Khái Hưng

Khái Hưng

Khái Hưng (* 1896 ; † 1947 ; real name: Trần Khánh Giư ) was a Vietnamese writer and politician . He worked as a novelist, short story writer and press writer and played a leading role in the development of modern journalism in French Indochina . He was imprisoned by the colonial power for his nationalist views and became involved in the Nationalist Party (VNQDD). His violent death in 1947 is attributed to the Viet Minh .

Origin and career

Khai Hung was born into a wealthy mandarin family in Hai Duong Province . His father held the office of governor in the same province. He graduated from French secondary school at the prestigious Lycée Albert Saurrat in Hanoi and began academic training at the Thang Long private school in 1931 .

Journalistic and literary work

At the private school he met Nguyen Tuong Tam , who was to become both his literary and political companion. Both played a leading role in the literary "Group of Self-Empowerment" ( Tu Luc Van Doan ). He has published numerous novels and newspaper articles. Khai Hung advocated adopting western forms of literature and ideas. A main topos of his works was the criticism of the upper class of his country, from which he himself came.

Khai Hung wrote numerous novels and short stories. The short story You Must Live (Anh Phai Song) and the novel Halfway Through Spring (Nua Chung Xuan) , published during the 1930s, achieved most notoriety .

Political activism

During the Front Populaire from 1936 to 1939, Khai Hung became politically active for the first time. In 1941 he was arrested as an anti-colonial nationalist by the colonial authorities, which were now loyal to the Vichy regime . After his liberation when the Japanese came to power in the colony in the spring of 1945, he joined the VNQDD together with Nguyen Tuong Tam. The two built up the party newspaper Viet Nam , which turned against the Viet Minh and their communist-dominated united front of the Vietnamese independence activists. In 1947 he was arrested by members of the Viet Minh while fleeing to his wife's home village and died in their custody. It is unclear whether the decision to kill him was known to the leadership or whether it was a spontaneous action by local cadres.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Christopher E. Goscha: Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945–1954) . Copenhagen 2011, p. 240
2. ↑ ^{a b} Bruce L. Lockhart, William J. Duiker: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam . Oxford 2006, p. 187
3. ^ ^{A b} Teri Shaffer Yamada: Virtual Lotus: Modern Fiction of Southeast Asia . Ann Arbor 2002, p. 278