Final essay

Throughout FREN 383, Franco-Asian Encounters, we have examined the significant effects of colonial imperialism upon the perceptions of the people of Indochina as well as those of the Europeans. France’s control over Vietnam has saturated its traditional culture, from its cuisine to its religion, and the Vietnamese have been forced to reconcile their cultural identities with the constant presence of occidental influence, much of which has not been peaceable. Much of the literature we read concerned this sense of identity confusion, and the films were equally interesting in their differing perspectives.

The variations between films and literary works produced by western artists and those of native Vietnamese artists are noteworthy, but all explored some common themes. Both French writer Marguerite Duras, who lived in Vietnam throughout her childhood, and Vietnamese-born Kim Lefèvre examined colonial racial relations. Un Barrage Contre le Pacifique was the story of a poor French family (mother, son and daughter) living in Vietnam. Their family ties were personally troubled, but their social status (privileged racially but disadvantaged economically) was also a constant source of struggle. In L’Amant, a story about the same family, the daughter Suzanne deals with fallout from her affair with a much older Chinese man, and racial tensions are emphasized similarly in Kim Lefèvre’s Métisse Blanche, a memoir describing the childhood and adolescence of a mixed-race Vietnamese girl who was fathered by a now-absent French soldier. Lefèvre constantly struggled with her mixed background and was stigmatized by her family, friends and authority figures. All of these works clearly expose the negative effects of colonial oppression and social stratification upon all members of affected societies – both the privileged and the oppressed – because of the pressure to adhere to strict social norms.

Another interesting aspect of this course for me as a women’s studies student was its emphasis on female protagonists. It was evident that strict traditional gender roles coupled with cultural oppression contributed to an intense sense of confinement for most of the female subjects of the stories and films. The crises of Suzanne, Kim, young Camille from the film Indochine, and others were all compounded by their protected, taboo sexualities along with questionable motives of the men in their lives. For example, in Métisse Blanche Kim asks her pianist lover if he would love her if she was not racially mixed, and he says he would not. She worries that her allure might come simply from her exoticism, and many Asian women have similar concerns. These difficult expectations are detailed in the documentary Slaying the Dragon, which explores racial stereotypes faced by modern Asian women and their historical development. I was inspired by that film to conduct my final project research on that topic.

Overall, Franco-Asian Encounters has helped me to explore the darker, often ignored side of French history. As an imperialist nation, France has frequently conquered “less civilized” nations, and much blood has been shed, not to mention the lasting systems of inequality that still exist in formerly colonized nations. The power exerted by the French over Indochina was tinged with racist attitudes toward non-western cultures and non-white people, and it caused the people of Indochina to lose some of their cultural identity and all of their political control. However, a more recent movement by native artists and authors to preserve and reclaim their indigenous cultures has led to somewhat of a resurgence of pride and national identity in Vietnam. France still avoids recognizing its considerably negative role as a colonial power, but more people are calling for a redress of its humanitarian crimes.