Vietnamese Voices: Gender and Cultural Identity in the Vietnamese Francophone Novel (Monograph Series on Southeast Asia, No. 6)

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Vietnamese voices
Review: As a librarian working in a large state library I see lots of books. Now and again for one reason or another one title will stand out. For this one it is the cover which first attracted my attention; the refined beauty with the luminous eyes. She looks as though she might have come from one of the novels discussed inside and I longed to know her story. The title of the painting is "young girl" by the Vietnamese artist Ngoc Dung and she could indeed be any one of the intelligent but constrained young women discussed in the first chapter.

Once beyond the cover an intriguing new world opens up. One reviewer has noted that it is a book of interest to scholars working in the areas of Francophone, Asian and Cultural studies, and I am sure that it is. However, I am not a scholar, I know very little French, neither am I Asian, yet I found this book fascinating on so many levels. Dr Nguyen has chosen to explore the period of French colonialism, so not only do we have a largely subjugated society governed by a highly foreign presence, we are presented with the breakdown of traditional social structures and roles; men and women, village and city, tradition and progression, native and foreign.

The colonizers provide social pressures as well as opportunities. Women are educated to the same level as men but the conflicts of traditional society leave them without support in their relationships with men and their families. Overseas study opportunities allow Vietnamese scholars to live and study in France where they are treated with more equality than in their own country. They make new lives there but sooner or later they must return home and experience alienation from their families and the humiliating reduction to second class citizen in their own country.

For the most part the colonial experience is given a negative slant by the novelists examined. Neither does a return to traditional Vietnamese social structures emerge as a viable alternative. The sense of being caught between two worlds yet belonging to neither permeates the novels. Dr Nguyen's insightful commentary provided for me a fascinating glimpse into a culture and a historical period from a distinctly Vietnamese perspective. Vietnam's own lost generation.