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INTRODUCTION By Professor in History PHAN HUY LE – President of the Historical Association of Vietnam – Section 2

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by Le, Phan Huy ^{1

… be continued …}

In his conclusion, Associate Professor Doctor NGUYEN MANH HUNG reaffirms that the work of H. OGER within the scientific background of the beginning of the 20th century, has been quite original, and hasn’t adopted any previous model, while it has been realized in a deep loneliness, and has been thought little of, and even despised by everybody. The independent nature of this work and its originality have led to a creative scientific project with a passing beyond time value, but it had to pay a quite high price with the difficulties and harshness suffered by its author, as well as it has been falling into oblivion for a long time after its publication. Associate Professor Doctor NGUYEN MANH HUNG considers the collection of woodblock prints of H. OGER not only as an Encyclopedia about the society, but also an Encyclopedia in Images about a sort of civilization that has been materialized very early, since the beginning of the 20th century, not with the Western-European industrial art, but with the collaboration of indigenous craftsmen.
Basing himself on the recognition of the value of the collection of woodblock prints of H. OGER, the author puts forward the general ways to exploit it.
The first way consists of introducing the whole original collection of woodblock prints, not by reprinting it, but by means of re-writing it through a project entitled Vietnamese Sketches towards the beginning of the 20th century, in which the sketches will be rearranged accordingly to each one of the fragments of subjects. Besides the annotations of the original collection, that have been phonetically transcribed and translated, there will still be additional annotations of the author himself. This project consists of 5 volumes and are being achieved by the author. Along with the republication recently realized by the French School of Extreme-Orient in 2009, the researching and re-writing project, through which the sketches will be re-arranged accordingly to fragments of subjects, of Associate Professor Doctor NGUYEN MANH HUNG will furnish a quite convenient system of materials for in-depth researching works of scientists.
The second way consists of using the collection of woodblock prints, that bears a sketching nature of H. OGER, to permute into other forms of arts such as silk painting, Rhammoneuron painting, lacquer painting, bamboo-like screen, statue… These are not only interesting thoughts, as the author has initially been successful in his test with lacquer painting through 14 subjects that have attracted the social opinion that appreciated them.
The set of books entitled Technique of the Annamese People, a treasure of Vietnamese History and Culture towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century of Associate Professor Doctor NGUYEN MANH HUNG has shown clearly that the author is a scientist who has spent much time researching and thinking about the collection of woodblock prints of H. OGER, with all his heartfelt passion. Up to the present time, there exist already a great deal of researching articles written about this collection of woodblock prints, through different ways of approaching, and under view angles of different historical, cultural and artistic special branches, while each one of such articles always contributes to enlighten its values. But, Associate Professor Doctor NGUYEN MANH HUNG is the researcher that has studied it in a most systematic and complete way, through a great deal of findings and discoveries in its macroscopic as well as microcosmic ranges. As a special matter, he has contributed to the discovery and the official publication of this work on mass media, not only inland, but also in the world such as in France, in the United States, in Japan, in Thailand, in Korea… I sincerely wish that the author will successfully realize the ideas of exploitation he’s smouldering in his mind.
I’m writing this introduction with a high evaluation and a prizing attitude vis-à-vis the work entitled Technique of the Annamese People, a treasure of Vietnamese History and Culture towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century of Associate Professor Doctor NGUYEN MANH HUNG. With such a conception, I’m very pleased to introduce this set of books to our readers, as well as to all persons that might pay attention to H. OGER’s precious collection of woodblock prints that has been completed and published towards the first decade of the 20th century.

Hanoi, Summer time of 2013.
Professor in History PHAN HUY LE
President of Vietnamese Association of History
Signature and seal.

BAN TU THU
06 /2020.

NOTES:
¹ : PHAN HUY LÊ (Thach Chau, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh province, 23 February 1934 – 23 June 2018) was a Vietnamese historian and professor of history at the Hanoi National University. He authored of many studies on village society, landholding patterns and peasant revolution in particular, and in Vietnamese history in general. Phan was director of the Center for Vietnamese and Intercultural Studies at Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Phan belonged to the school of historians, including also TRAN QUOC VUONG distinguishing ‘Vietnamese-ness‘ without relation to Chinese influences. (Source: Wikipedia Encyclopedia)
² : Associate Professor, Doctor of Phylosophie in History HUNG NGUYEN MANH, former Rector of Hong Bang International University, is the founder of these websites: “Thanh dia Viet Nam Studies” – thanhdiavietnamhoc.com, “Holyland Vietnam Studies” – holylandvietnamstudies. com in 104 languages, “Việt Nam Học” – vietnamhoc.net, etc …
◊ Translated by Asso. Prof. HUNG, NGUYEN MANH, PhD.
◊ Header title and Featured sepia image has been set by Ban Tu Thu – thanhdiavietnamhoc.com