Village in Vietnam [antikvár]

Forewordby Paul MusThere was a time, in what soon was to cease to be French Indochina, when, secure in our long experience, we French looked with some shade of self-complacency on the well-intentioned endeavors of the first American observers, later styled advisers, to assess the situation for themselves. Those of us still on the scene, mainly in private business or as educators, would have little occasion to do so now that the collection and sorting of information, of which the present volume is a valuable sample, is developing on a scale and with motivations undreamt of in our day. In the United States, specialized departments in several major universities act as rear bases. With the help of Eastern and Western instructors and native informants, plus up-to-date audiovisual centers, they have given the lie, for instance, to our settled belief that Vietnamese was too difficult a language to be learned by the average European adult. Our specialists (usually only cum interpreter) now face a growing team of American opposite numbers who are fully aware, although the niceties of the variotonic pronunciation remain a serious difficulty, that once mastered, they afford unique help in memorizing terms, distinguishing the overtones, and feeling the drive, balance, and semantic contour of a sentence. Le mouvement se prouve en marchant.This throws no discredit on previous accomplishments, which were, of course, in keeping with earlier and very different circumstances. Father Leopold Cadiere's contributions in so many fields to our intimate knowledge of Vietnam and the Vietnamese and Professor Pierre Gourou's master-work, Les Paysans du Delta Tonkinois, are likely to remain long unequaled.However, comparing Mr. Hickey's study with standard productions of the French Colonial period, such as Kresser's La Commune Annamite en Cochin-chine,'^ Ory's La Commune Annamite au Tonkin,^ or Rouilly's La Com-1.La Commune Annamite au Cochinchine; Le Recrutement des Notables, Preface by J- Krautheimer, Paris, Les Editions Domat-Montchres^tien, 1935.2.Paris, Challamel, 1894.