The article that rememorates the seventieth anniversary of death of the founder of the journal „Český lid“, Čeněk Zíbrt, reviews the earlyphase of the career of this ethnographer and historian of culture. The period in which Zíbrt entered the Czech science had been marked by the conflicts between the Czechs and the Germans living on the territory of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. In the year 1891 started the preparation of the Czech-Slavic Ethnographic Exhibition that took place in the year 1895. This period represented the climax of the „ethnographic movement“ that absorbed in itself the national emancipation movement with certain aspects of political resistance against the government of Austria-Hungary. Zíbrt joined this movement only in its early phase. Together with several Czech ethnographers that were engaged around the National Museum in Prague he kept aloof of the preparations for the Czech-Slavic Ethnographic Exhibition. The reasons were not political, the most important was the question of a professional prestige. The group of ethnographers and historians of culture from around the National Museum felt double-crossed by the politicized exhortations around the ethnographic exhibition, since they had organized an ethnographic section, the so called Czech House, that formed part of the Land Jubilee Exhibition in the year 1891 and then continued their work within the frame of the National Museum. The exhortations to organize a new exhibition they perceived as alienation of thier own ideas and as a neglect of their credit. The article is based on one letter of the archaeologist and, at the time, redactor of the journal „Český lid“, Lubor Niederle, adressed to Čeněk Zíbrt. By using the facts mentioned in the letter, the author of the article tries to elucidate the broader political and social circumstances of the time and explains the divergence in opinion of the two redactors that at the end led to their break with one another.
The paper is designed as a set of reflections of a rather general nature. It describes the presence of Vietnamese in the Czech Republic during the last twenty years. The text captures changes describable only in trends. These are gradual transformations of local communities into modern Central European diaspora or a transnational community. For Vietnamese in the Czech Republic, the impulse to solve their economic situation dominates in terms of objective causes as well as the subjective reasoning of individual participants of the transfer. Business activities played a major role in the development of the community life of Vietnamese. These were either uncontrolled (unofficial) street sales of goods, variously organized retail or sales in wholesale markets. Phases of Vietnamese entrepreneurship in the Czech environment: 1.
Uncontrolled street stall selling (1990-1992) following previous business activities from the 1980s, 2. forming of urban and border zone markets (1992-1995), 3. so-called golden times of markets (1995-1998), 4. gradual decline in stall sales in markets and shift of Vietnamese business into stores (1998–today). A significant difference of Vietnamese existence is the fact that it does not seek a new identity when it moves to another country. A Vietnamese businessman is more strongly enclosed in his own cultural habits; after moving he prefers financial profit not only for himself but also for his family back in Vietnam. The dominant form containing
classic purchasing and sales of cheap goods is slowly
disappearing, the interest in making money is transforming and the tendency to establish new associations is apparent.
The war turned the Czechs living in France (i.e. the citizens of Austrian-Hungary) into the enemies of France. Formation of Nazdar, a Czech volunteer company within the French foreign legion, became a way out of the situation. It was the painter František Kupka who was the chief of the Paris colony from the beginning of 1915. The sculptor Otto Gutfreund took part in the “rebellion” of Czech volunteers against demeaning conditions in the legion. In 1916, he was sent to a concentration camp. The end of the war reached both artists as being rather sceptical. The war affected their private lives and artistic works, and formed their relation to the French and the domestic Czech environment after 1918. The contribution compares their individual choice in reaction to the makeshift arrangement as well as how they overcame the necessity to be soldiers. The text is based mainly on correspondence between both artists and other archival materials.