Forthcoming book: Chân Đăng The Tonkinese of Caledonia in the Colonial Era

UTS ePress is excited to highlight this forthcoming book:

Chân Đăng The Tonkinese of Caledonia in the Colonial Era

Translated and with a critical introduction by Tess Do and Kathryn Lay-Chenchabi

This is the first English translation of Jean Vanmai’s international award-winning Chân Đăng The Tonkinese of Caledonia in the Colonial Era. Originally published in French in 1980, Chân Đăng is the 1981 winner of the prestigious Prix de l’Asie. The novel offers a rare insider’s account of the experience of Chân Đăng, the Vietnamese migrants who endured an often brutal indenture system in the nickel mines of New Caledonia in the 1930s and 1940s under the then French colonial government.

In this edition, scholars and translators Tess Do and Kathryn Lay-Chenchabi include a critical analysis of the book, contextualising its creation within the complex history and impact of colonialism and migration in the Asia-Pacific region. This special work also features photographs and documents from the author’s family albums, private community collections, and the National Archives of New Caledonia and New Zealand.