> The Dictionary Projects
> Scholarship Programs
> Fifteen Year Plan

The National Library of Vietnam. On April 11, 2007, the Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Library of Vietnam in Hanoi to create a digital library of the National Library's 4000-item cultural heritage of books, woodblocks, manuscripts, maps, and other materials on paper. For the first time, anyone with a computer, anywhere in the world, will be able to access this collection...with a click of the mouse.

Ideographic Rapporteur Group (IRG/ISO). The Foundation supports Nom presentations at the annual meetings of the IRG, the international body responsible for world scripts and their display on the internet. Our participation in the IRG technical meetings is essential to maintaining Nom as an internationally recognized writing system.

The first annual prizes for the Best Software Design for Nôm script: The Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation is pleased to announce its first annual prizes for the Best Software Design for Nôm script. Phan Anh Dũng of Huesoft and ôTống Phước Khải of Hanosoft have each received $500 awards for their designs of software for chữ Nôm. In November, 2004, at the first International Nôm Conference in Hanoi, both the Tống Phước Khải and Phan Anh Dũng presented their remarkable technical achievements in keyboard and accessing chữ Nôm via the computer. The Foundation congratulations them on their work!

Xư Tay: Unicode began the inclusion of the Tay Viet script into the international multilingual standards on February 6, 2007. The 73 characters being considered constitute the traditional alphabet of the Black Thái from Sơn La Province, chosen to represent all Tay [Thái] ethnic scripts in Vietnam. This is the fifth major script group in Vietnam to be included in Unicode, after Chăm, Nôm, Khmer and Roman script groups. The standards work on Thái scripts began in 1999 at the ISO/IEC 10646 WG2 meeting in Fukuoka, Japan. More details to come...

International Nôm Conference 2006 (Hội nghị Chữ Nôm Quốc Tế 2006) May 31, June 1 & 2, 2006, Huế — Việt Nam: Following our co-sponsorship of the first international conference on Nôm last November in Hà Nội, the Nôm Foundation has joined with Huế city officials and other Nôm agencies to hold a second international conference in conjunction with the 700th anniversary of Thuận Hoá–Phú Xuân–Huế’s founding. Please see our Call for Papers for details. The Conference Program is now available. This year, the 26th Technical Meeting of the ISO/IEC 10646 Ideographic Rapporteur Group will convene in Huế on June 5-9, 2006 at the Thừa Thiên-Huế Center for Information Techonology, while the Festival Huế 2006 begins Jun 3-10, 2006.

International Nôm Conference, November 12-14, 2004. In co-sponsorship with the Viện Nghiên cứu Hán Nôm (The Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies), the Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation held an international conference on chữ Nôm from November 12-14, 2004 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Scholars came from around the world and from all over Vietnam. Conference papers can be read at: "Nom Conference 2004". For information on purchasing the Proceedings please click this link: NOM'2004 Proceedings.

Dictionary Projects

The Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation has just finished publishing the first Chữ Nôm dictionary in true type fonts. Each entry in the dictionary will be assigned a unique ISO code that will allow Chữ Nôm electronic display on computers worldwide. With the transfer of Chữ Nôm via computers (and the internet) through a free electronic dictionary, the entire corpus of Nôm texts in the world’s libraries can at last be identified. Chữ Nôm texts buried in the world’s major libraries can finally be described and posted. Scholars will be able to share their research into Việtnam’s 1000-year history in literature, medicine, religion, music, philosophy, court affairs, and ancient court documents. Việtnam’s cultural past will be directly accessible once again.

Giúp đọc Nôm và Hán Việt [Guide to pronunciation of Nôm and Hán-Việt characters], by Father Anthony Trần Văn Kiệm, 4th Edition. ISBN 1-881608-06-9, September 2004. LC Control No. 2005270158.

Also, in cooperation with the Trung Tâm Nghiên Cứu Quốc Học (Center for Vietnamese National Studies), we are offering sale of the Dictionarium Anamitico-Latinum Nam Việt-Dương Hiệp Tự vị, ed. by A J. L. Taberd, first published in Bengal, India, 1838. An Nam Đại quốc Hoạ đồ (Tabula geographica imperii Anamitici), 26 x 48.5 cm 1838. Second publication by the National Studies Center and the Literature Publishing House, Hồ Chí Minh City, 2004. For information on both dictionaries, please go to: Nôm books.

Scholarship Programs

Besides providing computer tools to investigate the Vietnamese literary history written in Nôm characters, The Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation also offers scholarships to students with defined interests in studying Chữ Nôm script. So far we have funded several Ph.D. candidates who will use Nôm in their research projects as well as a young Vietnamese-American undergraduate with a knowledge of classical Chinese and classical Greek. In each case, we arrange contact between the student and a Nôm scholar in Việtnam. The stipends for American-based students have averaged $1200. The stipends sometimes defray travel and living expenses, but primarily go to pay for tutoring in Chữ Nôm script.

The values of this scholarship program are several: it increases Nôm literacy and participation in the vast, 1000-year heritage of writing in Chữ Nôm script while enhancing the cohort of scholars with knowledge of the Nôm tradition in poetry, medicine, government, history, religion, and medicine. At the same time, it provides some financial support to the remaining scholars who are the carriers of this heritage.

Thirty $100 Scholarships for Students in Vietnam
Through the generous donation of Thu Lê and Phùng Liên Đoàn, a nuclear physicist who has funded many charitable projects in Vietnam, the Nôm Foundation continues to offer $100 Nôm Study Scholarships to college and high school students in Hanoi, Huế, and Hồ Chí Minh City."

(2003 recipients)

David Lane Gitelson Scholarships
David Gitelson was a young, refugee relief worker in Việtnam with the International Voluntary Services, a Peace Corps-like organization that operated during the war. He was killed in January of 1968 while bringing supplies to villagers who had recently been bombed. David had a vision of a Việtnam at peace and alive in its cultural heritage. Donors may wish to contribute to the Nôm Scholarship Fund in his name.

To make a donation click here.