Dear VSG members,

On behalf of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-Hanoi, I would like to share you the sad news about Prof. Phan Huy Le's pass away. If any of you is in Hanoi and would like to attend his funeral please be on 27 June at 5 Tran Thanh Tong, Hanoi from 7:30 - 10:00 am. Thank you.

TIN BUỒN

Photograph used with permission from David Elliott

Trường Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội và gia đình vô cùng thương tiếc báo tin:

GS. NGND Phan Huy Lê, Viện sĩ Thông tấn Viện Hàn lâm Văn khắc và Mỹ văn (Cộng hòa Pháp), sinh ngày 23 tháng 2 năm 1934 tại xã Thạch Châu, huyện Lộc Hà, tỉnh Hà Tĩnh, Chủ tịch Hội Khoa học Lịch sử Việt Nam (1988-2016), Chủ tịch Danh dự Hội Khoa học Lịch sử Việt Nam, nguyên Chủ tịch Hội đồng Khoa học và Đào tạo, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, nguyên Giám đốc Trung tâm Nghiên cứu Việt Nam và Giao lưu Văn hóa, nguyên Chủ nhiệm Bộ môn Lịch sử Việt Nam Cổ trung đại, Khoa Lịch sử; nguyên Chủ nhiệm Khoa Đông phương học, Trường Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội; Chủ nhiệm Đề án Khoa học Xã hội cấp Quốc gia Nghiên cứu, biên soạn bộ Lịch sử Việt Nam, Giải thưởng Hồ Chí Minh, Giải thưởng Nhà nước về Khoa học và Công nghệ; Huân chương Độc lập hạng Nhì, Huân chương Lao động hạng Nhất, hạng Nhì và hạng Ba; Huân chương Cành cọ Hàn lâm (Cộng hòa Pháp), Giải thưởng Văn hóa châu Á Fukuoka (Nhật Bản)... sau một thời gian lâm bệnh, mặc dù đã được tập thể các bác sĩ và gia đình tận tình chăm sóc, cứu chữa nhưng do tuổi cao, bệnh trọng đã từ trần hồi 13h10 phút ngày 23 tháng 6 năm 2018 tức ngày 10 tháng 5 năm Mậu Tuất, hưởng thọ 85 tuổi.

Lễ viếng và truy điệu tổ chức từ hồi 7h30 đến 10h00 ngày 27 tháng 6 năm 2018 (tức ngày 14 tháng 5 năm Mậu Tuất) tại Nhà tang lễ Quốc gia, số 5 Trần Thánh Tông, Hà Nội. Lễ an táng tổ chức tại Công viên Nghĩa trang Vĩnh Hằng, Hà Nội lúc 13h00 cùng ngày.

Xin trân trọng kính báo.

Oscar Salemink, University of Copenhagen

Dear colleagues,

It is with great sadness that I forward this message that Prof Phan Huy Le passed away. Prof Le was an inquisitive, curious, critical and courageous intellectual who almost single-handedly opened up Vietnamese humanities and social sciences to the outside world by stimulating exchange and collaboration with foreign scholars. Many of the now older international Vietnam studies folks on this list could do their research in Vietnam in the 1980s and 1990s because of Prof Le's generosity and mentorship. For Vietnamese scholars he was a source of inspiration and support as well, ever since he was elected as chairperson of the Hoi Su hoc (Association of Historians) and made the famous acceptance speech in 1993 or 94 that (historical) science should first and foremost be guided by empirical findings rather than ideological dogma.

I personally owe an enormous debt to my Vietnamese thay Le. He made much of my research in Vietnam possible.

This is not intended as an obituary. I am not prepared and have no access to my files as I am traveling, but I am sure that others on the list will weigh in. I did want to share, however, this very very sad news, and offer my condolences to Ba Lan, his daughters, friends and colleagues.

With best regards,

Oscar Salemink

Forwarded by Nguyễn Điền, Canberra

"Hàng nghìn người' tiễn đưa nhà sử học của VN"

Tang lễ nhà sử học, nguyên Chủ tịch Danh dự Hội Khoa học Lịch sử Việt Nam, Giáo sư Phan Huy Lê (1934-2018), diễn ra tại Hà Nội hôm thứ Tư có hàng ngàn người tham dự, trong đó có nhiều sinh viên, cựu học trò, nhà giáo và người dân tới tiễn đưa...

Hôm 24/6, một số nhà khoa học, sử gia từ quốc tế cũng chia sẻ với BBC những đánh giá, nhìn nhận và lời tri ân về Giáo sư Phan Huy Lê.

Trong số đó, có các nhà nghiên cứu Keith W. Taylor, Giáo sư Nghiên cứu Văn hóa Trung - Việt, Khoa Nghiên cứu châu Á, Đại học Cornell, Nhung Tuyết Trần, Phó Giáo sư, Khoa Lịch sử, Đại học Toronto; George E. Dutton, Giáo sư, Khoa Văn hóa và Ngôn ngữ châu Á, Đại học California, Los Angeles (UCLA) hay Oscar Salemink, Giáo sư, Khoa Nhân học, Đại học Copenhagen.

https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/vietnam-44632042

Hue Tam Ho Tai, Harvard University

I'd like to echo Oscar in expressing my appreciation for Prof. Phan Huy Le's contribution to Vietnamese studies.

My own debt to him is quite personal. He helped me enormously, sometimes himself, sometimes through his two daughters who followed him into academia, and sometimes through his current and former students. He opened doors for me that would otherwise have remained closed.

As head of the Association of Historians, he spearheaded the effort to preserve part of Hoa Lo prison as it was being demolished. He also tried (not always successfully) to prevent the demolition of architecturally and historically significant buildings.

I remember him telling me that now that the country was at peace, we needed a new narrative of its history. It was not easy to construct one and he needed to exert extreme tact to push for a new research direction and to internationalize Vietnamese studies. He knew how far he could push even though some worried he was being too cautious. But his patient efforts have borne fruit..

As we go through the doors that he opened, we might remember him as I do: smiling, courteous, always ready to help.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

Harvard University emerita

David Brown, Freelance Analyst

VietnamExpress on 27 June (tiếng Việt) and 29 June (English) published a memoir highlighting Dr. Pham Huy Lê's controversial plea, at a Central Propaganda Department conference in February 2017, that Vietnamese history "be perceived fully, comprehensively and without bias. 'Any culture and civilization that ever existed on our land is a part of our historical legacy. . . We can no longer filter out things that we consider 'unnecessary' or 'non-beneficial.'"

The text of both stories, side by side, is attached.

Regards,

David Brown,

Freelance analyst and writer, Fresno, California

Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Harvard

Thanks to David Brown for posting these two articles. It reminds me of Professor Phan Huy Le's willingness to risk criticism by challenging conventional historiography. Professor Le was involved in the current project to write a multi-volume national history (quoc su) which led him to ponder the meaning of nation and the issue of narrative. As Oscar will remember, Professor Le organized a conference on the Nguyen dynasty in which he advocated re-evaluating its rule. He was criticized by other senior scholars who held onto the negative assessment of the Nguyen.

This reminded me of my own experience meeting Professor Le for the first time in 1995. He was the scholar whom I have quoted as saying that the narrative of heroic resistance to foreign conquest was well suited for mobilizing the population in time of war but now that we were at peace, we needed a new narrative. He asked me for suggestions. I had not until then thought deeply about the issue so I drew on my own recollection of how the teaching of history in the South emphasized Nam tien. So, I suggested regional tensions accompanying territorial expansion as a unifying thread. Professor Le laughed gently and said it was not possible to portray Vietnam as an expansionist nation. I did not take his response as an expression of his own evaluation of the Vietnamese past, but as an acknowledgment of what was possible to write about that past..Still, he was eager to consider alternatives to the standard narrative.

Professor Phan Huy Le's contribution to new ways of thinking about Vietnamese history, of mentoring students both Vietnamese and foreign will be remembered with gratitude.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

Harvard University emerita

Shawn McHale, George Washington University

Dear list,

This is indeed sad news. Professor Phan Huy Lê was a gracious host when I did my first research in Vietnam in 1990. He opened doors to foreign scholars, and served as a bridge between Vietnam and the outside world at a time when such bridges were greatly needed. It really was a different world for research then, and I will always be in his debt. Without him, I would not have my first book.

Phan Huy Le was also, of course, a great and prolific scholar. He was one of the greats who entered the world of scholarship in the 1950s, and was widely esteemed in Vietnam for his work. (He was often classed among the four "greats" of Vietnamese historical scholarship). He probably did more than anyone else to push the Vietnamese historical profession into dialogue with the outside world.

Interestingly enough, Professor Phan Huy Lê was from the distinguished Phan Huy lineage, whose names (such as Phan Huy Ích and Phan Huy Chú) are familiar to historians. (His spouse was from the Cao Xuân lineage).

My condolences to his family.

Shawn McHale

George Washington University

Ben Kirkvliet, Australian National University

23 June 2018, Honolulu, 2:40 pm

Phan Huy Lê was a person of numerous talents, accomplishments, and esteemable qualities. Among his accomplishments, two stand out in my mind.

He was a dedicated and productive scholar. Anyone can get a sense of that by browsing library holdings in Hanoi or elsewhere in Vietnam and libraries elsewhere in the world that have decent collections of Vietnamese language books and journals. The last item in a book prepared for him on his 80th birthday, Nhân Cách Sử Học, edited by Trần Văn Thọ, Nguyễn Quang Ngọc, and Philippe Papin (Hanoi: Nxb Chính trị Quốc gia, 2014), lists the titles for 408 of his publications.

His second outstanding accomplishment in my view is he nurtured and mentored new generations of teachers and researchers in many fields of study and in many parts of the world. He did this personally and with his wife, Hoàng Như Lan, and the colleagues he gathered around him at Hanoi National University and his other academic homes.

I am one of the countless people he mentored. I'll remember and thank him forever.

Ben Kerkvliet

Emeritus Professor

Australian National University

Canberra

Affiliate Graduate Faculty

University of Hawai'i

Honolulu

Nhung Tuyet Tran, University of Toronto

In addition to all the comments colleagues have made about Professor Le’s scholarship and institutional contributions, which made it possible for foreign scholars to do serious research in Vietnam starting in the late 1980s, I’d like to add that he was incredibly warm and personally supportive of junior scholars.