If you could have chosen to be named after somebody famous, who would you have chosen? Would you choose a superstar athlete? Or a popular musician? Or a Hollywood movie star? Well, in my case, I chose neither. In fact, I chose a pair women who are known by only few in the world. They are two national heroines in Vietnam, dubbed "Hai Ba Trung" or the "Two Trung Sisters." There are two main reasons for my choice: First of all, my name, Anhthu or Anh Thu, in Vietnamese, means heroine. And the second reason is that I truly admire these two women for their courage, determination, morality, and great accomplishments.
In the beginning of the first century, there lived two daughters of a powerful lord named Trung Trac and Trung Nhi. The name Trung means loyalty to one's country or king, and that was what the Trung sisters demonstrated when the country of Vietnam sent out a cry for help.
English: Blank map of Vietnamese provinces. ไท...
Provinces of Vietnam
Statue of the Trung sisters in Ho Chi Minh CityThey existed in a time when Vietnamese women enjoyed freedoms forbidden to them in later centuries. But all was not well and good because at this time, Vietnam was under the harsh rule of the Chinese Han Dynasty. All Vietnamese provinces were governed by Chinese officials, who often frightened, taunted, or hurt the Vietnamese people. The Trung sisters couldn't stand such cruel treatment to their own people, so with the support of tribal lords, they gathered an army of 80,000 people, thirty-six being women, including their mother. They trained the army to be courageous generals and fearless warriors. By the year 40 A.D., the Trung sisters, along with their army, had liberated sixty-five fortresses and finally drove the Chinese out of Vietnam. The people of Vietnam rejoiced over this tremendous victory and proclaimed Trung Trac to be their...