Newsletter

Editor's Notes: The ongoing Northeast Asian conflicts over territorial disputes and historical issues are at a new juncture this year when a new administration is formed.
For this month's NAHF News, Professor Yu In-sun was invited for an interview. He is the one who, at the International Conference Celebrating the 300th Anniversary of the Erection of the Mt. Baekdu Border Monument hosted by the NAFH in June last year, suggested that "more attention should be paid to the art of diplomacy adopted by the Le Dynasty of Vietnam in their relations with the Qing Dynasty of China if were to find a solution to territorial conflicts among the three Northeast Asian countries." The interview conducted by NAHF Research Fellow Kim Jung-hyun is presented below.

Q Kim Jung-hyun You are known to the Korean academia as one of the best experts in the history of Vietnam. What made you become interested in the history of Vietnam and committed to the lifelong research and education of the subject?

A Yu In-sun It's been 46 years since I began studying the history of Vietnam. The reason why I decided to major in the history of Vietnam is related to the Vietnam War. Once the U.S. sent in ground forces to Vietnam in the spring of 1965, South Korea followed suit by dispatching combat units in the fall of the same year. As the Vietnam War was escalated, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries were being studied vigorously across the United States. My supervisor, former president of Korea University Kim Jun-yeob, who was making frequent visits to the U.S., saw that Southeast Asia would need to be studied in Korea as well, and encouraged me to study Southeast Asia with interest. He also suggested that a good place to start would be Vietnam, a country with a culture similar to Korea's. The idea of exploring the uncharted field of Vietnamese history appealed to me, and it got me started on a path that would become my lifelong career.

Q Kim Jung-hyun It is thought that Vietnam is similar to Korea on many levels. If you summarized the similarities and differences between the histories of Korea and Vietnam, what would they be? And what lessons could we learn from understanding the history and culture of Vietnam?

A Yu In-sun I can see that we Koreans draw a parallel between the histories of Korea and Vietnam from each country's relationship with China. Before modern times, both were tribute states to China and absorbed Chinese culture, notably Confucianism. Actually, that's why both nations refused to open up and succumbed to the invasions of imperial powers, being colonized and then divided between the north and the south after World War II.

But in my opinion, Vietnam was not as thorough as Korea in assimilating Confucian culture, due to the domestic political situations during the 16th to 18th centuries. That may also explain why Vietnam has not developed a clan system as complex as the one found in Korean society. Another difference is that while Korea's source of cultural influence was primarily from China for geopolitical reasons, Vietnam exposed itself to South Asian culture from early on by marching southward in what they call the history of southward advance. In this respect, I think that we should expose ourselves to more various cultures than a single one so that we could learn from their strengths and weaknesses.

Yu In-sun

Q Kim Jung-hyun When you published The History of Vietnam (1984), it was highlighted as the first of its kind ever published in Korea. And when you published A New History of Vietnam (2002), it helped us better understand Vietnam. Your latest book, Vietnam and its Neighbor China, published late last year, was also in the news. What were the messages that you tried to give the readers of these books?

A Yu In-sun In writing both The History of Vietnam and A New History of Vietnam, my focus was on Vietnam's political history. It was my intention to begin writing books centered on political history because I thought that Koreans who were not familiar with the history of Vietnam would need to understand its outline first. Vietnam and its Neighbor China, on the other hand, was intended to challenge the bias toward China in the past studies of bilateral relations; I intended to place Vietnam at center stage, not as a neighbor of China, and show how it had positioned itself in its relations with China. In other words, I wanted to present the results of studies that placed emphasis on the autonomy of Vietnam.

Q Kim Jung-hyun Vietnam is known to have adopted a very unique style in engaging diplomacy with China. What should we take note of, if any, from Vietnam's (tributary) diplomacy with China?

A Yu In-sun The rulers of Vietnam, although referred to as 'kings' in their tributary relationship with China, were invariably designated as emperors and used era names once the Din Dynasty (丁朝, 966-980) was established, the second dynasty built after Vietnam broke free from the rule of China. I even think that throughout the history of Vietnam, Vietnam's position on China in international relations was the kind that could be found only in the contemporary history of diplomacy. At least ostensibly, they established an equal relationship with China. For instance, when referring to sending envoys to China, they used the expression 如宋, using the character '如' meaning 'go to' instead of the character '貢' meaning 'paying tribute to.' The character '如' is also found in the term '如凊使' which referred to envoys to China (Qing). They also referred to their relationship with China as '邦交,' meaning state-to-state relations. Unlike Vietnam, Korea has not used era names, other than a few from the Silla Dynasty and the ones used by Taejo and Kwangjong of Goryeo. It is my understanding that the abolition of era names during the Goryeo period has to with the attempt to strengthen royal authority.

Q Kim Jung-hyun You have once said that Qianlong Emperor of Qing's expedition to Vietnam being counted among the Ten Great Campaigns during his reign, even though it failed, was a good example illustrating how Sino-centered the emperors or ruling class of China had been. If there was any other example of the Sino-centered view of history, and if there was any parallel example in Sino-Korean relations, what would they be?

A Yu In-sun The Chinese believed that their superior culture and rich resources were the reasons that their small neighbors came and surrendered to them. But the truth is that their tributary relationship was closely connected with China's military power. In other words, if China became weak, it was difficult for the tributary system to be maintained. If that was the case, Chinese World Order would be reduced to nothing but self-delusion. An illustrative example of this is the 1899 edition of the book Da-Qing huidian (大淸會典) which stated that Vietnam and Korea were still tributary states to Qing, even though Qing admitted earlier that Vietnam was a protectorate of France and Korea a completely independent state in the treaties they signed each with France and Japan after their defeats in the 1884-1885 Sino-French War and the 1894 Sino-Japanese War, respectively.

Q Kim Jung-hyun You said earlier that Vietnam had stressed state-to-state relations as the defining characteristic of its diplomatic relations with China which was by no means a hierarchy. You also said that with changes in China-Vietnam relations, the order of foreign envoys had also changed from Joseon-Annam-Japan-Ryukyu in the Ming Dynasty to Joseon-Ryukyu-Vietnam in the Qing Dynasty. What does the change signify? And what do you think was the difference, if any, between the China-Vietnam and China-Joseon relations during this period?

A Yu In-sun It is the opinion of the Japanese scholar that the change in the order in which visiting foreign envoys sat from Joseon-Annam-Japan-Ryukyu in the Ming Dynasty to Joseon-Ryukyu-Vietnam in the Qing Dynasty was likely the mistake of an official of the Board of Rites of Qing because Vietnam had gone through a few political changes while there had been no change in dynasties in Joseon and Ryukyu since the Ming period. While Joseon's envoys ranged in their official rank from Senior First Level to Senior Third Level, their Vietnamese counterparts, as did their Ryukyu counterparts, ranged from Senior Fifth Level to Junior Seventh Level. This may indicate that Vietnam was not as active in embracing the Chinese-style idea of world, but I think I'll have to reserve my judgment until more studies are done that will give conclusive evidence.

Q Kim Jung-hyun Last year, 'East Asian History' was included in the high school curriculum as an elective for the first time to great response. However, the teachers actually teaching this course are frustrated that the history of Vietnam is hard to teach because they are not familiar with the subject. How do you think we could help them?

A Yu In-sun In Korea, only a handful of universities are teaching the history of Vietnam. Therefore, most school teachers do not know about the history of Vietnam any more than their students to whom they are supposed to teach the subject. Under the circumstances, their frustration is totally understandable, and it may be overcome by teaching themselves about the history of Vietnam as quickly as possible before they teach students. For example, I recommend them to read East Asian History from Historical Records: A Supplemental Teaching Guide to the Textbooks of East Asian History, published by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, from cover to cover beforehand, and take online and offline lectures on the history of Vietnam.

Q Kim Jung-hyun Vietnam may perceive Korea as a 'perpetrator' who inflicted pain on them by participating in the Vietnam War. In recent years, with the increasing numbers of Korean companies doing business in Vietnam and of Vietnamese women marrying Korean men and coming to live in Korea, there have been new conflicts arising out of the cultural differences they encounter but fail to understand. How do you suggest that these challenges be overcome?

A Yu In-sun oreans are extremely favorable to the West, but tend to look down on developing countries. Korea may have sent troops for the South Vietnam government in the 1960s, but the United Vietnam government on the opposite side is now as close to Korea as between in-laws through the comprehensive partnership and then the strategic partnership forged in the short span of twenty years.

I think that the cause of conflicts related to Korean businesses in Vietnam and Vietnamese women in Korea is the patriarchal and hierarchical culture of Korean society. The solution to these conflicts is education, teaching the employees of the Korean companies in Vietnam to understand the Vietnamese culture and way of thinking where equality and individuality are valued, and also teaching the Vietnamese people exactly about the Korean way of life.

I don't think resolving the conflicts at the family level would be hard either if Koreans had an open mind toward Vietnamese women to try to understand their home, family and culture. There are so many support programs available for foreign women married to Korean men these days to the point of reverse discrimination against Korean married women. The local governments have developed free programs and materials to help foreign married women with the problems of language and adaptation to life in Korea. The Korean family members are advised to give them information about, and encouragement to attend, those programs.

Kim Jung-hyun

Q Kim Jung-hyun The last year of 2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Vietnam. However, we Koreans still seem to know little about Vietnam. As an authority in the history of Vietnam, what do you think is the significance of the last twenty years of diplomatic relations between Korea and Vietnam?

A Yu In-sun Compared with other countries in diplomatic relations, I think that Vietnam is well known to Korea. Through the memories of the older generations of Korea with experience in the Vietnam War, the Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) that has gained popularity in Korea, half a million annual Korean visitors to Vietnam, and the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese workers who have come to work in Korea over the last twenty years, Vietnam has already become a familiar country to us Koreans. Over the last twenty years of diplomatic relations with Vietnam, our perception of Vietnam has also changed significantly.

Unfortunately, however, the culture of Vietnam is still not much appreciated in Korea, and Vietnamese are often treated with less than respect by some Koreans. I think that Koreans treat Vietnamese the way they do because Korea is economically better off than Vietnam so they feel strongly that they are superior to Vietnamese and should teach them everything about Korea that is relatively more advanced.

Q Kim Jung-hyun Vietnam normalized their diplomatic relations with China in 1991. And Korea did ours with China in 1992. What are the similarities and differences between Vietnam and Korea in terms of before and after the normalization of their diplomatic relations with China?

A Yu In-sun If we understood the fundamental principles of international relations, and learned from history that the Vietnamese are a very practical people and dealt with them accordingly, I think many problems of interest to the Korean government or academia could be solved more easily. Vietnam's normalization of diplomatic relations with China was, in my opinion, motivated by the needs of their government after the downfall of the communist regime. But Vietnam still frowns at China's traditional 'big brother' attitude. For its part, when it extended the hand of diplomacy to Vietnam, China must have taken into consideration the influence that its conflicts with Vietnam might have on ASEAN countries. So, while both countries stress friendship on the surface, conflicts are likely to be brewing between them, such as the dispute over the South China Sea.

Q Kim Jung-hyun Recently, it appears that nationalistic craze and rising tension over territorial disputes are spreading across Southeast Asia as well as Northeast Asia. How do you think Vietnam or its people and its neighboring countries should deal with such conflicts and nationalistic craze in order to resolve them?

A Yu In-sun The conflicts over the South China Sea (East Sea for Vietnam) between China and Vietnam, and between China and other Southeast Asian countries are not simply territorial issues. Considering the geopolitical and economic significance of this region, these conflicts could not be solved easily within a short period of time. To make things worse, the United States, Japan, and even India, countries fearing the rise of China, are getting involved, making the situation more complicated than it already is. Both Vietnam and China, while in conflict and dispute at some levels, are also making efforts toward mutual understanding and cooperation. All the parties involved are required to make wise judgment appropriate in their situation and time.

Q Kim Jung-hyun Last November, you become the first Korean to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the Vietnam National University of Hanoi for your contributions to advancing studies in the history of Vietnam in Korea and to increasing academic exchanges between Korea and Vietnam. What plans do you have for the future regarding relations among Korea, Vietnam, and China?

A Yu In-sun In writing Vietnam and its Neighbor China, my focus was on political issues between the two countries. Currently, I am putting together the existing studies on the inherent characteristics of Vietnamese society. I also plan to write about my field of specialization, i.e. the assimilation of Chinese culture during the medieval Le Dynasty (1428-1788) of Vietnam. At the same time, if given a chance, I would like to work on popularizing the history and culture of Vietnam and Southeast Asia for the general public, not professional researchers. I think that's what I can do best. But I would also need the interest and support of many in what I do.

Q Kim Jung-hyun Lastly, which areas do you think need the attention of the Northeast Asian History Foundation? Do you have any other advice to the NAHF?

A Yu In-sun In response to Vietnam and its Neighbor China, a professor specializing in Chinese history noted that "this book may be needed for those studying Korean history more than it is needed for those studying Chinese history." His remark illustrates exactly what I had in my mind while I was writing that book. I hope that the Northeast Asian History Foundation will pay more attention to the history and culture of Vietnam as a comparison with Korean history, instead of focusing only on Korean history, the history of Korea-Japan relations and the history of Sino-Korean relations. Studying Vietnam will be also quite useful in studying Sino-Korean relations. We should learn lessons from the observation of the Southeast Asian territorial issue, which is receiving far more international attention than the Sino-Japanese territorial issue.