Word: chinh
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...novel is narrated by Hang, a young woman whose past has predetermined the course of her life. Her past reaches back to the fanatical time of land reform in North Vietnam from 1953 to 1956, when her uncle, Chinh, denounced her father as a "filthy landlord." The sorrowful tale of her parent's separation and family division is one that eludes Hang for most of her childhood; she does not fully understand why she is constantly made to feel ashamed. At one point, Hang cries, "I didn't dare ask [my mother] if, in another ten years, I would live...
Because so much of Hang's story is in her past, Duong interweaves flashbacks with the present time. The reader must visualize the story as the grown Hang travels on a train to Moscow to visit Uncle Chinh. The technique becomes annoying in the almost immediate realization that the past is much more interesting than the present. When Hang recalls the past, she seems to do so in graphic color; the present appears bleak and bland in contrast. Perhaps Duong uses this pattern intentionally, for it correlates to her own life, in which once hopeful and passionate support of communism...
Nguyen Van Linh is, in a sense, the Mikhail Gorbachev of Viet Nam. Named last December to replace Truong Chinh as General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, the 72-year-old economist has initiated a series of broad economic reforms, while encouraging citizens to voice their complaints and offer suggestions for change. Unlike the aging guard that led the wars against France and the U.S., then allowed the country to stagnate in poverty, Linh plans to raise his country's standard of living by streamlining the bureaucracy, cracking down on corruption and expanding trade with the West...
...National Assembly is likely to endorse fresh approaches when it convenes in June. One of the first orders of business: electing replacements for the calcified Old Guard, including President Truong Chinh, 80, and Pham Van Dong, 81, who has served as Prime Minister since 1976. Conceded Dong after casting his ballot last week: "I have been in this post too long...
More changes are likely. Prime Minister Pham Van Dong and President Truong Chinh, both 80, were due to retire last December but have held on to their posts. Observed Thai Quong Trung, a Vietnamese scholar: "There are new ministers, but who is in charge? Nobody knows...