I read a scientist's blog yesterday about why it's hard to be proud as a Vietnamese. Taking 6 criteria: tradition & culture, economy, education & science, social stability, nature, and global responsibility, he explains respectively why Vietnamese pride is a difficult thing. He quotes a note from a Vietnamese historian: "In general, Vietnamese are smart, but there's hardly a genial individual. They are more into art than science, and prefer vanity to real study. They are a bit superficial, not so persevering. There is little creativity, but much of imitation". He compares Vietnam with Japan, and Australia, where he is living. Then he concludes that Vietnamese in general have nothing to be proud of their nation, if any, that's the future's story. Well yeah, that's all true, but the thing is, there's nothing new about it. And I'm sick of hearing such things. You know where it leads to? Complaint. Dismay.
What strikes me is Vietnamese are so conscious about their nationality, so proud in the past and so ashamed in the present. In school, teachers taught us to be proud of Vietnam, quoting Ho Chi Minh: "Our people are passionate patriots". Growing up that way, we stick our personality to our nationality. One time, me and my colleague went to a business trip abroad. When introducing herself, she proudly said: "I'm Linh. I'm Vietnamese". I thought that only me who was so proud of being Vietnamese, then I realized it was what had been taught, everyone was like that. Now things change. Many Vietnamese people go abroad, mostly developed countries, who wants to see Africa when going aroad? And now they turn around feeling ashamed of their nationality. They often complain how bad this country is, how bad the political situation is, how bad other Vietnamese behave. They always compare Vietnam with developed countries. Vietnam this, Vietnam that. I can smell a bit of national inferority in this.
Other countries, I don't see a that much consciousness or explicit relevance between people and their nationalities. My friends don't mention their nationalities until being asked. A friend introduces himself shortly: I'm J. He is J, that's it. He is an individual, an independent person, not a person who belongs to a specific country. When I asked him if Indian were this and that, he replied curtly: "It's not about Indian, but it's about personalities. Don't put a hat on me 'coz I'm Indian or Vietnamese. Don't equate all the people". What a difference!
Ugly Vietnamese has been a hot topic to write on. A friend once told me to write a book about ugly Vietnamese, he would buy it. I smirked, thanked him and replied: if I wrote any book about that topic, my book wouldn't be about ugly Vietnamese, but about social standard and education made us ugly, and how should we improve that status. I'm fed up with people going around and talking how bad Vietnam is compared with other countries. Sure, Vietnam is no way better than America, Europe, Australia, or Japan. This is an underdeveloped nation. If any thing makes me sad, it's that this nation is not developed in conformity with its resources, not because of it's not in pace with industrial capital nations. But what we can do for the country, that's important. How we, with our best, contribute to the progress and development of Vietnam.
So what can I take from it for myself? Well, Vietnamese think of themselves to vain and not into real study. I'm gonna prove the contrary. I can see that books in the market now are published neglectfully, many books are actually collections of the authors' different blog posts. These books therefore lack of coherence, consistency, and attraction. My book won't be like that. I used to proud of myself to release one of the best graduation thesis in my university (although not the highest graded one), I did a lot of research, market analysis, I was very detailed and meticulous, to make sure that everything was right. So now I'm gonna do 100 times more than that (sorry for the exaggeration, it only means I'm gonna do better than that). Reading books, researching topics, making everything in line. I'm gonna make my book on par with other international best sellers. Making it the most informative Vietnamese travel book ever, making it the best book available in that niche market, making myself crave for it, making readers crave for it. Sound too ambitious? You'll see that I can. Only hard work required.
What can help me to do it better? Well, it's to utilize my night time, 8 - 10PM to research seriously and effectively, and saving all the useful information for the next morning writing. Let me find the way not to fall asleep so early. I slept too much last night and couldn't work as much as I wanted. Good news? I finished Cambodia part, finished it well. Bad news? Didn't read any word about Thailand. Anyway I did have some books about Thailand now. 5 more days to go for the country of smile.
Keep going Rosie.
What strikes me is Vietnamese are so conscious about their nationality, so proud in the past and so ashamed in the present. In school, teachers taught us to be proud of Vietnam, quoting Ho Chi Minh: "Our people are passionate patriots". Growing up that way, we stick our personality to our nationality. One time, me and my colleague went to a business trip abroad. When introducing herself, she proudly said: "I'm Linh. I'm Vietnamese". I thought that only me who was so proud of being Vietnamese, then I realized it was what had been taught, everyone was like that. Now things change. Many Vietnamese people go abroad, mostly developed countries, who wants to see Africa when going aroad? And now they turn around feeling ashamed of their nationality. They often complain how bad this country is, how bad the political situation is, how bad other Vietnamese behave. They always compare Vietnam with developed countries. Vietnam this, Vietnam that. I can smell a bit of national inferority in this.
Other countries, I don't see a that much consciousness or explicit relevance between people and their nationalities. My friends don't mention their nationalities until being asked. A friend introduces himself shortly: I'm J. He is J, that's it. He is an individual, an independent person, not a person who belongs to a specific country. When I asked him if Indian were this and that, he replied curtly: "It's not about Indian, but it's about personalities. Don't put a hat on me 'coz I'm Indian or Vietnamese. Don't equate all the people". What a difference!
Ugly Vietnamese has been a hot topic to write on. A friend once told me to write a book about ugly Vietnamese, he would buy it. I smirked, thanked him and replied: if I wrote any book about that topic, my book wouldn't be about ugly Vietnamese, but about social standard and education made us ugly, and how should we improve that status. I'm fed up with people going around and talking how bad Vietnam is compared with other countries. Sure, Vietnam is no way better than America, Europe, Australia, or Japan. This is an underdeveloped nation. If any thing makes me sad, it's that this nation is not developed in conformity with its resources, not because of it's not in pace with industrial capital nations. But what we can do for the country, that's important. How we, with our best, contribute to the progress and development of Vietnam.
So what can I take from it for myself? Well, Vietnamese think of themselves to vain and not into real study. I'm gonna prove the contrary. I can see that books in the market now are published neglectfully, many books are actually collections of the authors' different blog posts. These books therefore lack of coherence, consistency, and attraction. My book won't be like that. I used to proud of myself to release one of the best graduation thesis in my university (although not the highest graded one), I did a lot of research, market analysis, I was very detailed and meticulous, to make sure that everything was right. So now I'm gonna do 100 times more than that (sorry for the exaggeration, it only means I'm gonna do better than that). Reading books, researching topics, making everything in line. I'm gonna make my book on par with other international best sellers. Making it the most informative Vietnamese travel book ever, making it the best book available in that niche market, making myself crave for it, making readers crave for it. Sound too ambitious? You'll see that I can. Only hard work required.
What can help me to do it better? Well, it's to utilize my night time, 8 - 10PM to research seriously and effectively, and saving all the useful information for the next morning writing. Let me find the way not to fall asleep so early. I slept too much last night and couldn't work as much as I wanted. Good news? I finished Cambodia part, finished it well. Bad news? Didn't read any word about Thailand. Anyway I did have some books about Thailand now. 5 more days to go for the country of smile.
Keep going Rosie.
No comments:
Post a Comment