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Life in Colonial Vietnam: Subtext
Tran Tu Binh The Red Earth: A Vietnamese Memoir of life on a colonial Rubber Plantation.
This book by Tran Tu Binh about a boy that endures the colonial mistreatment on a rubber plantation significantly parallels the accounts that were encountered during the Colonial prison era. This memoir expresses the similarities of how his experiences as a worker on a French rubber plantation mimicked the lives of Vietnamese prisoners during this oppressing time of the Vietnamese people. Even though The Red Earth accounts were credited toward a rebelling Communist faction it appears that their are more Communistic ties within The Colonial Bastille due to its vast majority of political prison scholars.
Truong Buu Lam Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism 1900-1931. Chapter 2.
Chapter 2 of this book by Truong Buu Lam is primarily focused toward the Vietnamese perception of colonialism during the French Regime. This chapter accounts for many of the hardships that the Vietnamese peasants faced during this period and provides detailed accounts of the oppression that these people faced. This perspective is solely from the view of a Vietnamese peasant and deals with issues such as high taxes, land concession, government monopolies, and labor camps.
2 comments:
The novel The Red Earth is a great subtext to use. The use of Tran Tu Binh’s novel is great in that it gives along with these other individuals a first hand account of the events during French rule. Maybe a couple of specific examples from this text about how the French treated these workers and the Vietnamese people in general would aid in gaining interest in this text. Another subtext that could be tied in is the book 1945 by David Marr. In his book, Marr talks about the downfall of the Colonial Bastille.
The Red Earth is a great first hand account that show the actions of actual workers in the communist movement. The conditions at first were very brutal, but as time went on they were able to gather the masses and fight for more rights. It would be more beneficial to a reader to include a few more subtexts to offer more insight into the topic, but this is definitely a book that illustrates some of the points you are trying to make.
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