Concubinage
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 09:42:44 -0500
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
From: "David Del Testa" <ddeltest@bucknell.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] concubinage
Friends, I wonder if anyone has suggestions on literature, scholarly
or otherwise, addressing the pre-1954 practice of concubinage and
second wives in Vietnam. Any suggestions appreciated. Cordially,
David Del Testa
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 10:50:08 -0500
From: "Dan Duffy" <dduffy@email.unc.edu>
To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] concubinage
David, one place where they seem to come up is in people gazing at VN
from some distance. I know it is a theme in French national literature
of the colonial period about Indochine, and in recent French-language
historical novels by Vietnamese. There are good bibliographies and
surveys on both these bodies of literature, whose names are escaping
me.
I'm afraid the only novel I can pull down from a shelf right now and
cite is the very readable and intelligent Daughters of the River Huong:
a Vietnamese Royal Concubine and her Descendants, by Uyen Nicole Duong,
an American law professor Hue Tam Ho Tai recently referred me to.
I will root around and give you some more answers if others don't. Oh,
and there's this 19C nom novel about young lady.
Dan
From: Oscar Salemink <OJHM.Salemink@fsw.vu.nl>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Jan 19, 2006 6:01 AM
Subject: RE: [Vsg] concubinage
American Ethnologist
November 1989, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 634-660
Posted online on October 22, 2004.
(doi:10.1525/ae.1989.16.4.02a00030)
Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in 20th-Century Colonical Cultures
Ann L. Stoler
See above.
From: Dan Tsang <dtsang@lib.uci.edu>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Jan 19, 2006 8:38 AM
Subject: RE: [Vsg] concubinage
Here's more on related topic:
Stoler, Ann Laura
Title Carnal knowledge and imperial power : race and the intimate in
colonial rule / Ann Laura Stoler
Published Berkeley : University of California Press, c2002
LOCATION CALL NO. STATUS
Langson Loan Res Desk JV105 .S79 2002 NOT CHCKD OUT
Description xi, 335 p. : ill. ; 23 cm
Subj-lcsh Race relations
Sex customs
Europe -- Colonies
Colonies
Contents Genealogies of the intimate: movements in colonial studies
-- Rethinking colonial categories: European communities and the boundaries
of rule -- Carnal knowledge and imperial power: gender and morality in the
making of race -- Sexual affronts and racial frontiers: cultural
competence and the dangers of mtissage -- A sentimental education:
children on the imperial divide -- A colonial reading of Foucault:
bourgeois bodies and racial selves -- Memory-work in Java: a cautionary
tale
Note(s) Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-317) and index
ISBN 0520231104 (cloth : alk. paper)
0520231112 (paper : alk. paper)
Call # JV105 .S79 2002
and
Stoler, Ann Laura
Title Race and the education of desire : Foucault's History of sexuality
and the colonial order of things / by Ann Laura Stoler
Published Durham : Duke University Press, 1995
LOCATION CALL NO. STATUS
Langson Loan Res Desk HT1523 .S76 1995 NOT
CHCKD OUT
Description xiv, 237 p. ; 23 cm
Subj-lcsh Racism
Indigenous peoples
Foucault, Michel -- Political and social views
Foucault, Michel. Histoire de la sexualit
Note(s) Includes bibliographical references (p. [211]-227) and
index
ISBN 0822316781 (cl : alk. paper)
0822316900 (pa : alk. paper)
Call # HT1523 .S76 1995
d
Daniel C. Tsang
From: Judith Stowe <judy@stowe43.fsnet.co.uk>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Jan 19, 2006 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] concubinage
Hi, When the French introduced birth certificates in Vietnam, the father of
the child was required to state on the form whether the mother was wife or
concubine. Many of the older generation of Vietnamese still have such
certificates (& in Hanoi at least, it is possible to obtain copies)
Depending on the individual, some are proud to point out that Mother was
registered as a wife, others freely admit that Mother was a concubine
because of the evidence on the birth certificate. Judy Stowe
From: Dan Duffy <dduffy@email.unc.edu>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Jan 19, 2006 12:37 PM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] concubinage
I am given to understand that multiple wives at least, if not
concubines, are not entirely a thing of the past. How does the present
government document births in those circumstances?
From: Tai VanTa <taivanta@yahoo.com>
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Date: Jan 19, 2006 3:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] concubinage
Dear friends,
As Judith Stowe mentioned the old birth certificates
requiring the specification of the wife/mother as
"principal wife (vo chinh, or the[sino-Vietnamese
term])", "secondary wife (vo thu or thiep
[Sino-Vietnamese term])" or "concubine (nang
hau)"--which terms I have used in my post-1975 work in
the United States for translation of these birth
certificates--, I would like to add a few words about
the legal literature on the STATUS AND PROPERTY RIGHTS
of these different kinds of wife in the polygamy
system of Vietnam .
This system of polygamy ended officially only in 1959
by both family laws in North Vietnam and in South
Vietnam--the one in South Vietnam was pushed very hard
by Mme Ngo Dinh Nhu, nicknamed Dragon Lady by the
Western press, sister in law of President Diem:
despite all other stupid acts such as describing the
monks immolation as "barbecuing", she deserved praise
in this fight for female equality).
For imperial period: see our book by me and Professor
Nguyen Ngoc Huy, THE LE CODE; LAW IN TRADITIONAL
VIETNAM,Ohio University Press,1987 (extensive index
with clear references to articles and annotations on
the role and rights of secondary wife and ty ( serf)
or nang hau. See also my article on the status of
women in Traditional Vietnam (Journal of Asian
History,vol.15,no2 (1981); only short discussion on
sedondary wife.
For the French period, many books and doctoral
dissertations , but right now I just mention one good
one: Robert Lingat, LES REGIMES MATRIMONIAUX DU
SUD-EST DE L'ASIE, 2 volumes, 1952,1955.A nother
French scholar, Camille Briffaut. DROIT CIVIL
SINO-ANNAMITE, Hanoi 1921, described the matrimonial
regime for the principal wife and secondary wife:
"C'est un regime profondement egalitaire, base sur le
principe de l'egalite des clans et de l'egalite des
epoux, en personne et en biens: apports egaux; fruits
communs; solidarite;charges communes; dettes
communes;volontes directives egales; partage
egal;retrait des propres" (It's a profoundly
egalitarian regime, based on the principle of equality
of the clans and of the spouses, in personal status
and in property rights: equal contributions; community
of proceeds;solidarity; joint expenses; community of
debts; equal directive wishes; equal
partition;withdrawal of separate properties".
The French respected the tradition of Vietnam in
family law. Even during their stratagem of dividing
Vietnam in 3 parts, they respected tradition in all
these parts. In Cochichina(South Vietnam), a colony,
they promulgated only a brief version of the
Napoleonic Civil code and did not promulgated the
family law part of it, so the French colonial courts
still applied the Vietnamese traditional law. In North
Vietnam (TOnkin), the 1931 Civil Code preserved most
of the traditional regulations of the traditional
period, especially on wives and their statuses and
rights. In Central Vietnam (annam), the 1936-39 Civil
Code reproduced most of the North Vietnam Civil Code.
And the rest is "history" from 1959 on, with the
Family laws in North and South Vietnam. I would not
add more on this period.
One tragic consequence of the Vietnam War, which
decimated generations of males, was that many women
veterans returning back to their home after the War
would find that they were no longer at marriageable
age and yet wanted to have at least a child to take
care of them during old age and therefore begged men
(even married men) to "give a child" to them (sleep
with them). In other words, the women agreed to become
in fact a concubine. See Karen Turner, EVEN THE WOMEN
MUST FIGHT: MEMORIES OF WAR FROM NORTH VIETNAM, Wiley
&Sons, 1998.
Too long a discussion, right? I apologize.
Tai Van Ta
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:25:11 -0800
To: "Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>
From: "Kimloan Hill" <k1hill@ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] concubinage
David,
Based on "Phu Nu Viet Nam Truoc Phap Luat" by Phan Van Thiet (a
lawyer and Judge) published in Sai Gon in 1955, polygamy remained in
practice then. The husband must obtain the consent of his "main
wife" or vo chinh, if he wanted to add another wife to his
household. If the main wife refused, he could appeal to the court,
which would allow him to marry the second wife, or vo thu. However,
the marriage certificate between him and the second wife must
reflect his main wife's disapproval.
Kimloan Hill
UCSD
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 16:37:20 -0500
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
From: "David Del Testa" <ddeltest@bucknell.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] thanks on concubinage
Friends, I thank all of those who wrote in about concubinage for your
help and advice. I am still interested in more focused information
(official, fictional, anecdotal) about concubinage in the period 1870
- 1920, so if anyone has additional comments and could contact me,
I'd appreciate it. Again, thanks much! Best wishes, David Del Testa
--
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:49:02 -0800
From: "Erica Peters" <e-peters-9@alumni.uchicago.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] Re: concubinage
Dear list,
More texts on concubinage and second wives in Vietnam, in the period 1870 - 1920. Apologies if some of these suggestions have already been mentioned. I think the phenomenon of French men (sometimes married already back in France) living with Vietnamese women who may also have been married already (at least the French worried that they were) rounds out in interesting ways the twentieth century debates over Vietnamese indigenous polygamy.
- Eugène Jung's Mademoiselle Moustique - Terre d’Annam (1895)
- Article on concubinage from newspaper La France d'Asie (Saigon), dated 22 July 1902 (I don't have the whole thing. Let me know if you'd like my notes).
- Doan Vinh Thuan's book La France d'Asie et son avenir: Chapter XI: "La femme en Cochinchine" (1909). Excerpt below.
Somewhat outside the period:
- Cl. Chivas-Baron's Trois femmes annamites (1922)
- Dang Phuc Thong's speech on "La femme Annamite dans la Société Annamite," given on 26 Feb 1929 in Paris [3 SLOTFOM/23]. Excerpt below.
- Nhat Linh's Breaking Off (1935)
Excerpt from Doan Vinh Thuan's La France d'Asie et son avenir (1909):
"D'apres la loi de Confucius, le divorce inflige à la femme une honte qu'un nouveau mariage meme ne peut effacer. Toutefois, Confucius le declare legitime dans les sept cas suivants: l'adultere de la femme; la desobeissance; la lepre; la sterilité; la lascivité; la loquacité; le penchant au vol. [...] Lorsqu'elle est tombée dans l'un des sept cas de divorce […] son sort est assez malheureux. Mais il faut le dire, un quart des menages finissent par le divorce. (p. 67) […]
Dans les hautes classes, le divorce est moins frequent: le concubinage le rend presque inutile. Celui-ci est profondément entré dans les moeurs indo-chinoises. […] La bigamie, dans ce pays, provient du desir d'eviter le divorce à la femme sterile […] Afin d'eviter le divorce pour cause de sterilité, l'epouse se charge d'aller demander la main d'une femme qui plaît à son mari. Celui-ci ne s'occupe guère du second mariage. La ceremonie, l'ordre et l'importance des cadeaux, tout est reglé par la premiere femme. […]
Depuis vingt ans, beaucoup d'usages ont changé en Indochine. […] Depuis la diffusion de l'education européenne et l'application du code Napoleon, la femme en arrive à disposer librement de sa personne aussi bien que l'homme. Aussi discute-t-on sur l'institution du mariage antique qu'on juge de plus en plus inopportune, depuis que l'inferiorité de la femme disparaît graduellement des moeurs. (68)
Excerpt from DANG PHUC THONG's speech on ‘La femme Annamite dans la Société Annamite,’ given on 26 Feb 1929 in Paris [3 SLOTFOM/23]:
"Ce qu’il y a de honteux dans les moeurs annamites, ajoute l’orateur, c’est le polygamie. La femme subit sans protester l’autorité d’un mari qui a le droit de lui imposer la presence de plusieurs femmes dans son foyer. […]
[A]yant terminé sa conference, il permet aux personnes qui le desirent de prendre la parole. Un assistant se leve et dit: M. Thong a condamné la polygamie mais si la femme est sterile et que le mari n’ait pas de descendants pour perpetuer le culte des ancetres, ce dernier n’a-t-il pas le droit alors de prendre une seconde femme?
Non, repond DANG PHUC THONG, il n’est pas pardonnable à un homme d’avoir plusieurs femmes. L’empereur Tu Duc etait deja de cet avis.
-- Oh, ne parlez pas de ce Tu Duc qui a travaillé contre la patrie replique le contradicteur.
VO DIEU SANH intervient; prier cet indigene de ne pas faire de politique. L’interpellé repond qu’il ne fait pas de politique, mais que d’après lui on a raison de prendre plusieurs femmes. […]”
Erica