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Transnational Histories of Youth in the Twentieth Century pp 115–143Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

‘Colonial Circulations’: Vietnamese Youth, Travel, and Empire, 1919–40

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Part of the book series: The Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series ((PMSTH))

Abstract

‘Dear friend, we understand each other, and our hearts beat in unison’ wrote Vu Hien, a young Vietnamese student of medicine at the University of Hanoi to his friend Hoàng Văn Bích, a student at the University of Nancy, France, late in the summer of 1926. ‘My decision is irreversible’, he informed his correspondent, ‘and that is why I have already made all of the necessary arrangements’. The arrangements to which Vu Hien referred involved travel. He planned to discontinue his studies in Hanoi (the main center of the ‘protectorate’ Tonkin and capital of French Indochina), cross the Chinese border clandestinely to reach the leftist stronghold of Canton and then head on to Europe to rejoin his friend in France.1

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Notes

  1. On the earlier influence of the Chinese examination system in Vietnam see A. B. Woodside (1971) Vietnam and the Chinese Model: A Comparative Study of Vietnamese and Chinese Government in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

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Authors
  1. David M. Pomfret
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Pacific University, Oregon, USA

    Richard Ivan Jobs

  2. Department of History, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R

    David M. Pomfret

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© 2015 David M. Pomfret

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Pomfret, D.M. (2015). ‘Colonial Circulations’: Vietnamese Youth, Travel, and Empire, 1919–40. In: Jobs, R.I., Pomfret, D.M. (eds) Transnational Histories of Youth in the Twentieth Century. The Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137469908_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137469908_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-69178-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-46990-8

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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