Wandering through Vietnamese Culture is a compilation of Mr. Huu Ngọc’s “Traditional Miscellany” columns, a popular feature in Việt Nam News for the past ten years. Every Sunday, Mr. Ngọc leads readers on a diminutive yet rich journey into some exquisite detail of Vietnamese culture. Each column is as deceptively simple as a single flower yet simultaneously as complex, for Hữu Ngọc both traces that cultural detail back to its roots and projects its growth into the future. Collected together, these articles become a Vietnamese “host of golden daffodils.”
Hữu Ngọc is a comprehensive scholar. His encyclopedic knowledge spans 3,000 years of Vietnamese history and 1,000 years of extant Vietnamese literature; it includes a thorough acquaintance with Vietnamese music, theater, and art; and it spans the traditions and customs of Việt Nam’s ethnic groups. Yet despite this erudition, Hữu Ngọc’s writing is neither arcane nor academic but instead, active and accessible.
However, this book is not just an eclectic potpourri. Mr. Ngọc’ brief introduction to Vietnamese culture provides a context for the individual cultural traits he explores. Further, scholars, researchers and writers will be grateful for the index. This turns Wandering through Vietnamese Culture into one readable encyclopedia and one comprehensive resource on Vietnamese culture in English.
Vietnamese have a saying: “A day’s journey - a basket of wisdom.” Wandering through Vietnamese Culture is the compilation of a life journey - a view of what is special about Việt Nam as recorded by Hữu Ngọc’s “inward eye”. Readers who wander through Việt Nam with Hữu Ngọc as their guide will find their baskets amply filled.
Ngôn ngữ: tiếng Anh
Khổ sách: 15 x 22,5cm
Số trang: 1268 trang
