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An unfamiliar level of humidity was the very first sense of Vietnam that swept over me upon arriving in Hanoi. Although it had been unusually hot for late spring in Seoul when I departed from Incheon Airport on the third of May, the weather in Hanoi still felt fairly exotic because it presented a mid-summer stuffiness that comes right after the monsoon season in Korea. Thankfully enough, the temperature in the bus the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences had arranged for us was cool enough to begin our journey on a fresh note.

What stood out the most in downtown Hanoi was the unique appearance of buildings. A majority of them, especially the older ones, are colored in a unique shade of yellow that seemed to be a slightly faded rather than bright. Moreover, the buildings are tall, and flat and narrow on the front, while extending deep into the back. The sight of such buildings strung along the streets resembled that of a residential street in Europe. The reason they are tall and narrow could be attributed to the country's dense population, but the fact that many houses along countryside roads look like those in the city makes one search for a different reason that may have something to do with being influenced by foreign cultures. To quote a veteran scholar, studying Vietnamese history begins with learning about the country's view of history formed through a constant national struggle for independence. Vietnam has indeed strived throughout its history to preserve its independence against aggression from foreign powers including China, France, and the United States. Cultural transformation from clashing with foreign powers began to take place early on in the history of Vietnam, so it occurred to me that the way buildings look today could have resulted from several of the more modern to contemporary cultural clashes the country experienced.

The Vietnam National Museum of History

Where should one start in order to examine Vietnam's history of cultural clashes and transformation? Studies on Vietnamese history have been done from diverse angles and the range of research into the history of exchange between Vietnam and Korea has been expanding little by little. However, for someone as ignorant as I am about the history and culture of Vietnam, museums tend to be the best bet for getting an entry-level introduction because they offer a condensed version of a country's history and culture. And the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences kindly provided us with an opportunity to visit the Vietnam National Museum of History. Located in the Hoan Kiem district of Hanoi, the museum building originally used to house an archaeological research institution of the French School of the Far East during the French colonial rule in 1910. After it became renovated by the architect Ernest Hébrard between 1926 and 1932, the building functioned as an art museum until it was handed over to the Vietnamese government in 1958. The two-story building today provides an overview of Vietnam's premodern history and culture through several different exhibition rooms spread out on each floor.

The very first exhibit to greet us as soon as we walked through the front door was a bronze drum. It is a symbolic piece that represents the Dong Son culture from Vietnam's bronze age and has been featured on the cover of a South Korean high school textbook on East Asian history. At first glance, the drum made of bronze appears to be rather ordinary, but a closer look at the drum's surface reveals a variety of finely carved patterns. The center is filled with a pattern symbolizing the sun, which is surrounded by lifelike images of flying birds, people, animals, houses, and boats gradually spiraling out toward the edge. Considering the fact that the motif for the symbol of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences was also taken from the sun and birds carved on the same drum, the Vietnamese seem to take great pride in its bronze age culture and the bronze drum that has come to represent the history of Vietnam. What caught our attention next was the relics from the prehistoric to ancient times. As opposed to the bronze drum that is a relic unique to Vietnam, there were plenty of other ancient relics from Vietnam's bronze age that are likely to appear familiar in the eyes of Koreans. The ones featured in the images below would easily be able to pass as pictures of relics displayed at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul.

Traditions Korea and Vietnam Share

Vietnam began suffering invasions from dynasties in mainland China since the ancient times, and as a result, the country was heavily introduced to Chinese culture. In the record Boannamnokidogi (補安南錄異圖記), the Silla scholar Choi Chi-won gives a detailed introduction of scenes and customs in the Jiaozhi (交阯) region and points out that the region known as part of today's Vietnam has continued to be a nuisance for the frontiers of dynasties in mainland China from the days of the Han (漢) to those of the Sui (隋). The record is from the ninth century, but according to accounts of foreign countries in official Chinese history that the Northeast Asian History Foundation published annotated translations of, earlier mentions of a country later to be called Vietnam, including those about the Jiaozhi (交阯) region, also appear in records from around the time the Books of the Former and Latter Han were authored. The official histories of the Yuan and Ming dynasty even devote an entire volume on Vietnam titled Annan zhuan (安南傳), an account of Annan. Such records prove that regardless of whether the relationship between Vietnam and China had been adversarial or not, it was significant enough to require such lengthy descriptions. And this could also be witnessed through the relics and detailed explanations of them displayed at the museum.

It can therefore be said that Vietnam's history has been a series of overcoming national crises. And that trend could have led to the tradition of launching independence movements to escape colonization in the modern times. This coincides with the understanding in Korea of how ceaseless cries for independence eventually developed into a movement of resistance against Japanese colonial rule. Korea and Vietnam also share a history of bracing itself for the invasion of foreign powers on the one hand while accepting foreign cultures and turning them into a means of achieving internal development on the other. Traces of these shared traditions were visible to us throughout our tour of the museum.

Our original purpose for visiting Hanoi was to hold a conference for joint historical research with the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences and to conclude an agreement to share models of collaboration. As such, various agendas for joint research on the history and territory of Korea and Vietnam were presented and discussed at the conference. The greatest achievement through our recent visit is that the Northeast Asian History Foundation and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences mutually confirmed the need to continue searching for ways to collaborate with one another in performing historical research. Furthermore, the trip provided an invaluable opportunity to newly understand Vietnamese history by also visiting the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long (昇龍黃城), the Confucius Temple of Literature (文廟), and the Vietnam Military History Museum.

Like the very first drop of water plays a crucial role in wearing away a huge rock with water, it is important to actually take the first step to conducting difficult, complicated types of research, no matter how long it takes. Perhaps we may hope for the insights newly gained at the Vietnam National Museum of History to turn into the priming water that perpetuates joint research between Korea and Vietnam.