Philippe Failer (right) and Olivier Tessier.

Philippe Failler and ancient documents

Most recently, the two French researchers completed a project to re-print the book “Techniques used by the An Nam people”, a unique document on Vietnamese society in the early 20^th century.

This book is preserved at many big libraries in the US, Japan and France, but all of them are incomplete versions.

Failler has also compiled several disks with scans of all issues of the Vietnamese newspapers Tri Tan and Thanh Nghi from 1941-1946, which are very important in Vietnamese press history.

“I wondered if someone wanted to search for these newspapers, where they could find them. These disks are the answer,” he said.

He worked very hard at all libraries in Hanoi and HCM City but he couldn’t find these old issues, until he met Nguyen Dinh Hoe, a senior collector.

Failler said that many individual collectors in Vietnam own valuable assets but they haven’t preserved ancient documents well.

Failler began to research Vietnam in 1986. He came to Vietnam for several months, for the first time, in 1994 to work for a research project on Southeast Asia.

He returned to the country in 1996 and he has worked for the Vien Dong Bac Co Institute (French School of the Far East) since then. He researches Vietnamese history in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

He has written some books about the history of northern provinces of Vietnam like Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Dien Bien. He is co-coordinating with Lao Cai province to write a catalog about the Sapa ancient stone blocks and recover some ancient books of the Dao ethnic minority group.

Failler plans to search for and digitalise all issues of Phong Hoa magazine, which was issued in the early 19^th century, and a collection of President Ho Chi Minh’s works.

He said he is lucky to have been able to witness the changes in Vietnam in the last decade. However, he worries about the shortage of documentary films about Vietnamese society in the early 20^th century and good movies about Vietnam’s history.

Olivier Tessier: Vietnam enchants me

Lantern making technique in the “Techniques used by the An Nam people” book.

Tessier came to Vietnam 13 years ago to do research for his master’s thesis on ethnology. He returned to Vietnam later to do his doctoral thesis.

He is enthralled by the subject of Vietnam’s countryside today. Field trips to rural and mountainous areas like Lai Chau and Hoa Binh have enriched his knowledge and experience in his field of research.

Before joining the French School of the Far East, he worked for some research projects of the French Embassy in Vietnam. Reprinting the “Techniques used by the An Nam people” is Tessier’s favourite project.

In the 1.5 years of carrying out this project, Tessier and his co-workers exerted great efforts to find the original version and restore each page on traditional do paper. He hopes to have additional such interesting projects in the future.

“Vietnam enchants me,” said Tessier, who is married to a Vietnamese girl.

VietNamNet/TP