Learning Han Nom to connect tradition and modernity

Dr. Dinh Thanh Hieu lectures on reading parallel sentences to students majoring in Han Nom at Thai Hoc House, Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam in 2022.

Han Nom heritage - the presence of a thousand-year-old cultural tradition

The Han Nom heritage is a “testimony” to the thousand-year-old Vietnamese cultural tradition. The two Han Nom characters clearly suggest the reality of the nation’s written heritage, an important part of the classical Vietnamese culture. Since Vietnam entered the modernization process in the early 20th century, Han and Nom characters are no longer widely used in society. Han Nom books - the Vietnamese cultural heritage of our ancestors - are no longer read and understood by the majority of modern descendants. This causes the risk of a cultural disconnect between tradition and modernity…

Han Nom plays an important role in today's society, it helps modern people preserve and interpret the written documents left by their ancestors from the past. Han characters have played the role of an official script in Vietnam for millennia. Most of the traditional knowledge in all fields of nature, society and humanities in the East Asian cultural region (China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam) is expressed through this script. In Vietnam, in addition to Han characters, Nom characters are also used. When Vietnam switched to a modern cultural system and used Quoc Ngu, another type of script, it led to a cultural breakdown, a separation in knowledge, culture, education, etc. Therefore, research on Han Nom heritage is essentially the gateway to access the traditional cultural source of our ancestors.

Han Nom students stamping stele at Ho Cong cave, Vinh Loc, Thanh Hoa in 2015

Han Nom and the tradition of a discipline

Han Nom is one of the traditional training majors of the former Hanoi University of Science and of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi today.

The Han Nom training major of Vietnamese universities was established at Hanoi University in 1972, when the resistance war against the US entered its fiercest phase, aiming to train a team of university-level Han Nom workers. This was a special concern and demonstrated the far-sighted vision of the Party and State, to deploy training in a major of ancient studies right during the fierce war years, for the long-term future of the country's culture and academia, so that the future would not be interrupted with the thousand-year-old source of our ancestors' culture.

Since its establishment, the Han Nom industry has gone through half a century of construction and development. The task and mission of the Han Nom industry is to train a team of Han Nom workers who are both proficient in Han and Nom characters and have a firm grasp of modern specialized and interdisciplinary Han Nom research methods; capable of exploiting and introducing the values ​​of traditional culture, directly contributing to ensuring cultural continuity between tradition and modernity. Han Nom graduates from the former Hanoi National University and the current Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities are one of the main forces working on Han Nom in the country at present. Many generations of Han Nom graduates have become leading experts in the field, have had excellent research works on Han Nom and traditional Vietnamese culture, and many have taken on important responsibilities in research, teaching and management agencies.

Currently, the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities is a prestigious Han Nom training institution nationwide, training Han Nom at all three levels: Bachelor, Master and Doctor, with a pioneering mission in training and providing human resources with Han Nom knowledge for Han Nom research and teaching institutions, preserving traditional heritage and cultural management... At the same time, the Han Nom department is also a pioneer in exploiting, researching, and publishing Han Nom heritage and other issues related to Han Nom. That is the pride and also the responsibility of the training institution.

Han Nom Industry - Prospects and challenges in training

From a training perspective, the work of researching and exploiting Vietnamese cultural values ​​from the Han Nom heritage requires that those who are recruited, if they want to develop their expertise well, must have relatively specific and appropriate qualities, while recruitment can only be based on the general level. Regarding the Han Nom knowledge foundation, when students are recruited, they are almost "blank sheets of paper", just starting to learn each Han and Nom character. After four years of university training, to achieve the output standards as currently required is a challenge and requires a lot of effort and investment. Those who graduate from Han Nom, if they work in the right major, will mainly be recruited into State agencies. In fact, the limited personnel quota of State agencies at present is a difficulty for the output of the industry. Many excellent students have good professional prospects but when they graduate, they do not have a suitable job, forcing them to adapt to other career fields, or only have a certain relationship with their major, making it difficult to achieve their "prospects". Most students majoring in Sino-Nom also study a second degree in Chinese, to open the door to adapt to a wider variety of jobs after graduation.

In the future, with the university autonomy mechanism, majors with low enrollment quotas such as Han Nom will face many difficulties and challenges to maintain and survive. At that time, basic science majors in general, including Han Nom major, need to be guaranteed investment and "ordered" by the State. Therefore, the major needs long-term investment and guarantee from the State.

Looking back at the 50-year journey of building and developing the industry, especially the current 10 years, the achievements of the industry are very remarkable, very proud and there is a basis to believe in the industry's prospects in the future. However, it is also necessary to recognize the shortcomings and challenges of the industry in the new context and conditions, to constantly overcome and strive, continuing to build the Han Nom industry to be worthy of the trust of society and the merits of previous generations.

Link to article on Nhan Dan Newspaper:https://nhandan.vn/hoc-han-nom-de-ket-noi-truyen-thong-va-hien-dai-post723722.html