LMK Vlog #09: Reading The End of Concern
I’ve been reading a new, and very interesting, book called The End of Concern: Maoist China, Activism, and Asian Studies (Duke 2017) by Fabio Lanza. It is about a group…
Encountering a Globalizing Regional University in Southeast Asia
One of my responsibilities in my current position is to make videos of discussions with scholars. The latest video is of a discussion that I had with Phan Lê Hà,…
LMK Vlog #08: The Son of Heaven (Thiên tử 天子)
It is well known that Vietnamese emperors in the past saw themselves as the “Son of Heaven” (Thiên tử 天子), that is, as the main intermediary between the supreme power…
Engaging With Vietnam #11 Conference Theme
The 11th Engaging With Vietnam conference will be held this July 15-16 in Leiden, the Netherlands, in conjuction with the 11th ICAS (International Convention of Asia Scholars) conference, July 16-19.…
Emperor Đồng Khánh’s First State Letter (Quốc Thư 國書)
The period from 1883-1885 was a dramatic time in Vietnamese history. The troubles began with the passing of Nguyễn Dynasty Emperor Tự Đức, an emperor who had ruled for over 35 years.
In the two years that followed, four emperors would rise and fall before Emperor Đồng Khánh ascended the throne and ruled or for four years, a comparatively long reign in those troubled times.
Emperor Đồng Khánh thus brought some stability to the Nguyễn Dynasty, but the conditions in which he ruled were different from those of his predecessors.