An English Lady in the French Colonies, Part III

Gabrielle Vassal's second book: In and Round Yunnan Fou, published in 1922, was in several ways a very different book from her other two: On and Off Duty in Annam or Life in French Congo. Whereas the other two were about the experiences Vassal had as the wife of a French army doctor stationed in those two colonies, In and Round Yunnan Fou was instead about the experiences of Vassal as an ordinary tourist. As the only one of the three about a non-French colony, Vassal wrote more positively and charitably about the native population. Nevertheless, the assumption of Western superiority and dominance still exists, and is an integral part of the book as well as the others. She still partakes in making blanket ethnographic characterizations and criticisms of the various peoples she visits, something that is common to the other two books, and which puts her at odds with many other female travel writers during the period.

She began by again denigrating the Annamese, who seemingly could not do anything right. The Annamese boy waiter who served the Vassals their lunch aboard the train they took from Hanoi to Yunnan Fou aggravated Gabrielle to no end, as can be seen from her vivid description:

Lunch was served to us in the train but as we happened to be going through the best part of the scenery, it was rather an agitated meal…. The little Annamese boy waiter placed his dishes one on the top of the other as he hastened in and out of the compartment; it was not appetising to see your ham squashed under a plate of potatoes or your cheese flattened out by a dish of fruit.[1]

The Yunnanese people, on the other hand, were much more “practical” and more “thoughtful.” Her admiration, which began with the border guards who were most professional and “dressed as Europeans,” continued when she saw average Yunnanese. Initially surprised at seeing how “robust” and “healthy” their appearance was, Vassal wrote that she was “hardly prepared for so great a contrast… to the Tonkinese and aboriginal populations (of Vietnam).” [2]

Nevertheless, Vassal had many negative things to say about the Yunnanese. For one thing, despite their “vitality and vigor,” she felt they were “dirty,” and that like the Annamese, they did not believe in taking baths. [3] Furthermore, their bright, colorful, often blue, costumes annoyed Vassal to no end. After two months, she wrote, she was quite enthused about seeing a Tonkinese woman on the street, and her “dull, drab” costume.[4] Furthermore, and in many ways like the Annamese, they were dominated by superstitions and traditions. Noting that Westerners think nothing of moving from one residence to another, Vassal scornfully wrote that Yunnanese tradition dictated that they live in the same homes as their ancestors, so that their ancestors could provide them with protection. [5]

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