Duong Thu Huong
Encyclopedia
Dương Thu Hương is a Vietnam
ese author
and political dissident
. Formerly a member of Vietnam's Communist party, she was expelled from the party in 1989, and has been denied the right to travel abroad, and was temporarily imprisoned for her writings and outspoken criticism of corruption
in the Vietnamese government
.
a province in northern Vietnam
, Dương came of age just as the Vietnam War
was turning violent. At the age of twenty, when she was a student at Vietnamese Ministry of Culture’s Arts College, Dương Thu Hương volunteered to serve in a women’s youth brigade on the front lines of “The War Against the Americans". Dương spent the next seven years of the war in the jungles and tunnels of Binh Tri Thien, the most heavily bombarded region of the war. Her mission was to “sing louder than the bombs” and to give theatrical performances for the North Vietnamese troops, but also to tend to the wounded, bury the dead, and accompany the soldiers along. She was one of three survivors out of the forty volunteers in that group. She was also at the front during China
’s attacks on Vietnam in 1979 during the short-lived Sino-Vietnamese War
.
However, in the period after Vietnam’s reunification in 1975, Dương became increasingly outspoken and critical about the repressive atmosphere created by the Communist government. Upon seeing the conditions in the South – compared with the North – she began speaking out against the communist government.
(Những thiên đường mù, 1988) and The Lost Life (Quãng đời đánh mất, 1989) were published in her native Vietnam and soon became bestsellers in Vietnam before they were banned. The third one was also the first Vietnamese novel ever published in the United States
in English
. But her next three books — Novel Without a Name (Tiểu thuyết vô đề, 1991), Memories of a Pure Spring (2000), and No Man's Land (Chốn vắng, 2002) — have been published only in foreign countries and was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
by the French government (1994). She earlier wrote a number of short stories and screenplays. One story, "Reflections of Spring," was translated by Linh Dinh
and included in the anthology, Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (Seven Stories Press 2006).
The latest novel No Man's Land (Terre des oublis in French), perhaps her most successful, was in the final list of the prize Femina
2006 and received the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle
in 2007.
, in his introduction to the collection Night, Again
, details the government’s extreme response to certain subjects in writing – for example, in 1956, the poet Tran Dan
was arrested for capitalizing “He” in a brief passage of a poem cataloging social despair, since such a designation was reserved for Ho Chi Minh
. In 1991, Le Minh Khue was still criticized for having a North Vietnam
ese female soldier daydream about the smile of a handsome South Vietnam
ese prisoner of war
.
Though she was one of Vietnam’s most popular writers, most of her fiction is published outside of Vietnam due to both the censorship
and the government’s monopoly
of the publishing
industry
.
Her outspoken criticism of the government has resulted in numerous reprisals. Although she was a prize-winning screenwriter for the Vietnam Film Company, she lost her job because of her criticism of the government’s censorship. Paradise of the Blind was popular in America
, but its political undertones resulted in Dương’s writing being banned in Vietnam. When she sent Novel Without a Name overseas for publication, the author was imprisoned without trial for seven months, and in 1995 her passport
was revoked despite the international attention focused on her work. She often does not receive mail
that she knows has been sent to her and has found her telephone
line cut a number of times. Recently, she has retired and earns a pension of approximately twenty U.S. dollar
s per month and must earn her living working as a translator
and trying to publish her novels and short stories abroad. She believes in struggling to gain democracy
; while unable to run for political office or organize a competing party, she now uses writing in order to articulate that message.
In her story “The Story of an Actress,” Dương combines her passionate beliefs about human freedom with her existentialist literary sensibilities. Bê and Thom live next door to one another and become best friends; while Bê is intelligent and fun-loving, Thom develops into the town beauty. Thom ends up marrying the most famous theater director in Vietnam, a man 40 years her senior, in an attempt to become an actress; Bê visits her and watches her life disintegrate as she works toward her degree and her own life dream.
On the surface, it seems to be a relatively simple story about two girls growing up and choosing different paths in life. But her language and details betray, as with Ho Xuan Huong, a deeper level to a simple story. She is critiquing a contemporary society where beauty is prized over intellect and money over kindness, and calling attention to how the optimism of youth, when it fades, can be so devastating that it drives people to despair.
According to Dương, most writers must learn how to voice their individual concerns within a group mentality. In other words, their writing must reflect the individual and the masses at large in a way that’s approved by the party; Dương finds that most writers in contemporary Vietnam get caught up in the group thinking mentality.
Dương has felt the effects of censorship perhaps more cruelly than many of her fellow writers. Her work is not contained in any Vietnamese anthologies or collections. Though she has achieved success and renown abroad for her novels through translation, the audience she is writing for in Vietnam, that would most understand the minutiae of her stories, does not often have the opportunity to read her work, except when it is smuggled into Vietnam.
Nevertheless, Dương is hopeful for the future of writing in her country. She is counting on the fact that at some point, the people will open their eyes to see what's going on in her homeland.
Dương moved to Paris in 2006. In January 2009, her latest novel, Đỉnh Cao Chói Lọi, was published; it was also translated into French as Au zénith
.
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and political dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
. Formerly a member of Vietnam's Communist party, she was expelled from the party in 1989, and has been denied the right to travel abroad, and was temporarily imprisoned for her writings and outspoken criticism of corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
in the Vietnamese government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
.
Early life
Born in 1947 in Thai BinhThai Binh
Thái Bình is a city in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. It is the capital of Thai Binh province. It is located 110 km from Hanoi. The city area is 67.7 square km, with a population of 210,000 people . Before the prime minister declared it a city in June of 2004, it was officially a town....
a province in northern Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Dương came of age just as the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
was turning violent. At the age of twenty, when she was a student at Vietnamese Ministry of Culture’s Arts College, Dương Thu Hương volunteered to serve in a women’s youth brigade on the front lines of “The War Against the Americans". Dương spent the next seven years of the war in the jungles and tunnels of Binh Tri Thien, the most heavily bombarded region of the war. Her mission was to “sing louder than the bombs” and to give theatrical performances for the North Vietnamese troops, but also to tend to the wounded, bury the dead, and accompany the soldiers along. She was one of three survivors out of the forty volunteers in that group. She was also at the front during China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
’s attacks on Vietnam in 1979 during the short-lived Sino-Vietnamese War
Sino-Vietnamese War
The Sino–Vietnamese War , also known as the Third Indochina War, known in the PRC as and in Vietnam as Chiến tranh chống bành trướng Trung Hoa , was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam...
.
However, in the period after Vietnam’s reunification in 1975, Dương became increasingly outspoken and critical about the repressive atmosphere created by the Communist government. Upon seeing the conditions in the South – compared with the North – she began speaking out against the communist government.
Writings
Her first novels, Journey in Childhood (Hành trình ngày thơ ấu, 1985), Beyond Illusions (Bên kia bờ ảo vọng, 1987), Paradise of the BlindParadise of the Blind
Paradise of the Blind is a novel by Duong Thu Huong, published in 1988. It was the first Vietnamese novel published in English in the United States . It is now banned in Vietnam because of the political view and potential bias of the novel....
(Những thiên đường mù, 1988) and The Lost Life (Quãng đời đánh mất, 1989) were published in her native Vietnam and soon became bestsellers in Vietnam before they were banned. The third one was also the first Vietnamese novel ever published in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. But her next three books — Novel Without a Name (Tiểu thuyết vô đề, 1991), Memories of a Pure Spring (2000), and No Man's Land (Chốn vắng, 2002) — have been published only in foreign countries and was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
by the French government (1994). She earlier wrote a number of short stories and screenplays. One story, "Reflections of Spring," was translated by Linh Dinh
Linh Dinh
Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...
and included in the anthology, Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (Seven Stories Press 2006).
The latest novel No Man's Land (Terre des oublis in French), perhaps her most successful, was in the final list of the prize Femina
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
2006 and received the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
in 2007.
Political fallout
Dương has been labeled as a “dissident writer” and been expelled by Vietnam’s Communist party and was imprisoned for a short time in 1991 for remarks criticizing the goals and interests of the party and its members. This is not unusual in contemporary Vietnam; Linh DinhLinh Dinh
Linh Dinh is a Vietnamese-American poet, fiction writer, translator, and photographer. He was a 1993 Pew Fellow.-Biography:...
, in his introduction to the collection Night, Again
Night, Again
Night, Again is an anthology of contemporary Vietnamese fiction, edited by Linh Dinh.Published in 1996 by Seven Stories Press, then reissued in 2006 with two new stories, Night, Again features key authors emerging from the liberalization of Đổi Mới in the 1980s, as well as major writers living...
, details the government’s extreme response to certain subjects in writing – for example, in 1956, the poet Tran Dan
Tran Dan
Trần Dần was a Vietnamese poet and novelist noted for his radical works.Dần was best known to be one of the active participators in the Nhân Văn affair in the mid 1950s which saw many middle class intellectuals demanding for freedom and democracy in communist-led North Vietnam...
was arrested for capitalizing “He” in a brief passage of a poem cataloging social despair, since such a designation was reserved for Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
. In 1991, Le Minh Khue was still criticized for having a North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
ese female soldier daydream about the smile of a handsome South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
ese prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
.
Though she was one of Vietnam’s most popular writers, most of her fiction is published outside of Vietnam due to both the censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and the government’s monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
of the publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
.
Her outspoken criticism of the government has resulted in numerous reprisals. Although she was a prize-winning screenwriter for the Vietnam Film Company, she lost her job because of her criticism of the government’s censorship. Paradise of the Blind was popular in America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, but its political undertones resulted in Dương’s writing being banned in Vietnam. When she sent Novel Without a Name overseas for publication, the author was imprisoned without trial for seven months, and in 1995 her passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
was revoked despite the international attention focused on her work. She often does not receive mail
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
that she knows has been sent to her and has found her telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
line cut a number of times. Recently, she has retired and earns a pension of approximately twenty U.S. dollar
Dollar
The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...
s per month and must earn her living working as a translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
and trying to publish her novels and short stories abroad. She believes in struggling to gain democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
; while unable to run for political office or organize a competing party, she now uses writing in order to articulate that message.
In her story “The Story of an Actress,” Dương combines her passionate beliefs about human freedom with her existentialist literary sensibilities. Bê and Thom live next door to one another and become best friends; while Bê is intelligent and fun-loving, Thom develops into the town beauty. Thom ends up marrying the most famous theater director in Vietnam, a man 40 years her senior, in an attempt to become an actress; Bê visits her and watches her life disintegrate as she works toward her degree and her own life dream.
On the surface, it seems to be a relatively simple story about two girls growing up and choosing different paths in life. But her language and details betray, as with Ho Xuan Huong, a deeper level to a simple story. She is critiquing a contemporary society where beauty is prized over intellect and money over kindness, and calling attention to how the optimism of youth, when it fades, can be so devastating that it drives people to despair.
According to Dương, most writers must learn how to voice their individual concerns within a group mentality. In other words, their writing must reflect the individual and the masses at large in a way that’s approved by the party; Dương finds that most writers in contemporary Vietnam get caught up in the group thinking mentality.
Dương has felt the effects of censorship perhaps more cruelly than many of her fellow writers. Her work is not contained in any Vietnamese anthologies or collections. Though she has achieved success and renown abroad for her novels through translation, the audience she is writing for in Vietnam, that would most understand the minutiae of her stories, does not often have the opportunity to read her work, except when it is smuggled into Vietnam.
Nevertheless, Dương is hopeful for the future of writing in her country. She is counting on the fact that at some point, the people will open their eyes to see what's going on in her homeland.
Dương moved to Paris in 2006. In January 2009, her latest novel, Đỉnh Cao Chói Lọi, was published; it was also translated into French as Au zénith
Au Zénith
Au Zénith is the second live album by singer Vanessa Paradis. Steve Nieve of Elvis Costello's The Attractions is featured on keyboard. This is her lowest-charting album...
.
External links
- New York Times story
- Review of No Man's Land in January magazine
- Duong Thu Huong/Banned Books
- Dương Thu Hương in France (International Herald TribuneInternational Herald TribuneThe International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
) - Dương Thu Hương entry on Wikivietlit
- Beyond Illusions, translated from Bên kia bờ ảo vọng
- Novel without a Name, translated from Tiểu thuyết vô đề
- Review of Memories of a Pure Spring