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My friend Ngoc Tho Nguyen from Ho Chi Minh City sent me this book when I told him it would be good to have more references on his country in the Philippines for better understanding between our peoples. Ch. 1 "How the Vietnamese See the World" is like Virgilio Enriquez's Sikolohiyang Pilipino: it explains the psyche of the people.
Take-away from the book: Vietnam culture's yang or active value-system is Neo-Confucian, while its yin or passive values are animist, Taoist and Buddhist. In contrast, Filipino culture's yang value-systems are Catholic Christian and Islamic, while our yin values are animist and Hindu.
From Manila, warm wishes to the Vietnamese on the 1000th Year Anniversary of Hanoi!
My friend Ngoc Tho Nguyen from Ho Chi Minh City sent me this book when I told him it would be good to have more references on his country in the Philippines for better understanding between our peoples. Ch. 1 "How the Vietnamese See the World" is like Virgilio Enriquez's Sikolohiyang Pilipino: it explains the psyche of the people.
Take-away from the book: Vietnam culture's yang or active value-system is Neo-Confucian, while its yin or passive values are animist, Taoist and Buddhist. In contrast, Filipino culture's yang value-systems are Catholic Christian and Islamic, while our yin values are animist and Hindu.
From Manila, warm wishes to the Vietnamese on the 1000th Year Anniversary of Hanoi!
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Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Format Tersedia
Unduh sebagai PDF, TXT atau baca online dari Scribd
My friend Ngoc Tho Nguyen from Ho Chi Minh City sent me this book when I told him it would be good to have more references on his country in the Philippines for better understanding between our peoples. Ch. 1 "How the Vietnamese See the World" is like Virgilio Enriquez's Sikolohiyang Pilipino: it explains the psyche of the people.
Take-away from the book: Vietnam culture's yang or active value-system is Neo-Confucian, while its yin or passive values are animist, Taoist and Buddhist. In contrast, Filipino culture's yang value-systems are Catholic Christian and Islamic, while our yin values are animist and Hindu.
From Manila, warm wishes to the Vietnamese on the 1000th Year Anniversary of Hanoi!
Hak Cipta:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Format Tersedia
Unduh sebagai PDF, TXT atau baca online dari Scribd
a
Pepe Lea,
ook
‘The Philip E.Lilenthal imprint
‘honors special books |
in commemoration fa man whose work
at the University of Calfenis Press from 1954 to 1979,
"wa marked by dedication to young authors
and to high standards inthe field of Asan Studies.
Friends, family, author, and foundations have together
‘endowed the Lethal Fund, which enables the Press
to publish under this imprint selected books
ina way that reflects the taste and jdgment
‘ofa great and beloved editor
Understanding
Vietnam
NEIL L. JAMIESON
¥
University of California Press1 How the Vietnamese See
the World
tis not actions but opinions abou ations that distr
Epictetus
Throughout the twontcth century the Vietnamese have been in|
upheaval, wracked by eondeing images ofthe pst, the present
and the future. For moee than six decades now, the emphasis has
been on change, even revaluation, During the 1930s many debates
In Vieinam were expressed in terms of "the cl" versus "the new.”
Modes of socal interaction, claims to status, dress styles, mariage
customs, Iiterture, religious practices, medical treatment, even
haircuts, were polarized. around this dichotomy. A Wester
‘educated, urban middle dass had developed, producing « vital
new publishing industry te voice is aspirations and to serve as an
arena where conflicting Visions of the future would compete for in-
uence. Many young writers argued that a sentimental attachment
to tradilonal clture was a major obstacle to progress.
‘The Communists, a tiny minority inthe 13s, had, ofcourse, @
blueprint that purported to provide them with insight into the fu-
ture. But most young intellectual in Vietnam before World Wa I
simply knew they were dissatisfied with the way things were and
that Vieinam had to discover, or create, a viable modem identity.
‘As Nhat Linh the edioe ofa popular Vietnamese language news
piper, argued in 1982: “When the old cilization is brought out
nd pot into practice before our very eyes, we are disaistied with
the results. We can only continue 19 hope in Westen cvilization.
Where that civilization wil ead us to we not know, but ou destiny
isto travel into the unknown, to keep changing and to progress”
(Mores (Phong Hea), 20 October). But change to what? To become
‘what kind of people? What kind of society? This is what the subse
a ree ee eee21 Hew the Vietnamese Sethe World
eologies conceened withthe issue of modernization abounded
People Were divided in thei opinions, even within faes. To
complicate things further, thre was considerable regional variation
In Vietnam, dating back to ei tmes
Both regional variation and debates betwoen advocates of om-
petng ideologies in Vietnam ate best understood, I blew, a8 =pe-
Sic outgrowths of, oF reactions to, the dominant traditional cl:
ture. All major changes and variations are responses to particular
‘reumstanes (environmental, pols, soci) with which the old
culture was not designed to cope. Despite all he variability an all
the change, the culture of nincteenth-centry Vietnam is with
and often constitutes an important part of—the vious twentith
century innovations just as int filles development it contained
all ofits predecessors. Memories of the past remain an important
part ofall contemporary Vietnamese soccaltural systems fom
{he politburo In Hano! to Lite Saigon in Los Angeles to Saigon
surSeine in Pas.
“Traditional Vietnam” in the folowing pages refers to this
generalized picture of what has existed in the tinds of more recent
fenerations. It is a brosd portrait gleaned mainly from widely
Known literature, commonly used school texbooks, popularized
historical and biographical writings, thousands of conversations
with Vietnamese of diverse backgrounds, eminiscences exchanged
‘over teacups or bee, ina village home or in the back ofa josp, ina
temple, a church, ofa Saigon nightpot, in offices and casstooms
and refugee eamps.
We must learn what people had in mind when they spoke of
‘he old” before we can understand ther debates over “the new” |
that would replace it, All Vietnamese people ae today sla they
were fifty years ago, interacting with that past in the process of
‘shaping their future, And so, in sense, ae we.
Our experience in Vietnam i now part of us and we are pat of
Vietnam. We cannot forget Vietnam, but nether can we Bt what
we “know” about it ino our sense of self and counry. A grinding
tension persists, generated by the dlscrepancy between our
memories and our views of who we ae and ot proper plein the
world. We have ted to zesolve this tension by fevising our views
of ourselves, our society, and the larger wor, a by suppressing
these memories or denying their importance, ut the disonance
remains, and our functioning as individuals and as peoples si
impaired.
How the Viemase Sethe Werle 13
By pulling our old and partial perceptions into « new and
broader context, we may’ transform them. By working to under
stand the competing Vietnamese paradigms, we may clarify the
rmudled debates about our involvement in Vieina, and pethaps
in the process tansform the lingering pain and doubt into more
positive insights. In trying to understand the Vieinamese we may
Tear something enportant about ourselves,
The Land of Vietnam: Ezoogy as History
‘The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the twelith most popelous no
tion inthe world. Although it has one ofthe world’s lanest and
‘most batl-hardened armies, itis also one of the poorest nations in
‘the world. The territory of Vietnam ie slighty smaller than the state
‘of California, but its population, about seventy milion, is more
than a quarter as large as that of the United States, Vietnam is
elongated slong a north-south aus that extends from Chinato the
Gulf of Siam. Iis evident that Vietnam ie 3 crowded county, and
the population is stretched along a faitly narrow band of ld. But
the topography of Vietum exaggerates thie phenomenon. Most of
he people lve in a relatively small porion ofthe land ares (see
maponp. 4),
‘nly sbout a quater of Vietnamese terior Is good farmland
(ie, suitable for wet ie cultvation), and that where most ofthe
ethnic Vietnamese, who make up roughly 85 percent of the
population, lve. Wet rcefiels, people, and political power have
always been assodated and concentated in felaively small core
areas, Even today, most ofthe paddy feds, most ofthe people,
‘most of the wealth, most ofthe Industry, and most ofthe ear.
‘nomic, politcal, and cultural activity are in one of two core areas
‘One core ares consists ofthe Res River delta and the City of anol
in the north; the other consists ofthe Mekong River delta and Ho
‘Chi Minh City formerly Saigon) inthe south. These two concen-
trations of people are joined by a long thin band of costal plains
along the South China Sea. The balk of the central portion of Vit-
znam is mountainous and has been traditionally inhabited by ethnic
minorities, tribal peoples who have Been seen by alinot all Vit
‘namese as “backward.”
Ecological and historia factors have combined to produce very
significant regional differences between the two core areas that
omit the county. The Red River is subject to rapid and ew
‘teme variation in water level, and both flocd and drought heveTHAILAND
e
south
Sine
a
lover ini pr ue
‘Signleant Veta setlement areas, cay tenth century
How the Veruamese So the World 5
always occurred with ominous reguasity Epidemics and pest in
festation have also been comma. The Red River delta hat sil
taneously been one of the most densely populated and leat safe
‘regions in the word. In an uncertain and dangerous envionment,
hunger and social uneest have been constant thes. As a result
the loca culture has emphasized the subordination ofthe indi
vidual to collective disipline of family and village. Both the family
and the village have been relatively csed, corporate entities, sl
reliant, and responsible forthe action of ther individual members,
In the south, the flow of the Mekong River is regulated by is
link to the Tonle Sap, a large inland lake in Cambodia, which
absorbs any excess flow of Water and supplements a eduction in
ow from its large reserve storage. The Mekong environment i
more predictable and more benign than that of the Red River
‘These ecological diferences etween the Red. River and the
“Mekong delta have been of immense significance in generating di
ferences in cultural emphases and socal organization Between the
two core regions of Vietnam. But historical factors have exacer:
bated these differences. The Mekong delta has been the recent
frontier area. Not unt the sevententh century did Vietnamese
seriously begin to sete the sonthem delta region, and the lower
“Mekong delta was not heavily settled until the nineteenth century
Life has been easier and more secure in the southern third of
‘Vietnam, and the hash discipline found in the north has always
been considerably moderated there. Southern villages have always
been more open, less corporate, more tolerant of indivi nto
tive and cultural heterodoxy. Then, under the Pench, who began
clonizing Vietnam in 1889, the southern thitd of Vietnam, knows,
88 Cochinchina, was the fet part to be colonized, and i was
Aiectty administered by the French authorities as 8 colony. The
south thus experienced relatively greater Westen influence and
‘more politcal eedom than di the rest ofthe country, which was
‘ministered as “protectorate” (Annatn in central Vietnam and
Tonkin in the north) The protectorates came under French rule
later and were administered indnecy, through local Vietnamese
sdministatos
There ae, then two common ways of talking about Vietnamese
seography We think of the noth and the south, divided by the
Seventeenth parallel, This makes sense in recent politcal terms. It
ko makes sense histrialy, beeaue Vietnam was divided not too
differently for most of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,