Vinh the Seed That Would Grow

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Vinh, the Seed that Would Grow Red: Colonial Prelude, Revolutionary CityAuthor(s): David W. Del TestaSource: Historical Reflections / Rflexions Historiques, Vol. 33, No. 2, French Colonial Urbanism

(Summer 2007), pp. 305-325Published by: Berghahn Books

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2/22

Vinh,

the Seed that Would Grow Red:

Colonial

Prelude,

Revolutionary City1

David W.

Del

Testa

Introduction

In

spite

of

the

growing

scholarship

on

Italian, British,

nd

Dutch

colonial cities,2historians have produced relativelyfew studies of

Vietnam's

colonial-era

cities,3

nd have

produced

almost no studies of

1. This

aper riginated

s

Sharing

he

Light

f he

apital7:

ew

Urban

istories

for

rench

ndochina or he

anel

Colonial

ities

nFrench frica

nd ndochina:ew

Avenues o Colonial

istory

t the

Annual

Meeting

f

the 002Western

ociety

or

French

istory

n

Baltimore,

aryland.

he uthor

ishes o

thank

aliforniautheran

University

or

roviding

he

unds

o

attendhe onference.

e

also wishes o thank

Professors

yler

tovall

nd

Susan

Asbury

or

roviding

ommentsn the onference

paper

rior

o

he

reparation

f

his

rticle,

nd

Brian

ewsome

or

erving

s editor.

2.

Some ecent

xamples

nclude wati

hattopadhyay,

Blurring

oundaries:

he

Limits

f Whiteown'

n

Colonial

alcutta,

ournal

f

he

ociety

f

Architecturalistorians

59:2

2000):

54-79;

ames

.

Cobban,

Public

ousing

nColonial

ndonesia,900-1940,

Modern

sian

tudies

7:4

1993):

71-96;

ia

Fuller,

Building

ower:

taly's

olonial

Architecture

nd

Urbanism,

923-1940,

ultural

nthropology

:4

1988):

55-87;dem,

Whereverou

Go,

There ouAre:

ascistlans or he

olonial

ity

f

AddisAbaba

nd

the

olonizing

uburbf ur

42,

Journal

f

ontemporaryistory

1

1996):

97-418.

3. Those tudieshat o exist oncernndochina'sdministrative

apital

t

Hanoi r

its ommercial

apital

f

aigon.

ee

Philippe

ranchini,d.,

aigon

925-1945:e

a Belle

Colonie'

Veclosion

evolutionnaire,

u a

fin

es ieux

lancs

Paris,

994);

avier

uillaume,

Saigon,r he ailuref nAmbition1858-1945),nColonialities:ssaysnUrbanismn

a Colonial

ontext,

d.

Robert

.

Ross ndGerard

.

elkamp

Dordrecht,985),

p.

181-92;

David elTestas

n

Assistant

rofessorf

istory

tBucknell

niversity.

2007 ISTORICAL

EFLECTIONS/REFLEXIONS

ISTORIQUES,

ol

33,

no.

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/22

306 Historical

Reflections/Reflexions istoriques

colonial

Vietnam's

provincial

towns.4

Yet,

as

scholars have

amply

demonstrated

or

provincial

ities

n

France

such

as Toulouse or

Lyon

or

in

France's

colonial

empire

such as

Bone,

the

study

of

provincial

urban

centers reveals

cultural

changes

that the

bright lights

and

careful

planning

of

capital

cities

may

otherwise

obscure.5 One

particularly

interestingxample

of an

important

olonial-era

own outside of colonial

Vietnam's

capital

cities of

Hanoi,

Saigon,

Phnom

Penh,

and Vientiane s

the northern

oastal town of

Vinh,

whose

streets,

ined with

plane

trees

and small

shops,

reminded

many European

visitors

of a French

provincial city.

Vinh's vibrant ndustrialcentermade it an

important

contributor

to

French

colonial

Indochina's

economy,

and

it

was,

throughout

the

period

of

French colonial

occupation,

an

important

center of both

Franco-Vietnamese collaboration

and anti-colonial

resistance.

Studying

Vietnam's colonial-era

provincial

towns enriches

an

understanding

of the

everyday mpact

of

colonialism

on

the

average

Vietnamese.

During

the colonial

period,

about

90%

of

Vietnam's

ethnic

Vietnamese

population

ived

in

the

countryside,

ut 70%

of those

n

the

countryside ived withineasy reach of a provincial town. Exchanges

between

these towns and the

countryside

occurred

regularly.

Vietnamese

n

the

countryside wealthy

or

poor

might

visit

provincial

towns

for

larger

markets,festivals,

pilgrimages,

or to

take seasonal

work.6

n

addition,

afterthe French colonial

administration

eopened

and,

Michael

ann,

White

ity

n the

Red

River:

ace,

ower,

ndCulture

n French

Colonial

anoi,

872-1954

Ph.D.

iss.,

niversity

f

alifornia,

999).

4.

Although

rench

ndotheruthors

ertainly

ention

hem

n

fiction,

emoirs,

andautobiographies,he nly tudy ithwhich amfamiliarhat ddresses ietnam's

provincial

ities

s a

collection

f

essays y

Charles

ourniau.

f

course,

ietnamese

authors

avewritten

mply

bout

ietnamese

ities,

nd

his

rticleraws

romome f

those

ources. ee

Charles

ourniau,

Le Phenomenerbain

u Vietnam

l'epoque

coloniale,

nPeninsule

ndochinoise,

tudes

rbaines,

d.

P.B.

afont

Paris,991).

5. See

Rosemary

akeman,

odernizing

heProvincial

ity:

oulouse,

945-1975

(Cambridge,

A,

997);

ouisM.

Greenberg,

isters

f

iberty:

arseille,

yon,

arisnd he

Reaction

o Centralized

tate,

868-1871

Cambridge,

A,

1971);

nd

David

Prochaska,

Makinglgeria

rench:olonialism

n

Bone,

870-1920

New

ork,

989).

6.

Just

efore

orld

War

I,

Vietnam'sotal

opulation

as bout

ighteen

illion,

f

whichixteen illionere thnicietnamese.ithhexceptionf he iet oa Chinese

Vietnamese),

olonial

ietnam's

opulation

f thnic

inoritiesived lmost

xclusively

n

the

ountryside,

nd

during

he olonial

eriod

hey

arely

ived

ear

ny

kind

furban

center,

lthough

necdotallyheymay

have ived loser

o the ities

han s otherwise

generally

ccepted.

eeClaudie eaucarnot's

escription

f

thnic

inorities

iving

n the

outskirts

f

Hue,

Nha

Trang,

ndDalat n

the

940s.

ndeed,

ignificantopulations

f



4/22

Vinh,

the

Seed

that Would Grow Red 307

Vietnam's

economy

to

the world market

by

ending

the

pre-colonial

Nguyen Dynasty's

tight

control

of

the

country's economy,7

the

modernization

f

transportation

nd the centralization

f administration

and finance ended

to

concentrate

ietnam's

economy

n

the towns and

cities,

making

an

analysis

of these towns

particularly

germane

for

understanding

Vietnam

during

thecolonial

era.8

Recent

scholarship

has focused

on

how urban

planning

and colonial

architecture nforced

European

colonial

racial and economic

values. As

Anthony

D.

King

wrote

in

1976,

the colonial

city

s that

urban

societymost

totally

characterized

by

the

physical

segregation

of its

ethnic,

social,

and

cultural

component

groups,

which resulted

from the

processes

of colonialism. 9More

recently,

ezar

AlSayyad,

in

his

1992

collection

of

essays

on

colonial

cities

entitled

Forms

f

Dominance

wrote

that

[c]olonial

cities,

more

than

other

cities,

serve as

expressions

of

dominance

. .

[In]

colonial cities

the

relationships

between the

dominator

nd the dominated

are

clear,

as

are the

political

agenda

and

motivationsbehind

it. 10 cholars who

have

examined

urbanization

n

the French

empire,

such as the

anthropologist

Paul

Rabinow and

architectural istorianGwendolynWright,have also emphasized the

creation

of

separate spheres

and artificial

hybridization

n

cities

in

ethnic ietnamese

idnot

elocate

othe

ighland

reas ominated

y

thnic inorities

until he

overnments

f outh

ndNorth ietnam

egan

elocating

thnic ietnameseo

the

ighlands

n

the ate

950s. laudie

eaucarnot,

acances

943,

u,

Hanoi-Saigonar

e

Chemin

es coliers

1943),

ttp://www.bucknell.edu/Beaucarnot.

7.

The

Nguyen

ynasty

uledVietnam

ndependently

rom

802

ntil

886,

fter

which

ts

ulers

ecame

ependent

nFrench

uthority.lthough

he

Nguyen

ynasty's

founder

guyen

nh

1762-1820)

ame

rom

familypparently

appy

o

take isksnd

adaptnnovationso facilitateheiruest or ower, hen e foundedhe ynastynd

became

mperor,guyen

nh,

uling

s Gia

Long,

nitiated

n

administrative

raxis

hat

relied

eavily

n a

particularlyetrograde

eo-Confucianism

nd isolationism.

his

included

n nti-merchantnd

nti-urban

tance.

8.

I demonstrateome f hese

rocesses

n

David

W.Del

Testa,

Some

reliminary

Findings

n the

Relationship

f

Railroads

o the

Economies

f Tonkin

nd Annam

Protectorates,

rench

ndochina,

919-1937,

nResearch

n

Vietnam's

uantitative

istory,

ed.

Jean-Pascal

assino,

sian

istorical

tatistics

roject orking

apers

Tokyo,

000),

p.

237-68.

ecause f he

isruptions

solationist

olicies

f

he

arly guyen

ynasty

1802-

1885),

ietnam

emporarily

ithdrew

rom

ts therwise

sually

trongosition

s a net

exporter

f ice

ndhandicrafts.

9.

Anthonying,

olonialrban

evelopment:

ultureSocial ower,nd nvironment

(Boston,

976),

.

6.

10. Nezar

AlSayyad,

Introduction,

n

Forms

f

Dominance:n

theArchitecture

nd

Urbanism

f

he

olonial

nterprise

ed.

Nezar

lSayyad

Brookfield,

992),

.

5.



5/22

308

Historical

Reflections/Reflexions

istoriques

colonial

Morocco,

Madagascar,

and Indochina at the behest of the

colonial

occupier.11

his

separation,

distinction,

nd

hybridization

n

the

service of

imperial

control, however,

do not

always

precisely

characterize

rovincial

olonial

cities.

n

thecase of

Vinh,

lthough

racial

separation

certainly

nfluencedurban

planning,

the lack of

ethnically-

distinct

districts

and

sharp

lines

between

colonizer

and

colonized

demands

a more

nuanced

approach

to understand cross-cultural

exchange.

Likewise,

since it

seems

that

military

ngineers

and civilian

residents,

rather than

professional

urbanists,

planned

and

developedcolonial-era

Vinh,

an

exploration

of the

assumptions

these amateurs

would

go

a

long

way

to

exposing

the

motivationsbehind

day-to-day

colonial

relationships.

In

order to describe more

fully

the

adaptations

at

play

in

smaller

colonial

urban

centers,

this

paper applies

to

Vinh

the

concept

of

indigenization,

rom Nihal

Perera's

description

of colonial Colombo.

Perera

writes that

[i]ndigenisation

is

simultaneously

a form of

assimilation

nd

resistance,

way

of

assuming

a

colonial

subject

position

through

the creation of new and

hybridised

cultural

processes

and

spaces. It concerns the transformation f colonial institutions nd

spaces, particularly

f

their

meanings

and

representations

nd of

power

relations

constituted

s

colonizer-colonised/'12

ith

ndigenization,

he

scholar

can

note,

as Susan Neild does

for colonial

Calcutta,

the

connections

with the

pre-colonial

rder

along

with the

changes

of the

colonial

era and

how

colonial cities evolved

as

...

a

process

of

accommodation

between local and colonial

influences. 13

ather

than

demarcate

European

influence

lone,

indigenization

eveals a

dynamic

exchange

and

adaptation

to

changing political,

cultural,

nd economic

conditions.

Indigenization

n

Vinh

occurred s

part

of

the

ncreasing

mportance

of

the

city

to the colonial

economy

and the

growing

role of

Vietnamese

actors

within

that

economy

during

the

1920s

and 1930s.

Indigenization

was also

a

part

of a

larger

project

of the

Government-General

f

Indochina

to

include,

for reasons of

economy

and

political

harmony,

11.

See

Paul

Rabinow,

rench odern:orms

nd

Forms

f

he

ocial

nvironment

(Cambridge,

A,

1989)

nd

Gwendolyn right,

he olitics

fDesign

n Frencholonial

Urbanism

Chicago,

991).

12. Nihal erera,

Indigenising

he olonial

ity:

ate 9th-centuryolombond ts

Landscape,

rban

tudies9:9

2002):

703-21.

13.

Susan

M.

Neild,

Colonial rbanism:

he

Development

fMadras

ity

n

the

Eighteenth

nd

Nineteenth

enturies,

odernsian tudies

3:2

1979):

17-46.



6/22

Vinh,

the

Seed

that Would

Grow

Red

309

increasing

numbersof

Vietnamese

n

thecolonial administration.

inally,

it was

a

result of the relative

diminution of the

city's European

population.

Indeed,

by

the

1940s,

it was

possible

to

imagine

the

disappearance

of

French

authority

without a sacrifice

of

economic

stability

r

personal

security.By

the

1940s,

the Vietnamese controlled

much

of the

economy

and

participated heavily

in

the

city's

administration and cultural institutions

newspapers,

schools,

local

government).

hey

had

quite

obviously

become

thorough articipants

n

the modernization

that

colonialism had

brought

to Vietnam. The

persistent

activity

of the anti-colonial nationalist and communist

movements

in

and around

Vinh

by

the end

of the

1920s,

and the

takeover

of

Vinh

by

the Viet Minh in

1945

with

the

support

of much of

the

city's

population,

show a

desire for

ndependence

thatevolved

in

a

dynamic

and

complex

fashion

among

an

increasingly

activist

population.

However,

the

duration of

Vietnamese

participation

in

French

nstitutions,

fficial nd

otherwise

lluminates an

ambiguity

of

sentiment about colonialism.

Vinh's

indigenization

occurred as

a

complex

process

in

which

social, cultural,

economic,

and

political

changes were interlinked nd evolutionary.Although a transfer f

power

occurred

after

9 March

1945,

when the

Japanese

military

authorities tationed

in

Vietnam

since

1940 decided to

usurp

French

authority

n

Vietnam,

t

seems the

city

was Vietnamese

in

termsof its

political

authority

n

everything

ut name

by

then

already.

This

study

examines

changes

in

population

and

occupation

in

colonial Vinh's

history

o show how

. . .

the

indigenization

f various structures

did]

not

necessarily

revamp

the entire olonial

system

..

and how

...

the

reinterpretation

f

subject

positions

provide[d]

new

meanings

for

colonial social and spatialstructures. 14

Vinh's main

occupational

group

was the railroad workers

employed

by

the

Compagnie

des

Cheminsde

fer

de

VIndochine

the CFI),

French

Indochina's state

railroad,

t the

depot

and station s

well as the

nearby

Truong

Thi

railroad

workshops.15

his

study

responds

to the

largely

unanswered

call that

scholars Alfred

McCoy

and

John

ngleson

made

twenty

years

ago

to

study

the

urban

proletariat

f

colonial

port

cities

so

14.

Perera,

Indigenising

he

olonial

ity,

.

1704.

15. n1905,he ruonghi ailroadorkshopspenedust otheWest fVinhwith

3,000

mployees, ainlyuperannuated

andarins

f theformer

mperial

ietnamese

regime,

ormerextile

actory

orkersrom

orthern

ietnam,

nd

ocal andless

easants.

By

940,

heworkforce

t

Truong

hi

ad

grown

o

ommunity

f ver

,000

ighly

killed

workers.



7/22

310 Historical


istoriques

as to understand better the

creation of

class-consciousness and the

formation

f

political

movements

n

colonized countries.16

n

particular,

responded

to

ngelson's

call

to recover

hese

ordinary

eople

from

heir

obscurity

n

order to see

them

as

far

more than

passive

victims

of

exploitative

economic

structures. 17 concur that an

analysis

of their

individual and

collective

spirations

nd

their

hanging

perspectives

of

the world

will

show them

as

important

ctors

n

their wn

right

n

the

urban

andscape. 18

As

suggested

n

both

McCoy's

and

Ingleson's

work,

the

changing

lived

environment f

workers their access to

housing,

sanitation,

art-time

arm

and,

traditional nd moderndiversions had

a

very

important

influence

on their own

politicization

and the

politicization

f

those

people

with

whom

they

had intimate

ontact.

More

broadly,

however,

examining

the

indigenization

of

colonial

towns and the

countryside

n

Vietnam

will

help guide scholarship

way

from

ts obsession

with

elites and elite

culture,

way

from

the

light

of

the

capital

and better

represent

the constant

flow

and

exchange

between the

cities

nd

the

countryside

hat

markedthe colonial

period.19

Relatively

few books

address

social

and

cultural

change

in

Vietnam

duringthe colonial period, althoughan increasingnumber of scholars

have

devoted attention to

the

topic

in

both

secondary

works and

translations of

pertinent

primary

texts.20Additional

scholarship

on

16.

John

ngelson,

Life ndWorkn

Colonial ities: arbour orkers

n

Java

n

the

1910s nd

1920s,

odernsian

tudies7:3

1983):

55-76;

lfred

McCoy,

The

loilo

Generaltrike:efeat

f

he

roletariat

n

Philippine

olonial

ity,

ournal

f

outheast

Asian tudies5:2

1984):

30-64.

17.

ngelson,

Life

ndWork

n

Colonial ities

.

455.

18. bid.

19.

n

1938,

he

ietnameseuthor

guyen ong

ublished

story

bout

rowingp

poor

nNam

Dinh,

city

bout 0miles

outh f

Hanoi,

n1928-31.n

the

tory,

ith

he

light

f he

apital

n

he istant

ackground,

guyen ong

ddresses

he

onflictetween

modernity

nd tradition

n

the

ontextf

the

amily

n

a

provincial

own.

ee

Nguyen

Hong,

Days

f

Childhood,

n

The

ight

f

he

apital:

hree odernietnameselassics

Oxford

nAsia

aperbacks,

d.

Greg

ockhart

nd

Monique

ockhart

Kuala

ampur,

996),

pp.

157-218.

20. The

three

most

mportant

ummary

exts

n the ransformationf culture

n

Vietnam

uring

he

olonial

eriod

nclude

avidG.

Marr,

ietnamese

nticolonialism,

1885-1925Berkeley,971);dem, ietnameseraditionnTrial,920-1945Berkeley,981);and

Nguyen

an

Ky,

aSocieteietnamienne

ace

lamodernite:eTonkine a

in

uXlXeme

siecle

la seconde

uerre

ondiale,

d.Alain

orest,

echerches

siatiques

Paris,

995).

ome

important

rimary

nd

fictional

ources

n

translation

hich

eflect

n

Vietnam'sultural

transformation

uring

his

eriod

nclude

uong

anMai

Elliott,

he

acred illow:our

Generations

n the

ife f

Vietnamese

amily

New

York,

999);

reg

ockhart,

Broken



8/22

Vinh,

the

Seed

that Would

Grow

Red 311

colonial towns

will

help expose

the

importance

f

the

increasing

ocial

differentiation,

conomic

disparity,

and intense acculturation that

occurred

during

the colonial

period

that

some

scholars have

already

recognized,21

ut

without

imiting

reater

nderstanding

f

how,

for he

French,

he colonial

towns

were

places

to

[work]

out

the

ocial,

political,

and aesthetic

dilemmas of

France,

n

order to

apply

the

positive

results

to the

metropole. 22

With the

historian's ttention

rawn

away

from he

narrow

society

of

elites,

the social and cultural

dynamism

of Vietnam's

colonial

period

comes

into

clearer

focus.

The

study

of colonial cities in Vietnamhas

presented

its share of

problems,

f

course,

and these

problems

re

part

of the reason

why

more

studies have not

appeared.

Unlike

the

relatively

rich

primary

and

secondary

sources

forHanoi

and

Saigon,

the

majority

f administrative

archives

forVietnam's

provincial

itieshave been scattered

r

destroyed,

and colonial-era

authors aid little bout them

n

theirmemoirs.

ndeed,

in

ten

years

of

searching,

I

can find

no substantive

qualitative

descriptions

of colonial-era

Vinh in

French

or Vietnamese.

Historians

used to face severe

political

and

logistical problems

accessing

archival

documentation in Vietnam itself; however, Vietnam's archives and

libraries

have

opened

to

foreign

cholars,

nd

they

face fewer estrictions

on

the documentation

they

seek to

consult.23

or historical

nalysis

of

Journey:

hat

Linh's

Going

o

France

East

Asian

istory

1994):

3-134;

ockhartnd

Lockhart,ds.,

The

ightf

he

apital:

hree odern

ietnamese

lassics;

ran u

Binh,

DavidG.

Marr,

nd

Ha

An,

he ed arth:

Vietnamese

emoir

f ife

n

Colonialubber

Plantation,

ol.

66,

Monographs

n nternational

tudies,

outheast

sia eries

Athens,

H,

1985);

ndPeter

inoman,

umb uck

Ann

rbor,

002).

21. In

his

early

iscussionf

urbanization,

lexander

oodside

rgues

n

favor f

looking eyond ocial elites nto thenew,transitionalrganizationshatbrought

Vietnamesef

many

ifferentlasses nd

ccupations

ogether

ith

mportant

ocial

nd

political

amifications.

ee

Alexander

Woodside,

The

Development

f Social

Organizations

n

Vietnameseitiesn

the ate olonial

eriod,

acific

ffairs

4:1

1971):

39-64.

22.

Gwendolyn right,

Traditionn

the ervice

f

Modernity:

rchitecturend

Urbanism

n

Frencholonial

olicy,

900-1930,

ournal

f

Modern

istory

9:2

1987):

91-

316.

23. For

uides

o rchival

nd

ibrary

ources

n

Vietnam,

lease

eeChantalescours-

Gatin

t

l.,

Guidee echerchesur eVietnam:

ibliographies,

rchives

t

bibliotheques

eFrance

(Paris, 983);Jean-Claudeevos,JeanNicot,ndPhilippe chillinger,nventairees

Archives

e

L'lndochine.

ous-Serie

Oh

867-1956

Vincennes,

987);

ommission

ran^aise

duGuide es ourcese

'histoire,

ourceseVhistoireeVAsiet

e

'Oceanie

anses rchives

et

ibliothequesrangaises

2 vols.

New

ork,

981);

nd

VuChu

Tha

t

l., ds.,

dch hi

an

Cac

hong

uu ru

hoi huoc

iaBa

Quan

ai

Trung

am uc

ru

uoc

ia

Hanoi/Guide

es

fonds

'archives

'epoque

oloniale

onservesucentreo. des rchives

ationales,

anoi

Hanoi,



9/22

312 Historical


istoriques

Vinh, however,

the historian

faces

additional

problems.

Excepting

the

ruins

of St.

Sulpice

Convent,

Can

Linh

Buddhist

Temple,

and the

walls

of

the

citadel,

no

pre-1972 buildings

and

very

few archives survived the

fires et

by

the Viet

Minh

in

1946

and the relentless

bombing

by

the

United States

between 1964 and 1972.

The

city

was

unfortunately

flattened,

t a

great

cost

in

human

misery

nd

cultural destruction.

have

had to

rely

on

maps, telephone

books,

commercial

yearbooks,

tourist

brochures,

textbooks,

government eports,

nd so

forth,

or at

least

some

French-language

nformationn

Vinh.

Increasing

access to the

scholarship

of Vietnamese historians has

made

writing

on colonial Vietnam easier

and richer.

Although

often

politically

tendentious,

he work of these

historians,

specially

for the

period

before

the startof the Second Indochina

War

in

1964,

contains

rich and

often

relatively

unfiltered ral

histories

and references

to

documentation

ow

sadly

lost or

destroyed.

or

this

study,

have

used

traditional

rchives

n

France and

Vietnam,

rench

anguage

materials

n

contemporary

Vietnam's archives

and

libraries,

and information

provided by

Vietnamese historians.24

tudying

Vietnam's

provincial

citiesduringthe colonialperiod presents challenge.The conclusionsto

1995).

or rchivalources

articular

o

Vinh,

efer

oThanh

ue,

d.,

huMuc:

hong

rao

Cong

han a

Cong

oan

ghe

inh

Vinh,983).

24.

This

tudy

raws

rom

yriad

ourcesor

representation

f

Vinh. orFrench

statistical

ources,

t draws rom

.

Barriere

nd

R.J.

ickson,

ds.,

ndochine

dresses,

troisieme

dition,

938-1939

Saigon,

938);

azanove,

Essai

e

d^mographie

escolonies

fran^aises,

ulletine

V

ffice

nternational'

Hygiene

ublique

supplement)

2

August

930):

1-86;

ves

Henry

ndMauricee

Visme,

ocumentse

emographie

riziculturen

ndochine

(Hanoi, 928); Lacroix-Somme,.J. ickson,ndJ.Burtschy,ds., ndochinedresses,

deuxieme

nnee,

936-1937

Saigon,

936);

dem,

ndochine

dresses,

remier

nnee,

933-1934

(Saigon,

933);

laudius

adrolle,

ndochineuNord:

onkin,

nnum,

aos,

926

d.,

ol.

(Paris,

923);

laudius

adrolle,

ndochineuNord:

onkin,nnam,

aos,

unnan,

ongkong,

Kouang-Tcheou

an

Paris, 939);

fficeolonial:

inisterees

Colonies,

tatistiques

e a

population

ans

esColonies

rangaises

our

nnee

906,

d.Ministre

esColonies

.

Millies-

Lacroix

Melun,

908);

fficeolonial: inistere

es

Colonies,

tatistiques

e a

population

dans es olonies

rangaises

our

nnee

911,

d.

Ministrees Colonies

. LeBrun

Paris,

1914);

nd,

Guides

aupin,

uide

ouristique

eneral

e

'lndochine

Guide

lphabetique

Taupin)

Hanoi,

937).

ne

f he

ew rench

ourceso

ddress

inh

ualitatively,

ven

n

a

peripheral

ashion,

s

Jacques

eisserenc,

esOublies

uNord-Annam

Fontenay-sous-Bois,

1998).

vailable

ourcesnVinh's

istory

nVietnamese

nclude

an

Nghien

uuLich u

Thinh ghe inh,ich uNgheinh,ol. Vinh,984);huTrong uyen,ichu Thanh

PhoVinh

Vinh,

997);

oang

nh

ri,

d.,

huong

en

huy:

ich

u

DauTranhach

Mang

(Vinh,

994);

oangNgoc

Anh,

ich u Thanhho

Vinh

Phan

),

vol.

Hanoi,

997);

nd,

Trinh ia

Khanhnd

Hoang

Ngoc

Anh,

Ban

Gop

Y

Ve

Cuon ich

u

So

Thao

huong

Truong

hi

Vinh)/'Hanoi).



10/22

Vinh,

the

Seed

that

Would Grow Red 313

which historians

rrive

may

be

provisional,

ut

rich

rewards

will

emerge

from uch studies.

Historical

Background

Vinh

is

at

the

center of a

region

of

extraordinary

mportance

to

Vietnam's

history.

Traditionally,

he

province

of

which

Vinh

is

the

capital

Nghe

An

was

the southernfrontier

f

Vietnam,

both

during

the

period

of Chinese

occupation (222

BCE-980

CE)

and the

early Ly

Dynasty

that succeeded it

(1009-1224).

Because it had

long

served as a

crossroads

on the

main road

connecting

Hanoi

with southernVietnam

(the

Quart

Ld,

or Mandarin

Road)

and for

trade

coming

fromLaos over

the Mu Gia

Pass to the

West,

Vinh

had

initially

developed

as

a

commercial

transportation

center and a center

for

government

administration.25

tarting

n

1778,

Vinh

began

to serve as a center for

institutional

earning

nd

pre-colonial

mperial

dministration.26

ecause

of its

place

at

the

region's

most

important

rossroads

as well as its

notorious

rebelliousness,

Vinh

and the area

around

it had vital

strategic

potentialto the Vietnamese mperialauthorities f whicheverdynasty

ruled Vietnam.

n

1804,

Emperor

Gia

Long

(r.

1802-20),

irst

mperor

of

the

Nguyen Dynasty,

ordered the construction

f

an

earthen

fortress

n

Vinh,

and

his

son

and

successor,

Ming-Manh

r. 1820-41),

ordered the

reconstruction

f this fortressnto a

Vauban-style

tone

citadel

in

1831.

The citadel itself

eveals the cross-cultural

daptability

of

Ming-Manh's

father,

ho

had

readily

dapted foreignmilitary

methods

to

support

his

drive towards

political

supremacy

prior

to 1802.

Vinh

itself

ppears

to

have had

a

small

permanent population

in

the

pre-colonial

period,

perhaps 3,000 inhabitants,which mainly served the needs of the

Vietnamese

mperialgarrison,

he administrative

mandarins,

he

porting

companies

that

managed

human and animal

transportation,

nd the

commercial

enterprises

that

managed

rice

exports,

and

handicraft

production.

t served as

an

important egional

market

for the

densely-

populated

agricultural lain surrounding

t,

famous for ertain

products

such as

oranges

and,

so

long

as the weather

cooperated,

a

significant

crop

of rice. One

historically mportant

ultural

feature

f the

Nghe

An

25.Specificallyromaos'Xieng huongrovince,romheNamMo riverasin n

Nghe

An's

nterior,

nd romhe

Mekong

iver

asin,

ome20mileso heWest.

26.

n

1770,

he

e

Emperor

adrelocatedhe ite f

he nnual xaminations

or he

mandarinate

rom a

Tinh,

orty-nine

ilometers

o the

outh,

o

Vinh.

he

regional

government

as

lso

elocated

here

t

roughly

he ame

ime.



11/22

314 Historical


istoriques

region

was its

population

of

Catholics,

entered

n

the

nearbyvillage

of

Xa Doai.

In

1858,

Napoleon

III

(r.

1851-70)

of

France

attempted

o

force

open

Vietnam's

markets

by sending

a

Franco-Spanish

naval

squadron

to

capture

the

port

city

of

Da

Nang.

After

ailing

o

capture

Da

Nang,

the

French ommanders

nstead,

with

the

help

of Vietnamese

collaborators,

conquered

the

whole of

southern

Vietnam.

Beginning

in

1859

and

continuing

uring

the

French

onquest

of

central

nd

northern ietnam

in

1884,

the

area

around

Vinh

assumed the role as a rear

base for

the

Vietnameseto

repulse

theFrench nvaders.After ome

bloody

fights

n

the

countryside urrounding

t,

in

July

1885

the

French established a

Residency

n Vinh

and

gradually

brought

he

province

of

Nghe

An

and

its

southern

neighbor

Ha Tinh

under their control

(although

pacification

continued until

1895).

According

to

the

Vietnamese

historian hu

Trong

Huyen,

French nd Chinese

entrepreneurs

ollowed

the French

military

on the

tips

of their

bayonets

and

began

immediately

ncorporating

Nghe

An

and Ha

Tinh

provinces

into the

emerging

olonial

economy,

with Vinh

as

the

locus of commercial

nd

industrialdevelopment. Vietnamese entrepreneurs rofitedfrom the

new

economic

opportunities

hat

the town offered s

well.

Vinh

was a

natural terminus or river

traffic

lowing

down the

Fish River from he

rice fields and fruit

rchards of

Nghe

An

and

Ha

Tinh

and

the thick

forests and mines of the

Truong

Son mountains

to the West.27

n

response

to

the increase

in

industry

nd

commerce,

mall

businesses

opened

to

supply

the needs of

factory

wners and

workers,

and the

number

of

government

workers ncreased.

In

terms of

city planning,

French

military

uthorities,

who

controlled

Vinh

until the Government-

General established a civiliangovernmenthere n 1892,raised the evel

of

the

city

bove the

surrounding

lood

plain

using

corvee labor and re-

imposed

the

grid pattern

of

streets hathad existed

in

the

pre-colonial

period.

They

left he traditional

lusters f

hamlets nd their

rganizing

villages

ust

beyond

the

city

boundaries.

With

pacification,

Vinh

became a

colonial

provincial

town

par

excellence,

ith its

eye

towards

commerce

nd

with

the

living

areas

of

most French nhabitants

nitially

eparated

from

ut

gradually

ntegrated

with

those

of

the

Vietnamese

at

least of the ame

economic

class).

It was

colonial Indochina's

fifth

argest

ity

n

terms

f

population,

fter

Hanoi,

Saigon,

Phnom Penh, and Nam Dinh.

Despite

its size, however, it

certainly

fit

into

the

pattern

of a

provincial city

in

that it

was

27.

Chu

Trong

uyen,

ich uThanhho inh

pp.

15-16.



12/22

Vinh,

the

Seed

that

Would

Grow Red

315

subordinatedto

a

still

arger

ity

n

certain conomic and

administrative

affairs.

A

French business

elite

managed

the

city's

administrative

nd

economic

affairs,

but

Vinh

also had a

large

number of

French and

Vietnamese small

business

owners,

some

of whom sat on the

city's

Representative

Council

(elected

by

limited

suffrage).

Contrary

to

the

Vietnamese

historiography,

many

Vietnamese were

quite

active

in

the

business

community

nd

a

certain ense of

prosperity

xisted

among

the

city's

commercial nd

government

mployees.28ndustry

nd

commerce

became

increasinglymportant

o

the

economic

and

social lifeof the

city

throughout

he colonial

period.

The Bank of ndochina

opened

a branch

in Vinh in

1898,

although

this

served,

according

to

Huyen, merely

to

exploit

the

people

and

improve

the

opportunities

of the

colonizing

group.29

During

his tenure from

1895-1906,

Vinh's

first

civilian

Resident,

Maurice Sestier

enlarged

the

grid

of

city

streets

and

named the new

streets after

prominent

features of the town

( Avenue

des

Marchandises for street f

Vietnamese

hops,

Boulevard des

Filaos

for an

important

ree-lined

ast-west street

along

the

quais

of

canals

leading to the Fish River, etc.). In the wave of patriotism that

accompanied

and followed

World War

I,

one of Sestier's

successors

renamed Vinh's streetsfor

important epublican

and

military

figures

popular

at the

time,

a

common

practice

in

French cities

(e.g.

the

Boulevard des

Filaos

became

Boulevard Marechal

Joffre,

fter

ne of the

heroes

of

the

1914

defenseof

Paris).30

inh

began

to administer ts river

and

seaport,

Ben

Thuy,

ust

beforeWorld War

I,

and

they

nd the three

kilometers

etween them

became unified

n

1927.

In

that ame

year,

the

French

granted

Vinh

a

representative

ouncil

Chambre

es

Representants)

28.

Thehistorianhu

Trong uyen

ives

dominant

osition

o

Vinh's renchnd

Chinese usinesseaders.While

hey

ertainly

an he

argest

usinesses,

he

Vietnamese

commercial

ommunity

as ctive

nd

xpansive.

ee

bid.,

.

19.Between

899 nd

1944,

Vinh ad a

weekly

nd

monthly

dition f

the

Bulletin ensuele a chambre

ixtee

commercet

d'agriculture

u

Nord-Annam.

wo

Vietnamese

apers,

hanh

ghe

inh nd

Tuan

e,

ppeared

n

various orms

nd

periodicitiesuring

he 930s. hese

ewspapers

contain

wide

variety

f

advertisementsor

broad

ange

f

goods

nd

services

y

Vietnamese

argeting

he

Vietnamese

ommunity,

s well s

daily

otation

fVietnamese

entrepreneurialctivity

n

he

ghe-Tinh

egion.

29. Chu

Tronguyen,

ich uThanh

ho

Vinh,.

19.

30. Resident

uperieur

e l'Annam

ierre

asquier

RSA),

Arrete,

Hue,

921).

ee

DanielMilo's

rticle

n

treetamesn

Franceor discussionf hemethod

nd

purpose

of

naming

treets

n

France:aniel

Milo,

Lenom

es

rues/'

nLa

Nation,

d.

Pierre

ora,

Les ieux ememoire

Paris,984),

p.

282-315.



13/22

316

Historical


istoriques

consisting

of four

French

and four

Vietnamese

elected

by

limited

suffragequalified by

tax

payments),

nd these

representatives

managed

the

town's

day-to-day

affairs

(common

police

activities,

street

maintenance,

etc.).

Typically

of the same economic

background,

the

members

of the Chambre

romoted

the

city

and

its

efficient

peration

with

ittle onflict ntil

the

mid-1930s,

when leftist ctivists

ccasionally

succeeded

in

electing

candidates.

During

this

time,

French authorities

opened

the area

between the

city

nd

port

to ncreased

development;

he

resident

Vietnamese

mperial

uthorities

ppear

to have

gone along

with

most of the desires of the French n

regards

to these administrative

changes.

However,

the

truggle

ver and

expropriation

or

development

purposes

(particularly

or the railroad

workshops

in

1905 and the air

field

n

1928)

provided

some of the

greatest

ocal

conflicts

hat he town's

leadership

nd its citizens

faced.

On

the West side

of

town,

the

French

nd wealthier

Vietnamese set

up

their residences

and businesses.

The

European

hotels, restaurants,

dry

goods

stores,

government

nd

commercial

ffices,

nd

pavilions

were

located here.31

n the East side of town

were the

houses and businesses

ofmostVietnamese, lthoughsome poorerFrench a widowed French

woman

who sold

charcoal,

for

example)

lived

there as well.

The

Vietnamese

imperial

administration,

which

putatively

ruled

in

cooperation

with the

French,

had its facilities

nside

the Citadel.

French

and

Vietnamese former esidentsof

Vinh

recall

how

the

city's

streets

were

lined with

ovely

pine

and

plane

trees,32

lthough

one Vietnamese

informant

emembers how

very

modest

Vietnamese

housing

was

in

comparison

o that

provided

to the French.33

n

the few

surviving

mages

of

colonial-era

Vinh

that have

seen,

the

city

streets

resemble

those of

Aix-en-Provence, ut the buildings are a mixtureof Vietnamese and

Western rchitecture

narrow

Vietnamese

buildings

with

an

open-front

shop

on the first loor

and a

half-story

iving

space

above and broad

Western-style

uildings

with

windows and

doors).

By

1939,

Vinh

and

its

immediate

region reportedly

had over

100,000

nhabitants.

t

covered

31.

Although

s

Dilip

Basu

generalized

n

regards

o olonial

itiesuch

s

Vinh,

he

local

nd

Europeanarts

f own re

n

fact ifficult

o

eparate.

ee

Dilip

Basu,

d.,

The

Rise

ndGrowth

f

olonial

ort

itiesvol.

5,

Monograph

eries,

enter

or

outhnd outheast

Asian tudies

Berkeley,

985),

.

xxviii.

32.

Roger

eannin,nterview

y

uthor,1 November999 ndHoangNgocAnh,

interview

y

uthor,

7November000..

33.

See

Hoang

Ngoc

Anh,

nterview

y

uthor.or

fictionalized

epresentation

f

postwar

inh,

ee

Hoang goc

Anh,

om

ho

ruong

hi

Hanoi

975).



14/22


15/22

318

Historical


of the

1929-1939

Depression,

recovered o earlier

evels.

n

the case of the

industrial

nd

retail

sectors,

he number

of

Europeans

still

seems

high

relative

to their overall

numbers

and

in

comparison

to

their

representative

decline

in

other

sectors.

This

may

also

represent

the

dominance

of

Europeans

in

large enterprises

n

theNorth nd Center.

At

the center

of the town's

population

were Vietnamese

and French

administrators

nd

military

officials.

n

Vinh,

it is

very

evident

that

between

1906 and

1937,

a

large public

sector

became

increasingly

Vietnamese.

The 1936

map

of Vinh

also shows

many

more

government

offices han the 1925

map

of the

city

does.

(Figures

1 and

2)

By

1936,

Vinh

had

an

expanded

Residency;

new tax

office;

ffices

orroads and

irrigation

nd

an

equipment yard

for he Bureau

of

Public

Works;

offices

for

he

agricultural, orestry,

nd

veterinary

ervices;

regular

police

and

Surete

ffice;

nd offices or ourtsof

the tribunal nd

commissaire.

lso,

by

1936,

the

yards

of

the

railroad

company

and

the facilities

of the

garrison

were

much

larger

than

n

1911,

and

Vinh

had

an

airport

f its

own.

However,

the

people

who

occupied

these

buildings

and

spaces

were

increasingly

Vietnamese. The

Depression

had

encouraged

the

Frenchto expand a process theyhad begun afterWorld War I. They

turned over

more and

more of the colonial

government

to the

Vietnamese,

n

part

as

a

way

to

encourage

positive

relations

nd

in

part

to reduce

overall

government xpenditures

hat

onstantly

hreatened

o

exceed

or

actually

exceeded tax income.

It is

important

o

note that

under

the

Vichy

regime

of

1940-45,

ietnamese

public

employees

earned

only

69% of

the

wages

of their rench

olleagues.

Besides

being

an

important

enter f

government,

inh

was also an

important

eligious

and educational center

forboth

the French

and the

Vietnamese n theregionof north-centralietnam nd centralLaos,with

an

important

unnery,

athedral,

eligious

hospital,

and two

European

secondary

chools,

the

College

e

Vinh

nd

the

Lycee

e

Vinh.

Huyen

cites

a

totalof

1,090

high

school students

n

1940 alone.37

he

Catholic

Church

maintained

about

thirty

European

and

twenty

Vietnamese

religious

workers

n

Vinh,

half of whom

were nuns.

The

provinces

around

Vinh,

Nghe

An

and

Ha

Tinh,

both

had

relatively

significant

Catholic

populations.

The

schools,

regionally

important,

had

probably

five

European

and Vietnamese

instructors

ach,

totalingtwenty

ducators.

Students

ame

from

s

far

way

as Vientiane

nd Savannakhet

n

Laos to

attend school in Vinh as boarders. There were also two important

Buddhist

temples,

but

the

number

of

monks,

nuns,

and

acolytes

in

37.

Chu

Trong uyen,

ich u

Thanhho

inh,

.

21.



16/22

Vinh,

the

Seed

that Would

Grow

Red

319

residence there

cannot

be estimated. This created an

important

opportunity

or Vietnamese

students and teachers

to have

intellectual

exchanges

with the

French

nd,

more

mportantly,

ith each

otherbased

on

the same

terms.

Compared

to other

provincial

ities,

Vinh

was a well-

educated

town,

both

n

terms f

the numbers

of

students

tudying

here

and

the

educational evel of

many

of ts numerous

workers.For

example,

many

railroad workers read

quoc

ngu,

the Romanized

alphabet

for

Vietnamese

dvanced

by

the

French fter

900,

nd

spoke

and

read some

French.

This

made

them

more

able

to

acquire

and

distribute

nformation

among

themselves nd those withwhom

they

met.

The

increasingly harp

discrepancy

between

rural and urban wealth

was one

of

the most

important

onsequences

of

the

re-imposition

f an

export-oriented conomy by

the French on

Vietnam. As the historian

Nguyen

The

Anh

has

noted,

The

cataclysmic

consequences

of the

introduction

f colonial social

and

legal

relationships

hattore the social

fabric

f rural ife ed

in

a

way

naturally

o

social

revolution/'38 s

I

have

suggested,

however,

Vietnam's

towns,

such

as

Vinh,

were

the chief

beneficiaries

f the introduction f

this colonial

economy,

and

in

the

towns the Vietnamesepeople experiencedthe greatest ocial, cultural,

and financial ffects f this

conomy.

The

French

lways

had

greathopes

for he commercial

nd industrial

potential

of

Vinh,

but

the

expense

and

difficulty

f

dredging

the

mouth

of

the Fish River

always

limited the amount

of

cargo

that

Vinh's

port

received or

shipped.

The

railroad

yards

and the

Vinh

railroad station

and

depot

dominated the

city's

industrial sector

as well as the

population

of the town itself.

The

Vietnamese railroad

workforcewas

1,000

n

1905 and

3,300

n

1938.39

eyond

the railroad

yards,

the matches

and wood products factory the Societeindochinoise es forestierest

allumettes,

r SIFA

[The

Indochinese Wood

Products and Match

Corporation])employed

a

few

Europeans

and about

100 Vietnamese

n

1909

and increased ts workforce o

500 Vietnamese

though

probably

no

more

Europeans)

by

1930.40

n

addition to

the rail

yards

and the

match

38.

Nguyen

he

Anh,

Le

mouvemente

protestation

e 1908 ontrees orveest es

impots

u

Centre

ietnam/'

La

Rochelle:

olloque Echanges,

thiques,

t

Marches,

Europe-Asie,

IIe-XXe

iecles

999),

.

2. n

particular,guyen

otes

hat

hanging

he

method

y

which

easants

ad o

pay

axes,

rom

n n-kindo

cash-onlyystem,

aused

the reatestisruptionndgrief.

39.

See

Toan

Viet,

Briefistoryf

he

truggle

t

Trudng

hi

So

Luoc ich

u

Sau

Tranh

Cua

Nha

May rudng

hi),

rans.am

Quang ong

Vinh,964),

.

17.

40. SIFAwasformed

n1922

ut f he

merger

f wo ther ood

roductsompanies.



17/22

320 Historical


istoriques

factory,

inh

also

had

another,

maller

wood

products

factory, ship

chandlery,

nd,

after he

early

1920s,

refrigerated

ood

products

factory

that

probably employed

at

least one

European

and several

Vietnamese.

In

the construction

ndustry,

lways

a

good gauge

of economic

growth,

the

numberof

Vietnamese

owners

dropped

from

welve

n

1932 to six

in

1937. But

only

one

European

appeared

in

this sector

n

1937;

like

public

administration,

he

construction ector

became

a Vietnamese

sector

by

theend of the

1930s.

At

the

heart of

Vietnam's

revolutionary istoriography

re

Vinh's

industrial

workers,

especially

its railroad workers and match

factory

workers.

They played

important

oles

n

strikes hatwere

part

of

arger-

scale

uprisings

n

1930, 1936,

1937,

nd

1945.

They

formed he solid

core

of

Vietnam'snascent

working

lass

and

from heir

numbers

many

future

revolutionary

eaders

appeared.

The

number

of Vietnamese industrial

workers

continually

increased

during

the colonial

period,

and

they

appear

to have lived

in

craft-

nd

denominationally-segregated

illages

near

their

workplaces

between

Vinh

and Ben

Thuy.

For

example,

Catholic

railroad workers

ived

apart

from heirBuddhist

compatriots

n

Lang Bac (NorthernVillage). It appears that, n these villages, many

industrial

workers

kept

in

close touch with

peasants.

The blue

shirts,

as industrialworkers were

known,

changed

into

brown

or

peasants

shirts

during

their

time off.41 ow

political

activists

Communists

and

Nationalists)

targeted

the

city

might

have contributed to the

participation

f ndustrial

workers

n

anti-colonial

ctivities,

ut workers

often

came

to

anti-colonial activism

through

njustices

they

felt their

bosses

perpetrated

n

the

ndividual

hop

workforce

ather han

through

anger

against

thewhole colonial

system.

Commercially,Vinh was the main entrepotand trading center

between

Thanh

Hoa,

130 miles

to the

North,Hue,

200

miles to

the

South,

and

Thakhek,

150

miles

to the West. Much of the town's

economy

was

based on

supplying

the material

nd service

needs of the

Vinh

region.

Local

or itinerant

uppliers

probably

traveled

to the

region's peasant

population.

Plantation and

mine

operators,

however,

had to come to

Vinh

for he

goods

necessary

for

he

operation

of

their usinesses.

Vinh,

as the ocus of

regionaltransportation,

erved

as

the

sale,

processing,

nd

transshipment oint

for raw

materials

produced

and harvested

n

the

region's

hinterlands

or

hecolonial

economy.

41. For

discussion

oncerning

he

changing

dentitiesf

Vinh

workersnd the

consequences

f

that

hanging,

ee Chu

Trong

uyen,

ich u Thanh

ho

Vinh,

.

23.

Likewise,

ee ll

of oan

Viet,

Brief

istory

f

he

truggle

t

Truong

hi.



18/22

Vinhf

the

Seed

that

Would

Grow

Red 321

In

1906,

the

number of

Europeans

in

Vinh's commercial

sector,

including

retailers,

wholesalers,

financial

services,

and other

service

providers,

was

small no more than a

few dozen. The

Vietnamese ector

supplying

the colonial

economy

was

probably

also

quite

small,

perhaps

also

a few

dozen.

By

1932,

the

number of Vietnamese owners

in

the

commercial sector

appears

much

larger

(92)

than the number

of

Europeans

working

n

the

same sector

6).42

By

this

time,

Vinh

had

two

major

hotels,

the Grand

Hotel,

built before

World

War

I,

and

the

newer

Hotelde la

Gare,

uilt

sometime fter

World

War

I. Vinh

remained a

busy

commercial

hub,

with

the

inflation-adjusted

alue of

merchandise

leaving

ts

railroad tation nd

port

quadrupling

between 1919 and

1936.

The Great

Depression

of

1929-1939had

a

significant

mpact

on Vinh's

commercial

ector,

owering

the

numberof

Vietnamese

working

here o

35

by

1936.

By

1937,

the number of

Vietnamese

in

Vinh's

commercial

sector

had

dropped

still

further,

o

30,

but the

number of

Europeans

increased to 9. This

points

to

the

persistence

f

large-scale

commerce

n

the

hands of the

French,

who

faced fewer

Depression-induced

losses

than the

Vietnamese

did,

and who

might

have

catered to an

impoverishedrural clientele.However, as Huyen points out, because

many

of

Vinh's colonial era

residents had

originated

n

the

villages

surrounding

he

city,

he small

commercial

gents

and

workers

of

Vinh

kept

in

close contactwith

their

ountry

ousins

such that

both

groups

knew of

one another's

material

situation.43

n

combination with

the

relatively

well-educated

population

and its

economic

importance,

he

exchange

of

population

between the

city

and the

countryside

robably

worked to

heighten

ts

mpact

as a

source of anti-colonial ctivism.

Conclusion

In

the

scholarship

on

French

colonial

Vietnam,

historians

often

present

he

capital

cities

Marguerite

Duras' white

cities as

symbols

for he

whole of the

colonial

experience.44

While t s truethat

the

capital

cities hosted the

greatest

variety

of

contactbetween the French nd

the

Vietnamese,

and while

more

ample

documentation

ertainly

xists for

42.

The

numbers

resented

ere

nclude hat he uthors

f

he

Adresseseries alled

small

ndigenous

usiness/'

ut

annot

nclude

tinerantr stall-based

erchantsnd

serviceroviders.

43.

Chu

Trong

uyen,

ich

uThanh

hoVinh

p.

23.

44.

Marguerite

uras,

he orth

hina over

trans.

eigh afrey

New

York,

992),

.

73.



19/22

322 Historical


the

history

f the

capital

cities,

they

erve,

believe,

as

only

a

starting

place

for

fully understanding

the

depth

of the

colonial condition

in

colonial

Vietnam.

One

of the most

mportant

ifferences etween

the town

of

Vinh

and

the colonial

capitals

was

the lack

of

any

physical

barriersbetween

the

French

and

Vietnamese

societies.

Although

the

Europeans

tended to

snuggle closely

against

the

walls of

the

citadel

on the western ide

of the

center

f

town,

European

and

Vietnamese

businesses

and residences at

side-by-side long

the

city's

main streets.

maginary

arriers

xisted,

nd

exploring

them would

produce

a rich discussion of how colonialism

functioned

psychologically

n

the

absence

of

physical

barriers.

n

the

context f

a

provincial

ity

without hose

physical

barriers,

he

conflicts,

complicity,

nd

compromises

of

colonialism

become

very

apparent.

In

Vinh,

the

ncreasingpopulation

of Vietnamese

n

government,

usiness,

and

industry

ery obviously

hows

many

Vietnamese

working

with and

even

profiting

rom

colonialism,

though

most

did

not

agree

with the

politics

that came with

it,

as

is clear from

he

history

f rebellion

that

surrounds

he

city.

Of particularimportanceare the exchanges between groups and

across

space

that made

Vinh

an

excellent candidate

for its role as

a

revolutionary

enter,

a role that arose

only

because

of

its

provincial

character.

As noted

above,

Vinh's workers

riginated

n

the

penumbra

of

small

villages

that urrounded

he

city,

nd workers

frequently

eturned

to their

natal

villages

where

they

undoubtedly

exchanged

information

and

ideas

with

village

residents.

Huyen

notes how

the

villages

served

as

the

meeting

places

for nti-colonial

ctivists

or

precisely

hese reasons:

proximity

nd access

to

both brown and

blue

shirts.45

owever,

beyond thebloody uprisingsthatmarked ts colonial-erahistory,Vinh

seems

on the surface

ike a

placid provincial ity

n which the French nd

Vietnamese

must have

cooperated

to make the

city

function,

ven

as

the

citygradually

ost ts Frenchness o a

growing

Vietnamese

presence.

In

addition,

the intellectual nvironment

f

Vinh,

with

its

many

schools and

well-educated

population,

meant

that

deas could

circulate

freely

nd outside

propaganda

could

be

ingested

more

directly.

Vinh

was

known as the

forest f

pens

for he

arge

numbers

of

matriculated,

graduated,

and

failed

students

who lived

there.46

he

newspapers,

bookstores,

nd

cinemas of

the

city

further

inked

Vinh's residents

with

45. Chu

Trong uyen,

ich uThanhho

Vinh,

.

23.

46.

Ibid,

.

22.



20/22

Vinh,

the

Seed

that Would

Grow

Red

323

modern deas

and the

latest

debates,

without

lienating

them,

s

in

the

capital

cities,

from he

countryside.

Vinh

and its

people

remained

more

in

touch

with the bulk of the Vietnamese

population

than did the

Vietnamese

n

the

capital

cities.

By

exploring provincial

cities like

Vinh,

and

by

observing

the

growing

strength

of the Vietnamese sector

of the

economy,

the

increasing

representation

of Vietnamese

within

the colonial

administrative

tructure,

nd the

ncreasing

numberof modern

outlets

of

public

culture

managed by

Vietnamese,

we can better discern

the

impact

of colonialism.

Although

the fullextent f

exchange

betweenthe

French

and Vietnamese remains

unclear,

it

appears

as

if

the

opportunities

or t decreased while the circulation

f

modern,

Western-

influenced

ideas increased.

In

this

context,

the means

for

Vinh

to

transform rom

colonial to an

independent

city

seem

quite

obvious;

only

the

motivations or

Vinh's

many

revolutionaries

eed to be

further

exposed.

In

1973,

the

people

of

Vinh

emerged

from he

caves

in

which

they

had

lived

during

the 1964-1972American

War to rebuild

their

ity.

Vinh

was

deemed the seed that would grow red and achieve socialism. This

rebirth, owever,

had its

roots

n

a rich

and

complicated

revolutionary

history.

The

indigenization

of

colonial

Vinh,

particularly

of

its

administrative

nd commercial

ectors,

ccurred

s

a

resultof

economic

trends,

overnment olicies,

and

processes

of cultural

modernization

ut

without

the

rigid

physical

and

symbolic

racial

separation

that

characterized

Hanoi or

Saigon.

French

administrative

policies

encouraged

local

participation

n

the

colonial

government pparatus

at

all levels.

The

economy

of the

region

round

Vinh

benefited oth

French

and some local interests.A traditionallyvibrant educational and

intellectual

ommunity

n

and around

Vinh

also

gradually

adapted

the

longstanding

ocal anti-authoritarianism

o anti-colonialism.

nlike

parts

of other

colonial-era cities

in

Vietnam,

Vinh

was

not

part

of a

larger

project

of

freezing

the

development

at the archaic

level of the

picturesque. 47

Like colonial Bone or

metropolitan

Toulouse,

city

planners

often acked the resources to create

entire

new

districts

rom

scratch.

They

had to create

hybrids

f

modernity

nd

tradition nd

had

no clear

program

to

fuse the two

together.

This colonial

strategy

produced contradictory

results and

ultimatelyhelped

to stimulate

revolutionary

hange.

47.

Wright,

Traditionn

he ervicef

Modernity/'.

309.



21/22

324

Historical


Figure1.Map ofVinh,1925.FR.ANOM Aix-en-Provence. sie 178. Tous

droitsreserves.


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Vinh the Seed That Would Grow