-^-for posterity-^-

vietnamese woman’s day is two days off. i was wrong yesterday. it’s actually not even woman’s day. it is the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the woman’s organization. here are some stories of historic vietnamese women.

china had subjugated much of the surrounding area and had exported their cultures and customs. they moved south and tried to assimilate vietnam but without success. the vietamese were happy to take some of their customs (namely confucianism) and many of their technologies but refused to be a vassal state. the first real attack on china came from a female vietnamese noble named trung trac. she was avenging the murder of her husband who did not agree with the politics of china. she rallied other noble women, namely her sister, and they defeated the chinese in 40 ad. one of the women, phung thi chinh, is said to have given birth while in battle, strapped the child on her back and continued fighting. the chinese came back and the trung sisters committed suicide.

another famous lady, trieu au, lead thousands of men into battle with the chinese at the end of the third century. she is said to have ridden on top of an elephant wearing golden armor. she was powerful but was defeated and committed suicide rather than suffer the humiliation of surrender.

today there was a television program that talked about all of the women from keing giang province that fought during the american war. the program focused around the lives of three old ladies. they interviewed them and followed them around listening to their stories. they showed pictures of young, determined women with glassy skin and passionate eyes. the women were old now. their hair was grey and their skin was wrinkled. they told stories with passion as if they had happened only a few days ago.

this place has had an incredible history of war. thousands of years with the chinese, a hundred with the french, a few with the Japanese during world war two and then a few with the british after world war two ended and finally, those hapless twenty odd years with the americans. there is quite a lot of energy in the air here. there’s a lot of enthusiasm. people are proud of their country and are excited to see it grow independently. the television show ended with this line: ‘all of the wars have finally passed and now it is time for us to enjoy peace.’