Lessons from The Vietnamese Narrative
By NHAN PHAN ’24
Disclaimer:Learning at an international school for most of my life, I never really had a strong understanding of how Vietnamese people perceived the Vietnamese story. Perhaps the version of that story that’s being taught in Vietnamese schools differs from the perspectives taught internationally, but nonetheless, I wanted to explore more.
This summer, I embarked on a Vietnamese nationwide summer excursion that spanned seven cities, over several hundred kilometers, and one and a half months. This trip was part of a bigger project that was two years in the making: a podcast that explored the evolution of Vietnamese heritage culture from the viewpoint of historical relics scattered throughout the country. Whether it was a tour through the famous Buôn Mê Thuột Exile House, a three-day moped excursion in Lào Cai to the top of Fansipan mountain, a teaching experience at a highland center in Sapa, or an overnight train ride to Quy Nhơn, the stories I unearthed from these experiences provided me with several important takeaways about my home country and how it is changing on an everyday basis.
1: The role that wartime conditions had on the formation of Vietnamese ideology
I had the chance to interview Mr. Phan Biền, who went through 39 years of war with the French, Americans, and smaller auxiliary forces after 1975. He said, “in order to really fully appreciate the conditions you are born into today, you have to spend a day in the war and witness the sacrifice of hundreds of people who came before you.” The following section is an abbreviated account of a soldier’s experience that resonates with the Vietnamese people today.
Mr. Biền, as mentioned earlier, was among some of the most influential people within the Vietnamese army; he rose through the ranks throughout his time in the military. During the war, he described his experience on the battleground: “On my foot is a long scar that’s still healing. It is commemorative of when I was in the Trường Sơn battleground. The enemy directly stabbed my leg using their field weaponry. This was during French rule. I evaded the enemy forces while injured, hiding in a nearby trench… On my head, I have a scar from the American war. It was from a B52, a destructive weapon used by the Americans, that just missed my head. When I was sleeping, the enemy forces dropped a B52 bomb and the shards grazed my head… At Trường Sơn, I used to joke with my regiment: ‘If we don’t die from bombs or bullets from the enemy, we will die from everything else.’ Everything else consisted of natural disasters, disease, and hunger. You must be able to truly understand hardship in order to appreciate how valuable today’s life really is.”
Biền then talked about the Liberation of Saigon and described it as something that is one-of-a-kind. According to him, the event was something that did not happen often—that a country and its people came together. He gave several other examples that illustrated his point. In the past, three major countries were divided into two separate regions: Germany was divided into East and West Germany, Korea was divided into North and South Korea, and Vietnam was divided into North and South Vietnam. In 1975, after the liberation of the South from the American forces, Vietnam was reunified into one country. Germany was reunified only as a result of the Unification Treaty and the two halves of Korea are still separated today. Vietnam, perhaps, reunited on its own.
As decades passed after the Liberation of Saigon, the country entered a new era called the “Đổi Mới” movement, which shifted the country’s approach to structuring its economy. Before the movement, Vietnam was embroiled in American economic sanctions which plunged the country into an age of poverty and misery. The poor were poorer and, thus, increased their gap with the rich. Rural populations, mainly dependent on the export of farmed goods, could not sell their produce. Many people living in urban cities were devoid of jobs. The State, seeing rising inequality between rural and urban populations and areas and economic deterioration, decided to shift from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one; this was the core of the Đổi Mới movement. With this movement came a sharp rise in private ownership of businesses, gross domestic product per capita, as well as rapid transformation and modernization of Vietnamese tourism and culture. It was also the catalyst for the formation f today’s Vietnamese economy and society.
The sacrifices of the men and women on the battlefield and the hardships that the Vietnamese people of previous generations experienced formed the foundation of Vietnamese values. With independence, economic reforms, and guidance from the State, Vietnamese society was vastly transformed. This is the Vietnamese Narrative that senior generations of Vietnamese people remember. This is the narrative that they understand well. This is the narrative that is ingrained in their minds in the decades after the war. This is the version of Vietnamese history that I discovered as I traveled along the country— that Vietnam rose up from its hardships and emerged stronger and better than ever. Understanding the progression of Vietnamese history from the eyes of the Vietnamese people can reveal a picture of how the ideology of the Vietnamese narrative came to be.
2: The fluidity of change, intersectionality between “old” versus “new”
After 1975’s Liberation of the South, Vietnam evolved from a poor, war-ridden country in Southeast Asia into a modern, independent developing nation. The change he witnessed after the liberation of the South is astounding— Vietnam, according to him, transformed into an economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia as well as a source of global cultural influence. However, that narrative of change is nothing new. What I was interested to investigate was the intersection between the intergenerational perceptions of Vietnamese society. Where do the “old ways” and the “new ways” intersect? What do everyday people think about this change? Was this change inevitable?
