question_answer 1)

Imagine you are a student in the Tonkin Free School in 1910. How would you react to   • what the textbooks say about the Vietnamese?   • what the school tells you about hairstyles?  

Answer:

The textbooks are highly biased. They are glorifying the French people and justifying colonial rule. In these books, the Vietnamese are shown as primitive, backward and not capable of mental reflection. The textbooks propagate the myth that the Vietnamese are only capable of working as agricultural labourers but cannot rule their nation. They are very skilful at copying. I will definitely not agree to what the textbooks say and condemn them.   The school tells us to keep our hair short so as to look 'modern'. This is against our culture, as traditionally we have always kept long hair. In any case, hairstyle is a personal matter and the school cannot dictate to us what hairstyle we should keep.