Mandarin (Havan Novel)
Mandarin, subtitled ''A Novel of Viet Nam'', is a novel by John Havan. The protagonist, ''Bach'', is the first-born son of the most powerful mandarin at the Nguyễn dynasty court in Hue.* At the time of Bach's birth, Vietnam's historical feudal system is locked in a struggle with French colonial exploitation, Japanese imperialism, and Ho Chi Minh (born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...'s communist fanatics. Bach grows up to be a robust and handsome young man, irresistible to the women in his life, brilliant at his studies and with a natural gift for the martial arts, but his way of life is doomed in the cataclysmic birth throes of the modern Vietnamese socialist state. The book is an epic tale of love and war, struggle, loss, and rebirth. A sequel, '' The Tiger ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Havan
John Anh Havan (born 20 September 1933) is a French writer. Background John Anh Havan was born in Paris, France, on 20 September 1933. His Vietnamese father, a Sorbonne graduate in law, became Finance Minister under the administration of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. His British mother, enrolled at the London School of Art, eventually became a painter who used Chinese calligraphy as a base for her brush-and-ink drawings of Vietnamese scenes. At home, the family spoke French. Havan was educated in England, won a scholarship to St. Peter's Hall, Oxford, where he read Jurisprudence for two years. From 1955 to 1972, he worked with American and European firms in the Asia-Pacific region in the fields of defense contracting, in particular spending the Vietnam War years, working for U.S. firms in South Vietnam. In 1956 he volunteered for two years' service in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) infantry, where he reached the rank of captain. During that period, he be ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Historical Fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, Film, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels. An essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the depicted period. Authors also frequently choose to explore notable historical figures in these settings, allowing readers to better understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments. The historical romance usually seeks to romanticize eras of the past. Some subgenres such as alternate history and historical fantasy insert intentionally ahistorical or Speculative fiction, speculative elements into a novel. Works of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin () was a bureaucrat scholar in the history of China, Korea and Vietnam. The term is generally applied to the officials appointed through the imperial examination system. History and use of the term The English term comes from the Portuguese ''mandarim'' (spelled in Old Portuguese as ''mandarin,'' ). The Portuguese word was used in one of the earliest Portuguese reports about China: letters from the imprisoned survivors of the Tomé Pires embassy, most likely written in 1524, and in Castanheda's ''História do descobrimento e conquista da Índia pelos portugueses'' (c. 1559). Matteo Ricci, who entered mainland China from Portuguese Macau in 1583, also said the Portuguese used the word. The Portuguese word was thought by many to be related to ''mandador'' ("one who commands") and ''mandar'' ("to command"), from Latin ''mandare''. Modern dictionaries, however, agree that the Portuguese borrowed it from the Malay ''menteri'' (in Jawi: , ), which derived fr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nguyễn Dynasty
The Nguyễn dynasty (, chữ Nôm: 茹阮, chữ Hán: 朝阮) was the last List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty, preceded by the Nguyễn lords and ruling unified Vietnam independently from 1802 until French protectorate in 1883. Its emperors were members of the House of Nguyễn Phúc. During its existence, the Nguyễn empire expanded into modern-day Southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos through a continuation of the centuries-long Nam tiến and Siamese–Vietnamese wars. With the French conquest of Vietnam, the Nguyễn dynasty was forced to give up sovereignty over parts of French Cochinchina, Southern Vietnam to France in 1862 and 1874, and after 1883 the Nguyễn dynasty only nominally ruled the French protectorates of Annam (French protectorate), Annam (Central Vietnam) as well as Tonkin (French protectorate), Tonkin (Northern Vietnam). Backed by Empire of Japan, Imperial Japan, in 1945 the last Nguyễn emperor Bảo Đại abolished the protectorate treat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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French Indochina
French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China), officially known as the Indochinese Union and after 1941 as the Indochinese Federation, was a group of French dependent territories in Southeast Asia from 1887 to 1954. It was initially a federation of French colonial empire, French colonies (1887–1949), later a confederation of French associated states (1949–1954). It comprised French protectorate of Cambodia, Cambodia, French protectorate of Laos, Laos (from 1899), Guangzhouwan (1898–1945), French Cochinchina, Cochinchina, and Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnamese regions of Tonkin (French protectorate), Tonkin and Annam (French protectorate), Annam. It was established in 1887 and was dissolved in 1954. In 1949, Vietnam was reunited and it regained Cochinchina. Its capitals were Hanoi (1902–1945) and Saigon (1887–1902, 1945–1954). The Second French Empire Cochinchina campaign, colonized Cochinchina in 1862 and established a French protectorate of Cambodia, protect ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Japanese Imperialism
The territorial conquests of the Empire of Japan in the Western Pacific Ocean and East Asia began in 1895 with its victory over Qing China in the First Sino-Japanese War. Subsequent victories over the Russian Empire (Russo-Japanese War) and the German Empire (World War I) expanded Japanese rule to Taiwan, Korea, Micronesia, Southern Sakhalin, several concessions in China, and the South Manchuria Railway. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, resulting in the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo the following year; thereafter, Japan adopted a policy of founding and supporting puppet states in conquered regions. These conquered territories became the basis for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in 1940. Including Mainland Japan, colonies, occupied territories, and puppet states, the Empire of Japan at its apex was one of the largest empires in history. The total amount of land under Japanese sovereignty reached in 1942. By 1943, it accounted for more than 20% of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ho Chi Minh
(born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969, and as its first Prime Minister of Vietnam, prime minister from 1945 to 1955. Ideologically a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist, he founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and its successor Workers' Party of Vietnam (later the Communist Party of Vietnam) in 1951, serving as the party's chairman until his death. was born in Nghệ An province in French Indochina, and received a French education. Starting in 1911, he worked in various countries overseas, and in 1920 was a founding member of the French Communist Party in Paris. After studying in Moscow, Hồ founded the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League in 1925, which he transformed into the Indochinese Commu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it opposed the French-supported State of Vietnam and later the Western-allied South Vietnam, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The DRV Fall of Saigon, invaded Saigon in 1975 and ceased to exist the following year when it Reunification Day, merged with Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, the south to become the current Vietnam, Socialist Republic of Vietnam. During the August Revolution following French Indochina in World War II, World War II, Vietnamese communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, Hồ Chí Minh, leader of the Viet Minh, Việt Minh Front, Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, declared independence on 2 September 1945 and proclaimed the creation of the Democratic Repu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Tiger General
The Tiger General, subtitled ''The Memoirs of a Vietnamese Intelligence Chief'', is a novel by John Havan. It was first published in 2011, and is a sequel to the 2008 novel Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand .... The plot The protagonist, ''Hai'', is the illegitimate son of ''Bach'', the protagonist of the preceding work. A born survivor, Hai continually re-invents himself under the French, Viet Minh and Japanese regimes. At thirty-six years of age, he comes into his own and his rise is unstoppable, emerging as the 'Tiger General' in the South Vietnamese Republic. The main part of the book is based on the communist Vietnamese spy, Pham Xuan An. who was a friend of the author many years. Reviews * * References 2011 novels English-language novels Novels s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2008 French Novels
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. Etymology English ''eight'', from Old English '', æhta'', Proto-Germanic ''*ahto'' is a direct continuation of Proto-Indo-European numerals, Proto-Indo-European '':wikt:Appendix:Proto-Indo-European/oḱtṓw, *oḱtṓ(w)-'', and as such cognate with Greek and Latin , both of which stems are reflected by the English prefix :wikt:oct-, oct(o)-, as in the ordinal adjective ''octaval'' or ''octavary'', the distributive adjective is ''octonary''. The adjective ''octuple'' (Latin ) may also be used as a noun, meaning "a set of eight items"; the diminutive ''octuplet'' is mostly used to refer to eight siblings delivered in one birth. The Semitic numerals, Semitic numeral is based on a root ''*θmn-'', whence Akkadian ''smn-'', Arabic ''ṯmn-'', Hebrew ''šmn-'' etc. The Chinese numeral, written (Standard Mandarin, Mandarin: ''bā''; Cantonese language, Cantonese: ''baat''), is from Old Chinese ''*priāt-'', ultim ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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English-language Novels
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples that migrated to Britain after its Roman occupiers left. English is the most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations) and the United States. English is the third-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish; it is also the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers. English is either the official language or one of the official languages in 57 sovereign states and 30 dependent territories, making it the most geographically widespread language in the world. In the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, it is the dominant language for historical reasons without being explicitly ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Novels Set In Vietnam
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning 'new'. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, Medieval Chivalric romance, and the tradition of the Italian Renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, in the historical romances of Walter Scott and the Gothic novel. Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, and John Cowper Powys, preferred the term ''romance''. Such romances should not be confused with the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |