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From: Tuan Hoang <thoang1@nd.edu>
Date: May 19, 2006 6:41 AM
Subject: [Vsg] "Chi'nh Tri.": a dirty word for Vietnamese?
Dear VSG,
This question spins off from the emails on the NYT article about Yen Do, and David Marr observed,
> It's interesting in the Mydans interview how he emphasizes
> subsequently swearing off `politics', when I should think creating and
> developing a successful paper in `Little Saigon' required a refined
> political sense.
Like Prof. Marr here, I've noted the amusing irony elsewhere. But I am also somewhat puzzled by the long-standing phenomenon of Vietnamese public figures feeling compelled to declare over and again that they are "not political." A common mantra found in memoirs and interviews of many prominent and once-prominent Vietnamese is, "To^i kho^ng la`m chi'nh tri." - I don't do politics! In these cases, "politics" and "political" imply things far less lustrous than they do in the West. Westerners might mock their own politicians but still hold politics important and honorable, a tradition dated back to at least Plato and
Aristotle. But Vietnamese (like Chinese?) seem to deem politicians nearly the worst kind of people, national traitors excepted. Could it be because politicians didn't quite figure in the traditional scheme of typologies "si~, no^ng, co^ng, thu'o'ng" (literati, peasants, artisans, merchants)?
Why such imperative statements of dissociation from contemporary Vietnamese? Does "chi'nh tri." implies compromises and manipulations of power that in turn compromises one's moral standing? As for the word itself, is it another import from Japanese via China? How was it used during the colonial era, and post-colonial? Were there other Viet groups, other than the Communist Party, that gave the word positive connotations? On the last, the Party used to talk highly of "political indoctrination," which is a double achievement since "indoctrination" here also implies something positive and morally worthy.
My appreciation ahead for any leads you have on these questions.
~Tuan Hoang
From: Chung Nguyen <Chung.Nguyen@umb.edu>
Date: May 19, 2006 7:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] "Chi'nh Tri.": a dirty word for Vietnamese?
I think the classical meaning of the term is still there, when used in
proper context, in the tradition of "te gia, tri quoc, binh thien ha." Or in
Prof. Marr's sense. There is no doubt Yen Do has been successful at that, to
create and maintain one of the most significant Vietnamese media enterprises
in the US. What Yen Do indicates, I think, is one of the few shades of
meaning the term has taken on during the recent period of Vietnamese
history. It's somewhat similar to how the term "liberal" has come to mean in
American politics (though the reasons for the change are different).
The original meaning can still be seen in contextual use such as "chinh tri,
van hoa" (politics, culture), "hoat dong chinh tri " (political activities),
etc. The term, however, has taken on a deeply negative connotation in
certain parlance - not as a fine art of advocacy and compromise in the
public sphere for the common good, but as the factional and divisive search
for group or self dominance regardless of the common weal. We all know about
the "politics of personal destruction" in this country. It's worse in
Vietnam in the pre-1975 period; it's "the politics of group destruction."
And if you add the ever-present possibility of some real or imagined
"foreign" factors, the end result could be beyond management. Or beyond
endurance.
As Tuan Hoang points out, I remember that in Saigon in the 60s and 70s, if
people were described as "la`m
chinh tri" (do, practice, engage in politics), they had been nominated to
join a community of questionable human beings. This had been the case in
Saigon before 1975 when Yen Do had had plenty of personal experiences. This
has also been the case in the diaspora in the US and elsewhere. It may be
hard to understand, but Nguoi Viet newspaper has faced numerous
demonstrations, boycotts, or attempts at boycotts for its alleged
"pro-communist" sympathy. One of its vans was set on fire. An artist had to
quit his job at Nguoi Viet because someone accused him of being a communist
plant ! And I am sure there are nefarious pressures of the unpleasant kind
that Yen Do has to deal with behind the scene. This kind of politics
undoubtedly had no appeal to Yen Do, and perhaps to anyone who hopes to
build a more understanding, tolerant and effective community. His great
political sense has certainly been shown
through his ability to defuse these factional pressures, and keep the paper
from turning more rightward than it's already is. Compared to the political
tendency and rhetoric of the Cuban American media, however, he's ahead of
his time.
It's interesting to note the correlation between the debasement of certain
verbal meanings with the corresponding corruption of certain social
practices. A bright spot is the appearance of younger groups that eschew
this kind of politics altogether.
-NBC
From: Paul Sager <paul.sager@gmail.com>
Date: May 19, 2006 9:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] "Chi'nh Tri.": a dirty word for Vietnamese?
This exchange brings to mind a quotation from Nguy?n Phan Long, who referred in 1924 to Vietnamese colonial civil servants' penchant to disassociate themselves with "politics":
"The loyalists all shout at full pitch from the rooftops, 'I'm not involved in any politics!' [...] I am an official, you say. But does being invested with a public function make one cease being a man, a citizen participating in the fortune of his country?"
(Quoted by William H. Frederick, "Alexandre Varenne and Politics in Indochina, 1925-1926," in Aspects of Vietnamese History. Edited by Walter F. Vella. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1973), 125.)
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