Readings: Hà Nội in the Old Days, Pt. 3

The Plague in Hà Nội and the Fate of the Temple of Literature

In late 1902, a plague broke out, taking many lives and causing the people of Hà Nội to be in fear day and night. It occurred right in the middle of the bustling, months-long Hanoi Exhibition, and with bodies piling up officials finally ordered the fair closed early.

The temperature of an infected person rises from 39 to 42 degrees. Small pimples appear on the hands or feet due to rat bites, and then grow infected and reddish brown. The lymph nodes swell, and the patient has chest pain, coughing, and difficulty breathing. The body gradually weakens and within 24-28 hours - if not treated in time - he or she will die.

The disease spread rapidly, and people had to find a way to burn goods and belongings left behind. Firemen are assigned to set fire to thatched houses near the epidemic area.

In the years prior, the disease swept through India and China, so in April 1902 the city governor issued an order to eradicate rats. Anyone who killed a rat would receive 4 cents. Many people were so greedy for money that they left to the countryside to catch rats and collect the bounty. After a few weeks, officials were paying out too much, so they reduced it to 1 cent per rat, and later 1 cent for 5 rats.

The hospitals filling up rapidly, the Imperial Academy at the Temple of Literature was shut down and used as a quarantine area to prevent the disease from spreading. Fortunately, an anti-fever injection was invented by Alexandre Yersin to combat the deadly symptoms, reducing the death toll.

Afterwards, French officials wanted to turn the Temple of Literature into a permanent hospital and made plans to move the temple to Hà Đông province. One of the officials they invited to consult on this plan was the doctor Phạm Văn Thụ (1866-1930) who would become a celebrated figure in Vietnamese history.

Phạm told the French officials that when the Temple of Literature ceased to be a school and blood was splashed on the doctoral stele, people lost heart. It has existed since the Ly Dynasty (over 800 years at this time) and even when the Nguyễn Dynasty moved the court to Huế they didn't touch it. If they moved the Temple now, the whole country would lose heart.

Vietnamese officials were pessimistic and did not believe Phạm when he told them that he had convinced official Pierre Pasquier to preserve the Temple at its present location. But Pasquier had served in Huế prior to this post and had become fascinated by Vietnamese culture.

The next day the official word came that the Temple of Literature would not be moved; in addition, 20,000 Đồng would be reappropriated to help with renovations so it could reopen.

Hà Nội Cathedral

This massive architectural work is in the Gothic style of the Middle Ages, like Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. The two towers on either side stand 27m. In the middle over the main door is a statue of Saint Joseph, and a porcelain-faced clock. Hidden behind the clock is a large bell and four small bells: one to chime the hour and each quarter hour.

Entering down the center aisle there are chairs and kneeling platforms on either side to seat up to 4,000 people. Everything is illuminated by blue, red, purple, and yellow glass panels. The quiet and solemnity makes the soul feel at ease from worries and sadness.

If the church is too crowded, you can kneel outside to pray. In front is a large yard with an oval flower garden surrounded by an iron fence. On a pedestal in the center is a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying a cross in one hand and the Baby Jesus in the other.

During the Lý Dynasty, King Lý Thánh Tông (1054-1072) built a pagoda on this site. A few years later, he added a 12-story tower called Báo Thiên and it was one of the "Four Great Treasures of An Nam". It collapsed and had been left in disrepair for a long time.

In 1883, Resident Bonnal forced the governor Nguyễn Hữu Độ to dismantle the pagoda at the request of Bishop Puginier because they claimed insurgents were often hiding there. It was still early days of French occupation. Puginier organized a "tombola" style lottery to raise funds to build the cathedral. Construction was delayed by a year due to funds, but after private donations the building was complete.

The inauguration was Christmas Eve 1886. People came from faraway parishes a day or two early to attend the mass. The bell rang continuously. The sound of prayers rippled like the surface of the sea.

Hà Nội Opera House

When France began to invade Việt Nam, Hà Nội became a concession area. By 1875, the encroached land spanned 18.5 hectares.

In 1899, the City Council under the chairmanship of Ambassador Richard proposed to build a theater. The construction budget was 2 million francs. The design combined ancient Corinthian architecture with the style of the Tuileries Palace and the Paris Opera House to create a unique style. It seats 870 people. Above the stage is engraved a human face and the year of completion: 1911.

The plays were usually by French authors, and the actors were all French. The audience was upper class, and Vietnamese people rarely went to see them. On April 15, 1920 Moliere's comedy "Imaginary Disease" was performed with a cast that was partly Vietnamese including the lead role played by Phạm Văn Duyệt, an intellectual and accounting expert. The local newspapers expressed praise.

The start of Vietnamese drama was the play "A Cup of Poison" by journalist Vũ Đình Long which premiered in October 1921 and caused a stir.

The theater has housed many notable events. On August 17, 1945, the Việt Minh Front turned a meeting of civil servants under the pro-Japanese government into a rally that became the August Revolution. On January 6, 1946, the 1st National Assembly met here and passed the first Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam.

Radio Service

The Service Radio Electrique de L'Indochine was established by decree on April 30, 1909. The person assigned to oversee this was Lieutenant Péri. By August 1911 three transmitting stations had been completed in Hà Nội, Kiến An, and Vũng Tàu. Two more came the following year.

Governor Sarraut wanted to establish contact with the mother country, so he sent Péri back to France to study and improve the radio system. In 1916, six iron antenna poles were installed, two of them 120m high; they were clearly visible from the opposite bank of the Red River. In 1924, the first direct telegraphs were achieved between Paris and Hà Nội, a considerable step forward in the ability to communicate.

After the revolution in 1945, we took over the Radio Station, but the news broadcast was often distorted and noisy. Two Vietnamese radio engineers tried everything to fix the problem. During the "National Resistance" period, the machinery was divided into four parts and taken to four different places in the Safe Zone. When peace was restored, the radio station was reassembled in Mễ Trì (Southwest Hà Nội). Nothing remains of the old facility except for the wall surrounding collective housing for employees of the Voice of Việt Nam Radio Station.

Hỏa Lò Prison

On November 26, 1994, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for restoration of the Hỏa Lò Relic Museum. The prison had been moved several months earlier to make room for the 22-story Hà Nội Tower. The museum retains its original facade and main gate, two guard towers, and the pre-revolutionary political prisoner camp.

The prison was completed in early 1899 and covered 9,500 square meters, with four guard towers, a solid wall made of rubble, and the black arched gate with the words 'Maison Centrale' (Central House) over them. To build the prison, the French colonialists had to force people to move their homes elsewhere. The villagers of Phụ Khánh specialized in making furnaces out of light-colored clay, so the locals came to call it the Furnace (hỏa lò) Prison.

The cells for detaining prisoners with death sentences are painted with black tar with very little light. It is stuffy, dark, cold and creepy. Revolutionary soldiers were imprisoned here, and there was a guillotine just outside in a small yard. During the French colonial period, the prison was home to both political and common prisoners, those with short sentences (less than 5 years) and death sentences. Prisoners with longer sentences than 5 years were transferred elsewhere.

In late 1931, revolutionary soldiers established a group inside the prison, and they organized four prison breaks in 1932, 1945, 1950, and 1951.

In September 1954, on the day we returned Major General De Castries, patriotic soldiers in the prison went on hunger strike, protesting the enemy's plot to frame them as common criminals. From all directions, people came to the prison to demand the enemy return all soldiers and civilians imprisoned during the war according to the signed agreement with the Resistance Government. The enemy mobilized more policemen and sprayed water at the crowds forming. The International Commission arrived just as they were at the peak of their violence against the protestors. The treaty-breaking French were caught red-handed and then the people dispersed peacefully.

The Grand Palais de l'Exposition

Old Hanoians often mention the "Exhibition House". So, what is it and where is it?

Soon after the French occupied Hà Nội, they forced the residents of Yên Tập to move, turning the area into a horse racing track. This was later moved elsewhere to make room for a massive structure called the Maurice Long Museum, after the Governor-General of Indochina. The architecture is in Gothic style with symmetry and arched roofs. The outside of the roof is stone carved like fish scales. Cast-iron lions guard the stone steps up to arched doorways decorated with intricate patterns.

The main lobby is spacious and airy, and on both sides the single floor is divided into sections so that when a fair is held, tents or stalls are not needed. The floor is made of polished ironwood. Rows of glass cabinets hold jewelry or every kind and embroidery; whenever a fair is held, far off provinces are notified to send goods to display, and Chinese and Japanese goods are displayed as well. There are many entertainments - circus, dancing and martial arts displays - and stalls selling cakes and refreshments. There was a year when there was a contest for the most fattened water buffalo, and the winning buffalo had a red silk square tied around its neck.

From 1930-1940, the fair was organized and became much more crowded, up to 25,000 people. In the winter, the weather was a bit chilly and young men and women competed to look splendid in fashionable attire. Young men threw confetti in women's hair, making them blush.

In 1940, France surrendered to Germany. In 1941, the fair was held but was dull and poorly attended. In 1942, there was a defense order in place to prevent American planes from bombing the occupying Japanese, so it was no condition to hold a fair.

In 1943, the US bombed the building, causing it to collapse. The French occupied the grounds in 1947 during the time of resistance. After taking over in 1954, the people tried to clear away the damage and it became the site of the People's Theater, but it still suffered from leaking ceilings. In 1978, the Soviet Union's Trade Union gifted Việt Nam's Labor Confederation with a cultural project for the workers, and the Việt Nam-Soviet Friendship Palace of Culture and Labor was built on the site.

Uncle Cổ's House

The official name was the French School for the Far East, established in 1898 by the decree of Paul Doumer. The mission is to research and excavate archeological sites and prohibit the export of relics. Over the first few decades, it became apparent how many distinct ethnic groups there are in Việt Nam, and that there must be a museum to collect these artifacts.

Louis Finot was the first director to propose the museum, and in 1926 construction began. Due to economic concerns, it wasn't finished until March 1937.

When the revolution succeeded, the French were allowed to temporarily retain 5 facilities: the Pasteur Institute, the Louis Finot museum, the St. Paul Hospital, the Sister Antoine Seminary, and the Albert Sarraut High School. After complete victory, the government renamed it the National Museum of History in March 1958. Some of the exhibits comprising cultures of non-Vietnamese nature (Chinese, Japanese) were then put into storage.

During the fiercest years of the "American war", the propaganda department arranged for American pilots to visit the museum during off hours to show them that the propaganda of Nixon to "bomb them back to the Stone Age" was inherently misguided. In March 1973, Kissinger visited Việt Nam and after visiting this museum he turned around, raised his hand, and said "Thank you, thank you."

In the next edition: Schools & Universities of the French Colonial Period