Announcement: 26.09.2026 – Online Lecture: "Refracted Portraits: Trương Vĩnh Ký through His Autobiographies and the Retrospective Lens of the 1920s"

26. September 2025, 14:00 Uhr, von AAI Webmaster

Foto: Nguyễn Nam | Fulbright University Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (cropped)

We kindly invite you to this online lecture in English language on Friday, September 26th, 2025, at 2:00–4:00 p.m. (CEST/MESZ) / 7:00–9:00 p.m. (GMT+7).

Lecture Series: Vietnamese Culture Forum

A collaboration between the Vietnam Studies Center, Fulbright University Vietnam,
and the Department of Vietnamese Studies, University of Hamburg

Online lecture by
Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Nam:

"Refracted Portraits: Trương Vĩnh Ký through His Autobiographies and the Retrospective Lens of the 1920s"

Friday, 26.09.2025
14:00 – 16:00 h (CEST/MESZ)
7:00 – 9:00 p.m. (GMT+7)
 
Online lecture:

• livestream via ZOOM
  Zoom link: https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/67154593815?pwd=49BZhw70OYd-Rr1HbJfdZs3ldlpIW3k1.cpqevJIgjUwAoYKJ
  Webinar-ID: 671 5459 3815
  Passcode: 64908837

This lecture will be held in English!

Open to public! – Admission free!

About the lecture:

Petrus Trương Vĩnh Ký (1837–1898) is one of the most contentious figures in Vietnam's modern intellectual history. Was he a traitor, a collaborator, or a French-educated Vietnamese Catholic patriot with a distinct sense of national loyalty? Generations of scholars—Vietnamese and foreign, Marxist and non-Marxist—have grappled with this question, offering divergent and often conflicting interpretations of this erudite polymath whose influence spans centuries. Yet rarely have we heard from Trương Vĩnh Ký himself.

With the recent rediscovery of his autobiographical manuscripts, we are now afforded a rare opportunity to engage with Trương's own self-representations and to reconsider how these documents were selectively cited, appropriated, or reframed by later writers—most notably French scholar Jean Bouchot and Vietnamese author Huyền Mặc Đạo Nhân Dương Mạnh Huy. This talk examines the interplay between Trương's self-portraits and the portraits rendered by subsequent interpreters, arguing that none of these accounts are neutral reflections. Rather, they are refracted through the cultural, political, and ideological lenses of their time, inviting us to reflect on the nature of historical representation itself.

About the lecturer:

Nguyễn Nam is a founding faculty member of the Fulbright University Vietnam, now in charge of the Vietnam Studies Center of the school. He served as a senior lecturer at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City, from 1986 to April 2018, and as the USSH's former Chairperson of the Division of East Asian Studies (1993–1994), and Division of Chinese Studies (2010–2012).

Nguyễn Nam has also conducted his research in East Asian countries, such as Japan (as a Visiting Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2016–2017; as a research fellow of the Japan Foundation's Asia Center, June to August 2018; and as a visiting scholar of the International Center for Japanese Studies Nichibunken, February to August 2020), and Taiwan (as a Visiting Fellow/Scholar of Taiwan Center for Chinese Studies, 1999 and 2011). During the summer of 2013, as visiting professor he taught at the Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia, Asia Africa Institute, University of Hamburg. He has also served as a lecturer for the Overseas Study Program of Loyola University Chicago in Ho Chi Minh City from 2012 to 2018. His research interests focus on comparative intellectual history/literature (dealing mainly with East Asian countries, including Vietnam), cultural studies, translation studies, and adaptation studies. He is also an associate of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

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