When I was in Vietnam last time I made the acquaintance of a really
lovely (and impossibly handsome) young monk from Hanoi called Thay
Nguyen. He had come to Saigon to study at the
Buddhist University, and I would go to visit him in his suburban temple, hidden down an incredible maze of back streets and alleys. It was a busy
temple,
a real community hub, as such temples tend to be. In the afternoons we
would sit out on the monks' terrace garden and discuss some of the finer
points of
Buddhist philosophy, in a wonderfully effective mix of English and
Vietnamese.
He always had gifts for me - CDs of
Kwan Yin chants,
colourful plastic prayer beads and, once, a book by the Dalai Lama in
Vietnamese. That was rather too ambitious a gift, I'm afraid.
One of the texts that Thay Nguyen enthusisatically endorsed was
Liao Fan's Four Lessons, a book which I had in fact read several times before.
In
recent days I have been listening to a very old series of cassettes on
which the book is read - something I picked up at a temple in Sydney 10
or more years ago - and I am struck by what a good guide to life it
really is.
It is a kind of Chinese self-help book, advocating that wholesome mix of
Buddhism,
Confucianism
and Taoism that has sustained the spiritual life of the Chinese for a
thousand years, and has in turn had such a great influence on
Vietnamese culture. It tells the story of a Mr. Liao Fan, a man who set great store by the predictions of
psychics and
soothsayers. After a chance meeting with a
Zen master,
he learnes that in fact destiny can change at any point, and that all
people should be involved in re-shaping their destiny for the better.
Then follows a long list of different
methods for acquiring good karma, all illustrated with stories from
Chinese mythology and antiquity.
In terms of
Vietnamese culture it is probably quite a salient text. The people living in
21st Century Vietnam still set great store on the teachings of
psychics, mediums and feng-shui masters, though all occupations are officially banned by the
Communist government.
Thay Nguyen was constantly coming up against parishioners who were
distraught because of some bad forecast for the future, or overly-casual
about spiritual cultivation because they were completely convinced that
their destiny was pre-ordained.
As a popular cultural text,
Liao Fan's Four Lessons is absolutely intriguing. Indeed, it is so much admired by people of all religious stripes that in
Hong Kong and Taiwan there are societies established specifically to distribute
the book and propagate its teachings.
The
Vietnamese translation is becoming more readily available too, though
the ones I saw in Vietnam were always donated by a Buddhist group in
Taiwan, or were printed for commercial sale and distribution.
Walter Mason's Destination Saigon
- Ok, ok, so I wrote it. But honestly, if you want an intimate view of
contemporary Vietnamese religion, culture and sexual mores, and a bit of
a giggle, then this is where you should start. So many books about
Vietnam are about the war or about colonial history. I set about writing
a book that was telling stories of Vietnam now, and I really think I
succeeded!
Andrew X Pham's Catfish and Mandala - Quite a superbly written book that is about so much more than
Vietnam, this is a unique and compulsive read that offers a great deal
of insight into what it's like to be an overseas Vietnamese returning
home as a stranger. Books about Vietnam are normally told from the
perspective of a foreigner, or are translated works by people living in
Vietnam. 
Gontran de Poncins' From a Chinese City - A French Count goes to spend a few months in Cholon,
Saigon's Chinatown, in the 1950s. This is such a gorgeous book, and
absolutely fascinating. There are very few books on Vietnam that deal
with the Chinese community in any detail, so this is a real rarity.
Norman Lewis' A Dragon Apparent - More Indochina in the 50s, Lewis'
quiet British fortitude makes him an excellent observer, and his love
of the Vietnamese comes seeping through. Vietnam travel books are
surprisingly rare, and really good ones rarer still. Lewis' is the best.
Graham Greene's The Quiet American
- Yeah, yeah, I know it's on every list, but really it is quite
perfect, and you can still visit most of the places he mentions in the book.
If you're going to Vietnam, do make sure you read this book first.
Marguerite Duras' The Lover
- Especially if you are planning on having an affair with a Vietnamese
guy (though the lover is actually Chinese). Sensuous, historically
fascinating and quite dazzlingly accurate. Not really full of Vietnam
tips, but it creates the most wonderful mood and evokes an incredible
era that is only now beginning to be romanticised and even celebrated
in Vietnam.
Thich Nhat Hanh's Zen Keys
- A unique insight into Vietnamese Buddhist monasticism. As well as
information about the philosophy of Buddhism, it provides a great story
to read about the life of a young monk, and how they were once expected
to behave inside the Chua (Pagoda).
Kien Nguyen's The Unwanted
- Absolutely the best account of what Vietnam was like in the years
immediately following the end of the war. This book is a masterpiece and
deserves to be better known. Don't wait to buy this one - it is one of
the really good Vietnam books, and one of the most unique perspectives.
Duy Long Nguyen's The Dragon's Journey
- A memoir about a Vietnamese refugee's journey to Australia, where he
becomes a famous healer. A book about Vietnam and about the journey of
the Vietnamese dispora.
Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History - Pretty solid going, but once you've finished it you will be entirely informed about the complex and long-lasting Vietnam war.
Ma Van Khang's Against the Flood
- A little-known but fascinating fictional peek into the ghastly
bureaucracy and stifling conservatism of Vietnamese life in the 80s and
90s.
