Nhất Linh
Nguyễn Tường Tam better known by his pen-name Nhất Linh was a Vietnamese writer, editor and publisher in colonial Hanoi. He founded the literary group and publishing house Tự Lực Văn Đoàn in 1932 with the literary magazines Phong Hóa and Ngày Nay, and serialized, then published, many of the influential realism-influenced novels of the 1930s.
In 1935, Nguyễn published a satirical and fictional travelogue about his time in France, Going to the West. His aim was to show that the French colonialists did not grant to the working classes in Vietnam the same rights they accorded to workers in France. In addition to Nhất Linh, scholars have noted that the many Vietnamese westernized elites returning from France had been embracing the French "ideal of progress" as a lens to imagine Vietnam in a modern light of social equality and democracy. During this time period, he also wrote Đoạn tuyệt, a novel about a highly individualist woman trapped in a loveless marriage. This book was widely read and saw many reprints and reissues over years. The novel also attracted much controversy, because it condemned and criticized many major tenets of traditional Vietnamese culture. It was part of South Vietnam's high school curriculum until 1975.
In the 1940s he organized a political party, Đại Việt Dân Chính. Tam fled to China where he was arrested on the orders of Zhang Fakui, who at same time had arrested Ho Chi Minh. This faction soon merged with the larger Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng and later this too merged into the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng.
After release from China Nhất Linh returned to Vietnam in 1945 to become Foreign Minister in the first coalition government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. He was chief negotiator with the French in Dalat in April 1946 and was to have led the delegation to France. However, fearing Viet Minh assassination, he fled to Hong Kong and resided there 1946–1950. On his return to Vietnam, to the South, he avoided politics and concentrated on literary activities. This did not prevent the Ngo Dinh Diem regime of accusing him of involvement in the 1960 attempted coup. Nhat Linh denied this, and due to lack of evidence, the police did not seek to arrest Tam till 1963. Tam committed suicide by ingesting cyanide, leaving a death note stating "I also will kill myself as a warning to those people who are trampling on all freedom", the "also" probably referring to Thich Quang Duc, the monk who had self-immolated in protest against Diem's persecution of Buddhism a month earlier.
Works
Novels
- Gánh hàng hoa
- Đời mưa gió
- Nắng thu
- Đoạn tuyệt
- Lạnh lùng
- Đôi bạn
- Bướm trắng
- Xóm cầu mới .
- Giòng sông Thanh Thủy .
- Ba người bộ hành
- Chi bộ hai người
- ''Vọng quốc''
Stories
- Nho phong
- Người quay tơ
- Anh phải sống
- Hai buổi chiều vàng
- Thế rồi một buổi chiều
- ''Thương chồng''
Essay
- ''Viết và đọc tiểu thuyết''
Travelogue
- ''Đi Tây''