The Digitizing Vietnam project—a major digital humanities initiative dedicated to preserving and promoting Vietnamese heritage—officially launched its public website on April 11, 2025, during the event “Tongues Lost & Found: Preserving Vietnamese Heritage for Future Generations” at Fulbright University Vietnam.
A collaborative effort between the Vietnam Studies Center and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, Digitizing Vietnam is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation. The project aims to provide open access to a growing body of digitized Vietnamese cultural materials while equipping researchers, educators, and the public with powerful tools for engagement.
Prof. John Phan discussed his latest work on the Vietnamese language.
The launch event featured keynote speaker Professor John Phan (Columbia University), whose presentation “Lost Tongues of the Red River: Annamese Middle Chinese and the Origins of the Vietnamese Language” highlighted the rich, multilingual origins of Vietnamese and challenged monolithic views of national linguistic identity.
At the center of the event was the unveiling of the Digitizing Vietnam platform, which houses:
The platform currently showcases a wide range of collections, including:
Noteworthy contributions also include rare film and manuscript materials, such as a special edition of the 1924 adaptation Kim Vân Kiều, which offer critical value for studies in adaptation and cultural continuity.
Digitizing Vietnam is also developing a number of digital tools to support researchers and students alike:
Fulbright Computer Science alumnus Lê Hoàng Phúc, Digitizing Việt Nam Core Team Member, demonstrated how the Image OCR Platform works.
The event also welcomed Associate Professor Dr. Đinh Điền, who led a live demonstration of Kim Hán Nôm, a Sino-Nom translation tool developed at the University of Science (VNU-HCM). Earlier this year, Digitizing Vietnam contributed 4.7 TB of Sino-Nom data from Columbia University’s archives to enhance the tool’s recognition and translation capabilities.
The event also welcomed Associate Professor Dr. Đinh Điền, who directly guided the audience in using the Sino-Nom translation tool developed by the University of Science, VNU-HCM.
This translation tool is now housed in the platform’s Digital Humanities Tools Library, where it is accessible for further scholarly use and community improvement. Researchers are encouraged to contribute annotation data to continuously refine its accuracy and functionality.
The core team along with advisors & donors
By combining rigorous research, rare archival content, and open-access digital tools, Digitizing Vietnam opens new pathways for learning and re-engagement with the country’s complex cultural and linguistic heritage. The project affirms that even in the digital age, Vietnam’s stories—etched in woodblocks, whispered in verse, and preserved in memory—can be traced through digital ink.
Following the conversation with director Bùi Thạc Chuyên during Fulbright University Vietnam’s Cinema Week, the roundtable "Screen, War, and Peace: Reflections on 50 Years of Reunification" took place on the evening of April 18, 2025, bringing together guests from across generations: directors Phan Đăng Di and Trịnh Đình Lê Minh, Dr. Nguyễn Nam, and student Nguyễn Anh Thư.
Through personal stories and cinematic memories, the discussion opened multiple avenues of reflection on how Vietnamese cinema portrays war—not only as a historical event but as an enduring trauma that continues to shape lives today.
Postwar Identities
Director Phan Đăng Di began with the image of the Vietnamese man across four stages of life—childhood, adulthood, middle age, and old age—captured subtly in his film Bi, Don’t Be Afraid! as a glimpse into postwar life.
"The postwar Vietnamese man is always chasing something unattainable," he shared. In Father and Son, he continued to explore generational fractures:
"Vietnamese society has an extraordinary ability to recover quickly, but it also has an enormous capacity for forgetting."
He emphasized that the lack of connection between generations is a quiet aftermath of the constant upheavals in national history—when memory is not fully passed down, and each generation becomes engrossed in its own separate world.
Women: Silent witnesses of history
While Phan Đăng Di portrayed postwar life through the lens of men, director Trịnh Đình Lê Minh led audiences toward the unspoken realities of postwar women.
In Goodbye Mother, the figure of the Vietnamese mother appears gentle yet resilient in her silence:
"She never complains, but her eyes reveal the depth of her love for her child."
In Once Upon a Time There Was a Love, he describes the film as a "fairy tale love story" and a journey of healing from the wounds of war memory.
"I treasure this work because it allowed me to explore the inner world of women—those who quietly choose between love and duty," he shared.
Throughout war and peace, in his cinematic perspective, women are the ones who mend the wounds of history with silent tenderness.
Gen Z & shared memory
Representing Gen Z at the roundtable, student Nguyễn Anh Thư from Quảng Trị shared her generation's sense of responsibility toward history:
"I grew up with my elders' words: 'Your mission is to live well.' Those words inspired me to tell the story of my hometown through educational tours and community projects."
For Thư, cinema is not only a means for young people to approach history but also a bridge for empathy with memories they never personally lived through—memories conveyed through images and emotions.
From a scholarly perspective, Dr. Nguyễn Nam emphasized:
"Cinema does not merely reflect war; it compels us to question national identity. Amid globalization and deglobalization, the most important thing remains the story of national identity."
For him, works like The Abandoned Field: Free Fire Zone (Cánh đồng hoang) and When the Tenth Month Comes (Bao giờ cho đến tháng Mười) demonstrate cinema’s ability to record "the humanity that survives war."
At the end of the roundtable, participants listened to an excerpt from The Sorrow of War about Kiên—the soldier who lives forever in the springtime of youth, love, and ideals:
"Unaffected by the erosion of forgetfulness, his soul forever lives in the springtime of feelings that have now faded or mutated. Thanks to this, he lives eternally in those painful yet glorious days, those unhappy yet deeply human days—days when we knew exactly why we had to enter the war, endure everything, and sacrifice everything. Days when everything was still young, pure, and sincere."
In this view, cinema—like literature—is a space where people select memories carefully, because there is too much to remember from a long, brutal war. The conversation invited young people to connect more deeply with the memories of older generations, to continue writing new pages from the ashes of war.
On April 14, as the opening event of Cinema Week, the Vietnam Studies Center at Fulbright University Vietnam, in collaboration with the Fulbright Digital Humanities Lab, hosted a conversation titled: “Reimagining History on Screen: The Journey of Địa Đạo with Director Bùi Thạc Chuyên.”
Director Bui Thac Chuyen shared his filmmaking journey with Fulbright students.
This event offered Fulbright students a rare opportunity to meet the acclaimed director behind this haunting film, listen to behind-the-scenes stories, and explore the deep challenges of portraying a fierce yet heroic chapter of Vietnamese history.
Speaking to the audience, director Bùi Thạc Chuyên shared that what touched him most during the making of Địa Đạo was capturing the monumental achievement of the Củ Chi Tunnels — a feat built entirely by the hands, minds, and resilience of the Vietnamese people.
The discussion was led by Dr. Vu Minh Hoang, a key advisor of Digitizing Việt Nam.
In his view, what set the Củ Chi campaign apart was its nature as a true people’s war. Everyone contributed what they had — guns, bamboo traps, and most critically, unwavering spirit, unity, and determination.
“If we speak of strength, [the Americans] were certainly stronger, much stronger. The surface of Củ Chi was laid bare — trees and houses burned to the ground. Yet, the people remained. That was guerrilla warfare. That was people’s warfare. And that spirit of persistence is what the tunnels symbolize throughout the film: Hold on at all costs.”
The battle of Củ Chi stands as a profound testament to the guerrilla warfare model that Hồ Chí Minh and revolutionary leaders advocated — empowering grassroots forces to act independently and creatively. And once entrusted, the people fought with a remarkable ingenuity the world had never seen before.
More than a symbol of resilience and tactical brilliance, the Củ Chi tunnels embody a unique form of "organic" architecture — evolving day by day, shaped by urgent needs rather than rigid blueprints.
“Sometimes one would dig a tunnel branch and knock toward the other side, listening carefully. If sounds echoed back, it meant a tunnel was near — and they'd change direction to avoid colliding.”
For director Chuyên, filming within the tunnels posed a nearly insurmountable challenge: tight, dark, and stifling conditions made traditional cinematography almost impossible.
Thus, “Bringing Sunlight into Darkness” became not just a metaphor for the tunnels themselves, but also for the filmmaking effort — a journey to shed cinematic light on a subterranean history, hidden from the sun.
Fulbright students shared their curiosity about various details in the film.
When asked about the intimate scenes in Địa Đạo, the director responded candidly:
“A war film that’s only about fighting isn't truthful.”
Through in-depth interviews with living witnesses, he realized that behind the heroic narratives were countless everyday stories — deeply human, tender, and poignant.
Scenes of love, intimacy, and longing were integral to portraying the full spectrum of human experience during wartime. Soldiers were not mere fighters; they were people who loved, dreamed, and yearned for normalcy amidst chaos.
Regarding Út Khờ’s unborn child, director Chuyên deliberately left the question of paternity unresolved, embracing a documentary spirit that invites viewers to ponder and interpret.
“Marking 50 years of peace, I knew I had to do something meaningful.”
From the outset, Bùi Thạc Chuyên approached Địa Đạo not merely as a film project but as a mission to record living memory — by seeking out and listening to those who once lived and fought beneath the earth.
Many of them are no longer with us. In this sense, Địa Đạo serves as both a tribute and a spiritual legacy for future generations.
Fulbright students and staff took a souvenir photo with the director.
The film’s stark, emotional, and haunting imagery transported audiences back to a time when war raged fiercely — but so too did humanity and love. For today's youth, it offered a moving glimpse into the brutal realities and profound sacrifices of those who came before.
Titled 50–30: From War to Peace in Vietnam and the U.S, this special event series will take place from April 30 to May 2, 2025, at Columbia University in New York, marking two major milestones: the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States.
Organized by Global Vietnam Studies at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, in collaboration with partners including the Columbia Journalism School, Columbia Global, and the School of the Arts, the program will feature panel discussions, film screenings, exhibitions, and cultural dialogues.
The series aims to open up space for diverse perspectives on the war and the path to peace, revisit conversations left unresolved in the arts and culture, and reflect on the lessons these histories hold for the future of U.S.–Vietnam relations and global conflict resolution.
Bringing together leading historians, writers, filmmakers, artists, veterans, and historical figures from both the war and the reconciliation process, 50–30 promises to be a meaningful and thought-provoking commemoration of these significant anniversaries.
For more details, visit the official WEAI event page.
The Vietnam Studies Center, Fulbright University Vietnam, is delighted to invite you to a special online lecture as part of our Vietnamese Culture Forum—a collaborative series with the Department of Vietnamese Studies at the University of Hamburg.
Memories, Tragedies, Beauty, and Resilience: An Afternoon with Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
Date: Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Time: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM (CEST) / 9:00 PM – 10:30 PM (Vietnam Time)
Location: Zoom Webinar
🔗 Join via Zoom Link
Webinar ID: 680 7584 0760
Password: 86140299
📝 Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/aZCmZY7YQL
Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is one of Vietnam’s most celebrated contemporary authors. Writing in both Vietnamese and English, her works—including The Mountains Sing and Dust Child—have received critical acclaim for their powerful storytelling and exploration of Vietnam’s complex history. Her literary voice resonates with themes of memory, trauma, resilience, and beauty, offering deeply human perspectives on the past and present.
Event Details:
Date: Thursday April 17th, 2025 , 6:15pm EDT
Location: The Heyman Center, Second Floor Common Room, Columbia University
Virtual Registration: Click Here
Book Content Overview:
The Vietnamese language offers a distinctive perspective on the vibrant and interconnected world of premodern Asia. Contemporary approaches to language history are often shaped by nationalist frameworks that seek to reinforce a specific nation’s cultural, social, or political identity. However, a deeper exploration of Vietnamese reveals a complex history of exchange and evolution that transcends the boundaries of modern nation-states.
Utilizing philological, textual, and comparative linguistic analysis, John D. Phan reconstructs the trajectory of a Sinitic language that once thrived in northern Vietnam’s Red River Plain—what he terms “Annamese Middle Chinese.” The rise and eventual decline of this language set in motion profound linguistic shifts, ultimately leading to the emergence of Vietnamese in the early centuries of the second millennium.
By weaving together linguistic, demographic, intellectual, and cultural threads, Phan situates the development of Vietnamese within the broader landscape of East and Southeast Asia’s cosmopolitan past. Lost Tongues of the Red River reveals how language serves as an intimate record of human interaction, offering invaluable insights into the complexities of history and deepening our understanding of the past.
About the Author
John D. Phan, Assistant Professor of Vietnamese Humanities at Columbia University, studies language history to uncover social and political dynamics, focusing on Sino-Vietic contact and the vernacularization of early modern Vietnamese society.
Experts Speaking at this Event
Mark Alves has taught ELAP courses at Montgomery College, researched Southeast Asian linguistics, co-authored ESL materials, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society since 2015.
Robert Hymes, Carpentier Professor of Chinese History at Columbia University, specializes in the social and cultural history of middle period and early modern China, with a focus on elite culture, kinship, medicine, religion, and social networks.
David Lurie, a professor at Columbia University, specializes in premodern Japanese history and literature, focusing on writing systems, linguistic thought, mythology, and the Japanese reception of Chinese texts.
Gray Tuttle, Leila Hadley Luce Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, specializes in modern Tibetan history and Sino-Tibetan relations, focusing on Buddhism’s role and Tibet’s ties with the Qing Empire.
---
For more details, visit the official SOFHCH event page.
The scholarly monograph An Introduction to Chu Nom Grammatology by Prof. Nguyễn Quang Hồng, which was awarded the State Prize in Science and Technology in 2017, has now been officially introduced to Chinese readers through its newly published Chinese edition. Released by Bashu Publishing House in December 2024, the book comprises 520 pages and is part of the Vietnamese Humanities Research Series, curated by Prof. Liu Yuqun.
The Chinese translation was meticulously executed with high professionalism and dedication by translators Liang Maohua, Liu Yaqun, and Huang Tiandan. The translation process began before the COVID-19 pandemic and went through multiple stages of revision and refinement to ensure accuracy and relevance for a Chinese-speaking audience. After years of dedicated efforts, the translated edition was officially completed and published at the end of 2024.
The Vietnamese Humanities Research Series, curated by Prof. Liu Yuqun, is an essential collection that brings together significant research on the languages and cultures of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities. The publication of this Chinese translation marks an important step in bridging scholarly exchanges between Vietnam and China, making invaluable knowledge about the Nom script more accessible to a broader audience.
📖 Read the 2009 book review [here].