The Vietnamese expression " ăn giả bữa " means to eat with a vengeance to make up for what one has missed. This is very true with a sick person: as soon as he feels an urge for rice again he is sure to be on the way of recovery. His restored physio-psychological equilibrium means his reinforcement in the cultural environment of rice.
Vietnam belongs to the rice civilization whose habitat coincides with the natural dwelling of the bamboo. In his well documented La terre et l'homme en Extrême Orient ( Land and People of the Far East ), French geographer Pierre Gourou analyses the characteristic traits of rice-planting peoples of East Asia between the Mekong River and the confluence of the Amour and Oussouri Rivers. They are of an agricultural civilization founded on cultivation rather than on animal husbandry, marked by a monsoon climate, an advanced agricultural technique, a great rural population density, an aspiration for sobriety and a communal spirit required by the village cell and fostered by Confucianism.
Ninety percent of the world's rice area is concentrated in Asia, where rice production feeds forty percent of the globe's population.
The first traces of rice culture in Vietnam date back to the Mesolithic culture of Hoa Binh-Bac Son, 10,000-8,000 years before the Christian era. In the Bronze Age ( the first millenary B.C ) rice cultivation developed to a high level, which led to a surge in the Red River civilization. Vietnam is also marked by traits common to other rice-growing countries in Southeast Asia-the consumption of betel, the house on stilts tattooing, the lacquering of teeth, aquatic games, the bronze drum, kite flying, the water-wheel, and other traits.
The word " rice " may be misleading because in Vietnamese it may mean rice plant, paddy, husked rice, cooked rice or steamed glutinous rice.
Rice, the staple food in Vietnam, comes in two main kinds-the hard or ordinary rice and the sticky rice. Hard rice came much later but it has surpassed glutinous rice in importance because it can grow on much less fertile soil while yielding much more. In the plains, glutinous rice is used mainly as votive offerings or for cakes.
The two traditional crops are the Lúa Chiêm in the fifth lunar month and Lúa Mùa in the 10th lunar month, which is the principal crop.
Because of frequent floods, drought and pests, rice planters in Vietnam must show great skills, endurance and patience in all their operations, ploughing sowing, weeding, replanting, irrigation, havesting, threshing, winnowing, husking and polishing (making rice clear).
Innumberable are rice-inspired stories, proverbs, expressions and songs which speak of the farmer's pains, love and hopes.
" You who taste a bowl of rice,
Do you feel in the fragrant grains,
All the pains I've taken to grow then?"
" Take it easy, girl,
Or you 'll waste all that golden moonlight
While scooping water from the field. "
" Let's till the fill the land and replant the seedlings.
Today's pains will pay in tomorrow's wealth. "
Translate the text above into Vietnamese at Nhận Xét (Comments).
Dear Sang, I'm very sorry for my slow reply. I think that your website is excellent! I'm very impressed! However, I have a few corrections:
Trả lờiXóaThis is very true with a sick person. As soon as he feels an urge for rice again, he is sure to be on the way to recovery.
(I just changed the punctuation. Also, we say "on the way to recovery", not "on the way of recovery". Just so you know, a common English expression is: "On the road to recovery"
His restored physio-psychological equilibrium means his reintegration in the cultural environment of rice.
(Can you rephrase this sentence? I don't know what you mean by "reintegration in the cultural environment of rice")
They are of a vegetal civilization founded on cultivation rather than on animal husbandry, and (delete "and") marked by a monsoon climate, an advanced agricultural technique, a great rural population density, an aspiration for sobriety and a communal spirit required by the village cell and fostered by Confucianism.
("Vegetal" is not a very commonly used word. I would say, "an agricultural civilization" instead.)
Vietnam is also marked by traits common to other rice-growing countries in Southeast Asia-the consumption of betel, the house on stilts tattooing, the lacquering of teeth, aquatic games, the bronze drum, kite flying, the water-wheel, and other traits.
Because of frequent floods, drought and pests, rice planters in Vietnam must show great skills, endurance and patience in all their operations, ploughing sowing, weeding, replanting, irrigation, havesting, threshing, winnowing, husking and polishing. (What do you mean by polishing? I've never heard of polishing rice.)
Well done! I hope you are having a good summer! I hope these changes are helpful!
-Miss Eliza