The Civilization Of Việt Nam – Nền Văn Minh Việt Nam

This work is a 50th anniversary redition of our first publication “La civilisation annamite”. Through this work, we pay homage to the author, Nguyễn Văn Huyên, whose devotion to the country has earned him a place of honour in the ethnological and social-history studies of Việt Nam.

Nguyễn Văn Huyên (1908-75) was a native of Lưu Xá village, Hoài Đức district, Hà Tây province (present-day Hà Nội). He studied in France from 1926 to 1935. He received his Licencié ès-lettres in 1929, licencié en droit in 1931 and his Ph.D. in Literature from Sorbonne in 1934. His Ph.D. thesis was focused on the alternated songs of Việt Nam and the houses on stilts in South-east Asia.

In 1935 Nguyễn Văn Huyên returned to Việt Nam and started teaching at Lycée du Protectorat until he began his ethnographic research. A member of l’Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient, he is well known for his remarkable studies on the cult of genii, village institutions, popular festivals and folkloric songs and dances.