Professor, Doctor, Meritorious Artist Le Chi Que - a true folklorist

Staying at Hanoi University in 1966 - the fierce time of the War against America, but remembering the early days of his career, he never mentioned the difficult and arduous memories but always considered himself a lucky person, because at that time he had the opportunity to meet and learn from teachers whom he called "big trees" in the field of folk literature research, such as: teachers Dinh Gia Khanh, Chu Xuan Dien and Vo Quang Nhon, researchers Vu Ngoc Phan, Cao Huy Dinh, Bui Van Nguyen, etc. From the admiration of the teachers and researchers of the previous class, he constantly improved and developed himself, and in turn, he also contributed to building the foundations for the science of folk literature which was very young at that time in Vietnam. Field trips throughout the country, lowlands, highlands, Northwest, Central Highlands, etc. with teachers and colleagues helped him write valuable works and researches on culture and folk literature, such as: "Classification of folk songs of ethnic groups in the North of our country" (Literature Magazine, No. 6, 1975); “Initial study of the elements of real life and beliefs - rituals in the process of forming "Then"(Literature Magazine, No. 4/1976); “Proverbs, folk songs, folk songs of Ha Tay"(co-author) (Ha Tay Department of Culture and Information published 1975, reprinted 1993); “Riverbank area(co-author) (Hanoi Literature and Arts Association Publishing House, 1979).

Professor, Doctor, Meritorious Teacher Le Chi Que

With a wealth of theoretical and practical knowledge, with a simultaneous focus on Vietnamese folklore and ethnic minority folklore throughout his research, he absorbed the research results of his predecessors and made a breakthrough in building a common genre framework for the folklore of a unified multi-ethnic Vietnam. If before, many researchers tended to distinguish Vietnamese folklore from ethnic minority folklore, thinking that Vietnamese folklore had its own classification framework, different from that of ethnic minority folklore, Le Chi Que escaped the “centrism” trend and put all the works and folklore heritages of both majority and minority ethnic groups into a common classification framework. His recognition of the contributions of ethnic minorities in creating the appearance of folklore of a unified multi-ethnic nation is most clearly shown in the textbook he edited: “Vietnamese folk literature"(Hanoi National University Publishing House, 2004). In this textbook, the system of Vietnamese folk literature genres was established by him, both following a historical process and having typological characteristics (by historical typology method), with genres arranged according to historical process, such as: Myths, Epics, Legends, Fairy tales, etc.

While his teachers, typically Mr. Dinh Gia Khanh, were deeply influenced by French scholarship through their training at French schools in Indochina, Le Chi Que belonged to a generation clearly influenced by Russian scholarship. However, for him, Russia was only a gateway to the world. During his time studying folklore at the Faculty of Philology of Lomonosov Moscow State University, in addition to focusing on summarizing the theories and methodologies of folklore research by Russian scholars, he also actively studied the theories that were popular in the world, at that time the most prominent was the typology theory of Finnish and American folklore researchers, and he struggled to find ways to apply it to the study of folklore in Vietnam. Later, when he returned to Vietnam, he wrote a series of articles ontypology in folk literatureTime in MagazineFolklore(1985-1990) The applied issues of this method were developed by him into chapters in the Vietnamese Folk Literature textbook, which he edited and wrote most of the chapters as a desire to share the knowledge he learned abroad. In 1994, he wrote the articleFinnish folk literature school - theoretical principles and applicability(Literature Magazine, No. 5/1994) to introduce the typological theory of Finnish folklorists and to present prospects for its applicability in Vietnam. He was also the first person to apply the typological theory of the Finnish school to the study of fairy tales and legends in Vietnam, and at the same time, based on typological theory and practice in Vietnam to establish legends as an independent genre of Vietnamese folk literature.

Le Chi Que works on Vietnamese folklore, a subject of study that seems specialized in Vietnam, sounds old and ancient, but he never stops learning and always takes advantage of every opportunity to exchange with the academic world outside. He became a member of the International Association of Folklore Narrative Research very early (in 1995), which is a condition for him to constantly update new trends in folklore research in the world. In 2001, he attended the International Folklore Congress in Melbourne sponsored by the Australian Folklife Association, where he had the opportunity to meet and exchange with famous folklore scholars. In 2004, he went to Korea for 6 months of research under the scholar exchange program of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and presented his research on "Founding myths in Korea and Vietnam” in the Vietnam Studies conference in Seoul in August 2004. Looking outside to learn and improve his own capacity is also the condition that helps him improve his research ability, increase his contribution to the national folklore industry, and at the same time help Vietnamese folklore gradually appear on the international folklore map. Perhaps it is the openness and international integration trend that creates the fate that makes many foreign graduate students and researchers come to him to “seek the master and learn from him”. He is the one who has guided many graduate students and researchers from Korea, China, etc. to successfully defend their theses and dissertations.

During his teaching and working career at Hanoi National University, now the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (VNU), Prof. Le Chi Que devoted all his working time to the Department of Folklore (Faculty of Literature). Always concerned with affirming the position of the field of folklore research, he was the one who realized the separation of the Department of Folklore into an independent department in the Faculty of Literature (in 1985), then contributed to building and adjusting the training program framework for the Doctorate in Folklore so that this program could be put into operation since 1987, and successfully built the Master's program in Folklore (in 2008).

Now, having entered the age of “thập cổ lai hy”, Professor Le Chi Que still does not allow himself to rest. The professor is still constantly concerned with the fate and movement of folk literature in contemporary society. Recently, he and a former student (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngo Thi Thanh Quy) published a research work in the Journal ofLiterary and art criticism theoryNo. 4, 2014, namedTraditional folk literature in society festival Modern Vietnam. Professor Le Chi Que shared that he still yearns for the Vietnamese folklore research industry to develop and stand firm like a tripod with three legs: theoretical folklore, world folklore and Vietnamese folklore. The Professor believes that, in order to contribute to the country's academic foundation, an exemplary folklore researcher must be someone who is knowledgeable about theoretical issues of folklore, knowledgeable about world folklore, and an expert in Vietnamese folklore. With the criteria that the Professor has set out, is the Professor himself a true folklorist?