Introduction

Gisèle Bousquet and Nora Taylor

“My body is like the fruit of the jackfruit tree.

The Vietnamese woman, or Vietnam in the feminine?

This collective volume presents at once testimonies, studies, and analyses, and deals as much
with everyday art as with literature. Its subject is the Vietnamese woman, often forgotten by
history, reduced to a subordinate role, rarely represented in her true worth—while her role is
at once essential and decisive in shaping both the world and tomorrow’s Vietnam. Studies
devoted to her at the dawn of the 21st century are on the rise. At the hour of globalization,
being Vietnamese also means being on the move, and the Vietnamese woman is not only in
Vietnam but also present in the diaspora. The purpose of this book is not to pin down THE
Vietnamese woman but rather Vietnamese women of yesterday and today who have
contributed to history and to society over time. Politicians, writers, doctors, artists,
intellectuals, midwives, combatants, mothers, daughters, wives, mistresses, and single
women: these are the figures of life, the fruit of the most recent research in anthropology, art
history, and literary criticism. The reader will be able to appreciate the variety of approaches,
viewpoints, and issues. This diversity, we hope, will illustrate the breadth of the research
field. If woman has long been silenced, Vietnamese women today constitute one of the most
promising horizons for scholarship.

Who does not know the legend of the two Trưng sisters who are said to have repelled the
Chinese army in the first century of the Christian era, Kim Vân Kiều, the heroine of Nguyễn
Du’s novel, or Madame Ngô Đình Nhu, sister-in-law of Ngô Đình Diệm, the former president
of South Vietnam? The representation is often masculine—that of the Vietnamese woman as
seen through the lens of Western literature, particularly colonial literature, or that of the
exotic fantasy. On the Vietnamese side, the image of the woman varies depending on

1
cited in Lê Thành Khôi, 1995.
prevailing ideologies. Confucian morality dictates respect for the principle of the “three
obediences” (tam tòng): obeying her father as a daughter, her husband as a wife, and her son
as a widow. The communist era invents a model woman with contradictory virtues that
combine Confucianism and feminism: submissive wife and mother, yet free and independent.
What gaze does the Vietnamese woman cast upon herself? Hồ Xuân Hương, in a poem,
compares the female sex to the fruit of the jackfruit to invite the beloved man to pleasure. In
feminist studies in Europe and the United States, the woman struggling for her rights runs up
against a contradiction: can she be “at once equal to and different from men”? (Scott 1996).
Our book does not claim to define the essence of the Vietnamese woman; the only way to
avoid that trap is to present Vietnamese women—or rather, some Vietnamese women—
through different points of view in France and in the United States. At the same time a
research site for specialists in Vietnamese studies and a subject of research in her own right,
the woman has also been the focus of many investigations and analyses of Vietnamese
society and culture. The aim of the book is not to hunt down a single truth about women in
Vietnam or abroad, but on the contrary to shed light on the complexity and the variety of
works devoted to them in literature and the human sciences. This approach is therefore first
of all an academic endeavor.

This collection also fulfills another function: opening a real dialogue among French,
Vietnamese, Canadian, and American researchers on the theme of women whose choice here
fills a gap in Vietnamese studies in France and strengthens intellectual ties between different
continents. The articles fall within the field of “women’s studies” or “gender studies” in the
United States. As in women’s studies in France, it is a matter of giving women a voice.
Inequalities between the sexes, questions of social classes or different races, the sharing of
power between center and periphery, non-conformity, marginality, kinship ties, family
economy, sex—have been the subject of numerous studies and relate the work on women to
other fields of research. The statements gathered in this collection, which often give the floor
to women themselves within a given context, question the data supplied by official statistics
or scientific studies. They do not claim to be exhaustive but they bring a fairer and more
complex view of women in Vietnam than previous analyses.2

2
In the United States, this method—which privileges the thought, writing, and voice of women without
interpretation, critical analysis, or literary commentary—is part of the new intellectual currents (Trinh T. Minh-
ha 1989).
Woman and the History of Vietnam

A synthesis by Jayne Werner on women’s studies in the United States, the first article,
“Gender Matters: Gender Studies and Việt Nam Studies,” retraces the history of American
university circles in order to better understand the contemporary research issues concerning
Vietnamese women. She shows how women’s studies were closely linked to the evolution of
American universities in the 1960s and how, in a context of political and intellectual
demands, Vietnam became an object of study within Asian studies.

Today more and more historians are interested in the place of women in the history of
Vietnam. The importance of women and of matrilineal kinship ties is no mystery to
historians, as John Whitmore points out, but it is partly a matter of neglect. Vietnamese
women have been excluded from history not for lack of data, but for a lack of academic
interest. John Whitmore’s article, “Queen Mother: The Origin of Family Politics in Early
Modern Việt Nam,” analyzes the influence of royal mothers in the imperial families of the
early centuries, who had their say in palace life and played a major political role. Unlike
Chinese emperors, Vietnamese sovereigns venerated the queen mother and respected the
authority attributed to her in the affairs of the kingdom. In “The Lovers of the Cross,” Trần
Nhung Tuyết highlights the importance of Vietnamese nuns in the evangelization of Vietnam.
She explains why they aroused a greater number of conversions—especially among
women—than priests did, and how conversion to Catholicism allowed a certain feminine
emancipation. “The first steps of a health profession: the Vietnamese midwife from the 1900–
1940s,” by Laurence Monnais, retraces the evolution of this profession in Vietnam from its
origins to the contemporary period. The history of the institution in the former colonies turns
out to be particularly unknown. Thus, in Vietnam, French colonization intervened at the very
moment of the explosion of modern medicine and the spread of its applications, a synchrony
that led to the establishment of a structured health policy (Assistance Médicale Indigène,
1905) in which maternal and child protection quickly became a priority.

Women and War

Women obviously did not escape war, but their lived experiences have often been neglected
in historical accounts (Taylor 1999). Unlike the heroines and fighters, women of the people
have not long been present in collective memory 3. The interviews collected by Diane Fox in
“Speaking with Vietnamese Women on the Consequences of War: Writing against Silence
and Forgetting” are testimonies from female victims of war who recount their experiences 30
years after the end of the conflicts. The author draws attention to the use of chemical
weapons by the U.S. army at war in Vietnam. Today, the ecological damage and the social
and biological consequences of Agent Orange appear especially in many regions of Vietnam.

In “A Couple Faced with War: The Evolution of a Theme in the Work of Nguyễn Minh
Châu,” Đoàn Cầm Hồng studies the relationship between war and love in Nguyễn Minh
Châu’s work, a major figure in Vietnam’s official literature and a key actor in literary
renewal. Through the author’s writings and characters, the article analyzes the social conflicts
and treats the complex links of Vietnamese to war, the repercussions in the psychological,
emotional, and sexual domains. It underscores the modernity of the writer whose—Confucian
or communist—ideologies dissimulate, out of modesty or violently suppress, secret zones of
sentimental feeling.

Pham Thị Kim Dung, in “Women and the Literature of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1975,”
presents a new generation of women intellectuals of the 1955–1975 years, who carried a
feminist gaze upon society. The Vietnamese woman in the novels of female authors writing
in Saigon symbolizes both modernity and decadence. Southern women novelists criticize this
society in the midst of mutation, denouncing corruption, violence against women, and
injustice. Unlike male authors, they try to express the reality of everyday women.

Women in Contemporary Society

In the scientific milieu in Vietnam, women are often presented in terms of statistics or
economic and demographic data. Researchers at the Center for Research on Women and the
Family in Hà Nội, for example, regularly publish studies on the number of women in work, in
politics, or in education (Lê Thị, et al. 1997; Lê Thị Nhâm Tuyết 2002). The Vietnamese
woman is addressed in different ways depending on the milieus. In popular milieus, the

3
Benoît de Tréglodé’s book, for example, on the “new hero” and heroism in general, Héros et Révolution au
Viêt Nam, Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001, mentions a few women such as Mạc Thị Bưởi, to whom an actual cult was
dedicated. Likewise, Viviane Lowe’s thesis on women in wartime (Women in Arms, MA Thesis, Australian
National University, 1996) studies the image of the ideal woman in revolutionary propaganda, where women
martyrs were mocked by the political movement. In both cases, even when attention is occasionally given to
heroines, such heroines are rarely named, and those who are named are often elevated to the level of goddesses,
failing to reflect the reality of everyday women.
woman is found as the queen of “laughing tales,” as Nelly Krowolski and Nguyễn Tùng
explain in “Woman and Laughter: Women through Laughing Tales in Vietnam.” They
approach humorous subjects dealing with relations between men and women such as
concubinage, polygamy, couple relations, and sexuality. Often intelligent, dominant, and fond
of carnal pleasures to the point of being talkative, the woman is painted through the prism of
laughing tales that hardly obey the Confucian codes in force in the society of the literati. Ann
Marie Leshkowich, in “Feminine Disorder: State Campaigns Against Street Traders in
Socialist and Late Socialist Việt Nam,” shows that women street vendors are considered a
priori on the margins of society. Street vendors in the streets of Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh
City are mostly women. Systematically arrested by the police for “public disorder” during
anti-street-vending campaigns, these women who disturb because they are present in the
streets stand in constant defiance of the masculine society. This contrasts with the woman-
symbol of the future nation that one finds in the painter Đặng Thị Khuê’s work. In her article,
“Đặng Thị Khuê and the Idea of Nation,” Nora Taylor shows that “it is in her home, in the
intimacy of family life, that the Vietnamese woman is most modern.” Nora Taylor analyzes a
2003 exhibition at the Museum of Ethnography in Hà Nội that situates woman in tradition
through her clothing and the Confucian ideal society. In these two articles, modern women
are victims of a double paradox—between equality and difference, between the past and the
present. Considered on the margins, they often choose to refocus in order to escape the
patriarchal law. But as vendors, their economic marginality places them in inferiority and
even dependence on the laws of the market. Social and commercial demands place artists in
the same precarity. The two authors draw our attention to the contradictions of the socialist
system on the issue of women. Although it claims to abolish the feudal system and establish
equality between the sexes, women have acquired little power and continue to assume
household and family responsibilities—educating children and caring for in-laws—on top of
a “spiritual burden”: maintaining the ancestors’ altar.

The poems chosen in “Nỗi Buồn Cho Em” by Trần Thị Ngọc Lan are set in the context of
Vietnamese society in the pivotal years of the 1980s, with the implementation of economic
reforms called Đổi Mới. They bear witness to poverty and the sadness of a rural family in the
countryside where many are victims of food shortages. “Làm giúp or women’s solidarity in a
peri-urban community of Hà Nội,” by Gisèle Bousquet, is devoted to solidarity among
women. While this kind of mutual aid exists in rural communities as well as in villages, the
inhabitants there do not call on State aid. Like many feminine practices, it relies on a
structure of local mutual help. From a field study, Gisèle Bousquet explains how it works in a
semi-urban community in full mutation: a reciprocity system based on kinship and
neighborhood relations, which allows women not only to turn to one another for services but
also to create a collective identity space. The theme of women’s mutual-aid networks and
female identity questions is also central to articles by Claire Chauvet, Harriet Phinney,
Danièle Bélanger, Linda Trinh Võ, Jack Yeager, and Lê Thị Kim Tuyến. Claire Chauvet’s “A
Vietnamese woman’s destiny: ‘My destiny like that of others’” focuses on Hà Nội and the
attendants of the Four Palaces cult, a very ancient cult that is currently in strong expansion in
Vietnam. Mediums are essentially women, as are the majority of devotees. It is not a “light”
mediumship: one must be “chosen” by the spirits. To refuse is to put one’s life, one’s health,
one’s affairs, and one’s compromises in danger. This election shapes a particular destiny and
leads to life choices that are often difficult to reconcile with matrimonial obligations, family
relationships, and professional activities. Like mediums, single women are tolerated all while
being marginalized. However, if they desire a child, they choose their own destiny. In her
article, “Discursive Transformations: Maternal Desire among Older Single Women in
Northern Việt Nam,” Harriet Phinney examines the work on single mothers, a more recent
phenomenon, directly linked to war. Indeed, many women of the 1970s never married or
were unable to find a husband. This led to the desire for motherhood among women who
chose to have a child outside marriage. Harriet Phinney defines maternal desire as being a
desire carried by an ideology of fecundity. This desire is anchored in Vietnamese mentalities
and a woman’s social status in Vietnam is also linked to her reproductive capacity. Danièle
Bélanger, in “Girls and genders in Vietnamese families: Inequality and hierarchy,” explores
the issue of girls in the family in contemporary Vietnam. From a survey in the northern
region, she shows that a child’s social position within the family depends on how he or she is
treated. Moreover, qualitative studies on the value, role, perception, education, and place of
girls in the patrilineal system show that the Vietnamese son occupies a clearly superior status
to that of his sisters, especially in rural areas. The devaluation of women is not a phenomenon
specific to Vietnam; it is found in India and China as well as in the Vietnamese diaspora.
Women in the Diaspora

The condition of women and inequality between men and women form part of the
problematic of contemporary society in Vietnam and of the diaspora. 4 With globalization,
Vietnamese communities continue to contribute to the reconstruction of Vietnam by bringing
not only foreign currencies but also by serving as a cultural relay between Western
countries—in which they are integrated—and Vietnam. The notion of transnationalism
presupposes relations and exchanges of an economic, social, and political order between the
same communities living in different countries, as well as with the country of origin (Ong
1999, 1997; Gilroy 1993), while the cultural identity of the diaspora is a fluid entity between
the country of origin and the host country (Anderson 1991; Chow 1993; Clifford 1997, 1995).

In the United States, as is illustrated by Yến Lê Espiritu’s article “Women in the United
States: A Critical Transnational Perspective,” the condition of Vietnamese women in
contemporary American society is closely tied to their place in the Vietnamese community
and to the history of refugee migration to the United States. Racism toward Vietnamese
people has devalued the image of the Vietnamese woman in the United States. On the other
hand, the exploitation she suffers in the workplace has only aggravated sexual inequality,
though she exercises power within the Vietnamese community. While Yến Lê Espiritu
presents a global analysis of the condition of Vietnamese women in the United States, Linda
Trinh Võ, in “What a Difference a Generation Makes: Negotiating Vietnamese American
Womanhood in the Diaspora,” offers a study of the identity question among Vietnamese
women of the second generation. Often in conflict with their parents because the parents are
“Americanized,” Vietnamese girls born in the diaspora manage to negotiate their place in the
family and in the community. As is often the case with excellent academic results, parents try
to influence their daughters’ career choices. They prefer, for example, that they pursue
lucrative liberal professions to better help the family. In “Mediating Diasporic Identities:
Vietnamese/American Women in the Musical Landscape of Paris by Night,” Thúy Võ
analyzes the representation of men and women in Paris by Night, a musical variety program
presented in the form of cassettes and television shows for generations living abroad. The
young female singers are dressed in Vietnamese outfits, áo dài, singing in front of images of

4 Over a million Vietnamese men and women have settled in Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United States
(Freeman 1989; Kibria 1993, 2002; Rutledge 1987; Strand & Woodrow 1985; Bousquet 1994; Lê Hữu Khóa
1985; McConnell 1989).
the country’s beaches and farmers in the rice fields. Through TV shows and Linda Lê’s
“challenge,” they are written for a French-speaking audience, even though the novelist
defends herself against being an author of the French language. Jack Yeager shows that
solitude and, by extension, alienation, marginalization, and isolation are often analyzed in
Linda Lê’s work through the father–daughter relationship; girls are represented as living in
exile, far from their native country, and unable to find their place. Being a girl, being a
woman, and being a mother are also themes that one finds in Lê Thị Kim Tuyến’s article “To
be a Vietnamese woman: a path for the future.” Born in France to Vietnamese parents, the
author chose to return to live in Vietnam after her degree. She recounts today an experience
that proves to be both positive and painful, especially regarding the sexual inequality she
experiences from childhood onward. Because girls grow up carefree while boys are
pampered, girls must very early “take care” of household tasks. For the author, it is the
mothers who are responsible for this situation because they, not the men, educate the
children.

We thank the authors who contributed so well to this transatlantic project and our colleagues
in Vietnam, the United States, France, and Switzerland who agreed to re-read the articles in
various languages: Cam-Thi Doan, Françoise Hartman, Angele Kouyïmian, Viviane Lowe,
Lyn Lowry, Phạm Thị Kim Dung, Emmanuel Poisson, Nguyễn Trọng Hòa, and Nguyễn Văn
Ký. Without the encouragement and unfailing support of the historian Pierre Brocheux and of
Frédéric Mantienne of the Indes Savantes press, the book would doubtless never have seen
the light of day. May they receive here the expression of our gratitude.