Woman brings Nom script to the world

Nom, Vietnamese script which was used to record the country’s history from the 10th to the 20th centuries and is facing oblivion, has been digitalised and will be uploaded to the Internet by some overseas Vietnamese researchers. One of them is Ms. Shih Jing-yi or Sinh.

People who mend the past

In recent years, Ms. Sinh, the way Vietnamese colleagues call Ms. Shih Jing-yi, has returned to Vietnam several times to collect, classify and digitalise Nom script to create a Nom script database to upload to the Internet to serve those who are interested in and love Nom script.

She has selected some basic Nom books of over 4,000 Nom books archived at the National Library of Vietnam in Hanoi to take photos of. Some of the books are torn. She has been to the northern province of Bac ninh to buy do paper (traditional paper made from do tree) to mend them. She has also been to the Han Nom Institute, the Vietnam Institute for Social Sciences to seek other Nom script books to take photos of.

Ms. Sinh is considered the soul of the project to make a database of Nom script on the Internet because she is an expert in Nom script and librarian skills. She is now in Vietnam for the tenth time to follow this project.

She works 24/7, including weekends at the Vietnam National Library. Many colleagues try to invite her to relax by touring Hanoi or tasting some cuisines at the weekend but she refuses, worrying that she will not have enough time to complete her works before returning to the US.

As the developer of the Nom script digitalising project of the Nom Script Preservation Association in the US, Ms. Sinh’s key mission is evaluating Nom script books, classifying them and making a list to help Nom script researchers easily find the books they need on the Internet.

In Vietnam, she has taught young librarians at the Vietnam National Library to write notes under international specifications. She hopes that one day, when she types a keyword on Google, she can find out everything related to Nom script.

When finished with this project, she will seek funding to digitalise all of the over 4,000 rare Nom script books at the Vietnam National Library.

“This job can not only help preserve the valuable cultural treasure of Vietnam but also spread Nom scripts to the world,” she said.

Nom script in the US

Ms. Sinh was born in Saigon and grew up in the US. As a Chinese-Vietnamese, she can speak and write Chinese very well. She graduated from Cornell, Ithaca University, in New York. Following Southeast Asian studies, she loves Vietnamese history. She studied Nom script in the US.

Seeing her passion for Nom script, a lecturer advised her to go to Hanoi to study more about Nom scripts. The lecturer introduced her to the best Nom researchers like Professor Nguyen Tai Can in the US, Prof. Phan Van Cac and Nguyen Quang Hong of the Vietnam Han Nom Institute.

In 2004, Ms. Sinh was invited to attend an international conference in Vietnam about Nom script during which she gave a presentation on building a digitalised library of Nom scripts. The US-based Nom Script Preservation Association and the Vietnam National Library have lent a hand to digitalise Nom script books.

Since then, Ms. Sinh has frequently travelled from the US to Vietnam to transfer the latest archiving techniques to the Vietnam National Library.

She now holds three master’s degrees: library-information, Southeast Asian studies and Asian studies.

Her major job is heading the Southeast Asian Library at California Library, the US. She said besides Nom scripts, she will research the history of some other Southeast Asian countries.

(Source: TP)

Tag: Asia , Bac Ninh , Cuisine , Hanoi , International , Saigon , Tour , Travel , Vietnam , Vietnamese

Woman brings Nom script to the world

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