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Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel@undp.org>
date Feb 27, 2007 6:54 PM
subject [Vsg] Government awarded prestigious prize to forbidden poets
Hi all, Just noting that I find the tone of this article quite interesting.
Vern
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/lifestyle/2007/02/667574/
Government awarded prestigious prize to forbidden poets
18:04' 27/02/2007 (GMT+7)
VietNamNet Bridge – They were Hoàng Cầm, Lê Đạt,, Phung Quan and Tran Dan of the pro-democracy
Nhân Văn - Giai Phẩm movement started in 1955 by Northern intellectuals and extinguished by the
government in 1958.
Tuan Hoang <thoang1@nd.edu>
date Feb 27, 2007 7:47 PM
subject Re: [Vsg] Government awarded prestigious prize to forbidden poets
This is more than interesting. As indicated by the last paragraph of the article, the
implications could be huge, for both the future and the writing of history. On the latter,
Vietnamese- and English-language researchers have barely begun to grapple with it. In
English, for example, Shawn McHale has a JAS article on the Affair (a la Tran Duc Thao) and
its impact on the DRV. As for the RVN, judging from what the Saigon intelligentsia were
writing in the late 1950s and early 1960s, what was known about the Affair confirmed the
distrust that many of them had about the CP and socialism. How much the Affair contributed
to the already heightened ideological rift among Vietnamese - as well as to the subsequent
heightening of the military war - remains a question to be uncovered.
In the meantime, the immediate implications could prove just as fascinating.
~Tuan
Niels Fink Ebbesen <nfe@danviet.dk>
date Feb 28, 2007 3:21 PM
subject SV: [Vsg] Government awarded prestigious prize to forbidden poets
The late Georges Boudarel, who had first-hand knowledge of the period, published an article
in English "Intellectual Dissidence in the 1950s - The Nhân Văn Giai Phẩm Affair" in Vietnam
Forum 13/1990 as well as a book: Cent fleurs ecloses dans la nuit du Vietnam - Communisme et
dissidence 1954-56, Paris (Jaques Bertoin) 1991. Kim N.B. Ninh has a chapter about the same
period in: A World Transformed - The Politics of Culture in Revolutionary Vietnam, 1945-1965,
Univ. of Michigan Press, 2002
Best,
Niels
David Marr <dgm405@coombs.anu.edu.au>
date Feb 28, 2007 4:40 PM
subject Re: SV: [Vsg] Government awarded prestigious prize to forbidden poets
Chapter 3 of Russell Heng's PhD thesis deals with
Nhan Van Giai Pham. Here's the citation: Russell
Hiang-Khng Heng, Of the State, For the State, Yet
Against the State: the Struggle Paradigm in
Vietnam's Politics. PhD Australian National University, 1999.
Russell's next chapter is on the Xet lai chong
Dang affair, which I doubt Tuoi Tre will write about for awhile.
David Marr
Chung Nguyen <Chung.Nguyen@umb.edu>
date Mar 6, 2007 9:56 AM
subject Re: SV: [Vsg] Government awarded prestigious prize to forbidden poets
Talawas has performed a great service in posting these documents re: past
ideological struggles in Vietnam. It gives us a chance to understand fully
what had happened in the past, and perhaps how not to go down that road
again.
It's interesting to compare the social critique of Le Dat and others to what
has been recently observed by a monk who has been exiled from VN for 39
years, and returned for the first time to a country he deeply loves:
http://www.tuvienlocuyen.org/phap_thoai/phienta/2006-01-28.html
Vietnam has traveled a long way, from the time Le Dat was taken to task for
what he wrote to the time Thich Nhat Hanh could now speak these words freely
to his students and friends in Lang Mai (France), Tu Hieu (Hue), and Bat Nha
(Lam Dong).
Very few people see the problem as deeply as TNH. The real question is, what
is the way out of that great dilemma ? How many have been able to offer a
path ? In his own way, TNH is trying to address it as best as he could.
Nguyen Ba Chung
Stephen Denney <sdenney@ocf.berkeley.edu>
date Mar 10, 2007 10:43 PM
subject Re: SV: [Vsg] Government awarded prestigious prize to forbidden poets
The Voice of America carried a report on this today (March 10). See:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-03-10-voa11.cfm?renderforprint=1&texto
Vietnam Honors Once Banned Writers
By Scott Stearns
- Steve Denney
Chung Nguyen <Chung.Nguyen@umb.edu>
date Mar 11, 2007 7:07 AM
subject RE: SV: [Vsg] Government awarded prestigious prize to forbidden poets
A further sign of liberalization is the inclusion of these authors in the celebration of the
"xóm đã từng liều" (hamlet of 15 poets who did dare to risk) by those of the "xóm liều" (hamlet of 15 poets who dare to risk) in the Vietnamese National Day of Poetry at the Temple of Literature. Each of these poets is honored with a "cây thơ", a tree of poetry, with 4 branches displaying artfully illustrated posters setting out their life and their works. What's interesting is the list of those who "did dare" to stick their neck out when it
wasn't popular to do so. Among them:
Dương Tường <http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=dtuong&pg=1>
(http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=dtuong&pg=1)
Hoàng Hưng <http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=hhung&pg=1>
(http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=hhung&pg=1)
Lê Đạt <http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=ldat&pg=1>
(http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=ldat&pg=1)
Thanh Tâm Tuyền <http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=tttuyen&pg=1>
(http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=tttuyen&pg=1)
Tr?n D?n <http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=tdan&pg=1>
(http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=tdan&pg=1)
Lưu Quang Vũ <http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=lqvu&pg=1>
(http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=lqvu&pg=1)
Trần Vang Sao <http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=tvsao&pg=1>
(http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=tvsao&pg=1)
Nguyễn Quang Thiều <http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=nqthieu&pg=1>
(http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/gallery.php?pc=nqthieu&pg=1)
The awards came from the decision at the top while these celebrations come from the new
generation of poets in Vietnam. As the Vietnamese saying goes, "Quan nhat thoi, dan van dai"
- A mandarin lasts but a short time, the people last a thousand generations.
These are true heroes of the culture. The on-going revival of the traditional culture brings
with it the celebration of its true values.
The note at Talawas:
http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/showFile.php?res=9375&rb=0101
<http://www.talawas.org/talaDB/showFile.php?res=9375&rb=0101>
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