Weakness of character

A little uproar is brewing at the Pinyin News blog [http://pinyin.info/news/?p=225], which reprinted comments made by the vice president of the Chinese Writers Association, Chén Jiàngōng, during a talk in Guangzhou. This is the paraprased translation of what Mr. Chén has to say about Vietnamese culture:

«In the 1930s Ye Peiji, the head of the Imperial Palace Museum, said that if culture is lost it’s gone forever. When I visited Vietnam I learned that the Vietnamese people once used Chinese characters. But because a French missionary invented a romanization method in order to spread Christianity, Vietnamese people gradually began not to use Chinese characters and instead used romanization for their language. In Vietnam, I discovered that their writers’ works all use romanization. Thus, the foundation for Vietnamese culture appears to be extremely superficial. This immediately brought to mind Ye Peiji’s words.»

I was first alerted to Mr. Chén's comment by Noodlepie [http://noodlepie.typepad.com/blog/] and I immediately went to post my own comment. Later on, as the word spreads, more comments appeared, all condemning Chén's ignorance and arrogance.

To fully understand the outrage, you must know that China and Vietnam have a long history of enmity, comparable to the historical animosity between the French and the Germans, due to China repeatedly invading and colonizing Vietnam. Vietnamese history books are replete with accounts of epic battles, where Vietnamese bravery and brilliant tactics won the day and helped repel the Chinese invaders, only to succumb to the sheer numbers of enemy troops. One of our best known songs during the 60s starts with the lines: «One thousand years of Chinese domination, One hundred years of French domination...» and the rest of the song bemoaning the latest attempt at domination by the Americans. Living under the Chinese yoke for such a long period, the Vietnamese were profoundly influenced by their neighbours from the North, in practically all aspects of their life. Vietnam adopted the Chinese governing/administrative structure and used Chinese characters in all its official documents and its litterature. But because of the differences between the languages, the Vietnamese soon modified the Chinese characters to better reflect their own linguistic idiosynchrasies. Then, with the introduction of the Latin alphabet, they dropped the character-based system altogether and switched to a romanized system. Nowadays, a visitor to Vietnam might still find Chinese characters on ancient temples or monuments, or on some store signs in the local chinatowns, but the number of people in the general population who can still read Chinese characters or their modified version is rapidly dwindling (except maybe for the Chinese language students, of which I am one).

I was rather surprised to read opinions like Mr. Chén's. I'd never thought that in the 21st century, China is still considering Vietnam as a vassal State. It's a bit like reading some Nazi litterature thinking it's a historical document only to discover to one's horror that it's actually a contemporary line of thought. In our case, I hope it's not an official one.

For more info on the Vietnamese language, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language