Vietnamese and American historical researchers do not know much about each other.

(Photo: Jackie Chan/USSH)

Prof. Dr. Peter Zinoman is Associate Professor of History in the Department of History and the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley; co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Vietnamese Studies. He is the author of The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), and the translator of Vu Trong Phung's novel Dumb Luck into English. His research interests include the cultural, social, and political history of modern Vietnam, as well as the history of 20th-century Vietnamese literature.

Professor Peter Zinoman's talk focused on three main topics:

- History of the formation of the main research directions on Vietnamese history in the US, what factors influenced the development of this field of study?

- Structure and current status of research on Vietnamese history in the US: list of universities, typical scholars and main research works, the influence of those studies on the scientific community and on American political and social life.

- The relationship between historians studying Vietnam in the US and Vietnamese historians, the need for scientific exchange and communication between historians of the two countries in the current context.

The presentation contained quite elaborate and detailed data and research, drawing a fairly comprehensive picture of the development process, influencing factors and research trends on Vietnam in the US up to now.

At the end of his speech, Professor Peter Zinoman emphasized that Vietnamese studies in the US are experiencing the strongest development ever. In the research community, there are young historians who are capable of making their own way, daring to explore interesting and difficult research topics with diverse approaches. Their Vietnamese language ability has also improved a lot, most of them can use Vietnamese and some can do in-depth research with Han and Nom characters. However, there is still a big imbalance in the number of pre-modern and modern researchers.

Talking about the connection between historical researchers of the two countries, Professor Peter Zinoman humorously shared his thoughts: "TMembers of the two historical communities, American and Vietnamese, do not spend enough time reading each other's research.”. American scholars do not know much about the research of Vietnamese historians, nor have they tried to find ways to publish their research in scientific journals in Vietnam. Very few Vietnamese and American scholars have translated their research into the other language so that through translation, their work can reach a larger readership.

The speaker also said: “I think this is a laborious task but worth doing because researchers from both countries have much to learn from the other side.”.

The delegates asked questions and discussed with Prof. Dr. Peter Zinoman many issues related to the presentation content: Clarifying the influence of political factors on the research on Vietnam by American researchers? Why have the works of Vietnamese researchers not received much attention from American researchers? How to delve into difficult topics in Vietnamese history such as land reform, the 1979 border war, and humanistic literature...? How do American scholars approach and exploit historical documents on Vietnam from various sources?