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Raising Vietnamese: War and youth in the South in the early 1970s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2012

Olga Dror
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Abstract

This essay considers the importance of looking at writings for children for historical analysis, particularly in times of war, focusing on magazines published for youth in South Vietnam in the early 1970s. Two magazines, Thiếu Nhi and Thằng Bờm, in particular, are studied in terms of their editorial aims and contents, as well as their young readers' submissions in response to contemporary sociocultural issues raised in these magazines. The lively discussions in these magazines were made possible by the relative freedom of expression in South Vietnam, compared to North Vietnam, which was an important reason for the civil war being fought. Yet this freedom also challenged the fabric of Vietnamese society. The strongest concern of these magazines' initiators, editors and writers was that its readers not lose their sense of being Vietnamese in the face of the great wartime flood of American popular culture that captivated many youth. Anxiety that the younger generation would be Americanised and lose their identity struck at the core of what the war was being fought about: i.e. different versions of being Vietnamese in the modern world. This threat of Americanisation to fundamental Vietnamese values was perceived by some intellectuals in the South as more serious than the threat of communism, because at least the communists were Vietnamese.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 74 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2013

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References

1 ‘Hòa bình’ [Peace], Thằng Bờm, 88, Feb. 1972, p. 21.

2 Notable exceptions are Thaveeporn Vasavakul, Anne Raffin and Christina Firpo. See, for example, Thaveeporn Vasavakul, ‘Schools and politics in South and North Viet Nam: A comparative study of state apparatus, state policy, and state power (1945–1965)’, Ph.D. thesis, Cornell University, 1994; Firpo, Christina, ‘President Ho speaks to the children: Thieu Sinh magazine and the New Child in 1945 revolutionary Vietnam’, Southeast Review of Asian Studies, 27 (2005): 37–48Google Scholar; Raffin, Anne, Youth mobilization in Vichy Indochina and its legacies, 1940 to 1970 (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005)Google Scholar.

3 McGillis, Roderick, The nimble reader: Literary theory and children's literature (New York: Twayne, 1996), p. 106Google Scholar.

4 These issues are discussed in terms of Western societies through the lens of children's literature in Rose, Jacqueline, The case of Peter Pan, or, The impossibility of children's fiction (London: Macmillan, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin, Children's literature: Criticism and the fictional child (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994)Google Scholar; Children's literature: New approaches, ed. Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Stephens, John, Language and ideology in children's fiction (London and New York: Longman, 1992), p. 8Google Scholar.

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7 Lesnik-Oberstein, Children's literature: Criticism and the fictional child, p. 39.

8 Hunt, Peter, Children's literature (Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001), p. 3Google Scholar.

9 Phiến, Võ, Literature in South Vietnam, 1954–1975, trans. Mai, Võ Đình (Melbourne: Vietnamese Language & Culture Publications, 1992), p. 148Google Scholar; see also Jamieson, Neil L., Understanding Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 324–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Examples of this are found in nearly all the children's magazines mentioned here.

10 See, for e.g., Phương, Nguyễn, Ánh Sáng của Dân Chủ [The light of democracy] (Saigon: Xã Hội Ắn Quán, 1957)Google Scholar.

11 Catton, Philip E., Diem's final failure: Prelude to America's war in Vietnam (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2002), ch. 2Google Scholar.

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14 For a survey of literature published for youth in the 1920s and 1930s, see Doãn Quốc Sỹ, ‘Một Cái Nhìn Tổng Quát về Văn Chương Thiếu Nhi Việt Nam’ [A comprehensive glance at young adults' literature in Vietnam], Thiếu Nhi, 126, 1 Jul. 1974, pp. 6–8.

15 See Tran, Nu-Anh, ‘South Vietnamese identity, American intervention, and the newspaper Chính Luận, 1965–1969’, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 1, 1–2 (2006): 169–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Võ Phiến, Literature in South Vietnam, p. 147.

17 Editorial statement, Bé Thơ, 5, 8 Jan. 1971, pp. 7, 11.

18 Nguyễn Thị Hà Thanh, ‘Lá Thư Tòa Soạn’ [Letter from the editor], Họa Mi, 14-A, 7 Jan. 1971, p. 1.

19 Viet-Nam Bulletin [a weekly issued by the Embassy of Vietnam, Washington, D.C.], 23 Dec. 1969, p. 1.

20 Letter from Mai Thọ Truyền to Nguyễn Vỹ, 7 Mar. 1970, Thằng Bờm, 1, 14 Mar. 1970, p. 5.

21 Việt Nhân, ‘Thân Thể và Gia Cảnh của Nhà Văn Nguyễn Vỹ’ [Writer Nguyễn Vỹ's personality and family background], Thằng Bờm, 86, 26 Jan. 1972, p. 4 (rep. from the newspaper Tin Điển, 1971, no. 448–9, 451–2). Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyễn Giáp rose up the ranks of the Communist Party to become members of its Politburo, as prime minister and military commander, respectively.

22 ‘Tiểu Sử Thi Sĩ Nguyễn Vỹ’ [Biography of the poet Nguyễn Vỹ], Thằng Bờm, 86, 26 Jan. 1972, pp. 19–20.

23 Việt Nhân, ‘Nhà Văn Nguyễn Vỹ’.

24 ‘Nhà Văn Nguyễn Vỹ được Truy Tặng Bội Tinh Tâm Lý Chến Đệ Nhất Hạng’ [Writer Nguyễn Vỹ was posthumously honoured], Thằng Bờm, 86, 26 Jan. 1972, p. 18.

25 ‘Nguyễn Vỹ,’ Thằng Bờm, 86, 26 Jan. 1972, p. 12.

26 ‘Anh Nguyễn Vỹ đã Mất’ [Nguyễn Vỹ passes away], Thằng Bờm, 86, 26 Jan. 1972, p. 10.

27 Ibid.

28 Thằng Bờm, 1, 14 Mar. 1970, p. 1.

29 Thằng Bờm, 1, 14 Mar. 1970, pp. 4–5.

30 Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam, p. 243.

31 Personal correspondence, Nhật Tiến, July 2011.

32 ‘Thư Chủ Niệm Gửi Các Em Thiếu Nhi’ [Director's letter to the readers of Thiếu Nhi], Thiếu Nhi, 1, 15 Aug. 1971, p. 1.

33 Ca, Nhã, Cô Hippy Lạc Loài [Miss Hippy alone in a strange land] (Saigon: Vàng Son, 1971)Google Scholar.

34 Nguyễn Vỹ (under the pen name Diệu Huyền), ‘Tự Điển Thằng Bờm: Hippy’ [Thằng Bờm dictionary], Thằng Bờm, 6, 12 Apr. 1970, p. 15.

35 ‘Một Bức Thư của Nhóm Hippy Học Trường Tây Nha Trang’ [Letter by a group of hippies from the Western School in Nha Trang], Thằng Bờm, 20, 7 Jul. 1970, p. 9.

36 ‘Hội Trường Thằng Bờm [Thằng Bờm's meeting room], Thằng Bờm, 26, 8 Aug. 1970, p. 19.

37 Alexander de Rhodes (1591–1660) was the French Jesuit who compiled the first Vietnamese-Western language dictionary (Vietnamese-French-Portuguese) using a Latinised writing system for Vietnamese, quốc ngữ, which completely replaced the traditional character-based writing system in the early twentieth century.

38 Hội Trường Thằng Bờm’, Thằng Bờm, 29, 25 Sept. 1970, pp. 20–21.

39 Ibid.

40 ‘Một Bức Thư của Nhóm Hippy Học Trường Tây Nha Trang’ [Letter by a group of hippies from the Western School in Nha Trang], Thằng Bờm, 20, 7 Jul. 1970, p. 9.

41 ‘Hội Trường Thằng Bờm,’ Thằng Bờm, 22, 1 Aug. 1970, p. 19.

42 ‘Hội Trường Thằng Bờm,’ Thằng Bờm, 24, 15 Aug. 1970, pp. 19, 32.

43 ‘Hội Trường Thằng Bờm,’ Thằng Bờm, 29, 19 Sept. 1970, p. 20.

44 Dậy magazine, established by Đinh Đông Phương, had an extremely difficult and short life. Only six issues were published. It was plagued by financial difficulties and clashes with the authorities, which resulted in some of its issues being confiscated, as reported in its pages. See, for example, Dậy, 4, 26 May 1971, p. 1.

45 hm [sic], ‘Nói Với Người Anh Em Hippy Saigon’ [Talking with Saigon hippies], Dậy, 5, 27 May 1971, p. 16.

46 Ngọc Mai, ‘Hippies’, Bé Mai, 10, [n.d.] 1971, pp. 2–3, 7.

47 Thụy, Nguyễn, ‘Hippy à la mode’, Bé Mai, 14, [n.d.] 1971, p. 7Google Scholar.

48 Personal correspondence, Nhật Tiến, July 2011.

49 ‘Tuần Báo Thiếu Nhi Với Chiến Dịch Bài Trừ Ma Túy’ [Thiếu Nhi weekly's campaign for the elimination of drugs], Thiếu Nhi, 111, 12 Oct. 1973, p. 2.

50 Le Monde, ‘Selection Hebdomadaire’, May 1970, pp. 14–20, quoted in Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam, p. 331.

51 Personal correspondence, Nhật Tiến, July 2011.

52 Nguyễn Hùng Trưong, ‘Thư Chủ Nhiệm Gửi các Em Thiếu Nhi’ [Director's Letter to the readers of Thiếu Nhi], Thiếu Nhi, 111, 12 Oct. 1973, p. 1.

53 Bách Khoa, ‘Tìm Hiểu Sự Độc Mại của Ma Túy’ [Understanding the harm of drugs], Thiếu Nhi, 112, 19 Oct. 1973, pp. 2, 16.

54 T.C., ‘Gia Đình Thiếu Nhi Với Chiến Dịch Bài Trừ Ma Túy’ [Thiếu Nhi family in the campaign for the elimination of drugs], Thiếu Nhi, 112, 19 Oct. 1973, p. 17.

55 Thiện Tánh, ‘Lời Khuyên Học Trò’ [Advice for students], Thiếu Nhi, 112, 19 Oct. 1973, p. 2.

56 Ngàn Thuyên, ‘Sống Mạnh Sống Hùng’ [To live strong, to live brave], Thiếu Nhi, 112, 19 Oct. 1973, p. 2.

57 Sơn Khê, ‘Gửi Ai’ [To you], Thiếu Nhi, 112, 19 Oct. 1973, p. 2.

58 Personal correspondence, Nhật Tiến, July 2011.

59 ‘Gia Đình Thiếu Nhi’ [Thiếu Nhi family], Thiếu Nhi 9, 10 Oct. 1971, p. 32.

60 Yếu Phu Sư Tồm, ‘Trạng Bùng. Phùng Khắc Khoan’, Thiếu Nhi, 35, 23 Apr. 1972, pp. 12–13.

61 Đặng Hoàng, ‘Vũ Huyến (Trạng Cờ)’ [Vũ Huyến, chessmaster], Thiếu Nhi, 21, 2 Jan. 1972, p. 10.

62 Nhật Tiến, ‘Ngọn Cờ Núi Lam’ [Banner of Lam Mountain], Thiếu Nhi, 14, 14 Nov. 1971, pp. 10–15.

63 Kim Chích Chỏe (one of the three fictional correspondents), ‘Trần Quốc Toán: Anh Hùng 16 Tuổi!’ [Trần Quốc Toán: Sixteen-year-old hero!], Thằng Bờm, 1, 14 Mar. 1970, pp. 8–9.

64 Bờm (one of the three fictional correspondents), ‘Nguyễn Thông’, Thằng Bờm, 29, 19 Sept. 1970, pp. 3–4.

65 Ibid.

66 Kim Chích Chỏe, ‘Liễu Hạnh Công Chúa’ [Princess Liễu Hạnh], Thằng Bờm, 35, 31 Oct. 1970, p. 32. The article was also reprinted several times in other issues of Thằng Bờm: 33, 17 Oct. 1970, pp. 15; 34, 24 Oct. 1970, p. 4; 35, 31 Oct. 1970, pp. 4, 32.

67 Nguyễn Vỹ, ‘Dù Trong Xã Hội Loạn Ly Bê Bối Ngày Nay, Thằng Bờm Vẫn Luôn Luôn Giữp' [Thằng Bờm still keeps goodness and shuns the shameful], Thằng Bờm, 68, 16 July 1971, p. 2.

68 The 36 streets of Hanoi's Old Quarter, developed in accord with craftsmen's guilds in the thirteenth century, are considered to be the heart and soul of the city.

69 Thiên Bảo, “Bé Mơ” [I dream], Thằng Bờm, 77, 22 Oct. 1971, p. 35.

70 Thi Thi, ‘Ước Vọng’ [Aspiration], Thằng Bờm, 78, 29 Oct. 1971, p. 14.

71 These served to mark the border between North and South Vietnam from 1954 to 1975.

72 Lạc Thủy, ‘Ước Mơ Thanh Binh’ [Wishing for peace], Thiếu Nhi, 51, 13 Aug. 1972, p. 18.

73 Hoàng Nhất Hẳng, ‘Một Ngày của Em’ [My day], Thiếu Nhi, 7, 26 Sept. 1971, p. 19.

74 Notable among these were the writers Nguyễn Thụy Long and Duyên Anh, as well as Nguyễn Vỹ and Nhật Tiến and magazines including Tuỗi Hoa and Tuổi Ngọc.

75 Nguyễn Hùng Trưong, ‘Thư Chủ Nhiệm Gửi Các Em Thiếu Nhi’ [Director's letter to the readers of Thiếu Nhi], Thiếu Nhi, 66, 26 Nov. 1972, pp. 1–2.

76 Tiểu Thử, ‘Lòng Mẹ’ [Mother's heart], Thiếu Nhi, 77, 18 Feb. 1973, p. 5.

77 Nguyễn Thị Linh, ‘Mẹ’ [Mother], Thằng Bờm, 44, 8 Jan. 1971, p. 27.

78 See Quang, Nguyễn Phan, Lê Văn Khôi và sự Biến Thành Phiên An, 1833–1835 [Le Van Khoi and the establishment of Phien An Citadel] (Ho Chi Minh City: Nhà Xuất Bẳn Văn Học, 2002)Google Scholar.

79 ‘Võ Tòng Việt Nam Lê Văn Khôi’ [Le Van Khoi, the Vietnamese Wu Song], Thằng Còm, 6, 5 Feb. 1971, p. 21.

80 Huỳnh Nhắn Sĩ, ‘Tình Mẹ’ [Motherly feelings], Họa Mi, 7-A, 18 Nov. 1970, p. 23.

81 Trang Việt, ‘Tình Cha’ [Father's love], Bé Mai, 6, 1971, p. 32.