Aesthetics of adventure
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24 May 2025
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Talk with To Phuong Cuong, Lam Phuong Nam, Quach Trong, and Huyen Trang
The exhibition The year is XXXX re-examines the travel writings of colonial Indochina to guide visitors on a journey through imaginary lands that center instead the landscapes’ natural inhabitants. In reworking the genre of the travelogue, the exhibition unfolds like an expedition, the viewer lured into traversing the realms of religion, culture, and colonial memory.
In the XXXX years of Indochina, Chinese tales also ventured to Vietnam through their translations to chữ quốc ngữ (the ‘national script’, or Vietnamese written in the romanized alphabet), and adapted itself to resonate with the culture and customs of Vietnamese people, specifically of those living in the South. In turn, Vietnamese readers journeyed to the world of Chinese historical figures, mythological beings, and folk heroes. This literary adventure would prove consequential for the Vietnamese, as attested by the scholar Vương Hồng Sển: ‘Our neighbor’s accounts are like our own – these tales, though a thousand miles away or a hundred years past, are to us mortal beings the mirrors through which we reflect ourselves.’ (Vương Hồng Sển, The Pleasures of Reading Chinese Fiction, HCMC, Tổng Hợp Publishing House, 1993, p. 50).
The panel discussion Adventures in Chinese Fiction is an extension of the mythical expeditions in The year is XXXX. Facilitated by Quach Trong, with complementary music from guzheng musician Huyen Trang, the discussion largely revolves around two such adventures. The first adventure starts at the very source, the birthplace of these tales, where we explore the essence of Chinese fiction, its formation, and the cultural values it harbors within Chinese society. From there, the adventure moves southward to Vietnam, where we delve into the transmission of Chinese fiction across borders, and how it took root in Vietnam’s literary culture and shaped contemporary reading habits. And the third adventure take us on an excursion into Chinese fiction, its cinematic adaptations, and its reception among modern audiences.