Chinese Character Stelae of The Chinese In Hanoi

Abstract

The H©ng B??m and L©n ©ng Streets in Ho©n Ki?m district of modern Hanoi, now only a corner in Hanoi's old town centre, were originally a Chinese living and trading quarter. Here existed numerous Chinese guild halls and temples. Now that these relics are managed and used by the local people in their everyday lives, many changes have been made to the buildings that create risks of damage. Especially concerning is the loss of stelae which are important both for the understanding of the history of Chinese communities here and of Th?ng Long/Hanoi itself. No one has yet paid much serious attention to these stelae, however, nor have they been studied by scholars. For example, in the most recently published work, A Collection of Han Nom (Chinese-Vietnamese) scripts, done to celebrate Hanoi©s thousand year history, no stele made by the Chinese communities in Hanoi was included. This article outlines the current situation of Chinese stelae in Hanoi, and introduces the inscriptions carved on them, in the hope of better understanding the history of Chinese communities there, which is an important part of the history of Hanoi itself.