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-- Guest
Lecture --
K. D. Le, DeAnza Counselor
Thoughts on the Tale of Kieu
I
thoroughly enjoy the story of Kieu and appreciate all
the expressive, poetic,
and descriptive writing that is involved in telling the
story. (It doesn't necessarily mean that I understood
every word of it from neither the Vietnamese nor English
version) Even if you take into account the fact that
Nguyen Du borrowed the story from the Chinese to convey
his own personal story, it's still damaging if we use it
to dictate the so called "Vietnamese culture",
especially for women.
The
story of Kieu basically implies that Vietnamese women
are submissive, obedient, accepting, tolerating,
enduring, etc. without ever "learning from their
mistakes" according to one of your classmate's
observation (Nick, I think?)...or fighting for their
rights as all people should.
The way
I see it, Kieu is a heroine simply because she has more
determination, courage, and conviction than any man in
the story. However, that point is not obvious for people
to interpret or see (cultural perspective here). You
have to look deep into the root of the culture and the
psychology of human kind to understand it.
Fortunately,
Vietnamese women have evolved noticeably in this country
and in Viet Nam as well. Vietnamese are considered to be
very "well-learned" according to the book.
Therefore, they can easily adapt and adjust to a new
culture, a new way of life, a new value, belief system,
etc. as evidenced by the success of Vietnamese
immigrants in this country....Vietnamese were deeply
influenced by Confucianism which originated from Chinese
philosophers. That is why this type of philosophy and
beliefs have been perpetuated for thousand of years in
the Vietnamese culture and tradition.
Are you
familiar with the statement" Tam tong, tu
dduc"? What it basically means is that, a woman
must worship and obey her father. Once he passed away,
she must obey her husband. Once he passed away, she must
obey her son! The last part of that statement means, a
respectable woman should have these 4 basic virtues:
- 1)
good manual labor
- 2)
physical beauty/charm
- 3)
speech/verbal charm
- 4)
proper conduct/behavior
( I like
this last part simply because I think women can still
benefit from applying these basic characteristics or
qualities if they choose to possess them, in any society
and any situations of their lives) But once again, all
of the above beliefs or values are derived from
Confucius teaching. Now, if you can imagine for a minute
that instead of being influenced by Chinese
philosophers, Vietnamese people were influenced by
American's most common philosophers......involving basic
human rights, equalities, and justices. Would Kieu be
the type of woman that she is in the story?
Of
course, you would have to take into consideration the
timelines and changes that occur everyday in the world
around us. If everyone perceives this book as a myth, a
fiction, or a leisure reading, then I have no problem
with it. However, this book seems to represent the whole
entire Vietnamese Culture, it's values, believes, and
traditions here! That is what I believe to be damaging
to young people such as yourself who might know very
little about the culture and after reading this book
believes that these are the good qualities or traits
that I should possess as a Vietnamese woman.
It is
even more misleading to the non Vietnamese readers who
thinks that all Vietnamese women are like Kieu or
possess her set of values. You see, without the proper
preparation and understanding of Viet Nam and its more
than 4,000 yrs. history, reading Kieu can posts a lot of
confusion and misinterpretation of the Vietnamese
Culture (by the way, this book is excellent for hypothetical
discussions).
There is
a verse in the Tale of Kieu that stated " cotroi ma
cung ta.i ta" that I happened to catch that day in
your class, which means there is a higher God but it's
also up to us to live our life as we see fit. That's why
I was saying I believe in faith and destiny but at the
same time, I believe each and every one of us has the
basic power to influence that destiny! We need to take
charge of the situation and make things happen or not
happen for us. We can NOT just tip toe through life and
allow what ever life throws our way ...... and just
accept it! That is not actively living or participating
in the process of life and living.
Kieu was
just passively accepting her life as it hits her because
she believes it has something to do with past lives and
bad karma?, or something along that line. She didn't
think she has any choices or anyway out. As I have
stated in your class, I possess a somewhat different
view on the book compare to other Vietnamese American
who have knowledge and understanding of the Vietnamese
Culture and insights on the Tale of Kieu. I believe we
are the center of our lives. The choices we make today
will determine the outcome in the future.....We all die
once but not everyone truly lives once!
I love
the book! I embrace the poetry and its beauty in the
form of a story telling. I read it for my own pleasure
but I do not read too much into it for I do not believe
it to be my way of life nor does it represent my value
or belief system as a Vietnamese American woman.
Also, on
the point I made about the issue of chastity, I resent
the fact that (in the older days...I don't know about
now especially with all the current western influence
that are pouring into Viet Nam), Vietnamese women are
degraded, lost their value, status, etc. the minute they
lose their virginity due to either their fault or not!
Why does Kieu have to feel unworthy of becoming Kim
Trong's wife after she lost her virginity and all the
heartache and pain she had to endure?
After
all, she was the one that sacrificed, suffered from all
the miseries and torture to save other people's lives!
If you analyze it base on the Vietnamese scale of
worthiness, then Kim Trong doesn't deserve Kieu because
she is too admirable and too great of a woman for him
and not the other way around!
Let's
just compare the 2 scenarios. The man goes off to fight
battles/war, the woman stays home and wait for her
husband's return as she continues to take care of the
family and fulfill her head of the household duties.
That is expected of a woman! In Kieu's case, she went
off and maybe not fight the same war/but did pretty much
the same thing to save her family and battled her own
war. What did Kim Trong do? He just went ahead and
married her sister! Did he wait for Kieu patiently and
painfully for her return and anticipate the happy
reunion of two lovers yearning for one another that even
with the changing time, the heart would forever love
passionately and faithfully?! Now, that is a
contradiction in the believes and values system of the
Vietnamese culture in itself and the double standard
that exists everywhere especially in the Vietnamese
culture.
Last but
not least, who makes up these so called "values and
traditions" in a culture that we so faithfully live
by? For the Tale of Kieu, they were rooted from Chinese
philosophers, therefore, Kieu blindly obeys them and
follow them without questioning any of it or dare change
it!
These
philosophers are simply just ordinary human beings like
u and I who sit down together and determine that this is
the way things should be! Then there are followers who
don't have any opinions or philosophy of their own, come
into the picture and say I agree, I obey , I follow! We,
as intellectual human beings should have our own
thoughts and philosophy that we live by. We choose our
own path, lead our own life and follow our own logics no
matter if it's right or wrong because there is no such
thing as right or wrong! It's just a matter of opinions
only. We can certainly use these philosophers and their
existing philosophy as guidelines to arrive at our own
individual philosophy. Why do we have to blindly permit
others to lead us when it's not even our ideas or
beliefs and...especially when it doesn't reflects the
time and place that we live in!
Anyway,
those are some of my thoughts on the Tale of Kieu.
Please feel free to come and discuss your thoughts with
me on this topic or any other topics anytime. I am open
to constructive and educational dialogues where learning
takes place for both parties. Thank you for allowing me
to share my thoughts with you.
K. D.
Le, M.A., Counselor
De Anza College
Email: KDL7645@Mercury.fhda.edu
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