Phan Khôi (October 06, 1887 – January 16, 1959) was an intellectual leader who inspired a North Vietnamese variety of the Chinese Hundred Flowers Campaign, in which scholars were permitted to criticize the government, but for which he himself was ultimately persecuted by the Communist Party of Vietnam.[2]
Biography
Early life and education
Phan Khôi was born in an elite Confucian family in Bảo An village, Điện Bàn county, Quảng Nam Province. His father was Phó bảng [vi] (Second-rank, under Doctorate) Phan Trân, a son of Nam Định Judge Phan Khắc Nhu. His mother was Hoàng Thị Lệ, a daughter of Hà Ninh Governor-general Hoàng Diệu.[3] Phan Khôi learned Chinese characters from a young age and was very well read. He read many progressive writings and developed a belief in civil rights and a new society.
In 1907, he joined the "Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục" school, founded by Phan Chu Trinh with the help of Phan Bội Châu in teaching materials. Then in 1908 the French cracked down on Progressive Movement, they captured all members, executed the leaders and imprisoned others. Phan Khôi was sent back to prison in Điện Bàn. In 1909, being pardoned by the French, he went to Huê and studied at the Pellerin School (1909–11).
Opening school and teaching
In 1912, his grandmother died, Phan Khôi came home for the funeral and stayed at his village, opened his own school and started teaching. 1913, Phan Khôi married the daughter of Lương Thúc Ký (1873–1947). Lương Thúc Ký was a teacher at Dục Anh school at Phan Thiêt. Dục Anh school was founded by Mr. Nguyễn Trọng Lợi, who also was a member of the Progressive Movement.
Journalism
Phan Khôi wrote under the pen name Chương Dân, and was very well known for his new, revolutionary and controversial ideas.[4]
He contributed to Đăng Cổ Tùng Báo (1907) of Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục, Nam Phong (1918) founded by Phạm Quỳnh, Lục Tỉnh Tân Văn, Hà Nội Thực Nghiệp Dân Báo (1920), Hữu Thanh (1921), Đông Pháp Thời Báo (1923), Trung Lập Báo (1924), Thần Chung (1929)
Editorships
Phan Khoi was the editor of Phụ Nữ Tân Văn (1929), Phụ Nữ Thời Đàm (1932), Tràng An (1934).
In 1956, Phan Khôi led the Nhân Văn - Giai Phẩm movement in Hanoi, and he served as editor in chief as well as the publisher of the Nhân Văn (1956). He also contributed to the Giai Phẩm periodical and Văn, a weekly publication. Some leading Vietnamese intellectuals in the north of the country, like Nguyễn Hữu Đang and Trần Đức Thảo (1917–1993), joined Phan Khoi to express their ideals in the Nhân Văn - Giai Phẩm Movement, demanding freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and democracy. They accused the Communist Party of violating the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
In December 1956, the Communist Party forced the papers to close. By 1958, after indecision about what to do about the participants in this dissent, it had arrested numerous participants in the Nhan Van Giai Pham affair, imprisoned some of them, forced some into public self-criticism, and put others on trial. This was reported to the world in the translated book The Nhân Văn Affair by Hoàng Văn Chí.
Since this event till the last day of his life, Phan Khôi was kept prisoner at home, his ideas and writings were suppressed. Phan Khôi died suddenly January 16, 1959 at home in Hanoi.
Published works
1936 - Chương Dân thi thoại [Poems of Chương Dân]
1939 - Trở vỏ lửa ra
1955 - Việt ngữ nghiên cứu [Studies about Vietnamese language]
1932 - Tình già [Old Love - Poem written in new format]
1918 - Bàn về tế giao [Remarks about diplomacy]
Ngẫu cảm (thơ chữ Hán) [Inspiration - poem written in Chinese characters]
Viếng mộ ông Lê Chất [Visiting the grave of Lê Chất - poem in Chinese characters]
Ông Năm chuột (truyện ngắn) [Mr. Năm Chuột - short story]
Phan Khôi represented a Vietnamese elite class in the transitional time from Chinese education to the new era of Western values. Phan Khôi had made the transition very swiftly not only by himself, but he also took his generation along with him. Being exposed to different cultures from China, Hong Kong, Japan, France, he was able to combine them all to serve his Vietnamese people.
The Nhân Văn Affair continued to be an inspiration for the Vietnamese intellectuals today.
In his writing:Đàn bà với quốc sự, Phan Khôi clearly offered Vietnamese ladies an honor place in society within the setting of Vietnamese culture.
His poem "Old Love" was the first poem written in a new format, opening doors for many young poets to surpass him in a short time.
However, he also was very interested in researching the roots of Vietnamese heritage, especially Vietnamese spoken language, which had long been ignored and looked down upon by the elite class in Vietnam. His research Phan Khôi: Việt ngữ nghiên cứu was a well of knowledge for young Vietnamese to follow.
One generation before Hoàng Văn Chí, one generation after Phan Chu Trinh, Phan Khôi represented a class of Vietnamese intellectuals caught between colonialism, nationalism, communism. Phan Khôi's progressive spirit and his lifelong effort to raise the Vietnamese people's awareness of human rights, civil rights, and good education were suppressed by the Communist Party with The Nhân Văn Affair since 1956 are being revived in the 2000s by the younger generation of Vietnam.
^Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past - Page 79 Patricia M. Pelley - 2002 "Phan Khôi, for one, urged his colleagues to oppose the elitism of traditional histories because they had merely chronicled the records and actions of mandarins and kings. Instead, he argued, new history, because it was a history of the ..."
