The Tonkin Free School (, ) was a short-lived but historically significant educational institution in

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

that aimed to reform Vietnamese society under the French protectorate during the beginning of the 20th century.

History

The school was founded in March 1907, run by

Lương Văn Can Lương Văn Can (梁文玕, 1854–1927) was a Vietnamese mandarin, school administrator, independence activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform wi ...

with the participation of many nationalists, including

Phan Bội Châu Phan Bội Châu (; 26 December 1867 – 29 October 1940), born Phan Văn San, courtesy name Hải Thụ (later changed to Sào Nam), was a pioneer of 20th century Vietnamese nationalism. In 1904, he formed a revolutionary organization called ...

and

Phan Châu Trinh Phan Châu Trinh (Chữ Hán: 潘周楨, 9 September 1872 – 24 March 1926), courtesy name Tử Cán (梓幹), pen name Tây Hồ (西湖) or Hi Mã (希馬), was an early 20th-century Vietnamese nationalist and reformer. He sought to end Franc ...

. It stemmed from the movement of the same name, which aimed to modernize Vietnamese society by abandoning

Ruism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

and adopting new ideas from the West and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. In particular, it promoted the

Vietnamese alphabet The Vietnamese alphabet (, ) is the modern writing script for the Vietnamese language. It uses the Latin script based on Romance languages like French language, French, originally developed by Francisco de Pina (1585–1625), a missionary from P ...

script for writing

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

in place of classical Hanese by publishing educational materials and newspapers using these script, as a new vehicle of instruction. The schools offered free courses to anyone who wanted to learn about the modern spirit. The teachers at the school at 59 Hàng Đàn included

Phạm Duy Tốn Phạm Duy Tốn (1881 – 25 February 1924) was a Vietnamese writer. He was father of the songwriter Phạm Duy and French language writer and ambassador Phạm Duy Khiêm. He was widely considered as the first Vietnamese writer who wrote short ...

.Nguyễn Đình Hòa ''From the City Inside the Red River: A Cultural Memoir'' 1999 Page 76 "the Association for Mutual Education (Hội Trí Tri) at 59 Fan Street. ... August 22, 1907, of the same paper further revealed, on page 348, that the three elementary grades were taught ... Trần Văn Hùng, Vũ Văn Trụ and Phạm Duy Tốn, the latter a scholar-publicist and father of Professor Phạm Duy Khiêm and musician Phạm Duy Cẩn, a.k.a. Phạm Duy. On November 16, 1943, Governor-General Decoux, resident-sup ... The school operated legally for several months before the French authorities closed it down in November. In March 1908, a tax revolt in Annam and an attempted poisoning of French soldiers in Hanoi were blamed on the leaders of the school by the French. Subsequently, all the leaders were arrested and the school's publications were suppressed. The school aimed at making the Vietnamese ‘modern’. It taught subjects like science, hygiene and French generally at evenings.

Members

* Đỗ Đức Anh * Đào Nguyên Phổ * Phan Tuấn Phong * Đặng Kinh Luân *

Dương Bá Trạc Dương (楊, ) is a Vietnamese surname, an estimated 1% of the Vietnamese population shares the last name. In transcription it is a Chinese family name or given name of Yang. The name is also transliterated as Yang in Korean and Yeung or Youn ...

* Lê Đại * Vũ Hoành * Phan Đình Đối *

Phan Huy Thịnh Phan may refer to: * Phan (surname), a Vietnamese family name * Phan District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand * Phan River, Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam * Phan (tray) Phan (, ) is an artistically decorated tray with pedestal. It is common in T ...

Nguyễn Hữu Cầu Nguyễn Hữu Cầu ( vi-hantu, 阮有求, 1712–1751) was the leader of a rebellion of Tonkin peasantry in the 18th century. Biography Nguyễn Hữu Cầu was born in a poor family in Lôi Động (Tân An, Thanh Hà, Hải Dương, Việt Na ...

Hoàng Tăng Bí Huang (; zh, t=Wiktionary:黃, 黃, s=wikt:黄, 黄, c=, p=, first=t) is a Chinese surname. While ''Huáng'' is the pinyin romanization of the word, it may also be romanized as Hwang (Korean surname), Hwang, Wong (surname), Wong, Waan, Wan, Waon ...

Nguyễn Quyền Nguyễn Quyền (1869–1941) was a Vietnamese scholar-gentry anti-colonial revolutionary activist who advocated independence from French colonial rule. He was a contemporary of Phan Bội Châu and Phan Chu Trinh, and one of Tonkin Free ...

Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh (1882–1936) was a Vietnamese journalist and translator of Western literature in the early 20th-century during the Nguyễn dynasty. Together with he founded the '' Đông Dương tạp chí'' (1912) – known as the first s ...

References

Vietnamese independence movement Schools in Vietnam Defunct schools in Vietnam Vietnamese writing systems Vietnamese writers' organizations Educational institutions established in 1907 1907 establishments in French Indochina {{vietnam-school-stub

History

Members

See also

References