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Examining the College of Interpreters and translation issues in colonial Vietnam, 1862–90

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2024

Eileen N. Vo
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Abstract

When the French occupied Cochinchina in 1862 they encountered many issues related to language and communication that hindered their ability to effectively govern the local population. This article will discuss how the French attempted to establish a College of Interpreters to institutionalise interpreters and to enforce a translation regime where quốc ngữ served as the intermediary script between Chinese and French to overcome translation challenges. Their translation surveillance system, via legal protocols, ultimately failed to discipline local interpreters and regulate translation, nor did it protect French colonial interests and agenda in Vietnam, due to pedagogical, financial and administrative constraints.

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Type
Research Article
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Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 2024 , pp. 103 - 125
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The National University of Singapore

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank the reviewers for their useful and constructive feedback to help her revise the article into its current form. In addition, she would like to thank the Gallaudet Small Research Grants Program for partially funding her research in France to help her complete the article.

References

1 Minister of the Navy and Colonies to the Governor General of Indochina, 20 Apr. 1888, Centre des Archives d'Outre Mer, Aix-en-Provence (henceforth CAOM), GGI-EEII315/4.

2 Bassnett, Susan and Harish, Trivedi, ‘Of colonies, cannibals and vernaculars’, in Post-colonial translation, ed. Bassnett, Susan and Harish, Trivedi (London: Routledge, 1999)Google Scholar; Niranjana, Tejaswini, Siting translation: History, post-structuralism, and the colonial context (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

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7 See Sarah Womack, ‘Colonialism and the collaborationist agenda: Phạm Quỳnh, print culture and the politics of persuasion in colonial Vietnam’ (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2003); Trương Bưu Lâm, New lamp for old: The transformation of the Vietnamese administrative elite (Singapore: Maruzan Asia, 1982); David Marr, Vietnamese anticolonialism, 1885–1925 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971); Milton Osborne, ‘Trương Vĩnh Ký and Phan Thanh Giản: The problem of a nationalist interpretation of a 19th century Vietnamese history’, Journal of Asian Studies 30, 1 (1970): 81–93.

8 Peter Zinoman, The colonial Bastille: A history of imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862–1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

9 Gwendolyn Wright, The politics of design in French colonial urbanism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).

10 Shawn McHale, Print and power: Confucianism, Communism and Buddhism in the making of modern Vietnam (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004).

11 Milton Osborne, The French presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and response (1859–1905) (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969), p. 263.

12 Ibid., pp. 54–5.

13 Pierre Brocheaux and Daniel Hémery, Indochina: An ambiguous colonization 1858–1954 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), p. 92.

14 Osborne, The French presence, p. 268.

15 Bernard Cohn, Colonialism and its forms of knowledge: The British in India (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 5.

16 Ibid., p. 3.

17 Jacob Ramsay, Mandarins and martyrs: The church and the Nguyễn dynasty in early nineteenth century Vietnam (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008), p. 125; Trương, New lamp, p. 30.

18 Charles Keith, Catholic Vietnam: A church from empire to nation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), pp. 49–51.

19 Ibid., p. 50.

20 John DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy in Viet Nam (New York: Mouton, 1977), p. 72.

21 Roy Jumper and Nguyen-thi-Hue, Notes on the political and administrative history of Vietnam, 1802–1962 (East Lansing: Michigan State University; Saigon?: Viet Nam Advisory Group, 1962), p. 88; Brocheaux and Hémery, Indochina, p. 195.

22 Alexander Woodside, Community and revolution in modern Vietnam (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), pp. 10–12.

23 DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, p. 121.

24 Le courrier de Saigon, 20 Nov. 1865.

25 Gia Định Báo, Saigon, 1867 issues.

26 Keith Taylor, History of the Vietnamese (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 467.

27 Christopher Goscha, Vietnam: A new history (New York: Basic, 2016).

28 DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, pp. 136–7.

29 Sheldon Pollock, ‘Cosmospolitan and vernacular in history’, Public Culture 12, 3 (2000): 591–625; Yufen Chang, ‘Spatializing enlightened civilization in the era of translating vernacular modernity: Colonial Vietnamese intellectuals’ adventure tales and travelogues, 1910s–1920s’, Journal of Asian Studies 76, 3 (2017): 627–54.

30 Osborne, French presence, p. 89. DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, p. 77.

31 Vương Hồng Sển, Sài Gòn năm xưa [Saigon of the past] (TPHCM: Tổng Hợp TP.HCM, 2013), p. 380.

32 Ibid.; see also DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, p. 99.

33 DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, p. 229.

34 Oral translation presumably underwent the same three-tiered translation process (Chinese–Vietnamese–French) given the lack of people who were competent in all three languages.

35 In the early days of colonialism, the group of lettrés were former Nguyễn mandarins or people traditionally schooled in Literary Chinese. Their title and position became more secretarial by the late 19th century due to rise and popularity of quốc ngữ among colonial functionaries.

36 See Heekyoung Cho, Translation's forgotten history: Russian literature, Japanese mediation and the formation of modern Korean literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016).

37 R.K Agnihotri, ‘Multilingualism, colonialism and translation’, in Translation and multilingualism: Post colonial context, ed. Shantha Ramakrishan (Delhi: Pencraft International, 1997), pp. 34–45.

38 Nguyễn Văn Ký, La société Vietnamienne face à la modernité: Le Tonkin de la fin du 19th siecle à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale [Vietnamese society facing modernity: Tonkin at the end of the 19th century to the Second World War] (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1995), p. 60.

39 Gia Định Báo, 15 Apr. 1867.

40 Ibid., 15 Feb. 1866.

41 Le courrier de Saigon, 20 Nov. 1865.

42 Lịch Annam thuộc về ba tỉnh nam kì, tuế thứ dinh mảo, 1867 [Annals of Vietnam of the three southern provinces, 1867] (Sài Gòn: Bản In Nhà Nước, 1867).

43 Lịch Annam thuộc về saú tỉnh nam kì, tuế thứ mộ thin, 1868 [Annals of Vietnam of the six southern provinces] (Sài Gòn: Bản In Nhà Nước, 1868).

44 Lịch Annam thuộc về sáu tỉnh nam ki, tuế thú canh ngọ năm 1870 [Annals of Vietnam for the six provinces, 1870], ed. Ernest Potteaux (Sài Gòn: Bản In Nhà Nước, 1870), pp. 22–41.

45 DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, p. 140.

46 Goscha, Vietnam, p. 344.

47 Jumper, Notes, p. 108.

48 It is unclear who taught the Vietnamese students nor is there much information about them as a group. DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, p. 76.

49 Jumper, Notes, p. 108.

50 DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, p. 76.

51 Nguyễn Văn Thành to Administrator of Bến Tre, 3 Sept. 1877, National Archives II, Ho Chi Minh City (Trung tâm lưu trữ quốc gia 2, henceforth TTLTQG-II), GGSL 3269.

52 Nguyễn Văn Xuân's dossier, 16 Nov. 1879, TTLTQG-II: GGSL 2991.

53 Mười Pierre to Director of the Interior, 22 July 1870, TTLTQG-II: GGSL 2999.

54 College of Interpreters Administrator to the Director of the Interior, July 1887, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 380.

55 Keith, Catholic Vietnam, p. 51.

56 Superior Commission of Public Instruction minute, 22 May 1877, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 382.

57 Governor General to Minister of the Naval and the Colonies, 27 Mar. 1885, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/4.

58 Ibid.

59 If mixed race students were legitimately recognised by their white father, then they would be classified as ‘European’, but if they were not legally recognised then they would be considered ‘Asian’.

60 Trần Nguyễn Hạnh taught Vietnamese at the Écoles des langues orientales vivantes in Paris between the late 1870s to the early 1880s while completing a law degree. Both Trương Vĩnh Ký and Trương Minh Ký worked as interpreters and taught Vietnamese and Chinese characters at the Collége des staigaires before teaching at the College of Interpreters.

61 Letters to College of Interpreters Director, Mar. to May 1887, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 377.

62 Director of the Interior decree, Feb. 1885, TTLTQG-II: GGSL 2211.

63 Letters to the Director of the Interior, 23 Apr.–8 May 1887, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 377.

64 Office of the Interior to Moine, 14 Apr. 1885, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 378.

65 Journal Officiel, Paris, 25 Apr. 1885.

66 Ibid., Minister of Navy and Colonies to Governor General, June 1885? (illegible date).

67 Exam Commission President to State Secretary, 24 July 1885, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/9; Decree for admission to College of Interpreters, 9 Mar. 1885, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/4.

68 Minister of Navy and Colonies to Governor General, 18 Sept. 1885, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/19.

69 Their scores were between 620 and 732 out of a total score of 920. Telegram no. J135, 20 May 1885, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/19.

70 See William B. Cohen, Rulers of empire: The French colonial service in Africa (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1971); Emmanuelle Saada, Empire's children: Race, filiation, and citizenship in the French colonies, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012).

71 Decree, 9 Mar. 1885, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/4.

72 College of Interpreters Director to the Director of Interior, 15 May 1885 and Sept. 1887? (illegible date), TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 380.

73 Notes and letters to the Director of Interior, 2 Mar. to 19 Aug. 1887, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 377.

74 Chum to College of Interpreters Director, 23 Mar. 1887; Note no. 206, Mar. 1887, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 377.

75 Decree, 9 Mar. 1885, CAOM: GGI- EEII315/4.

76 Ibid.

77 College of Interpreters Director to the Director of Interior, July 1887? (illegible date), TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 380.

78 Ibid.; Report to Governor of Privy Council, 5 Aug. 1887, CAOM: GGI- EEII315/4.

79 Report no. 34 from CII Director to Director of Interior, 6 Nov. 1885, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 377.

80 Inspector Report, 5–10 Mar. 1904, TTLTQG-I: RST27 177.

81 CII Director to Director of Interior, 1886? (illegible date), TTLTQG-I: RST27 177.

82 CII Director to the Director of Interior, 6 Nov. 1885, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 377.

83 For information on modern day professional ethics, see Inghelleri, Moira, Interpreting justice: Ethics, politics and language (London: Routledge, 2012)Google Scholar. In fact, the professionalisation of interpreters, defined through codes of ethics and methods for translation, was only established after the Second World War when interpreters became more visible in the public realm as they came to occupy more diplomatic roles and responsibilities globally. See Wolf, Michaela and Fernandez-Ocampo, Anxo, ‘Framing the interpreter’, in Framing the interpreter: Towards a visual perspective, ed. Wolf, Michaela and Fernandez-Ocampo, Anxo (London: Routledge, 2014), pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

84 Decree, 9 Mar. 1885, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/4.

85 The Vietnamese scholar, Trần Trọng Kim (1883–1953) commented that he ‘did not learn much’ in terms of translation methods except to ‘translate a few sentences from French to Vietnamese’ at the College of Interpreters in Hanoi, a school that was modelled on the same institution in Cochinchina. Kim's comment suggests that students did not sufficiently learn translation methods to become skilful interpreters. Cited in Hoa, Tran Thi Phuong, ‘From liberally-organized to centralized schools: Education in Tonkin, 1885–1927’, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 8, 3 (2013): 38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

86 Community and revolution, p. 108.

87 Gia Định Báo, 15 Mar. 1868.

88 Decision no. 879, 4 Nov. 1880, TTLTQG-II: GGSL 2975.

89 Meeting minutes, 8 Apr. 1874, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/1.

90 Lịch Annam thông dụng trong sáu tỉnh nam kì [Annals of Vietnam used in the Six Provinces of Cochinchina], ed. Jean Bonet (Sài Gòn: Bản In Nhà Nước, 1875), p. 76.

91 Ibid., pp. 76–7.

92 Ibid., p. 78.

93 Interpreters also needed to certify any French legal documents that were translated into the local languages; ibid., p. 77, Article 12.

94 Ibid.

95 Ibid., p. 79.

96 Ibid., p. 78.

97 Director of Public Education to Secretary General, 23 Oct. 1896, TTLTQG-I: RST27 73429.

98 James Barnhart, ‘Violence and the civilizing mission: Native justice in French colonial Vietnam, 1858–1914’ (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1999), pp. 941, 1048.

99 Vương, Sài Gòn năm xưa, p. 221.

100 Barnhart, ‘Violence and the civilizing mission’, p. 941.

101 Lawrance et al., Intermediaries, interpreters, and clerks, p. 11.

102 Saada, Empire's children, p. 17; Firpo, Christina, The uprooted: Race, children and imperialism in French Indochina, 1890–1980 (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015)Google Scholar.

103 Saada, Empire's children, p. 227.

104 As quoted in Saada, ibid.

105 Ibid., p. 51. There is little or no record of métis students at the interpreting colleges in Cochinchina.

106 Draft of the decree adopted by the council, 8 Apr. 1874, CAOM: GGI-EEII315/1.

107 Decision no. 615, 5 Aug. 1877, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 3892.

108 Decision no. 874, 19 Sept. 1874, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 1542.

109 Ernest Potteaux to Director of Interior, 26 Mar. 1874, TTLTQG-II: GGSL 3892.

110 Resident Superior of Tonkin to Governor General, 8 May 1908, TTLTQG-I: RST 19287.

111 Boscq Jean Cyprien performance report, 1 Dec. 1889, CAOM: GGI- EEII597/6. See also Paul Michael Sager, ‘Indigenizing Indochina: Race, class, and the French colonial employer-state, 1848–1945’ (PhD diss., New York University, 2014).

112 Ballon to Attorney General, 12 Nov. 1880, TTLTQG-II: Goucoch 1542.

113 See Zinoman, A colonial Bastille; McHale, Print and power.

114 See Rafael, Contracting colonialism and Chaloemtiarana, ‘Making new space’.

115 Administrator of Phú Thọ to Resident Superior of Tonkin, 9 Nov. 1909, TTLTQG-1: RST 37455, Nguyễn Định Lâm to Resident Superior of Tonkin, 22 Dec. 1909; Decree no. 37, 5 Mar. 1910. TTLTQG-I: RST 37455.

116 Nguyễn Hat Toán's dossier, 1 Sept. 1894, TTLTQG-I: RST 51604.

117 DeFrancis, Colonialism and language policy, p. 177.

118 Chief of the Cabinet to Governor General, 21 May 1908, TTLTQG-I: RST 19287.

119 Lorraine Paterson, ‘Prisoners from Indochina in the nineteenth-century French colonial world’, in Exile in colonial Asia: Kings, convicts, commemoration, ed. Ronit Ricci (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016), pp. 229–30.

120 Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao were the leaders of the failed Hundred Days’ Reform of 1898 in China who demanded changes and reforms to Chinese social and political institutions. Marr, Vietnamese anti-colonialism, p. 125.

121 Report from Resident Superior of Tonkin to Governor General, 8 May 1908, TTLTQG-I: RST 19287.

122 Ibid.

123 Jean Boscq to the Governor General of Indochina, 1 June 1912, CAOM: GGI-EEII5967/6.

124 Taylor, History of the Vietnamese, p. 493.

125 Report from Resident Superior of Tonkin to Governor General, 10 July 1910, TTLTQG-I: RST 19287.

126 Chang, ‘Vernacular modernity’, pp. 629–30.

127 Goscha, Vietnam, p. 346.