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Yep, I have watched this film since I was a child. A short paragraph describing the scene of the old man catching a goldfish and going home to meet his wife was included in the 6th grade textbook in Vietnam, from the time I was studying until now. Of course, although in class the teacher said it was a pig feeder (máng lợn), when I got home to watch a cartoon, I saw the old woman washing the shirts and splashing water on her husband's face. :D Therefore, I later translated it as wash-tub (máng giặt). It is true that bathing in a tub was a habit brought to Vietnam by the French. Even swimming pools, Vietnamese people have no concept of it.
The climate in Northern Vietnam only has two or three cold months a year, but in the past, because there were many rivers and lakes, the rainfall was extremely high. Thus, you could'nt feel the lack of water to drink or bathe or wash. Poor people have
a habit of building houses near rivers to have water for daily use, but if they don't have it, they will
dig ponds. This lifestyle easily reminds you of the movie "The 13th Warrior", when 10 Vikings shared a basin of water. But of course it's just a film, because in reality, pond water in the past was not as dirty as it is today, because industrial activities had not yet appeared
1 2. Rich people or intellectuals often bathe in very large wooden basins or wash their faces in the morning with
a small copper basin. However, I still find that hygiene awareness at that time was still too simple compared to now, just because the climate and environment were cleaner. Back to our story :
The reason why the 1970-80s translators could not believe that the tub was simply a washing tool, because Vietnam is one of the oldest pig-raising areas in the world (I know that Vietnamese piglets are also raised by Americans as pets). It's me, when I was a kid, my dad still called me as "Cường the Piglet" (realname + nickname), which means I'm a blockhead (like Ivanushka). In the past, whether in cities or countrysides, with abundant water sources, every family dug a well for convenience
3 4. Legend has it that if the well runs out of water, the homeowner will be considered unlucky. So in my opinion, having a house near the river is better. :D It must be added that drawing water from wells and carrying water are both very difficult, so it used to be a
lucrative job for impoverished people (orphans, persons with slow physiological development, women with many children). But in return, they are susceptible to shoulder and calf deformities (like Quasimodo). Bathing, washing and drinking water are like that, so how do Vietnamese people go to the toilet ?
Because Vietnam is a country that values agriculture, livestock and human feces are also things that need to be protected. For now I won't discuss collecting animal feces, because that's too simple and is often left to children. In the past, Vietnamese people still called toilet as "cầu tiêu" (bridge for waste). Actually, in the corner of the garden, we will dig a deep hole, then put a board on it, that place will be temporarily called as "nhà ủ phân" (house for compost). According to what I learned from a young age, raw manure cannot be used to fertilize fields, but must wait for it to ripen after about 10-15 days, meaning when microorganisms have destroyed its structure. The darker the color of the fertilizer, the better it is for the fields. So farmers still call it as "phân ngon" (delicious manure). This habit has taken root in the minds of Vietnamese people, so today the toilet is often politely called as "bồn cầu" (bridge's tub).
