Teachers Day in Viet Nam (During which I am both Honored and Humbled)

Rather than continuing  with my impressions of Hanoi, I need to both process for myself and share with you an event I found profoundly moving.  It was my good fortune to be here on November 20^th,  National Teachers Day.   On this holiday, students honor their teachers and retired teachers are honored by current faculty members. At Hanoi University of Science there is a formal ceremony in the morning, followed by luncheons for each biology division at local restaurants, attended by the faculty and the emeriti professors.

I was given a formal invitation to the ceremony and invited to join the luncheon with the Department of Vertebrate Zoology. My first impression on entering the auditorium for the ceremony was olfactory – there were perhaps 50 – 60 large bouquets of flowers spread two deep across the front tables. It is a tradition here to present such bouquets to individuals for all occasions (I was also presented with one). The room was filled with faculty members and elderly retired professors of both sexes. On the stage a white plaster bust of Ho Chi  Minh was backed by the flags of the communist party and the national flag of Viet Nam and was adjacent to beautiful decorations declaring the event.

The ceremony began with a short speech and the then several undergraduate students performed traditional songs that expressed their admiration and respect  for their teachers (a far better custom than our course evaluation forms).  The girls were striking in their beautiful ao dai’s (the traditional Vietnamese National dress) and also performed a beautiful dance  using large fans arranged to suggest flower petals while other girls fluttering fans to represent butterflies.

This was followed by a slide show that told the history of the university from its origins after the victory over the French (who prevented all institutions of higher education in its colonies) to its present day, including the time when the entire university was moved to the mountains to escape the American bombing of Hanoi. Ripples of excited comments and laughter spilled from the elderly attendees as they spotted pictures of their younger selves carrying weapons, traveling to outlying villages to educate the children and working in volunteer brigades after the war to rebuild the country.

For me, the most profound experience was the fact that I was positioned in a place of honor close to two of the most famous retirees, Dr. Mai Dinh Yen and Dr. Vo Quy. I had met Dr Yen previously when he attended two of my presentations because, even though he is nearly 80, he is still involved in issues of biological education in secondary schools in Viet Nam. After the ceremony he asked if he might meet with me to discuss some ideas and at which time he related some of the story of his life. I sat there amazed as he talked about being a child during the war of independence from the French, his struggles to earn a university degree and his work as the founding member of the department of ecology at the University of Hanoi.  The political fortunes of Viet Nam meant that he had to become fluent in French, learn Russian when science in Viet Nam was under Russian influence,  and finally English to ensure Viet Nam was not cut off from the scientific community. Dr Yen was one of the founding members of the University of Hanoi and laughed about having to quickly learn ecology when he was appointed chair of the ecology department.

At lunch I was seated next to Dr. Vo Quy, who will be 80 in a month but who is still an active scientist, serving on numerous international committees.  Dr Quy  received the Blue Planet award in 2003 (given to two individuals each year who have made significant contributions to our understanding of the environment). Dr Quy had done the key work on the effects of dioxin in the herbicides used by the US government during the “American War” on stillbirths and birth defects throughout the south.  A charming and gracious individual, Dr. Quy shared with me the fact that he was the only scientist smuggled into South Vietnam during the war in order to begin his study on the effect of herbicides on humans. We laughed and joked together and as I stumbled back to my office, bouquet in hand (we had a fair amount of Vietnamese wine at lunch), I felt truly humbled to have been a part of this remarkable event.