“Original homeland” (nguyên quán)

“Original homeland” (nguyên quán)

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From: Erik Harms <elharms@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 8:16 AM

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Dear List,

Many of you have probably seen a Vietnamese Identity Card at some time or other. On such cards, the holder is identified as having an “original homeland” (nguyên quán). What is interesting to me is that there are many people who have never set foot in their identified nguyên quán, which is, as I understand it, traced back patrilinealy through a father's nguyên quán. (How many generations back, I do not know, although I have seen such cards held by '54 Catholics in Saigon who speak a decidedly southern twang and have never been north, but still have a location in the north as their nguyên quán on their personal identity card).

Given that the term nguyên quán is Sino-Vietnamese, I imagine that Vietnam is not the only country to conceptualize a nguyên quán in this way. Does anyone in this list know how "hometowns" are represented on identity cards elsewhere in East Asia? Or elsewhere in Southeast Asia?

thanks in advance!

Erik Harms

Yale Anthropology

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From: Hue-Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>

Date: Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 8:54 AM

To: Erik Harms <elharms@gmail.com>

Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Dear Erik:

I am often asked about my homeland by northern Vietnamese (never southerners). Saying that I was born in Saigon is not enough; nor is stating that my parents were born in Can Tho and Ben Tre respectively. My northern interlocutors are only satisfied when I mentiom that I am supposedly descended from the Tay Son (unproven, but a nice family story) on my father's side, and from Dao Duy Tu (also unproven but more likely) on my mother's, my homeland is ...Thanh Hoa.

Also, since my family name is Ho, I am supposed to belong to the Ho lineage and was taken to task for not visiting the Ho temple in Quynh Doi.

I know lots of people born in Hanoi who claims some other place as their que quan.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

Harvard (emerita)

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From: David Brown <nworbd@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 9:13 AM

To: Hue-Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>

Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Leaving aside the literary/formal overtones and, perhaps, regional usage, is nguyên quán precisely equivalent to quê hương?

David Brown

US Foreign Service (retired)

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From: Liam Kelley <liam@hawaii.edu>

Date: Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 10:05 AM

To: Erik Harms <elharms@gmail.com>

Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Hi Erik,

Jiguan (籍貫) is the term you want to look for. As far as I know, the PRC identity cards still have this, but it was dropped in Taiwan in the 1990s and in Hong Kong in 1997. There's a tiny bit of info here, but I'm sure if you look around you'll find plenty more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestral_home_(Chinese)

Liam Kelley

University of Hawaii

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From: Nhan <nhan@temple.edu>

Date: Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 10:26 AM

To: vsg@u.washington.edu

Sometimes, esp. in conversation, people ask "quê ở đâu?" or "quê gốc ở đâu?"

"người gốc ở đâu", "gốc gác", "xứ sở",...

So, in the south, when I grew up, we got tired of the question, and used to joke back

"người Việt gốc cây".

Cheers,

Nhàn

Temple U.

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From: Dinh Lu Giang <lugiangdinh@gmail.com>

Date: Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 10:59 PM

To: Erik Harms <elharms@gmail.com>

Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Dear Erik

It is true that "nguyên quán" is quite confusing. I found it on the net and it says that nguyên quán is the old way of saying quê quán.

"Hiện nay trong các loại giấy tờ của cá nhân như chứng minh nhân dân, hộ khẩu, giấy khai sinh đều có mục ghi “nguyên quán” hoặc “quê quán”. Về cơ bản, những giấy tờ theo mẫu cũ được ghi là nguyên quán còn những giấy tờ theo mẫu mới được ghi là quê quán."

Source:

https://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/phap-luat/tu-van/cach-xac-dinh-nguyen-quan-2410668.html

All the best,

Dinh Lu Giang, PhD.

Bộ môn Ngôn ngữ học

Trường ĐHKHXH & NV (Đại học Quốc gia TP.HCM)

Dept. of Linguistics

University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University -

HCMC - Vietnam)