Women Writers: July 2022

2022-07-21

KIM THÚY - BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD

Kim Thúy Ly Thanh is an award-winning Vietnamese novelist and short story writer. She and her family were among the thousands of boat refugees following the fall of Saigon. In 1979, they were very well received in Canada, first in Granby, a city located in the province of Quebec , and lastly in Montreal.

The harsh reality of the Vietnam

War The Vietnam War was a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, in the period from 1959 to 1975. This conflict was motivated by ideological issues and had the intense participation of the American army from 1965 to 1973. It is estimated that between 1.5 million and 3 million people died during the war.

On April 30, 1975, Saigon, until then the capital of South Vietnam, was overthrown before the entry of communist forces from the north, marking the end of a nearly two-decade American military intervention in the Asian country. It was a humiliating moment for the most powerful country in the world. After the US left, the North invaded the South and unified the country. In honor of Ho Chi Minh City, who had already died before the end of the war, the government renamed Saigon to Ho Chi Minh Cityin 1975.

From a tumultuous journey from “boat people” to “the happiness gene”

In the spring of 1975, the war in Vietnam ended with the fall of Saigon, followed by an exodus by sea of one million Vietnamese refugees who were later called "boat people". To escape the repressive communist regime, her parents, she and two other siblings, fled by boat when she was ten years old.

After a stay in Malaysia they spent four months in a camp run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, before a Canadian delegation selected their parents for refugee status on account of their proficiency in the French language. In late 1979, Thúy and his family arrived in Granby, a city located in the province of Quebec.

Shortly afterward, his father was offered a job as manager of the Castel Hotel. This first welcome gesture and the unconditional support of her parents greatly influenced Kim Thúy's life. Her father passed on the “happiness gene” and her mother taught her to overcome her fears, giving her the right tools that transformed her into the strong, committed and passionate woman she is today.

Education and early career

In 1990, she obtained a bachelor's degree in linguistics and translation from the University of Montreal. In 1993, at the same university, she graduated with a law degree. She was also a seamstress, cashier, translator, interpreter, gastronomic commentator and restaurateur (person who professionally opens and manages restaurants). Working as a lawyer at Stikeman Elliott, she was assigned to help with a project in Vietnam. She returned to her country as part of a group of Canadian experts advising communist leadership on the road to capitalism.

Back in Montreal, Thúy opened a restaurant called Ru de Nam, which specializes in modern Vietnamese cuisine. She worked as a restaurateur for five years. Thanks to a former sponsor of her restaurant, she got a publishing deal for Ru, her first book. Published in 2009, the work received immediate critical acclaim and several prestigious awards.

Beauty will save the world

Kim Thúy's life mission is to slow down people's lives so that they see all the beauty that surrounds them. As she so well says: if we stop for a while, this is where the extraordinary emerges and reveals itself. When Kim finds herself speaking in public, the outside world no longer exists for her. In these intimate moments, she and her audience form a cocoon, a bubble; time stops and from there emerges wealth and beauty. One of his mottos is a famous quote by Dostoevsky: Beauty will save the world. For Kim, the ability to see the beauty of this world is our only weapon of resistance against all forms of threats and uncertainties.

Literary works

Ru (Em, in French) - in French, ru means small stream and in Vietnamese, cradle and rock. In the midst of the war, a common miracle: a baby abandoned lovingly cared for by a boy who lives on the streets of Saigon. The boy is Louis, the son of a long-lost American soldier. Louis calls the baby Hồng, which means “little sister” or “beloved”. Even if your crib is nothing more than a cardboard box, Em Hồng's life has all the possibilities.

Through the linked fates of a family, the novel draws inspiration from historical events, including Operation Babylift, which evacuated thousands of biracial orphans from Saigon in April 1975, and the remarkable growth of the nail salon industry, dominated by Vietnamese expatriates. spread around the world. From the rubber plantations of Indochina to the massacre at My Lai, Kim Thúy sifts through layers of pain and trauma in stories we thought we knew, revealing transcendent moments of grace and the invincibility of the human spirit.

À toi (For you - 2011) - at a literary event in Monaco, she met the French-Slovak-Swiss author Pascal Janovjak. The meeting gave rise to a correspondence that later became a book. The work tells the story through memories and anecdotes, of two children in exile and a nomadic life.

Mãn (Libre Expression, 2013) - Mãn has three mothers: her biological mother in times of war, the nun who pulls her out of a vegetable garden and her beloved Maman, who becomes a spy to survive. Seeking safety for her grown daughter, Maman finds a husband for Mãn - a lonely Vietnamese restaurant owner who lives in Montreal.

Launched into a new world, Mãn discovers her natural talent as a chef. Gracefully she practices her art, with food as her medium. She creates dishes that are much more than sustenance for the body: they evoke memory and emotion, time and place, and even bring her customers to tears.

Vi (Libre Expression, 2016) - youngest of four children and only girl, Vi was given a name meaning "precious, little one", destined to be pampered and protected, the family's little treasure. The daughter of an enterprising mother and a rich, spoiled father who never had to grow up, the Vietnam War destroys the life they knew. Vi, along with his mother and siblings, manages to escape - but his father stays behind, leaving a painful void as the rest of the family must seek a new life in Canada.

As her family takes root, life has different plans for Vi. As a young girl, she finds the world opening up to her. Taken under the wing of Hà, a worldly family friend, and her diplomat lover, Vi tests personal boundaries and crosses international ones, letting the winds of life beat at her. From Saigon to Montreal, from Suzhou to Boston to the fall of the Berlin Wall, she witnesses the immensity of the world, the intricate fabric of humanity, the complexity of love and the infinite possibilities before her. Always the quiet observer, somehow she must find a way to finally take her place in the world.

Le secret des Vietnamiennes (Montréal: Trécarré, 2017) - cookbook containing more than 50 Vietnamese recipes, often accompanied by a short text, a book excerpt or an anecdote, allowing the reader a glimpse into the author's unique universe. She demonstrates an undeniable talent for telling stories from the heart with subtlety, humor and truth.winner Gold/or Taste Canada dans la catégorie Langue française: Livres de cuisine régionale et culturelle.

In 2019, the book was published in English as Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen: Simple Recipes from My Many Mothers.

Autism explained to non-autistic people - In 2017, writing as the mother of an autistic child, she was a collaborator of the book L'Autisme expliqué aux non-autistes (“Autism Explained to Non-Autistic Persons” - Trécarré) by Brigitte Harrisson and Lise St- Charles, founders of the Saccade communication method. Kim finally managed to understand and be understood by her son Valmond. The book is a collaboration between Kim Thúy and the two specialists (Brigitte herself is autistic). The objective of the book is to share with other families the benefits of this method for a better understanding of this disorder and its implications.

In August 2016, Thúy replaced storyteller Fred Pellerin as Quebec's representative for Le Robert (Le Petit Robert, among others).

As a member of the board of the CALQ - Conseil des arts et des lettrés du Québec, Kim Thúy received the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Tolerance. She was named a Knight of the Ordre nationale du Québec and received the Médaille d'honneur from the Assemblée nationale du Québec. She has also been a spokesperson for Petit-Robert since 2016 and her name appears in the 2018 issue of Robert Illustré.

Awards and honors

For Kim Thuy, receiving an award is more than recognition; it's an opportunity for her to talk about where she came from, the culture that raised her, the people that supported her, but most of all, it's a chance for her to give a voice to the voiceless. The public often asks her questions about refugees and immigrants, subjects she is always motivated to talk about. Most of the time, refugees and immigrants have no voice, no face, no history, no life. Kim takes on the responsibility of humanizing them; a responsibility she considers greater than her writing and greater than herself.

In November 2013, Thúy was the guest of honor of the Montreal Salon du livre , and in February 2014, she became the honorary president of the Outaouais Salon du livre.

Links used and suggested

Candid moments with Kim Thuy ֎ Kim Thuy on writing Ru

Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen ֎ Discussion Vi by Kim Thúy

Guerra do Vietnã ֎ La guerra de Vietnam ֎ The Vietnam War

Candid moments with Kim Thuy ֎ Kim Thuy on writing Ru

Secrets from My Vietnamese Kitchen ֎ Discussion Vi by Kim Thúy

Guerra do Vietnã ֎ La guerra de Vietnam ֎ The Vietnam War

Toronto Metropolitan University ֎ Edbookfest

Plural Curitiba ֎ Wikipedia

Frwiki ֎ Canadian Immigrant ֎ Redacción

Wikipedia Español ֎ The Canadian Enciclopedia

Womens´Fondation ֎ CBC Canadian

Who was Ho Chi Minh ֎ Quem foi Ho Chi Minh

¿Quién fue Ho Chi Minh? ֎ Operation Babylift

Outaouais Salon du livre ֎ New ways of understanding autism

2022-07-09

LYDIA KOIDULA, THE AWAKENING OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE UNITY OF THE PEOPLE OF ESTONIA

From foreign domination to Estonian nationalist sentiment

Lydia Emilie Florentine Jannsen, poet and prose writer, known as Lydia Koidula, was born on December 24, 1843, in Vana - Vändra, Estonia. His father, Johann Voldemar Jannsen, authored the lyrics of the current national anthem of the Republic of Estonia and founder of the Pärnu Postimees and Eesti Postimees. Lydia is known in the history of Estonian Literature as a lyric poet. Author of several collections of poems, she reached her artistic peak between 1860 and 1880. She sought, with her poems, to awaken national consciousness and the unity of the Estonian people. Many of these poems became popular songs over time.

Estonia is a country located in Northern Europe, bordered by the Baltic Sea and bordered by the Gulf of Finland. From the 10th century onwards, Scandinavian Vikings advanced through the region and ushered in a period of intensification of foreign occupations in the Baltic countries, including Estonia. The country passed under the rule of Danes, Catholic orders, Swedes, Germans and Russians.

The Germans invaded Estonia in the 13th century and came into direct conflict with the Vikings. German rule extended until the 16th century. Latvia and Estonia formed the Livonian Confederation. With the end of the confederation, Estonia was incorporated into the Swedish Empire, which now encompassed much of the Baltic region.

While a rich folk culture of songs, fairy tales, proverbs and riddles flourished in the villages, there was still no Estonian literary language and literature. The urban intelligentsia was under strong German and later Russian influence. Poverty and ignorance roamed the countryside, while foreign languages and traditions took over Estonia's cities.

Inspired by traditional Estonian folklore and Kalevala, Finland's Friedrich Robert Fählmann (1798–1850) and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882), an Estonian physician and writer considered the father of national literature, spent three decades collecting legends, myths and old songs of your nation. At this point, Estonian intellectuals, influenced by the spirit of romantic nationalism, asked scholars to "give the nation an epic and a story; the rest would be earned".

From 1857 to 1861, encouraged by the Estonian Scholar Society, founded in 1838, Kreutzwald published the epic work in its final form of 18,993 lines under the title Kalevipoeg (The Son of Kalev, Father of Heroes). Powerful and agitated, Kalevipoeg ends with the prophecy that one day Kalev's son will be freed by fire from the rock that holds him prisoner, and Estonians will once again be a happy and prosperous people.

Period National Awakening in Estonia

When Koidula began publishing his works in the 1860s, the political and literary climate was quite authoritarian. Despite this, it was the moment of national awakening when the Estonian people began to feel national pride and to aspire to self-determination. Koidula was the most articulate voice of these aspirations.

The Era of Ärkamisaeg (Estonian Awakening) is a period in history when Estonians recognize themselves as a nation deserving the right to govern itself. This period begins in the 1850s, with greater rights being granted to commoners, and ends with the declaration of the Republic of Estonia in 1918. However, in 1940, the country was dominated by the USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The recovery of its sovereignty only happened in 1991, with the end of the USSR.

Movement Biedermeier

Biedermeier is the term by which a popular style became known in Germany and Austria, resembling a simplified imitation of the style of the French empire that preceded it. The movement lasted from 1815 to 1848. The term became derogatory because it designated an art valued as petty bourgeois taste, typical of the Germanic middle class of the first half of the 19th century. However, for many Germans this predilection was a virtue and symbolized sobriety, simple and domestic feelings.

In Literature, the term Biedermeier first appeared in literary circles in the form of a pseudonym, Gottlieb Biedermaier, used by rural physician Adolf Kussmaul and lawyer Ludwig Eichrodt in their work Fliegende Blätter (Flying Leaves), a collection of poems that the duo had published in Munich.

The patriotic poetry of Lydia Koidula

The most significant part of Koidula's creation is her patriotic poetry. The nationalist spirit that claimed the native culture and language in some lands subject to the Russian Empire was a very thorny issue at that time. However, in 1857, during the liberal reign of Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881), Lydia's father managed to convince the censorship and publish the Pärnu Postimees, the first Estonian-language daily newspaper that circulated until 1863. In the same year, he founded the Eesti Postimees whose content was similar to the previous one. Lydia helped her father edit both newspapers. In 1865, at the age of 22, and under the pseudonym L, she published her first poem entitled Koddo (House), at the Eesti Postimees.

In 1850, her family moved to a county near Pärnu, and in 1864 to the city of Tartu. Perhaps nostalgia for her homeland was what inspired her to write her romantic poetry. She constantly refers to her country and her people who for centuries lived in conditions close to slavery by Baltic-German barons.

In the first anonymous collection of 1866, called Waino-Lilled (Flowers of the Prado); she followed the German Biedermeier of sensitive idyllic poetry. Most of the poems are based on models and some of them already sound a note of patriotism, which would become their mission.

In 1867, in the second also anonymous collection, called Emmajöe Öpik (The Nightingale of Emajõgi), she appears as a bard of the nation, whose romantically exultant verses expressed the feelings and thoughts of a nation awakening to a new life. Bard, in ancient Europe, was the person in charge of transmitting stories, myths, legends and poems orally, singing the stories of his people in recited poems.

Later, bards would be called troubadours. The musical and literary traditions that they passed on to successive generations gave rise to the songs of gesta. To play his music, the bard often used a lute, a stringed instrument, of Arabic origin, with a sounding board in the shape of a half pear and a long neck. Bards often told sad stories or epic poems, accompanied by lyres or harps.

The German influence on Koidula's work was inevitable. Baltic Germans held hegemony in the region since the 13th century. Throughout German, Polish, Swedish and Russian rule, German was the language of instruction and intelligentsia in 19th century Estonia.

The Estonian language as a communication tool in Koidula's works

The Estonian literary tradition started by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, continued with Koidula. While The Bard of Viru folk traditions regivärss Estonian, Koidula wrote in modern Western European rhyming meters, the dominant form in the mid-19th century.

As a result, Koidula's poetry became much more accessible to the popular reader. However, its greatest importance lies not so much in its preferred form of verse as in its powerful use of the Estonian language. Estonian, in the 1860s, was still restricted to a Baltic province of German-dominated Imperial Russia. It was the language of the oppressed peasant.

The Estonian language remained the subject of orthographic disputes, still used primarily for predominantly paternalistic educational or religious texts, practical advice for farmers, or cheap, light-hearted folk tales.

Therefore, the importance of Koidula's poetry is not in the type of poetic verse, but in the unbridled and explosive use of the Estonian language, as a means of emotional and poetic discharge. She has successfully used the vernacular to express emotions ranging from an affectionate poem about the family cat in Meie kass (Our cat) to a delicate love poem Head ööd (Good night) to the vindictive Mo isamaa, nad olid matnud (My country, they buried it). With Lydia Koidula, the colonial view that the Estonian language was an underdeveloped instrument of communication was demonstrably contradicted.

Pioneer in Estonian dramaturgy

In Estonia, in the early 19th century, theater was not appreciated and many writers considered dramaturgy and theatrical art of little importance, even though Kreutzwald translated two tragedies into verse.

In 1865, in Tartu, the Jannsens founded the Vanemuise Selts (Vanemuine Society) with the aim of promoting Estonian culture. Lydia was the first to write original plays in Estonian and to tackle the practical aspects of stage direction and production.

In the late 1860s, both Estonians and Finns began to develop work in their native languages. Koidula wrote and directed, for the Vanemuine Society, the comedy Saaremaa Onupoeg (Saaremaa's Cousin) at Midsummer 1870. The play, considered the beginning of Estonian-language theater, was based on the farce by Theodor Körner Der Vetter aus Bremen (The Cousin of Bremen), adapted to an Estonian situation. The characterization was rudimentary and the plot simple but popular. That is why Lydia Koidula is considered the founder of Estonian theater.

Koidula's relationship with the theater was influenced by the philosopher Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (German playwright, philosopher and art critic, considered one of the greatest representatives of the Enlightenment, also known for his criticism of anti-Semitism and defense of free thought and religious tolerance). He was the author of the play Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (The Education of the Human Race, 1780). His works considered didactic were a vehicle of popular education.

Koidula's theatrical resources were rare (inexperienced actors, amateurs and women played by men), but what impressed his contemporaries was the gallery of believable characters and knowledge of contemporary situations. Much smaller in scale, but pioneering, is the dramatic work created by Koidula and his activities in establishing the Estonian stage.

Her plays, modest and simple under the circumstances, initiated a veracity in people's lives and idealistic thinking on the Estonian stage, which is why they were repeatedly performed in later years.

Biography

Lydia Emilie Florentine Jannsen was born on December 24, 1843 (although some biographies indicate that she was born on December 12), in the town of Vana-Vändra, County Pärnu, in the former province of Livonia. She was the daughter of political and cultural activist Johann Voldemar Jannsen, founder of Pärnu Posttimees, the first Estonian-language newspaper, in 1857, and of Eesti Postimees, in 1863. He also authored the lyrics of the current national anthem of the Republic of Estonia: Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm (My native land, my happiness and joy', 1869). Her mother was German and little is known about her.

In 1850, her family settled in Pärnu, where she studied at a German girls' school (1854-1861), and in 1862, she successfully passed the University of Tartu exam and obtained a tutor's diploma.

In 1863, the whole family moved to Tartu (Dorpat at the time), the most liberal city in Estonia. In 1869, Johann Voldemar Jannsen was the key person in the beginning of the Lalupidu song festival tradition. Bringing together choirs from all over the country, the festival has become the most important cultural event for Estonians and a fundamental support for their conscience as a nation.

In 1873, Lydia married Edward Michelson, a Latvian student at the University of Tartu. They moved to Kronstadt, where he worked as a military doctor. In 1874, their first child, Hans Waldemar was born; two years later a daughter, Hedwig, was born, and in Vienna, a second daughter, Anne, was born in 1878. Between 1876 and 1878, the Michelson family traveled to cities such as Wroclaw, Strasbourg and Vienna. A cancer victim, Lydia died in Kronstadt, near Saint Petersburg (Russia), on August 11, 1886.