View source for Tonkin Free School

{{Short description|School in Hanoi, Vietnam, 1907–1908}}
[[File:Emblème de l'École libre du Tonkin.svg|right|121px]]
The '''Tonkin Free School''' ({{langx|vi|Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục}}, {{linktext|東|京|義|塾}}) was a short-lived but historically significant educational institution in [[Hanoi]] that aimed to reform Vietnamese society under the French protectorate during the beginning of the 20th century.

==History==
The school was founded in March 1907, run by [[Lương Văn Can]] with the participation of many nationalists, including [[Phan Bội Châu]] and [[Phan Châu Trinh]]. It stemmed from the movement of the same name, which aimed to modernize Vietnamese society by abandoning [[Confucianism|Ruism]] and adopting new ideas from the West and [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]. In particular, it promoted the [[Vietnamese alphabet]] script for writing [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] in place of classical [[Chinese language|Hanese]] by publishing educational materials and newspapers using these script, as a new vehicle of instruction. The schools offered free courses to anyone who wanted to learn about the modern spirit. The teachers at the school at 59 Hàng Đàn included [[Phạm Duy Tốn]].<ref>Nguyễn Đình Hòa ''From the City Inside the Red River: A Cultural Memoir'' 1999 Page 76 "the Association for Mutual Education (Hội Trí Tri) at 59 Fan Street. ... August 22, 1907, of the same paper further revealed, on page 348, that the three elementary grades were taught ... Trần Văn Hùng, Vũ Văn Trụ and Phạm Duy Tốn, the latter a scholar-publicist and father of Professor Phạm Duy Khiêm and musician Phạm Duy Cẩn, a.k.a. Phạm Duy. On November 16, 1943, Governor-General Decoux, resident-sup ...</ref>

The school operated legally for several months before the French authorities closed it down in November.  In March 1908, a tax revolt in [[Annam (French colony)|Annam]] and [[Hanoi Poison Plot|an attempted poisoning of French soldiers]] in Hanoi were blamed on the leaders of the school by the French. Subsequently, all the leaders were arrested and the school's publications were suppressed.

The school aimed at making the Vietnamese ‘modern’. It taught subjects like science, hygiene and French generally at evenings.

==Members==
*[[Lương Văn Can]]
*[[Đỗ Đức Anh]]
*[[Đào Nguyên Phổ]]
*[[Phan Tuấn Phong]]
*[[Đặng Kinh Luân]]
*[[Dương Bá Trạc]]
*[[Lê Đại]]
*[[Vũ Hoành]]
*[[Phan Đình Đối]]
*[[Phan Huy Thịnh]]
*[[Nguyễn Hữu Cầu]]
*[[Hoàng Tăng Bí]]
*[[Nguyễn Quyền]]
*[[Phạm Duy Tốn]]
*[[Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh]]

==See also==
* [[Hội Trí Tri|Société d’Enseignement Mutuel du Tonkin]]
* [[Đông Du]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Vietnamese independence movement}}

[[Category:Vietnamese independence movement]]
[[Category:Schools in Vietnam]]
[[Category:Defunct schools in Vietnam]]
[[Category:Vietnamese writing systems]]
[[Category:Vietnamese writers' organizations]]
[[Category:Educational institutions established in 1907]]
[[Category:1907 establishments in French Indochina]]


{{vietnam-school-stub}}