The teacher surpasses himself.Professor Dinh Xuan Lam was born in 1925 in Son Tan commune (now Tan My Ha commune), Huong Son district, Ha Tinh province, into a patriotic official family. From a young age, he lived with his father in Thanh Hoa. In 1941, he became a student at Hue National School and graduated with a full Baccalaureate degree. After the success of the August Revolution in 1945, with his well-trained knowledge, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam quickly embarked on a career in education and worked at Dao Duy Tu High School in Thanh Hoa province.
In 1954, North Vietnam was liberated. Despite having spent nearly nine years as a teacher in Thanh Hoa province, at the prime of his career, he moved to Hanoi to pursue a university education. After graduating, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam became part of the first teaching staff of the University of Hanoi, in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Vietnamese History, Faculty of History, under the direct guidance of Professor Tran Van Giau. From a teacher in Thanh Hoa to a lecturer at the University of Hanoi, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam made a crucial first step in his career.
In his research, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam consistently upheld three principles: research serving the nation; ensuring scientific rigor; and aiming for educational goals. However, over time, along with the addition of new historical sources and the renewal of the country's academic landscape, he has repeatedly changed, even contradicting, his own previous views. His analyses of the Vietnamese National Liberation Movement have become more flexible and dialectical, not forcing or confining everything to the framework of class struggle; his new assessments of the Nguyen Dynasty and many historical figures such as Phan Thanh Gian, Nguyen Van Tuong, Phan Dinh Phung, Nguyen Truong To, etc., have also become more objective and fair. Therefore, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam truly became an exemplary teacher who was always innovating.
A mentor who guides and shapes.Besides being a talented and erudite scientist, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam is admired as an exemplary educator, both in talent and character. Having dedicated nearly two-thirds of a century to education, over 60 years of research, and 30 consecutive years as Head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Vietnamese History at the Faculty of History, Hanoi University (now the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi), Professor Dinh Xuan Lam has shaped a model of a teacher with both exemplary and unique characteristics.
Professor Dinh Xuan Lam has trained thousands of students nationwide. Many successful scientists holding important positions in educational institutions, political and social organizations at the central and local levels are direct students of Professor Dinh Xuan Lam.
Professor Dinh Xuan Lam not only made significant contributions to research and training at Hanoi University, but he was also a pioneer in disseminating scientific knowledge to remote areas or places where the country needed it. After the liberation of South Vietnam and the reunification of the country (April 30, 1975), Professor Dinh Xuan Lam was soon invited to be a visiting professor for second-year history students of the following cohorts: cohort 1 (1975-1979), cohort 2 (1976-1980), and cohort 3 (1977-1981) at Ho Chi Minh City University, in the difficult, even relatively "sensitive," context of the 1970s, when North and South Vietnam had just been reunified. Professor Dinh Xuan Lam also belonged to the first generation of Vietnamese higher education experts sent to teach at the University of Madagascar in August 1981 at the invitation of the host country.
A teacher - a fatherGenerations of faculty and students of the History Department generally agree on the assessment of Professor Dinh Xuan Lam's character and teaching style. It was the style of a teacher who was also like a father.
Professor Tran Quoc Vuong assessed Professor Dinh Xuan Lam as "more mature without being timid, more serene without being frivolous, less ambitious without not working wholeheartedly for any expectation or ideal,... His intellectual baggage and manner of conduct have the subtlety and etiquette of Hue culture, the clarity and elegance, and even the romanticism,... of French culture."
His writings are not filled with bombastic language, but are always concise and clear, yet not lacking in sharp observations. He always exudes a dignified and elegant style, yet is approachable, open, and somewhat witty.
During his lifetime, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam once said, "If there is a next life, I would still choose teaching." That statement encapsulates Professor Dinh Xuan Lam's profound love and unwavering commitment to the noble profession of educating future generations.
Never before has the teaching profession faced such immense challenges and changes as it does today. The challenges to teaching are numerous, but perhaps the greatest are internal: the challenge of innovation, of overcoming limitations to adapt and develop. The greater the challenges and the more significant the changes, the more teachers must return to their core values. Exploring and reflecting on the ideal of a teacher in the truest sense – as exemplified by Professor Dinh Xuan Lam – is an opportunity for each of us to rediscover the values of science, love, and ethics, to strengthen our character as teachers, and to be ready to embrace new opportunities.
On February 25, 2025, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, in collaboration with the Vietnam Historical Science Association and the Dinh Xuan Lam History Foundation, organized an exhibition and seminar commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Professor of History and People's Teacher Dinh Xuan Lam. The exhibition and seminar brought together scientists, training and research institutions, and associations founded and developed by Professor Dinh Xuan Lam to collectively research, summarize, express gratitude for, and honor his legacy. This further affirmed the personality and career of Dinh Xuan Lam within the contemporary and future flow of Vietnamese history and social sciences.
Time: 8:00 AM, Tuesday, February 25, 2025.
Location: Building E, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 336 Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi.
The program consists of two activities:1. Exhibitions and displays:Selected photographs and research works depicting the career and life of Professor, People's Teacher Dinh Xuan Lam (Anthropology Museum, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi).2. Scientific seminar:- Session 1: The life and career of Professor, People's Teacher Dinh Xuan Lam.
- Session 2: Professor, People's Teacher Dinh Xuan Lam in the memories of his colleagues and students. |
