How do Vietnamese view their French colonial past?

越南人如何看待被法国殖民的历史？

以下是Quora网友的评价：

Goodi Shang

Many Vietnamese people recognize the legitimacy of French rule over Vietnam. Because Vietnamese people abide by agreements signed by France (such as border agreements). This is ridiculous. According to normal logic, colonizers are illegal, and their actions are also illegal. But Vietnamese people are very cunning. They recognize what the French create that is beneficial to Vietnam, but oppose what the French create that is unfavorable to Vietnam.

For people around the world, Vietnam's behavior is ridiculous and shameless.

许多越南人承认法国统治的合法性，因为越南人遵守法国签署的协议(比如边界协议)，这简直太荒谬了。按照正常的逻辑，殖民者是非法统治，他们的行为也肯定是非法的。但是越南人非常狡猾，他们承认法国人对越南做过的好事，但不认法国人做过的对越南不利的事。

对全世界的人来说，越南的行为都是荒谬和无耻的。

Nguyễn Thắng

It is a ideological purification of the whole nation!

The Nguyen Dynasty was the last centralized feudal era of Vietnam!

It was the proudest, most antiquated, and almost weakest period of Vietnamese history.

这是对整个越南的思想净化！

阮氏王朝是越南最后一个中央的封建时代！

那是越南历史上最骄傲、最古老、最软弱的时期。

If you learn through Vietnamese history, you can know that Vietnamese society 2000 years ago was a semi-matriarchal system. Through 1000 years of continuous resistance and uprising against the northern regime as well as taking advantage of the internal problems of the Chinese government, we have absorbed the patriarchal and Confucian culture as well as the political model. China's social culture to organize itself.

如果你了解越南历史，你就会知道2000年前的越南社会是一个半母系社会。越南经历了1000年的对北方政权的持续抵抗和起义，利用中国的内部问题，吸收了宗法和儒家文化以及政治模式。

and that is the reason for the subsequent 1000 continuous development of the Vietnamese people to resist invasions from the north and also invade other countries that we consider barbarians. at the same time regard the Chinese as barbarians.

but from that very arrogance! We have completely rejected the advancement of science and technology.

这就是为什么越南人民在随后的1000年里不断发展，抵抗来自北方的入侵，也入侵其他被我们视为野蛮人的国家

但正是因为这种傲慢！我们完全拒绝了科学技术的进步。

Although Vietnam was the first country in the world to develop and own guns, while the Europeans were still in the middle of the Middle Ages, the Chinese were invaded and colonized by nomads.

You can see how arrogant we are!

虽然越南是世界上最早研制和拥有枪支的国家，当时欧洲人还在黑暗中世纪中摸索，而中国也被游牧民族入侵统治了。

所以你看，我们有多傲慢！

But the French came and completely destroyed our arrogance with an army that was 1/100th us!

French have guns! We also have guns!

The French have cannons! We also have cannons!

The French have warships! We also have warships! even outnumber the French!

但是法国人来了，用一支兵力只有我们1/100的军队彻底摧毁了我们的傲慢！

法国人有枪！我们也有枪！

法国人有大炮！我们也有大炮！

法国人有战舰！我们也有战舰！甚至在数量上还超过了法国人！

But the French have science! We are just superstitious!

each cannon shot! we had to burn incense and pray for it to hit the target.

but the French just need to coordinate the shot. and hit the target after only 1 test shot.

但是法国人有科学！我们只有迷信！

发射每一炮！我们都必须焚香祝祷它能击中目标。

但法国人只需要协调射击，只试射了一次就击中目标。

for example: Battle of the Citadel of Hanoi (1882)

以河内城堡之战(1882年)为例

France

about 1200 troops

Casualties and losses

Major Berthe des Villers and 3 wounded French soldiers

法国

兵力约1200人

伤亡人数

贝尔特·德·维勒少校和三名法国士兵受伤

Vietnam

about 3407 troops.

40 soldiers died and 20 were wounded.

The rest left the city and ran away

We don't understand why the French guns are so accurate.

We don't understand why the French cannon shoots farther and more accurately than ours.

越南

兵力约3407人

40名士兵死亡，20人受伤。

其余的人都弃城而逃

我们不明白为什么法国人的枪射得这么准。

我们不明白为什么法国人的炮射得比我们的更远更准。

this is our Cannon and can you imagine the nightmare every time you reload it?

We don't understand why the French can fire continuously without waiting to reload.

and here's the reason.

and we also have The theory of Duy Tan reform movement in Vietnam in the second half of the 19th century

这是我们的加农炮，你能想象每次装弹时的噩梦吗？

我们不明白为什么法国人可以连续射击，不用等待装弹。

原因如下：

还有19世纪下半叶越南的独立改革运动理论

I. The situation of Vietnam in the second half of the 19th century

- The French colonialists aggressively expanded the war to invade Cochinchina, preparing to attack and occupy our whole country.

- The Hue court continued to implement outdated and outdated internal and external policies.

19世纪下半叶的越南形势

-法国殖民*义者积极扩大战争范围，入侵科钦钦那，准备进攻并占领整个越南。

-顺化法院继续执行过时的国内外政策。

=> Vietnam fell into a serious crisis. Specifically:

+ Politics: the government apparatus is cool from the central to local levels

+ Economy: agriculture, handicrafts and commerce stagnate, finance is exhausted.

+ Society: people's life is miserable, ethnic conflicts and class conflicts are becoming more and more acute.

=> This situation made the peasant uprisings continue to explode violently in the late 19th century.

=> DUY TAN REFORMING FACILITIES ARE BEEN AWESOME.

越南陷入了严重的危机：

+政治：从中央到地方，政府机构都十分冷漠

+经济：农业、手工业和商业停滞不前，财政枯竭。

+社会：人民生活悲惨，民族矛盾和阶级矛盾日益尖锐。

=>这种情况使得19世纪末接连爆发大规模农民起义。

独立改革的时机已经成熟。

II. Proposals for reform in Vietnam in the second half of the 19th century

The country is getting worse and worse.

- Starting from patriotism and love for the people.

=> A number of mandarins and patriotic scholars of the time boldly made proposals and requests to renew internal affairs, diplomacy, economy, culture,... of the feudal state.

二、19世纪下半叶越南的改革提案

这个国家越来越糟糕。

-从爱国主义和爱人民出发。

=>当时的一些官员和爱国学者大胆地提出了改革封建国家的内政、外交、经济、文化等方面的建议和要求。

As a result, Vietnam became a French colony for 80 years and the next 50 years of continuous war.

由此，越南沦为法国殖民地长达80年后，在接下来的50年里持续不断地进行斗争。

Tòng Võ đả Việt Nam Dị Quốc

A very very big disgusted shame and insulting time. And now France is getting its karma. Islam terrorism is rising on french soil.

这是一段非常非常令人厌恶的屈辱历史。现在，法国开始饱尝因果报应。恐怖主义正在法国领土上抬头。

Hòa Nguyễn

One of few good thing France did to Vietnam was to destroy the confucianist patriarchy ideology that dominate Vietnam society. With the superiority that France had been flexng, not only in military power and economy but also culture, knowledge, education, modernization showoff, it had successfully convinced the intellectual class to abandon the old obsolete doctrine and culture. The low educated people, well, they still lived old fashion way but not with heart.

That actually helped a lot, it spared Vietnam of a revolution like in , with a lot of pain and suffering of the people to actually liberate themselves from their own prison in their mind. Unlike China, Vietnamese people then, even the most uneducated or the most conservative, was ready to abandon the old way and accept the new way, even more so to the revolution organization .

法国对越南做过的为数不多的好事之一就是摧毁了统治越南社会的儒家父权制意识形态。法国不仅在军事力量和经济方面，而且在文化、知识、教育、现代化方面都表现出了优势，它成功地说服了知识阶层放弃过时的教条和文化。受教育程度低的人仍然守着老式的生活方式。

这帮了越南很大的忙，让越南人从精神监狱中解放出来。与中国不同的是，当时的越南人，就连最没有受过教育或最保守的人，也已做好准备抛弃旧的生活方式，迎接新生活，革命组织更是如此。

One could argue that Vietnam never had taste for such ruthless way for their own people, but reality around the world shows that there is no painless changing, specially from a obsolete society to a modern-catch up one. Other could say that Vietnam had a war to fight, with enough violence and bloodshed, a bloody revolution would be distasteful even for the most fanatical comnist, which was kinda true. But then you have to admit that it could be much worse as Vietnam had the ingredients for its, and the war was not there push for society advancement.

有人可能会说，越南从来没有经历过对本国人民的无情，但世界各地的现实表明，没有无痛的改变，尤其是从过时的社会转变为一个现代的社会。有的人会说，越南当时还有一场仗要打，也经历过激烈的暴力和流血事件，再来一场血腥的革命的话，即便对最狂热的人来说也令人厌恶，这确实是事实。但你必须承认，越南也有其特殊之处，战争并没能推动社会进步。

Ok it sounds like i‘m saying France pushed up Vietnam society advancement. They did not, the co unist Vietnam did. But France did destroy the social conservative block in Vietnam, and Vietnamese swept it away in sequence.

好吧，我说的这些听起来似乎是法国推动了越南社会的进步。但他们并没有，推动越南社会进步的是越共。但法国确实摧毁了越南的社会保守主义阵营，越南人也顺次将其扫地出门。

Văn Hải Khổng

The French colonial regime is the ugliest and most filthy regime among Western colonists everywhere. 95% of the Vietnamese people could not go to school, they recommend people to use opium.The treatment of opposers was very barbaric.The beheading of dissidents has been frequent.

The hatred of the Vietnamese people with the French helped the Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu. The French deserve humiliated failure here.

法国殖民政权是世界各地西方殖民者中最丑陋、最肮脏的政权。95%的越南人不能上学，法国人还建议越南人吸食鸦片。法国人对反对者非常野蛮。不同者被斩首的事件屡见不鲜。

越南人民对法国人的仇恨激励越南在奠边府击败了法国人。法国人在此遭受了羞辱性的失败。

Ken Khoa Ho-Le

The French colonization of Vietnam shows how blind we Vietnamese were, believing in our own supposedly brilliant civilization when the rest of the world had overtaken us by a long mile. The reality then hit us really hard when the French conquered the whole country very speedily with a tiny expeditionary force.

We were in a daze for the next hundred years, feeling utterly humiliated. To our credit, many people did try to fight the French one way or another. Most were killed or jailed, but we kept at it until one day we became successful. Both my mother and father contributed to the resistance at great personal risk and hardship.

法国对越南的殖民表明，我们越南人在其他国家远远超过我们时是多么的盲目，相信我们自己所谓的辉煌文明。当法国人用一支小小的远征军迅速征服了整个越南时，现实给了越南一记沉重的打击。

在接下来的一百年里，我们一直茫然无措，彻底蒙羞。值得称赞的是，许多越南人一直想方设法与法国人作战。其中多数被杀或被捕，但我们一直坚持，终于取得了成功。我的母亲和父亲都曾冒着巨大的个人风险和困难为反抗法国做出了贡献。

No point blaming the French colonists. If not France then it would have been some other European countries. But we Vietnamese universally preferred to have been colonized by Great Britain instead of France. Wishful thinking.

Lessons: don’t isolate ourselves. Travel the world to broaden our mind. Don’t be arrogant to think we are better than the rest of the world. Keep on learning from other people. Be smart instead of being brave.

指责法国殖民者是没有意义的。就算不是法国，也可能会是其他欧洲国家。但我们越南人普遍希望殖民越南的是英国而非法国。这只是越南人的一厢情愿。

历史教训：不要孤立自己。周游世界，拓宽视野。不要傲慢地认为我们比世界上其他地方都好。继续向别人学习。要聪明机敏，不要一味孤勇。

Trần Hoàng Trường Hải

IMHO, French Indochina era is a bittersweet chapter in Vietnamese history.

On one hand, the era was marked with the downfall of the power of the conventional feudal government, moral erosion, and chaotic society. All of them could be traced back to one root cause: the collapse of Vietnamese society under French dominance. The apogee of the tragedy is the 1945 famine which resulted in around the death of 2 million Vietnamese folks.

On the other hand, French administrations also brought into something positive; wide spreading of the modern Vietnamese writing system, establishing standardized education system, and fostering new intellectual class who contributed heavily to the country later in both South and North Vietnam.

依本人愚见，法国殖民时期是越南历史上一个苦乐参半的篇章。

一方面，这个时代标志着传统封建政府权力的衰落、道德的侵蚀和社会的混乱。所有这些都可以归结到一个根本原因：在法国统治下，越南社会崩塌了。这场悲剧的高潮是1945年爆发的饥荒，这场饥荒导致了大约200万越南人死亡。

另一方面，法国政府也给越南带来了一些积极的东西：越南现代文字体系得到了大范围传播，建立了规范的教育体系，培养了后来在越南南部和北部为国家做出重大贡献的新的知识分子阶层。

Of course, it’d better for Vietnam to make an attempt to resort their backward system back to the 19th century by themselves rather than let the French take over the whole country. One hundred years later, the first Indochina War cost hundred thousands of lives just to get rid of the colonists.

当然，越南最好自己努力将落后的制度提升到19世纪的水平，而不是让法国人接管整个国家。一百年后，为了摆脱殖民者，第一次印度战争就夺去了数十万人的生命。