Selected Modern Vietnamese Stories

Taiwan's First Anthology of Short Stories Translated Directly from Vietnamese

Showcasing the Complex and Diverse Landscape of Vietnamese Literature

What is the spiritual world of people in a country that has experienced colonialism, civil war, division, and reunification?

　　This is Taiwan's first anthology of short stories translated directly from Vietnamese into Chinese, featuring six important works from Vietnamese literature spanning seventy years, including authors from both North and South Vietnam, and both male and female writers.

　　Nam Cao's "Chi Pheo" is often compared to Lu Xun's "The True Story of Ah Q," depicting how a repulsive hooligan in a village becomes a bureaucrat's henchman, living a precarious existence, yet yearns to be a good person after experiencing love. To Hoai's "The Other Three" describes the suffering caused by the Vietnamese Communist Party's land reform policy and how ordinary citizens exploit the name of revolution for personal gain through passive resistance. Nhat Tien's "Sleepless Night" portrays young people who perish easily like grass and mayflies during wartime, and parents in rural areas who wait anxiously for their children to return home. Nguyen Thi Thuy Vu's "An Afternoon" depicts an independent woman who seemingly embraces modern life but still finds it difficult to escape the gaze of colonizers and patriarchy. Nguyen Huy Thiep's "The Daughter of the Water God" describes how the wave of modernity after the Doi Moi reforms affects a strong, uneducated rural youth who, while wandering, striving for survival, and pursuing love, drowns in loneliness. Nguyen Ngoc Tu's "Endless Rice Fields" uses a child's perspective to portray an encounter with a "prostitute" and the brief, warm intimacy shared, presenting the lives of southern farmers living by the water and the violence rural women often face.

　　These classic works present the appearance and spiritual details of Vietnam after experiencing colonialism, civil war, division, and reunification, revolving around rural areas, women, revolution, and the longing for and frustration with modernity, offering diverse perspectives for understanding Vietnam's changes over the past century.

2024-04-02

春山出版

400

9786267236949