Nguyễn Tường Tam ( chữ Hán: 阮祥三 or 阮祥叄; Cẩm Giàng, Hải Dương 25 July 1906 – Saigon, 7 July 1963) better known by his pen-name Nhất Linh (一灵, "One Spirit") was a Vietnamese writer, editor and publisher in colonial

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

. He founded the literary group and publishing house Tự Lực Văn Đoàn ("Self-Strengthening Literary Group") in 1932 with the literary magazines ''Phong Hóa'' ("Customs", or "Mores") and ''Ngày Nay'' ("Today"), and serialized, then published, many of the influential realism-influenced novels of the 1930s. In 1935, Nguyễn published a satirical and fictional travelogue about his time in France, ''Going to the West'' (Đi Tây). His aim was to show that the French colonialists did not grant to the working classes in Vietnam the same rights they accorded to workers in France eed Citation In addition to Nhất Linh, scholars have noted that the many Vietnamese westernized elites returning from France had been embracing the French “ideal of progress” as a lens to imagine Vietnam in a modern light of social equality and democracy. In the 1940s he organized a political party, Đại Việt Dân Chính ("Great Viet Democratic Party" DVDC). Tam fled to China where he was arrested on the orders of Chang Fa Kwei, who at same time had arrested

Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as (' Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as P ...

. This faction soon merged with the larger Đại Việt Quốc Dân Đảng ("Great Viet Nationalist Party" DVQDD) and later this too merged into the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng ("Vietnamese Nationalist Party" VNQDD). After release from China Nhất Linh returned to Vietnam in 1945, to become Foreign Minister in the first coalition government of the

Democratic Republic of Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

. He was chief negotiator with the French in Dalat in April 1946 and was to have led the delegation to France. However fearing Viet Minh assassination he fled to Hong Kong and resided there 1946-1950. On his return to Vietnam, to the South, avoiding politics and concentrated on literary activities. This did not prevent the accusation of the

Ngo Dinh Diem Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic o ...

regime of involvement in the 1960 attempted coup. Nhat Linh denied this, and the police having found no evidence did not seek to arrest Tam till 1963. Tam committed suicide by ingesting

cyanide Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms. In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...

, leaving a death note stating "I also will kill myself as a warning to those people who are trampling on all freedom", the "also" probably referring to

Thich Quang Duc Thích is a name that Vietnamese monks and nuns take as their Buddhist surname to show affinity with the Buddha. Notable Vietnamese monks with the name include: * Thích Huyền Quang (1919–2008), dissident and activist * Thích Quảng Độ ( ...

, the

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

who had self-immolated in protest against Diem's persecution of Buddhism a month earlier.

Works

Novels

*''Gánh hàng hoa'' (The Flower Seller) (with Khái Hưng, 1934) *''Đời mưa gió'' (The Stormy Life) (with Khái Hưng, 1934) *''Nắng thu'' (Autumn Sun) (1934) *''Đoạn tuyệt'' ( The End) (1934-1935) *''Lạnh lùng'' (Estrangement) (1935-1936) *''Đôi bạn'' (Two Friends) (1936-1937) *''Bướm trắng'' (White Butterfly) (1938-1939) *''Xóm cầu mới'' (New Bridge Hamlet) (1949-1957). *''Giòng sông Thanh Thủy'' (Blue River) (1960-1961). *''Ba người bộ hành'' (Three Pedestrians) *''Chi bộ hai người'' (The Cell of Two) *''Vọng quốc'' (Looking Back)

Stories

*''Nho phong'' (Confucian Mannerism) (1924) *''Người quay tơ'' (The Weaver) (1926) *''Anh phải sống'' (You've Got to Live) (with Khái Hưng, 1932 - 1933) *''Hai buổi chiều vàng'' (Two Golden Afternoons) (1934-1937) *''Thế rồi một buổi chiều'' (It Happened One Afternoon) (1934-1937) *''Thương chồng'' (Feeling Sorry) (1961)

Essay

*''Viết và đọc tiểu thuyết'' (Writing and Reading Novels) (1952-1961)

Travelogue

*''Đi Tây'' (Going to the West) (1935)

Translations

*''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent re ...

'' (made 1960, published 1974)Emily Bronte, Đỉnh Gió Hú, Nhất Linh, Nguyễn Tường Thiết dịch
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References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nhat Linh Suicides in Vietnam Foreign ministers of Vietnam Vietnamese writers 1906 births 1963 deaths 1963 suicides