Vietnamese Calligraphy Students Learn About Their French Colonial History

TaiwanPlus News

As French President Emmanuel Macron visits Vietnam, becoming the first leader from his country to travel there in a decade, calligraphy students in Hanoi are learning more about their French colonial history.

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00:00Flowing brushwork. This is how seven calligraphy students in Vietnam spend an evening each week.

00:09Energetic activities don't suit me. Calligraphy is a way for me to relax after work.

00:16Led by a calligraphy teacher in his own tiny home, they're reviving the origins of Romanized Vietnamese,

00:23or Quoc Nhu, a writing system first introduced by the French when they colonized the country in the mid-19th century.

00:34This writing connects key chapters in Vietnam's history from early Christian influences to the rise of the Communist Party,

00:42leading the country to independence in 1945.

00:47I believe that it's in our blood, a gene that flows in every Vietnamese person.

00:52To love their traditional culture. The only difference is that as we grow up,

00:56some of us are fortunate enough to find environments where that love can flourish.

01:01Others may take on different roles to serve society, but deep down, we all appreciate it.

01:07In the 1600s, after centuries of using Chinese characters,

01:12Catholic missionaries created a much simpler Vietnamese alphabet to help people read the Bible.

01:18During the 19th century, French colonizers replaced traditional scripts,

01:27paving the way for nationalist messages to spread across the country,

01:31creating a system that represents the many faces of the Vietnamese language.

01:36Writing calligraphy in Quoc Nhu is special because I can still use the techniques of traditional calligraphy.

01:46But we can be more creative in terms of color, shape, concept, everything.

01:51Today, the distinctive marks of Vietnamese script do more than guide pronunciation.

01:58They tell a story of cultural resilience.

02:01Rooted in a colonial past shaped by centuries of change,

02:05the calligraphy is a reminder of the country's historic move toward independence.

02:10Hang Su and Zalan Shata for Taiwan Plus.

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