Mademoiselle Saigon?

November 12th
Did you know that once upon a time Vietnam was a French colony?
I didn't! No idea in fact! So I write to you this post in the hopes that I may impart some knowledge of the history of French involvement in Vietnam as well as how I came across this knowledge.
So from the 17th century to the 19th century France was in Vietnam trying to convert the people to Christianity and helping them to see the light of God. Under the pretext of protecting the work of Catholic missionaries in the 19th century France was able to form the French Indochina which was part of the French colonial empire in South Asia and France ruled Vietnam until they lost the French Indochina war in 1954...
Some of you may be sitting there, scratching your head and thinking to yourself "France had an empire?" Well it would appear so and it would appear that our teachers have been holding back on our learning of other countries.
But why is this relevant to me?

Well I was researching for my Commercial Theater essay that's due in December and I have to do a lot of research on Miss Saigon, a megamusical set during and after the Vietnam war with America that began in 1965. That's 11 years after Vietnam became it's own country suddenly the American's are descending upon them. But in this musical there is a character named the Engineer and he's a half-French half-Asian character.
His race alone caused enough trouble in American media but the funny thing about this man is his tendency to throw in little french mannerisms and sayings here and there in his songs. I couldn't for the life of me think why or why his french mother would happen to be in Vietnam in the first place to get pregnant with a Vietnamese man....it's all been explained now.
It is also very important I think to mention since this blog is for a french class that the writer and composer of  Miss Saigon were both Frenchmen. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. These were also the creators of Les Miserables, another megamusical based on the Victor Hugo novel. An important fact is that these men are french, when they write their musicals they write them in french and then work with a translator to translate them to English and fix all the rhyming and then set it to the music. It is a very long process.
But anyways, just a fun fact about Vietnamese history portrayed through a musical for you readers.
Peace <3
Cecilly