VIETNAMESE WOMEN PAST & PRESENT
Up to now, Vietnamese women are seen as the crucial factor affected to the development of society. Along with the modernization of the country, women in Vietnam probably have many differences in terms of some physical features and thoughts. This blog will take account into few examples of the differences through many decades.
A Set of Teeth
Nowadays, a fine set of teeth is defined as a set of gleaming white teeth. However, in the past, the standard of good-looking teeth was full of black. Tooth painting is the ancient custom of East Asia countries such as China, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Dyeing black the teeth is the secret of Vietnamese people in the past. The process is really complicated. A day before dying, woman have to hold lime juice and white wine in her mouth in order to make the enamel to scale off. Honestly it is seen as the most painful part of the process because the tongue and the gums will be inflamed. The following day, woman will use mixture of carbon flour and Shellac which is the resin by the female lac bug to dye her teeth. The dye part will be lasted two or three days. The good result is that all the teeth is black and polished. The black color will last up to 30 years later.
Hair
Hair is the other thing apart from the teeth that women in Vietnam take care of most. Vietnamese women in the past believe that beautiful hair is fragrant, black and smooth. A lot of natural ingredients such as Gleditsia triacanthos, grapefruit or lime oil to use as the natural shampoo. Vietnamese women is 20th century also had many ways to style their hair. Letting their hair down or making a chignon are the most popular ways in the past. Today, modern women feel free to do whatever they like in order to make them feel confident such as cutting short hair and dyeing it colorful by with their favorite colors.
In my own story, my parents allowed me to dye my hair when I was in grade 10. I think that it was a pleasure for me because most of Vietnamese parents said that they will let their children to dye their hair freely when their children graduated from high school. I have changed my color hair many times, approximately 10 times from brown, yellow to pink, orange or even purple hair. Changing so much color did not mean that I do not appreciate my traditional color hair – black, maybe because I am young and I like to change myself in many different ways.
Clothes
In the past, Vietnamese women wore traditional clothes called “Ao Dai” everyday even doing hard work. Women in 20th century had to wear secretive clothes. The colors of cloths are chosen as elegant and neutral colors like white, black, brown or beige.
Today, Vietnamese women still wear “Ao Dai” but only on some special and important occasions such as wedding and when saluting the flags every Mondays in schools. Girls studying at high school have to wear white “Ao Dai” on Mondays and other special occasions.
Role of women in society in the past and present
During the feudal period of Vietnam, Confucianism affected strongly and deeply to people’s thoughts therefore the role of women is underrated. According to Confucianism, women should follow “Three Obediences and Four Virtues” which is the set of basic moral principles. In terms of Three obediences, woman was to obey her father as a daughter, her husband as a wife and her son as widowhood. Meanwhile due to Four Virtues, there are four feminine virtues which includes wifely virtue, wifely speech, wifely manner and wifely work. Because of these moral standards, in the past Vietnamese women just stayed at home to take care of family instead of going to work. Women had not make money so they had to rely upon the husbands. That leads to the result that the women in society in the past did not have any voices in the family and society.
Nevertheless, nowadays the role of Vietnamese women in present has changed a lot. Today the society realizes that women’s competences are not only taking care of or cooking for family, but also in many different fields such as being leaders, politicians or businesswomen. For example, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao is one of the
most successful businesswoman and a self-made woman billionaire in Vietnam till now. She is the CEO of Vietjet Air which is an international airline in Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao was also listed in Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen in 2016 and ranked 62nd in the list of Power Women in 2016.
In conclusion, through times, the role of Vietnamese has changed a lot also along the standard of beauty. However, whether in what period, Vietnamese women’s beauty always shines.
Sources
https://www.pinterest.com/
http://afamily.vn/nhung-khac-biet-thu-vi-giua-phu-nu-viet-nam-xua-va-nay-20140115022228604.chn
https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph%E1%BB%A5_n%E1%BB%AF_Vi%E1%BB%87t_Nam
https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Th%E1%BB%8B_Ph%C6%B0%C6%A1ng_Th%E1%BA%A3o
