Translator’s Introduction
This book is a translation of a collection of personal, literary, and journalistic vignettes of Vietnamese individuals who have made notable contributions to literature, art, and science. It is a rich source of information on the social, cultural, and political history of South Vietnam, as well as the individual careers of its human subjects.
The people described for the most part came into prominence in the period 1954 – 1975. After the fall of the South to North Vietnamese forces in 1975, most of them were imprisoned for some number of years in communist reeducation camps after 1975. Later, in the 1980s, some of them made their way to the U.S., and most continued to be creatively active.
Võ Phiến, essayist, novelist, and literary historian, characterized the literature that arose under the southern Vietnamese republic as follows: “In the Vietnam of 1954 to 1975, a totally different type of literature arose. Gay and sharp laughter spread freely over books and journals, laughter that attacked mistaken deeds and perverse policies, and made fun of elements guilty of unworthy behavior… The objects of attack were provincial or national leaders and power brokers. The sound of laughter ran freely and noisily across all books and journals. At the same time, every view of human life, every faith, both fine and deluded, both noble and crazed, existed as well; one could seek to understand, expound, and promulgate these beliefs, just as one pleased. At no time before or after 1954 – 1975 in the South can one find any literary tradition in our country that developed in such a free and open manner.”
The regime that took over in 1975 sought to eradicate this legacy by criminalizing it and by physically destroying all remnants of it that could be collected. As a result, the most complete collections of the literature of Vietnam from this period are to be found, not in Vietnam, but in certain academic libraries in the U.S., such as those of Cornell University, Yale University and the University of Hawaii.
