Talk Series | Reading Introductory Han Texts - Reconnecting with the Ancestors

Time:

• Session 1: 6:30PM - 9:30PM | Sunday, 10.05.2026
• Session 2: 6:30PM - 9:30PM | Sunday, 07.06.2026
• Session 3: 6:30PM - 9:30PM | Sunday, 05.07.2026

Location: Saigon Ward (detailed instructions will be sent to registered participants via confirmation email)

Register here:https://forms.gle/hfwq5b3WuNtVX7Ch9

Modern Vietnamese contains a large number of Sino-origin words, appearing in everyday speech as well as in written and literary language across all levels. In this sense, Sino-origin vocabulary is inherently familiar within Vietnamese.

However, as the writing system shifted to the Latin alphabet, Sino-Vietnamese characters have gradually become unfamiliar to modern Vietnamese people. Not only unfamiliar in terms of script and sound, we also feel hesitant toward the core layers of meaning within Sino-Vietnamese words. This rupture has gradually distanced us from our ancestors.

As an effort to reconnect with linguistic heritage, as well as the ways of thinking and living of past generations, the Han-Nom program series by Năm Năm Tháng Tháng invites you, together with speaker Kiến Nam, to explore the topic of Introductory Han learning.

Together, we will revisit a series of books used to teach Chinese characters to students in the past, such as Ấu học Hán tự tân thư (compiled by Dương Lâm), Ấu học phổ thông thuyết ước, Ấu học thuyết, Ấu học văn thức, Ấu học Việt sử tứ tự, Luận ngữ tinh hoa ấu học, Nam quốc địa dư ấu học giáo khoa thư, Quốc sử ấu học giáo khoa thư… Through these introductory texts, we will once again touch the profound world of classical language of our predecessors, and through that, better understand the words we continue to use every day.

Năm Năm Tháng Tháng
x Tempo Nexus
x Master Kiến Nam

Speaker introduction: Master of Literature: Phan Nguyễn Kiến Nam

Graduated as valedictorian in Han-Nom studies and also valedictorian of the 2007-2011 cohort at the Faculty of Literature and Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Master Kiến Nam remained at the faculty, participating in teaching and serving as a Researcher at the Han-Nom Documentation Research Department from 2011 to 2023, and completed his thesis: “Envoy Poetry of the 16th-17th Centuries: Features and Values” in 2014.

From 2016 to 2018, he continued his Master’s studies in Chinese Literature at National Dong Hwa University.