Trung Sisters

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From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Date: Wed, May 14, 2008 at 1:39 PM
To: "vsg >> Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>


Dear List:

Some time ago, I contributed to a discussion and mentioned that the worship of Tran Hung Dao, as well as of the Trung sisters, in the South, was associated with the influx of northerners in the 1920s.  I've been translating the memoirs of my aunt and came across a passage where young, patriotic women in the Delta town of Cho Gao decide to honor the Trung sisters on the 6th day of the second month of the Lunar Year.  They have to do so under the cover of darkness. The year was 1928.  I conclude from this that the cult of the Trung sisters was not widespread in the South in the early 20th century, and it was connected not only to the influx of northerners but also to the rise of anticolonial sentiment.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

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From: Diane Fox <DNFOX@holycross.edu>
Date: 2008/5/14
To: "vsg >> Vietnam Studies Group" <vsg@u.washington.edu>

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From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Date: 2008/5/14
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

The cult of the Trung sisters was a local cult until 1160 when king Ly Nhan Tong stopped by their shrine in Hat Mon (where they reportedly threw themselves into the water--Chinese records dispute this and claim they were captured).  At the time, the country was suffering from drought. The sisters appeared to king Ly Nhan Tong in a dream and claimed that they could make rain fall.  They also asked that their shrine be transferred to the capital--which the king did. This comes from Ly Te Xuyen, Viet Dien U Linh Tap, compiled in 1329.  In the wake of the Mongol invasions, Ly Te Xuyen was commissioned to list the deities who should be honored.  When I visited the Hat Mon temple in 1995, I was told that when there is a drought, local people pray to the Trung sisters and rain does fall.  Mme Nguyen thi Dinh asked to be commemorated there, but she lacked local ties, so the people of Hat Mon decided to put her portrait (a lacquer of her sitting in a hammock, sewing) in the annex that is used to put ritual artifacts when the main temple is threatened with flooding.  There is also a large temple in Me Linh, the place of their birth, and there, I was not informed about their rain-making abilities.

Hue-Tam



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From: Charles Wheeler <cwheeler@uci.edu>
Date: 2008/5/14
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

I have published a perfectly terrible article (conclusion appended) that addresses the ebb and flow of the historical memory of the Trung sisters to the present day in the larger context of women warriors in world history. Still, the less familiar of the references, such as to Hanoi-born Madame Nhu’s marking of their holiday in Saigon (by riding an elephant as a form of emulation, legitimization and self-identification) might be of some use.  

    

I am currently revising that material and thus am grateful for  Hue-Tam Ho Tai’s insights and Charles Wheeler’s reference to Sarah Womack’s article (see you soon, Charles). I would be happy to be schooled b/c as to my manifold errors should anyone venture to read the piece. Be cruel to be kind; all email is, after all, Hobbesian in nature, being nasty, brutish and short.

The article is at http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/whc/4.3/gilbert.html (please be warned, it was badly transcribed on this site). 

 

It concludes in part:

^{The Đổi mới-related state withdrawal from the public sector helps account for the decline in  services for Vietnamese women veterans noted by Karen Turner, but economic liberalization in Vietnam may  broader  consequences, shifting the perception of women away from their hard won role as actors on the national stage toward the objectified and feminized role preferred by Vietnamese Confucian scholars of the past and struggled over by 20th century Vietnamese revolutionaries. Stephanie Fahey's research into pre- and post- Đổi mới Vietnam found images of women as war heroes "appearing alongside new images of women as objects of beauty to sell 'modern' commodities" and that, "while souvenir shops might sell wall hangings of the famous Trung sisters … and the Women's Museum in Hanoi still displays photographs of female war heroes, in nearby streets, the magazine Tien Phong (Pioneer) reports on forthcoming beauty contests sponsored by foreign firms such as Kodak, Singapore Airlines, and Samsung." Drawing on this research, William Searle notes that "the contrast between the two very divergent images, those of self-sacrifice versus those of self-indulgence, and the evolving transition between the two" as expressed by Vietnamese women writers "are fundamental to understanding Vietnam's recent past.”43 Will the image of Vietnamese women on the fashion runway replace that of the heroines who maintained the Ho Chi Minh Trail? As Vietnam grows more prosperous, will the Confucian-assisted "traditional" view of Vietnamese women as loyal and obedient housewives (which already motivates Korean men to come to Vietnam in search of spouses) gain traction?44 Or will new economic opportunities spur the empowerment of Vietnamese women with the Hai Bö Trưng featured as entrepreneurial spirit guides on corporate morale posters?}

^{However, the change in attitude is more on the surface than in substance. The elite tradition has taken such deep roots in the Vietnamese collective psyche over a period of almost two thousand years that society in general and men in particular continue to view women's active participation in the social sphere during hard times as part of their duty to help their men. As such, women's effort is not considered significant enough by and of itself to justify a radical change in the traditional concept of woman and her role. As long as this concept lingers, Vietnam is deprived of a wealth of needed talents and contributions.45}

       ^{Shifts in the representations of warrior women over time by writers living through epochs of great social change and/or political upheaval are not unique to Vietnam. There are parallel examples of such developments elsewhere. One of these is  Lakshmi Bai, the Maharani of Jhansi.49 The so-called "rebellious Rani" once transitioned in British eyes from villainess of the War of 1857 to respected foe. She served as a full-blown heroine of the Indian nationalist movement, whose leaders rarely made common cause with the traditional Indian aristocracy (and struggled with the status of their own female adherents) save on the ground of political expediency. India offers further examples such as the women of the Indian National Army, who posed challenges to Hindu conceptions of the feminine ideal,50  as did Hannah Snell, who earlier challenged Western gender assumptions while serving with the Royal Marines in India.51 Geraldine Forbes' essay on "Reading and Writing Indian Women: Fifty Years Since Independence, 1947-1997," is essential reading for those seeking to explore shifts in the perceived roles of women activists and freedom fighters not merely in India, but elsewhere.52 Much the same can be said for Susan Mann's "Myths of Asian Womanhood," delivered as her presidential address at the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies in 2002.53}  

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