Trung sisters
The exploits of these heroines of Vietnam\'s first independence movement are cited by scholars as early examples of the prominent roles women have played in Vietnamese society.
Trung Trac was the widow of a nobleman in northern Vietnam killed for plotting with other nobles to overthrow their Chinese masters. In A.D. 39 she took up her late husband\'s cause, joined by her younger sister Trung Nhi. Together they led other rebellious nobles in the overthrow of a Chinese bhold. The sisters seized control of 65 citadels and declared themselves queens of an independent state that stretched from Hue to southern China. Their reign was short-lived. Lacking the support of the peasantry, ill-equipped and ill-trained, their forces succumbed to superior Chinese troops, first at Lang Bac near present-day Hanoi, then decisively at Hat Mon, now Son Tay.

It is never easy to fully understand the merits of advancement when one lives in comfort with all state-of-the-art technologies of the modern world.