; written by Vietnamese, for Vietnamese,
and nourished by themes taken from Vietnamese society:
--
the search for a new ideal
--
refusal to submit oneself to preconceived notions
--
refusal to serve anyone or to give one’s allegiance to any
power
--
guides for action: conscience, justice, and honesty
--
humor as means, laughter as weapon
The
newspaper
Phong hoa aimed its criticism at old-fashioned
cultural traditions and the outdated customs of society. It also
published press reviews, international and local news, stories,
poetry, and theater; all illustrated by caricatures, a first for the
Vietnamese press of the time. The success of the paper encouraged the
principal editors to form the group Tu Luc Van Doan [Self-reliant
literary group] in 1934, which became the driving force behind
literary creation both in Hanoi and in the whole country.
Determined
to break with classical forms weighed down by Chinese philosophical
and literary allusions, these writers fashioned a new, forceful style
marked by realism. Since they could not carry out a political
revolution, the set their sights on profound reforms regarding modes
of thinking, behavior, and beliefs. They attacked the constraints of
a society which suffocated individual aspirations in the name of
tradition. The characters of their novels became the spokesmen for
their thoughts. In
Doan tuyet [Rupture], Nhat Linh liberated
women from the weight of oppression of the family. Nguyen Cong Hoan
ridiculed the Mandarinate
and village notables in
Buoc duong cung [The Last Attempt
21],
a work which was immediately banned as soon as it appeared in print.
Ngo Tat To denounced outdated traditions in his many journalistic
writings, and criticized rigid literary competitions in his novel
Leu
chong [The Tent and the Cot]. Vu Trong Phung wrote about youth
faced with the problems of life in his novel
Vo de [The Dykes
Burst], while introducing a perfume of eroticism in
Giong to
[The Storm]. There were also exposés on the slums of Hanoi by
young journalists. Some of these books have since become classics
while others have been made into movies.
This
generation wanted to go beyond mere denunciation or criticism of
cultural traditions; their works advocated alternative solutions. For
some, the key to happiness was liberation from the yoke of
colonialism. Others advocated westernization, but in a limited
fashion and only as a catalyst for change, by which Vietnam would
become a truly modern society. In this manner, the political
revolution would begin from a cultural base. And it was in this
context of cultural change that modern poetry found a fertile soil
for its expression. Marked by the Romanticism of such French poets as
Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Verlaine, young authors discovered the
solitude of the individual in conflict with the community, the latter
representing constraint and anonymity. They thus usurped the position
once held by their elders, who were steeped in the strict rules of
classical poetry which went back to the Chinese literature of the
Tang dynasty. The famous literary competitions, now considered
antiquated in that era of profound change, were abolished in 1915 by
the colonizers, under the guise of a royal decree. What remained of
the past was now not much more than a faint glow of nostalgia. Some
of these old scholars had to become public scribes on the sidewalks
of the city just in order to survive. This climate of confusion and
reversal of norms is illustrated in a poem written in 1935 by Vu Dinh
Lien .
Ong Do [The Scholar]
Each year when the peach trees blossom
We see the old scholar
Spread out the ink and the red paper
On the sidewalk of well-traveled streets
Those who come by ask him to write
Compliment him on his talent
His fine touch sketches out the strokes
One would say a dancing phoenix,
Or dragons in flight
But year after year
What have the clients of yesteryear become?
Saddened, the red paper hides its sheen
The ink confines itself to the morose inkwell
The scholar is always there
Though no one notices him
The yellowed leaves fall on his paper
Outside the rain and dust pass by
This year the peach trees blossom
But the scholar has not returned
What has become of the souls
Of the people of days gone by?
The Intellectual Nguyen Tuong Tam
Nguyen
Tuong Tam was born on July 25, 1906 in the Cam Giang district,
between Hanoi and Hai Duong, from a long line of educated civil
servants and scholars. He was the third in a family of seven children
from the central Vietnamese city of Hoi An who came to settle in the
North. One of his ancestors had been Minister of the Army in Gia
Long. His father was a modest secretary in the provincial colonial
government. After his father’s premature death, Tam’s
mother had to raise the children by herself.
Tam began his studies in an apprenticeship of Chinese characters. A
gifted student, he continued Franco-Vietnamese education at the
School of the Protectorate.
His family’s modest financial situation forced him to take a
job as an employee at the Financial Office in 1924. It is at that
time that he met Ho Trong Hieu, the satirical poet who would become
known by the pseudonym Tu Mo. Their friendship was built around
discussions on literature and the importance of
quoc ngu
.
His first novel,
Nho phong [Confucian Manners], was published
in 1925; then a second,
Nguoi quay to [The Spinning-woman],
some time later.
In 1925 he enrolled at the Indochinese University, first as a student of
medicine before abandoning it for the School of Arts, created that
very year by Victor Tardieu. Finally, he interrupted his studies and
began to make a living in Saigon and then in Laos as a designer of
film posters. But his dream lay elsewhere. After getting married, he
left for France in 1927 with the help of his family and an
association which promoted studies abroad. He enrolled in the
Department of Sciences in Toulouse and graduated two years later.
According to his younger brother Nguyen Tuong Bach ,
he was impressed by the French social system, by the development of
democratic ideas, and by journalism, especially
Le Canard
enchaîné.
Upon his return to Vietnam in 1930, he taught at the private school Thang
Long, an institution that attracted a fringe group of intellectuals
involved in a variety of political movements. Among these
intellectuals, the most well known are Dang Thai Mai, a scholar
interested in Marxist theories; Hoang Minh Giam, an influential
leader in the Vietminh in 1945; Ton That Binh; and the Communist Vo
Nguyen Giap, future victor of Dien Bien Phu.
This was in the days following the Yen Bay uprising of 1930, led by the
Nationalist Party [Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang], and the formation of the
“soviets” of Nghe Tinh orchestrated by the nascent
Communist Party, two insurrectional movements which were suppressed
with brutality by the French. Fed on progressive ideas, Nguyen Tuong
Tam planned to launch a Vietnamese-language newspaper called
Tieng
cuoi [Laughter] with his brothers and friends. Authorization
being slow to come, he found a job as head of the journal
Phong
hoa [Manners] which was near bankruptcy. Completely re-done,
Phong
hoa appeared in July 1932 and is credited with being
the
first satirical journal illustrated with caricatures. Despite
threats, cuts, or suspensions imposed by the censors,
Phong hoa
aimed its criticism at those Vietnamese who collaborated with the
colonial power—in the absence of any capacity to undermine the
latter. The newspaper served as a reflection of the social and
cultural situation of the times, and made history by proposing the
creation of a modern society. In May 1935, after having attained a
circulation of 10,500 over a period of four years, it was finally
pulled out of circulation.
At the same time, Nguyen Tuong Tam’s literary output flourished
and grew in importance. He often wrote in collaboration with his
friend Khai Hung. In 1934, he also published with his friends another
newspaper,
Ngay nay [Today], which was similar in content to
Phong
hoa, in case the latter was shut down. This group
then founded the
Tu Luc Van Doan [Self-reliant literary group], whose
objective was to promote a national literature in the Vietnamese
language which focused on Vietnamese society. They were the only
group to have their own independent publishing house,
Doi nay
[Our Times], which allowed them to publish a large number of novels
and short stories.
It is natural that someone involved in so many intellectual pursuits
would eventually turn to politics, but Nguyen Tuong Tam was just
waiting for his time to come. When the Second World War broke out, he
was present at the foundation of the nationalist Dai Viet Party,
which rejected all forms of collaboration with foreign forces. In
1941, he rejoined survivors from the abortive Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang
uprising, who had withdrawn to China. Firmly opposed to shedding any
more blood in the name of politics, he sought support from the
Americans—the only ones he thought capable of facing up to the
Communists, who were committed to armed struggle. When the Vietminh
took power in 1945 after the surrender of Japan, he returned to his
country to reinforce the nationalist ranks.
The political situation was then awash in total confusion. The rival
nationalist factions made deals with the Vietminh in order to have
representation in the new government. At the same time, the Chinese
nationalist army of general Lu Han had been sent by the allies to
disarm the Japanese forces; they occupied Tonkin under the benevolent
watch of the Americans. In an atmosphere of secret operations and
intrigue, each party tried to take what it could get, but the
different nationalist factions could at least agree on one thing:
they had to beat the French in setting up an independent State.
After the August revolution of 1945, the declaration of independence of
September 2, and the elections of January 1946, Nguyen Tuong Tam was
named Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new coalition government.
His assistant was Pham Van Dong, a member of the Communist Party and
future Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Tam led
the Vietnamese delegation at the Dalat conference in April-May of the
same year, but his disagreement with the Communists convinced him to
flee again to China. There he found his two younger brothers, Nguyen
Tuong Long and Nguyen Tuong Bach.
After five years in exile, he returned secretly to his country in 1951 and
took refuge in Dalat. In 1956, he returned to Saigon and to his
career as publisher and writer. In 1960 he launched the political
movement
Mat tran quoc dan doan ket [National Solidarity
Front], to oppose the dictatorship of Ngo Dinh Diem. Accused of
subversive activities, he was called before a tribunal on July 8,
1963. On the eve of his trial, after having summoned his family and
friends, he put an end to his life. In a brief press communiqué,
he wrote: “I offer my life to History, which will be the judge.
I don’t leave the task to anyone else. The arrests and
condemnations of the opposition are serious crimes, which will end up
handing the country over to the Communists.”
Notes
Illustration :
Mạnh Quỳnh,
Croquis tonkinois, Ed. Alexandre de Rhodes, Hà Nội, 1944.
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