Phan Mem Doc File Xml

[Libby Cowen]

Afew years ago, I visited the New York Public Library and went through its list of tens of thousands of books in English about Việt Nam. I was astonished by how many of the books only focused on Việt Nam as a war, how many were written by Westerners who used Vietnamese people as the background to the Western stories, and how few of the titles were written by Vietnamese writers.

If Westmoreland had met Grandma Diệu Lan and Hương from The Mountains Sing, what would he say of their love for life and the many sacrifices they made for their family? Would he be able to look them in the eyes and tell them that life was cheap for the Vietnamese?

The road to decolonising literature in English about Việt Nam is long and arduous but I am not alone. I stand beside Vietnamese and diasporic Vietnamese writers who are doing extraordinary work in correcting misperceptions about Việt Nam and our people; I stand beside our readers, booksellers, and literary champions who are uplifting my work and sharing it with enthusiasm. It gives me hope for a future in which all cultures and ethnic groups are respected for who we are and have the freedom and the right to share our stories, without the need to modify any aspect of our storytelling to serve another group of people.

Born and raised in Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of the international bestseller The Mountains Sing, runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award, the 2021 International Book Awards, the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for Fiction. She has published twelve books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction in Vietnamese and English and has received some of the top literary prizes in Việt Nam including the Poetry of the Year 2010 from the H Nội Writers Association. Her writing has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in major publications including the New York Times. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. She was named by Forbes Vietnam as one of 20 inspiring women of 2021. Her second novel in English, Dust Child, is forthcoming in March 2023. For more information, visit: www.nguyenphanquemai.com

Since at least the 1990s, a phan is also a die-hard fan of the jam band, Phish. Known for extended sets and tours, an active concert-going culture, and a fun-loving, if drug-addled, attitude, Phish has a large network of phans who attempt to go to as many shows as possible. True Phish phandom is sometimes defined by people who have seen Phish play more than 100 times.

Finally, in Southeast Asia, a phan is the transliterated term for a kind of ritual tray, round and mounted on a pedestal, all usually made of light metals or wood. This phan is traditionally used in Buddhist ceremonies, such as the ordaining of Buddhist priests or the presentation of important items. They are commonly found in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

In social media, Phan is most widely used for shippers, usually female, of Dan Howell and Phil Lester. They often call themselves the phandom and identify as Dangirls or Philgirls, punning on fan-girl. Along with Phanfiction, the Phandom creates Phanart (fan-art).

This is not meant to be a formal definition of phan like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of phan that will help our users expand their word mastery.

Phans are usually made of metal such as copper, silver, brass, or steel. Nowadays aluminum or gilded plastic is generally used, which makes the phan lighter. This is convenient, for sometimes they have to be carried for a long time.

The phan trays are traditionally very important in Thai culture. Phans are generally used for ritual devotional practices and offerings may be placed on phans by the shrines. Phans are also used for containing other highly important things, including legal documents such as the constitution, or offerings to royalty.

Phans are also to bring the items of the Buddhist ceremony for young men who are to be ordained as monks, like robes, incense, candles and a pillow, among other items. In this case the family first displays all the items in the house, and then family members bring the items on decorated phans from the home to the temple.

Formerly, when the chewing of areca nut and betel was common among the Thai people, the ingredients for chewing, the nuts, leaves, spices and instruments for cutting, were presented on a phan to the guest entering the house as part of a traditional welcoming ceremony.[1]

In the story of the "Seven Nang Songkrans", Thao Kabinlaphrom, a mythical being, had to cut off his own head to perform a ceremonial salute to Thammaban Kuman. The problem was that if his head fell to the earth, it would scorch it. If it went up into the air, there would be no rain, and if it fell into the sea, the waters would dry up. So he decided to order his daughter to bring a phan, where he would place his head after having cut it off. Thus she could carry the head in a ritual procession across the heavens around Khao Phra Sumen (Mount Sumeru), following which she would keep it in a cave in Khao Krailat (Mount Kailash). This ceremony would be performed yearly by one of the seven daughters in turn, the Nang Songkrans.[2]

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