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From: Stephen Denney
Date: Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 8:15 PM
Would anyone here be familiar with a book by Vu Ngoc Tien and Le Mai titled Rong Da (Stone Dragon) or the controversy surrounding its publication? The publisher, Danang publishing house, was ordered by the Ministry of Information and Communication to suspend its operations for three months, Dec. 15-March 15. The International Publishers Association protested the suspension in a Feb. 20 press release.
Steve Denney
library assistant, UC Berkeley
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From: dien nguyen
Date: Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 2:38 AM
Hello Steve
The Viet-Studies website of Tran Huu Dung http://www.viet-studies.info/culture.htm
carries many short stories by Vu Ngoc Tien and Le Mai from the book Rong Da.
See also Die^~n DDa`n: http://www.diendan.org/
Cheers
Nguye^~n DDie^`n
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From: dien nguyen
Date: Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 2:46 AM
Some short stories by Vu Ngoc Tien & La Mai from Ro^`ng dda':
http://www.diendan.org/sang-tac/chu-min-phu-va-toi/
http://www.viet-studies.info/VNTien/LeMai_NgayVoVi.htm
http://www.viet-studies.info/VNTien/VNTien_NgoaiTinhOTuoi50.htm
Happy reading!
DDie^`n
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From: Stephen Denney
Date: Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 11:25 AM
Hello Hai,
I would be interested to know more about the book and why it was considered controversial by the authorities. Also, would you or anyone here know if in fact NXB Da Nang is now allowed to resume publishing?
Steve Denney
library assistant,
UC Berkeley
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From: Hai Le
Date: 2009/3/19
In attachment is the story, which is thought the most (or only?)
controversial one among other stories in that book. I don't know what
the authority thinks about that (the publisher neither, he he, at least
according to the official interview) but the story is really difficult
to understand by ordinary Vietnamese: unclear or not linear/simple
narrative, many 'wierd' facts. There is also some elements of
border-fighting, quite a taboo especially in the last two years because
of the demonstrations and Chinese policy.
From my observation, there is also another issue here, as NXB Da Nang
had a new director in the period. Then the incident might be the surface
of an internal fight of power rather than any political corectness. The
papers about the closing down was about business restructuring rather
than any political or cultural reason.
Another space/context to put it in is that NXB Da Nang is a
province/city's company (don vi hanh chanh su nghiep) hence its
publishing policy may have been under the local/provincial secretary (bi
thu thanh uy - ban tuyen giao thanh uy) rather than the central
committee. The book of Tran Dan was allowed to be published and sole
everywhere but then was fobidden in the poem festival (Hoi Tho) in Van
Mieu, sort of playground for central VIPs.
Best
Hai.
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