The Resident Superior Building

On the south bank of the Perfume River, on ground that is now the campus of Hue University of Education, a building once stood. Its name was the Tòa Khâm sứ Trung Kỳ, the office of the Resident Superior of Central Vietnam. It was the highest seat of French colonial power in the central region, and it was built from 1876 to 1878.

One can picture thick walls and a heavy iron gate, and behind them the place where the French decided matters large and small for central Vietnam. The royal court at Hue was still there. But from the end of the 19th century, real power had moved toward this building.

In 1908, people from the provinces of central Vietnam came to Hue and gathered in front of the gate of the Tòa Khâm sứ. They demanded lower taxes and an end to the burdens that colonial policy had laid on every family. It was one of the biggest and bravest demonstrations of its time.

In the crowd that day, a young man stood interpreting for the people. He was Nguyễn Tất Thành, later known around the world as Hồ Chí Minh. His presence there is recorded in historical sources on the movement against taxes in central Vietnam.

Later, the grounds of the Tòa Khâm sứ became a school. Class after class of students walk through the gate each morning. Few of them probably know that they are walking on ground where that protest took place.

At the gate that faces the Perfume River, the sound of lectures drifts out of the classrooms. Afternoon sun lies on the tiled roofs, and the river flows on quietly, as if it never tires. Somewhere beneath that calm, one morning in 1908 has not quite faded away.