SOURCE: Searle, William J. “Women, Vietnamese, Other: The Depiction of Women in Vietnamese Short Fiction.” War, Literature & the Arts 13, nos. 1-2 (2001): 314-27.

In the following essay, Searle traces the depiction of women in the short fiction of female Vietnamese authors, specifically highlighting stories inspired by war.

If heaven forces us to be naked, Then we are naked. If heaven allows us to have an undershirt, Then we wear it. 

—The Tale of the Kieu

Writing to artists in 1951, Ho Chi Minh stated: “To fulfill his task, the cultural fighter needs a firm point of view and correct ideas … The goods of the resistance, the country and the people must be considered above all else” (Linh intro. xi). As charismatic and as patriotic as he most certainly was, Uncle Ho was no literary critic. In later years not all Vietnamese writers could follow his dictate. Even before the celebrated...