Comments on: Observations of Viet Nam: Gender (Part I) http://themelononline.com/2009/06/observations-of-viet-nam-gender-part-i/ Your Daily Dose of Vitamin World Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:39:59 +0000 hourly 1 By: Glynnis Kirchmeier http://themelononline.com/2009/06/observations-of-viet-nam-gender-part-i/comment-page-1/#comment-18079 Glynnis Kirchmeier Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:45:29 +0000 http://themelononline.com/?p=3929#comment-18079 @Colin Cronin, You're right, there is a hierarchical societal structure, which is built into the grammar of the language. There are no formal titles or the pronouns "I", "s/he", or "you", but rather a variety of kinship terms that you use depending upon your relative age and status. (This means a lot of weird and awkward translations into English, because someone might call an acquaintance "older sister" or whatever but not actually feel as affectionate toward that person as the term suggests to us.) But sometimes pronouns are unnecessary. However, every language comes with built-in gender guidelines of some sort, and I don't know enough about Asian languages to compare their gender constructions, so I left that out. A classmate of mine who was more advanced in her language study said that in her opinion a lot of the complexity in written Vietnamese is a reaction to Chinese cultural influence: basically, they made it harder than it needed to be to show off how un-Chinese it was. @Colin Cronin,
You’re right, there is a hierarchical societal structure, which is built into the grammar of the language. There are no formal titles or the pronouns “I”, “s/he”, or “you”, but rather a variety of kinship terms that you use depending upon your relative age and status. (This means a lot of weird and awkward translations into English, because someone might call an acquaintance “older sister” or whatever but not actually feel as affectionate toward that person as the term suggests to us.) But sometimes pronouns are unnecessary. However, every language comes with built-in gender guidelines of some sort, and I don’t know enough about Asian languages to compare their gender constructions, so I left that out. A classmate of mine who was more advanced in her language study said that in her opinion a lot of the complexity in written Vietnamese is a reaction to Chinese cultural influence: basically, they made it harder than it needed to be to show off how un-Chinese it was.

]]> By: Colin Cronin http://themelononline.com/2009/06/observations-of-viet-nam-gender-part-i/comment-page-1/#comment-17556 Colin Cronin Sun, 21 Jun 2009 07:16:15 +0000 http://themelononline.com/?p=3929#comment-17556 This is specifically on the Confucian section… if I have a chance I’ll comment on the rest. While you’re right that it makes about as much sense to label Vietnam a Confucian society as it does to label the US a Christian one, I think that there are rather obvious traces of such values impacting the lives of people on a day to day basis. One of the emphases in Confucianism is hierarchical relationships. In Chinese, Japanese, and Korean this is quite well expressed in the nature of the language. There are different titles used to address people based on their relationship to you in terms of age or class. I’m not familiar with the Vietnamese language so I don’t know for sure. Are there such titles? Filial piety is another major manifestation of such hierarchy. The respect and deference towards parents is one major reason why many parents decide the educational paths for their children. This is also prominent in Cambodia which may suggest a regional trend – or simply a commonality among Hinduism and Confucianism, which Cambodia and Vietnam have respectively inherited. Confucianism is one cultural influence at work in society. Of course, that doesn’t mean that people’s lives are dominated by it, any more than they are dominated by Buddhism or Taoism. I think perhaps the influence is subtly woven into society so that most people living there wouldn’t really think about the social/cultural norms they follow as being Confucian, but rather just Vietnamese. Your series is really great and I look forward to reading the rest! This is specifically on the Confucian section… if I have a chance I’ll comment on the rest.

While you’re right that it makes about as much sense to label Vietnam a Confucian society as it does to label the US a Christian one, I think that there are rather obvious traces of such values impacting the lives of people on a day to day basis. One of the emphases in Confucianism is hierarchical relationships. In Chinese, Japanese, and Korean this is quite well expressed in the nature of the language. There are different titles used to address people based on their relationship to you in terms of age or class. I’m not familiar with the Vietnamese language so I don’t know for sure. Are there such titles?

Filial piety is another major manifestation of such hierarchy. The respect and deference towards parents is one major reason why many parents decide the educational paths for their children. This is also prominent in Cambodia which may suggest a regional trend – or simply a commonality among Hinduism and Confucianism, which Cambodia and Vietnam have respectively inherited.

Confucianism is one cultural influence at work in society. Of course, that doesn’t mean that people’s lives are dominated by it, any more than they are dominated by Buddhism or Taoism. I think perhaps the influence is subtly woven into society so that most people living there wouldn’t really think about the social/cultural norms they follow as being Confucian, but rather just Vietnamese.

Your series is really great and I look forward to reading the rest!

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