Manzi’s talk series ‘When the past talks’ focusing on on-going and past historical aspects of Vietnam is back in 2017 with the participation of well-known historians and researchers of Vietnam.
‘Structuralism and the Legacy of Kim Dinh’ the 2nd talk in 2017 led by culture researchers Nguyen Phuc Anh will be held on Friday, 07 April. Nguyễn Phúc Anh will demonstrate how philosopher Lương Kim Định translated structuralism as a theoretical framework to explain fundamental principle of Việt Learning (Việt Nho) in his well-known book, “The structure of Việt Learning”.
The Việt in Việt Nho means “the Hundred Yue” who, as Kim Định wrote, was the proto-Han-Chinese inhabitants of the most of China’s and Vietnam’s territory. The “Nho” means either the ancient ancestor of the Hundred Yue, who created “social structures” of the Việt, or the “social structures” itself. He places Việt Learning at the center of the entire East Asian region, arguing that other cultures in the area were merely extentions of the structures. He introduces the methodology of “obscure history” to find social structures through the reinterpretation and comparison of myths, legends, and folklore from diverse traditions. This, he believed, would demonstrate the commonality between cultures and reveal social structures hidden in human subconsciousness.
Phuc Anh will also critically examines the implications of Kim Định’s methodology, his understanding of structuralism. He will argue that his nationalist and ethnocentric conceptualization of social structure is self-contradictory since it suggests all human societies share common structures at the same time that it considers the Việt Learning superior to all other world traditions.
Talk “Structuralism and the Legacy of Kim Dinh” will be held on Fri 07 Apr 2017, 7 pm at Manzi Art Space, 14 Phan Huy Ich, Hanoi.