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I had a wonderful experience when I visited Kyoto again during my one-year stay in Japan a few years ago. I had already visited Kyoto about four times over the course of ten years or so. During my first visit as a child, I had found every temple or building amazing and interesting. But in the subsequent visits, my attitude had been invariably like, "They're just temples and towers." The fifth visit, however, turned out to be different. It was perhaps because of the knowledge accumulated in my head over the years. I began to understand the streets and structure of the city. Then I felt like visiting the city on my own. I ended up making eight trips to Kyoto during that one year.

In September this year, I went to Vietnam for the fourth time and for the fifth forum with the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS). Since 2010, when the two institutions agreed to take turns hosting annual conferences, I have met some Vietnamese scholars in Vietnam and Seoul over and over again, to the point where I became familiar with their faces and names. That probably explains why I, while preparing for this conference, could imagine, for the first time, what would happen in Hanoi. I was reminded of the streets, natural scenery, and downtown noises, of course. But most importantly, the anticipation to meet the Vietnamese scholars brought me the excitement that I hadn't experienced in the previous visits. That feeling naturally led to my interest in the topic of the conference.

Pagoda of Trấn Quốc Temple (鎭國寺) near
Hanoi's West Lake, Vietnam

 

To be honest, we hadn't actually had much in-depth discussion at the previous NAHF-VASS conferences. Since neither the Vietnamese nor the Korea participants had background knowledge about the history or politics of the other country, they had just talked about what they had wanted and that had been about it. We all must have been in the nonchalant, 'Temples are just temples,' mood. This time, however, it occurred to me that I should learn something, anything, from the preparation stage. As early as when I worked on the program, I thought I should make sure that participants in the conference would try to make the others understand their country's situation and the listeners would try to ask questions where needed. I thought that it would also make the participants and the discussants feel more friendly toward each other.

'Heart-to-Heart' Discussion at the Conference Prepared Thinking About Hanoi

This conference consisted of three sessions. The first session covered the territorial issue that was of the utmost interest to both countries. The second session was about comparison of the histories of both countries and their politics today. The third session addressed the problem with the production of Korea-Vietnam joint history textbooks. The territorial issue was familiar to all of us because it had been addressed about three times before. Most importantly, some candid questions were asked and candid explanations of circumstances were given. There was also the opinion that 'it was such a sensitive issue that we'd better avoid discussing it.' This was a point that hadn't been properly addressed before. Also discussed was how Korea and Vietnam differently perceived the tribute system that both countries had experienced in history, and how it was being reflected in international relations today. In the third session on Day 2, there was discussion about how to teach children raised in multi-cultural families in Korea the histories of Korea and Vietnam, and how to inspire them to feel proud of the country of their mothers.

It was probably because the person preparing the program had a change of mind that the response from the participants was also different from before. The familiar Vietnamese scholars came to us, exchanging jokes and asking after other scholars who weren't there. The Korean participants were amused, saying that there should be more exchange with and learning about Vietnam, even though they were all first-time visitors to Vietnam. I guess that it was me all along that had been the problem.