448- Could Chữ Nôm Be Considered the Premodern Vietnamese Hip Hop? Viet Origins with Professor John Phan

In this episode of Viet Origins, Kenneth Nguyen joins Professor John Phan of Columbia University to examine the creation and evolution of chữ Nôm, Vietnam’s early vernacular writing system. Born out of a need to express Vietnamese thought in written form, chữ Nôm emerged as a linguistic innovation that pushed against classical norms. Just as hip hop gave voice to the unheard, chữ Nôm became a medium for cultural expression outside the dominant literary establishment. Is it possible that chữ Nôm was Vietnam’s first form of lyrical resistance? Tune in as we draw connections between past and present, language and liberation.

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John D. Phan is an Associate Professor of Vietnamese Humanities at Columbia University, based in the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. He focuses on the linguistic history of Vietnam and its cultural context.

His first book, The Lost Tongues of the Red River: Annamese Middle Chinese & the Origins of the Vietnamese Language, published in April 2025 by Harvard University Press, posits the existence of a regional dialect of Middle Chinese once spoken in northern Vietnam (the Red River Delta) and explores how this dialect influenced the emergence of Vietnamese

Phan completed his M.A. at Columbia University (on Ming‑Qing vernacular fiction, 2005) and earned his Ph.D. from Cornell (on Sino‑Vietnamese language contact, 2012). His scholarship examines the evolution of writing systems, vernacular literary forms (like chữ Nôm), and the social-political implications of multilingualism in East Asia

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Many of you still have the chance to record and preserve the legacies of your own families. I’ve sat with families now for interview sessions to record the rich histories of parents and explore the lives of the generations that preceded them. Don’t let your family stories go untold! Take a moment to reach out and together we will bring out your family’s story on a recorded journey. - Kenneth Nguyen

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