Phạm Quỳnh Explained

Honorific Prefix:His Excellency
Phạm Quỳnh (范瓊)
Native Name:Thượng Chi (尚之), Hoa Đường (華堂), Hồng Nhân (紅人)
Office1:Thượng thư of the Ministry of Personnel
Monarch1:Bảo Đại
Term Start1:1942
Term End1:1945
Predecessor1:Thái Văn Toản
Office2:Thượng thư of the Ministry of National Education
Monarch2:Bảo Đại
Term Start2:1933
Term End2:1942
Successor2:Trần Thanh Đạt
Office3:Đổng lý of the Ngự tiền Văn phòng
Monarch3:Bảo Đại
Term Start3:1932
Term End3:1933
Predecessor3:Position established
Office4:Editor-in-Chief of the Nam Phong magazine
Term Start4:1917
Term End4:1932
Predecessor4:Position established
Successor4:Nguyễn Tiến Lãng
Birth Date:December 17, 1892
Birth Place:Hanoi, Tonkin, French Indochina
Death Date:September 6, 1945
Death Place:Thừa Thiên province, Trung Bộ, Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Spouse:Lê Thị Vân (1892-1953)
Children:Phạm Giao
Phạm Thị Giá
Phạm Thị Thức
Phạm Bích
Phạm Thị Hảo
Phạm Thị Ngoạn
Phạm Khuê
Phạm Thị Hoàn
Phạm Tuyên
Phạm Thị Diễm (Giễm)
Phạm Thị Lệ
Phạm Tuân
Phạm Thị Viên.
Father:Phạm Hữu Điển
Profession:Journalist, mandarin
Education:Pomelo School
Signature:Signature of Phạm Quỳnh (范瓊) - Bảo Đại 13 (Early 1939).png

Phạm Quỳnh (December 17, 1892  - September 6, 1945) was a monarchist during the late Nguyễn dynasty and supporter of adhering to traditional Vietnamese customs in the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. He was born near Hanoi, Vietnam, to a literati family of Hải Dương province. He was appointed Minister of Education to the royal court at Huế in 1932, and held several other posts in the court as premier and Minister of the Interior for Emperor Bảo Đại's government.[1] He served as a government minister along with Ngô Đình Diệm under Emperor Bảo Đại's administration. After the August Revolution, he was killed by the Viet Minh along with two other high-ranking members of Bảo Đại's cabinet in September 1945. Phạm Quỳnh graduated top of his class from the College of the Protectorate in Hanoi and was appointed as an interpreter in the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient. Phạm Quỳnh dedicated his early years at the school to mastering classical Chinese, and could easily read the Confucian classics which he thought represented the soul of Vietnamese people. In 1913, fellow journalist and collaborator Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh invited him to be an assistant editor to the weekly journal Đông Dương tạp chí (Indochina Magazine).[2] However, the journal’s aggressive pro-French position alienated its prospective readership, and in 1917 Governor-General Albert Sarraut and chief of the Surete Louis Marty decided to sponsor the creation of Nam Phong (Southern Wind), a new journal with Phạm Quỳnh at the head.[3] Apart from editing Nam Phong, Phạm Quỳnh also wrote for several other French and Vietnamese journals, and authored one of the earliest Quốc ngữ dictionaries.

Nam Phong

Nam Phong (Southern Wind) was a periodical that sought to create a new forum for elite debates surrounding colonial society and was written in Quốc ngữ. Phạm Quỳnh often engaged in heated debates with Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh over the issue of assimilation versus association in their respective journals, Nam Phong and L'Annam Nouveau. However, Nam Phong's political platform was also deemed too pro-French and sycophantic by some,[4] and was often mocked by rival journal Phong Hóa, which was run by members of the Tự-Lực văn-đoàn.

Heritage

On May 28, 2016, the Phạm's Council in Vietnam collaborated with the family of musician Phạm Tuyên held the inauguration ceremony of the tomb restoration work and the erecting of Phạm Quỳnh's statue in Huế City.

The bust of Phạm Quỳnh was designed by his grandson, architect Tôn Thất Đại, is 60 cm tall x 50 cm wide, placed on a pedestal nearly 2 meters high, behind his grave in front of the Vạn Phước pagoda (Trường An Ward, Huế City).

The front of the tomb is covered with a black stone stele engraved with his famous saying:[5]

("The Tale of Kieu remains then Our language remains. Our language remains then Our country remains.")

External links

Notes and References

  1. Womack, Sarah. "Colonialism and the Collaborationist Agenda: Phạm Quỳnh, Print Culture, and the Politics of Persuasion in Colonial Vietnam." PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan, 2003.
  2. Goscha, Christopher. "The Modern Barbarian: Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh and the Complexity Of Colonial Modernity in Vietnam." European Journal of East Asian Studies 3, no. 1 (2004): 135-69. doi:10.1163/1570061033004758.
  3. Womack, Sarah. "Colonialism and the Collaborationist Agenda: Phạm Quỳnh, Print Culture, and the Politics of Persuasion in Colonial Vietnam." PhD Dissertation, University of Michigan, 2003.
  4. Marr, David G. Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945. Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. Press, 1984
  5. Web site: Inauguration of the statue of Scholar Phạm Quỳnh . tuoitre.vn . 29 May 2016 . 1 December 2021.