Basic HTML Version
32
timeout
W
hile most young men
are interested in the lat-
est contemporary trends,
Tran Quang Duc, a young
graduate of Beijing University, prefers
to look back. He has delved into the
history of Vietnamese costume to cre-
ate a work that has drawn great praise;
its title,
Ngan nam ao mu
, roughly
translates as ‘a thousand years of caps
and robes.’
Before dealing with costumes di-
rectly, the author sets the scene with
some background on ancient Vietnam.
He pinpoints two key systems. The first
is what he terms the ‘sovereign’ system
– this refers to the imperial ideology of
China in which there was only one Em-
peror, while the son of God and colonial
countries’ leaders were referred to as
kings. The second is ‘
hoa di
’; ‘
hoa
’ refers
to a central civilization and ‘
di
’ to the
environs surrounding it.
During the period in which Viet-
nam was dominated by China, it was
influenced by its administration, archi-
tecture, culture, language, literature,
religion and philosophy.
However, Vietnam absorbed Chi-
nese elements creatively, with national
pride and independence.
Tran Quang Duc cites evidence that
Vietnam long saw itself as independent
of China. “When Vietnam was called
‘Zhong Guo’ it meant it did not consider
itself a colony of China – it was an affir-
mation that Vietnam was on the same
level as China, not inferior,” he says.
Many countries, such as Korea and
Japan, absorbed some influence from
China, but only Vietnam was affected
strongly by its imperial ideology.
In Vietnam, royal costumes differ-
entiated between emperor and king de-
spite regulations from China that stated
only its emperor could dress in a golden
dragon robe, while in the surrounding
countries the kings were restricted to
red. Korea and Japan followed this
regulation, but Vietnam did not – its
emperor too wore gold.
For researcher, Quach Hien, this
book’s strength lies in the fact that it
draws on evidence from varied histori-
cal sources. Every theoretical point in
the book is supported strongly by mul-
tiple sources.
Le Hai Ha, a 24 year old girl who
attended a talk by Tran Quang Duc at
L’space, said: “It is an interesting book -
clear, lively and convincing. The images
throughout helped me to imagine the
costumes which I could not have done
by reading alone.”
Nguyen Viet Hoang, a second year
student of Hanoi University of Science
and Technology, shared: “Vietnamese
costume is an attractive topic. Within it I
can see many angles of Vietnamese soci-
ety, such as national pride, spirit, habits
and customs, regulations and policies.”
The researcher, Trinh Bach, who
is well known for his efforts to restore
many royal costumes, highly appreci-
ates the book. According to Trinh Bach,
there is an immense gap in the costume
history of Vietnam and the few remain-
ing traces are being lost due to the inva-
sion of Western culture.
There are very few other books on
this topic and many are riddled with
errors and inaccuracies. “This book is a
salvation,” said Bach. “For me, the book
Vietnamese costume
Tran Quang Duc
is the 27 year
old author of
Ngan nam ao mu
, a
new book detailing 1,000 years of
Vietnam’s costume history, from
the Ly to the Nguyen Dynasty
(1009-1945). By
Hong Nhung
.
A thousand years of
LIFESTYLE