Ca Trù: Classical Arias—An Ancient Art Threatened with Extinction
Tuồng: Việt Nam’s Classical Opera
Chèo: Popular Opera—An Art Unique to the Red River Delta
Chèo and Cải Lương (Renovated Theater): Conversations with Tào Mạt and Bửu Tiến
“Pre-War” Romantic Music Captures the Mood of an Era
Nam Sơn: A Meeting of East and West
The Four Pillars of Vietnamese Painting
The Vietnamese Landscape and the Vietnamese Spirit
From the Bronze Age to Medieval Doctors of Humanities
The North Country (Ancient Kinh Bắc)
Hà Nội: City of the Soaring Dragon
Old Hà Nội
At the Palace of the Trịnh Lords
The Cultivated Manners of Tràng An (Hà Nội)
Tết in Old Hà Nội and Tết Couplets
The East Country (Xứ Đông)
The West Country (Xứ Đoài)
The South Country (Sơn Nam)
Đọi Tam: The Village of Drums
Tày Hamlet in Bắc Sơn District
Quảng Bình Province
Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh
A Quick Visit to Cochin China
Caodaism and Its Beginnings in Tây Ninh Province
Poulo Condor (Côn Đảo)
Teeth Lacquering and Chewing Betel Quids
Women Conquer the World of Science
Who Designed the Áo Dài?
The Life of Single Women
Single Parenting
Vietnamese Youth and Virginity
Đổi Mới (Renovation or Renewal) and Globalization
Vietnamese Culture Facing Globalization
The Traditional Family under Fire
The Market Economy and Matrimony
Divorce as Seen in a District of Hà Nội
The Young and Our Traditions
The Cicada Generation
A Story of Tomatoes and Watercress
A Traditional Village Facing the Market Economy
A Pedicab Driver
Respect for Teachers Re-Emerges
The Fight against Corruption
Saying Hello to the Past
A Chronology of Vietnamese History
Foreword
Short, clear introductions to the cultures of Southeast Asian nations are difficult to find. For years, I cobbled together collections of short articles and selections of literature for my university-level introduction to Southeast Asia and presented the historical framework in lecture. My goal was to entice students to investigate the material on their own or in a more advanced class.
On a trip to Việt Nam, an area outside my own research field in the Bahasa world of Indonesia and Malaysia, I had a chance to meet Hữu Ngọc and was given a copy of Wandering through Vietnamese Culture, a collection of his essays, which is over 1,200 pages. It served as a wonderful guide, containing answers to so many of the questions that had presented themselves. When Ohio University Press was considering publication of an excerpted version of Wandering through Vietnamese Culture, I was asked in my role as editor for the O.U. Press’s Southeast Asia Series to accept the Press’s invitation to make the initial selection of essays.
Hữu Ngọc originally wrote his essays as newspaper columns for international readers who, living in Việt Nam, had some acquaintance with the country. Yet all of us working on this project, including and especially Hữu Ngọc, wanted also to think of those for whom Việt Nam is completely new. Starting from an early draft Table of Contents, with Hữu Ngọc as expert and author, we worked together to crystallize his oeuvre into a first-taste introduction to Vietnamese history and culture, emphasizing the structure, factors, and individuals he feels are particularly important.
Việt Nam: Tradition and Change shimmers with Hữu Ngọc’s thoughtful reflections and insight. The collection is designed for students in introductory classes and for other readers interested in Việt Nam. I hope they will also fall in love with the rich cultural heritage of the people and nation that is Việt Nam.
Hữu Ngọc’s central thesis—“All
