Research on Tay Ethnic Minority Literature in Vietnam Under Cultural View

Abstract

The Tay people are an ethnic minority of Vietnam. Tay literature has many unique facets with relevance to cultural identity. It plays an important part in the diversity and richness of Vietnamese literature. In this study, Tay literature in Vietnam is analyzed through a cultural perspective, by placing Tay literature in its development from its birth to the present, together with the formation of the ethnic group, and historical and cultural conditions, focusing on the typical customs of the Tay people in Vietnam. The researcher examines Tay literature through poems of Nôm Tày, through the works of some prominent authors, such as Vi Hong, Cao Duy Son, in the Cao Bang province of Vietnam. Cao Bang is home to many Tay ethnic people and many typical Tay authors. The research also locates individual contributions of those authors and their works in terms of artistic language use and cultural symbolic features of the Tay people. In terms of art language, the article isolates the unique use of Nôm Tay characters to compose stories which affect the traditional Tay luon, sli, and so forth, and hence the use of language that influences poetry and proverbs of Tay people in the story of Vi Hong, Cao Duy Son. Assuming a symbolic framework, the article examines the symbols of birds and flowers in Nôm Tay poetry and the composition of Vi Hong, Cao Duy Son, so to point out the uniqueness of the Tay identity. The above research issue is necessary to help us better appreciate the cultural values preserved in Tay literature, thereby, affirming the unique cultural identity of the Tay people and planning to preserve and develop these unique cultural features from which emerges the risk of falling into oblivion in modern social life in Vietnam. In addition, this is also a research direction that can be extended to Thai, Mong, Dao, etc, ethnic minorities in Vietnam.