Archives many ancient Vietnamese publications

Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang visits the Exhibition

Bulac Library was established in 2011, gathering more than 1.5 million documents and publications of 350 languages and 80 writing systems in the world. The Vietnamese language collection at Bulac Library is one of the oldest and most ancient collections in France, 150 years old and very rich with about 13,000 publications (16,500 books), especially more than 9,000 books in Vietnamese and more than 100 newspapers and magazines, of which about 20 are still in circulation. The Vietnamese language collection is regularly added to serve students studying and researchers about Vietnam.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Hai, Head of Exhibition and Southeast Asian Document Coordination at BULAC Library, said: These works are placed in glass cabinets, right at the main entrance on the first floor of the Library for readers to easily view. Viewers can see many books that they had only heard about before.

Among the valuable documents stored at Bulac Library are two printed copies of Luc Van Tien story in Han Nom script from 1865 and 1876; the Luc Van Tien edition is believed to be a handwritten copy by Tran Dinh Cua, the first Vietnamese teacher of Vietnamese in Paris; Luc Van Tien singing performance in Quoc Ngu script printed in 1873. In addition, the Library also stores many other documents and publications, including Kim Van Kieu story published in 1871...

Nguyen Van Phuc, a Vietnamese PhD student in Italy participating in an exchange program with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CASE) in Paris, said: “Bulac Library is a useful source of documents for research. I know the Library because it has many documents about Vietnam, not only about culture but also some documents about law that are relevant to my major.”

An edition of the poem "Luc Van Tien" displayed at the Exhibition

Lou Vargas, a PhD student in History at the College of Practice (Ephe), learned Vietnamese out of passion since childhood thanks to a Vietnamese friend who shared: “Before, when I used to study Vietnamese, I often went to the Bulac Library to look up dictionaries, read Vietnamese literary works, look at books on Vietnamese geography, history, culture, and borrow books to read, learn, and research.”

Vietnamese language began to be taught in Paris in 1869 in self-established classes at the Sorbonne University, and around 1871-1872 it was officially taught at the Oriental Language School, now the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO). At that time, the School had links with many scholars from South Vietnam such as Truong Vinh Ky, Truong Minh Ky... to bring publications, books, stories, and newspapers printed in Vietnamese to France. At the same time, many Vietnamese publications were collected from the Interuniversity Library of Oriental Languages (BIULO), the Training and Research Agency for East Asian Languages and Civilizations (LCAO) of the University of Paris Cité and the French Far East University (EFEO). Furthermore, the Bulac Library received nearly one hundred texts in Han Nom script, mainly literary works, most of which were gathered from the Biulo Library's collection and some others from donated private collections.

Bulac Library is open to everyone from 10am to 10pm every day, providing many convenient services for students and researchers. Dr. Nguyen Thi Hai said: “The Vietnamese language library is constantly expanding, adding many new books and newspapers every year. It can be said that the Vietnamese language library at Bulac Library is one of the ancient Vietnamese language libraries in France and the only one that is regularly updated. Currently, each year the Library still orders about 200 publications of all kinds, mainly Vietnamese books sent from Vietnam, along with 25 newspapers, also mainly in Vietnamese.”

Mr. Benjamin Guichard, Scientific Director of Bulac Library, expressed his wish to receive more original Vietnamese publications on diverse topics or from different localities to enrich the Vietnamese language font at the Library.

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