INTRODUCTION TO THE AN VIET LIBRARY
The establishment of the Vietnam and Southeast Asian Research Institute (briefly ‘Viet Study Institute’) is one of the most significant projects running in An Viet Foundation. Essentially, the purpose of establishing the institute is to collect books, journals, archaeological material, and DNA analysis in English, French, Chinese and Vietnamese. All of the material written about the initiation of Hundred Yeuh lay the foundation for the Master and PhD dissertation as well as research papers in Vietnamese origins. The pioneering project has also met the enthusiastic encouragement and collaboration from universities and professors in the UK. There are many UK universities establishing the faculty of Southeast Asian Studies with an emphasis on the Modern Time and the course delivery of History, Civilisation, Language and Archaeology, rather than on the Ancient Time. Therefore, an in depth research on the Ancient Time is a challenging task for younger Vietnamese generation to preserve and promote a culture which has been developed for thousands of years by forefathers’ struggle to defend the country against assimilation from foreign countries, especially from China. Vietnam has maintained its own culture independence and sovereignty over a thousand year domination although a lot of Vietnamese culture was ever demolished and a lot of books were brought back China to distort Vietnamese origins. It has still been believed that Vietnamese culture is mainly affected by Chinese and Western culture and there is nothing uniquely belonging to the Vietnamese. However, a lot of well-known scholars such as Wilhelm Soleheim, Carl Sauer, William Meacham, David Keightley, KC Chang, Paul Mus, Kim Dinh Philosopher, David Needham from Cambridge university with ‘Science and Civilisation in China’, from Berkeley university with ‘The Origins of Chinese Civilisation’, Stephen Oppenheimer from Oxford university with ‘The Eden in the East’, Prof. JY Chu and Prof. SW Ballinger with analysis in gene and DNA come to a reverse conclusion: ‘The Hundred Yeuh dominates Chinese culture before Chinese. Chinese Civilisation contributes to improve Viet Confucianism and assimilate into Han Confucianism’ – ‘The understanding of Chinese Civilisation must be originated from the understanding of the Hundred Yeuh Civilisation’ – ‘Vietnamese are the most ancient people in the Southeast Asia whereas Chinese are more likely modern people’, etc…
With a lot of effort, An Viet library currently consists of over 2,000 books equivalent of £20,000. An Viet Foundation has the intention to buy at least 5,000-7,000 books and then divide into main several research area of Viet Confucianism, Southeast Asian Studies as well as An Vi philosophy used as material and research for graduates.
The work requires encouragement and collaboration from a lot of groups. It is expected that both Vietnamese and foreign scholars, cultural organisations, libraries will refer and provide us with a book catalogue or any books with the same research objective to facilitate the establishment and development of the Viet Study Institute. Within limit of funding, we still hesitate to widen research framework. We plan to focus on finding books of Ancient History, rather than purchasing the massive amount of books relating to general civilisation, culture of all nations.
We look forward to receiving encouragement and help from scholars, groups and organisations all over the world.
Kind regards,
Vu Khanh Thanh
anvietuk@aol.com