© 2007 Institute of Current World Affairs
The Institute awards long-term fellowships to develop a deep understanding of an issue, country, or region outside the US and to share that understanding with a wider public.
Institute of Current World Affairs - Home Page

Below is a hobbled text version of a PDF document.
In order to read the actual document please click the link below and register if necessary.
(One-time registration is free and very quick.)
Read article

8/1/1992 - Where do these people come from? by Carole Beaulieu

So careful answering questions Vietnamese class If Bch profession I answer journalist But Kinh answer A E Sometimes I I guess those Strangely enough southerners northerners cling Chinese words I expected opposite simply because northerners closer China geographically The Chinese later South explains Binh And there Chiese schools South until In North there Chinese schools Vietnamese Most those differences mentioned smooth matter But sometimes their existence seems violently shake apparent unityo teachers Last Friday T teacher KinI sophisticated southerner speaks fluently languages treasures I mother tongue hardly despise Han regime suddenly angry textbook using He police actually meant secret police average An lnour Bich fuming right Kinh I I If I I For Lt colonel Edouard Diguet wrote Elments grammaire annamite For weeks since I began studying Vietnamese I looking spell vowels Vietnamese alphabet My fellow students Lt Colonel Diguet better He called barbu bearded bearded Everytime I smile memory Colonel Diguet loved language wrote grammar Europeans believing tones graphic ornaments I beleive tones graphic ornaments Lt Diguet I certainly But I often I better singer More Carole Beaulieu Avenue Seattle WA 98112 USA Edouard Diguet E Z Imprimerie Nationale Paris foreword I Diguet foreword Received Hanover July NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUTWRITER SCONSENT CB INSTITUTEOFCURRENTWORLDAFFAIRS Where these people Peter Bird Martin ICWA Crane Rogers Foundation West Wheelock Street Hanover New Hampshire 03755 Dear Peter Years while ighting Vietnam American historian Keith Taylor impressed intelligence resolve enemy He asking himsel Where these people Taylor question caught during lecture Vietnamese history given University Washington Until I little taste Vietnam early history My interest Vietnam Vietnamese quivalent Soviet perestroika I watched crumbling Soviet Union I experts decree Communism I wondered How would Vietnamese I curious about uture about about Roman Empire But beore I heard Helen Chauncey proessor Vietnamese history University Victoria British Columbia Canada The Vietnamese language culture survived thousand years Chinese occupation during beginning Vietnamese class University Washington Vietnam history perect showcase dilemnas dramatically expressed countries Yugoslavia dramatically Canada What makes nation How diverse country beore begins apart What keeps together My racing I Keith Weller Taylor Th B Y University Caliornia Press preace Carole Beaulie ICWA ellow writing about countries ormer French Indochina Vietnam Since InstituteofCurrentWorldAffairs theCrane Rogers Foundation hasprovidedlong termfellowships enable outstanding young adults outside United States write about international areas issues Endowed bythelateCharlesR Crane theInstituteisalsosupportedbycontributionsfromlike mindedindividualsand foundations As French speaker North America I means language allve overwhelminEly Enllsh speaking continent I could begin imaglne thousand years Chinese language education administration ustce would another cultuze And Vietnamese lanuaEe survived The question began Gosh these people How Chauncey given summarize years Vietnamese history Vietnamese their history years another debate I impossible But enough mescrambllng thick books I unattended A weeks later another scholar Patricia Pelley Cornell seminar Vietnam history By I couldn about ancient Vietnamese Would believe century Vietnamese holding exams civil servants large outdoor 1elds surrounded elephants armed guards The exams Applicants required write classical Chinese poetry documented essays CTinese policies How think Canadians Americans would react order become civil servants write poetry Shakespearian English So those Ancient Vietnamese Had Chinese claim Or there beore Hong River Valley known northern Vietnam Were truly another civilization I still I answers Tne atter object qulte academic controversy The Vietnamese ounding reads According Vietnamese people sprlng dragon whichcameromthewater andoaemaleimmortalwhobelongedto Lac Dragon Lord teach people cultivate clothes The Chinese dierent vision history They claim origins Vietnamese people arrival migratin Feh barbarians century BC Historians Kelth Taylor question thesis asserting there insu1cient evidence support AlexanderB Woodside Q UD_iZ M_e YQ IU Y0 East Asian Research Center Harvard University Houghton Mi11n Cle Boston Woodslde Others historian Jean Pryzloski itself proof Vietnamese identity continental culture Chinese prehistoric maritime civilization Southeast Asia The source political power legitimacy which attended ormatlon Vietnamese people prehistoric times earliest concept Vietnamese distinct conscious people According archeologists different cultures Vietnam became united around centuz BC under in1uence oldest bronze culture region At extraordinary united tribes under authority title Hung King For Vietnamese their beginning people Chinese eached Vietnam The China north restricted valley Yellow Rive northern China How ancient Vietnamese themselves Well nobody knows There Vietnamese recods period We Chinese called Lac later Yeh barbal But early Vietnamese themselves Zac earliest recorded people Hong River Japanese scholar suggested Zac derives Vietnamese which means ditch canal waterway As Vet simply Vietnamese pronouncing Feh And Nam means South South China obviously So Vietnamese people acqui their And wluat people The ancient Vietnamese quite different Confucian Chinese Their women enjoyed relatively status Inheritance rights could passed through maternal paternal Family authority loose individualistic tendencies Theirs wealthy community reachin tradin culture Bronze Vietnamese trading drums period found India They spoke language borrowin cultures diverse India Jarai mountain Thai But Chinese arrived Vietnam emerges legend enters history durin first century BC Chinese annals conquered province Fz scholar Paul Mus Taylor quoting Jean Pryzluski La Princesse odeuz poisson Nagi traditions I Asie orientale Taylor Taylor quotin Yamamoto Myths Paul Mus John T McAllster Jr Y D Y 0u0gn Harper Row Publlshes Caught between imperial armies Chinese civilization trade routes hinduized civilization India ancient Vietnam becomes international entrep6t cultural battleground For thousand years onward ancient Vietnamese through cycles embracing Chinese culture rejecting Rebellions numerous In A D women raise ninese occupiel Vietnam The Hal Ba Trung sisters literally translated sister sister three became national heroines though their victory short lived In century Vietnamese inally succeed deeating Chinese The independant Vietnamese dynasty established Christopher Colombus discovered America Montreal New York nothing roamed oreathers todays Native Americans But known Hanoi thrives cosmopolitan named Thang Long Ascending Dragon worldo temples buddhist monks arrived India At Mekong Delta Vietnam Vietnam extend urthez modezn Hu South Champa hinduized kingdom Cambodia The Vietnamese migration Mekong Delta takes place later around century Those South little American pioneers moving West Helen Chauncey It spirited ended individualistic societ Far West Land there grabbed And explains cultural dierences between Noz South So history understand present Just would helped United States Army about Tay Son rebellion In peasant rebellion Tay Son brothers disregarded celebration Tt lunar New Year launched uprising against Vietnamese emperor They victorious The US military would advised Vietnamese history better Chauncey recalling bloody Tt oensive during American War Is there something Vietnam early history could understand predict uture An interest question Patricia Pelley inishing thesis Vietnam attempt ailure attain consensual But diicult answer When there political dissen among Vietnamese displacing oreigners oreign people create dissent I would shocked point Vietnam became restrictive about enters country reason Taylor Alexander Woodside Harvard tlained historian teaching Canada calls situation It diicult Communist these Vietnam It livin house ather grand ather ather And great grand ather still iving orders The prime minister Vietnam years He house painter Hanoi joined party The enerations makin treaties other looking consensus within party eneratlons That leads deadlock But beyond overnement society popular culture Who knows happen Helen Chauncey predict either Every oreigners tried predict wrong In Vietnam Communist pazty looks Eastern Europe Soviet Union doesn At incapable runnln economy Who knows They looking model And inding aunceyisaerventpaz tisanoinceasedteachingo Vietnam history American universities Vietnam largest countz world populated It should studied Chauncey because there But teaching Vietnamese history States Ater yeazs teaching Chinese history Georgetown University Chauncey moving University Victoria Britlsh Columbia Canada teach Vietnamese history She American leave United States teach about Vietnam One world renowed Engllsh speaking historians Vietn American living abroad David Mart proessor Australia National University Another amous Alexander Woodside trained Harvard teaches Canada Universityo British Columbla David Mart couldn States though Alexander Woodside during interview Vancouver And I Canada And I tiredo American obsessions Helen Chauncey blunt There impossible scholarly Vietnam United States The American scholars Vietnam US small Joe Hannah master thesis Cornell US policy toward Vietnam period We talking about number people count hands But numbers growin rapidly About courses Vietnam given right American campuses Helen Chauncey But about betwe Vietnam United States For country Vietnam country culture historical experience But slowly clanglng hlstorlan Patrlcla Pelley Proof You about students Southeast Asan Summer program sttng auditorium University Washington bright sunny July Most learning speak Vietnamese Americans except When Pelley began studying Vietnamese Cornell University students There nothing happenlng ecalls When Joe Hannah American graduate International development refugee decided graduate school after spending refugee looked around dlerent universities I couldn anything history current events political science related Vietnam According David Mart curious American going local library nearby university collection di1culty finding enough domestic Vietnam since compose school essay Consulting major computer bases rewarding writes Mart People Taylor Mart discovered Vietnam while fighting there Others Christine White professor University Hawai discovered Vietnam while opposing For Joseph Hannah Patrlca Pelley lnterest Vietnam after refugees Hannah Pelley worked Seattle Refugee resettlement progrn They represent another generation scholars lived formative years period Vietnam talked about hushed whispers For Vietnam teenagers Joe ended We important Sitting Seattle Vietnamese Hin Hoang Joe recal telllng anecdote about changing atmosphere United States At studying Cornell The nearing A visiting professor offered class Vietnam recalls Joe It probably classes country In unheardo teach history class Vietnam It bizarre think about The professor asked about students Three hundred people signed Last spring Patricla Pelley tausht seminar Cornell history century Vietnam Enrollment limited A colleUe would never Eet students The class heavily suscribed recalls I reusin students All their heard veiled David G Mart Christine Whlte Q V D_I D D S Q D Southeast Asla Program Cornell references Vietnam They politically emotionally chared issue They wanted learn about According Helen Chauncey happened Vietnam scholarship US different happened Chinese scholarship during McCarthy People country particularly people relationship China stand Communist China accused being other That field rebuilt first opposition United States government people Tawan China people thought sending graduate students mainland China meant supporting Communists The foundations played major rebuilding China field Only begining serious rebuilding Southeast Asia field But encouraging So I continue Vietnamese history I I would crystal I especially interested mandate heaven Paul Mus describes being stron elief among Vietnam peasantry belle sustained through numerous changes dynasties regimes The Vietnamese sense older things which often expresses itself sudden complete change Such change inevitable occurs response power eater And heaven expzessed adapt synch onlze their movement theil lives order I0 More Vietnamese population still toils Do still believe mandate heaven And think these Will I Will I understand their answer Facing questions these I often I scout Vietnan The ecalls Alexander Woodside studied wrapping things openinE which means learnin express thoughts eellns indirectly cryptically learning under stand wrapped words others Any where learn these Sincerely yours Carole Beaulieu Seattle Received Hanover Paul Mus Woodside