Clotilde Chivas-Baron

Clotilde Chivas-Baron (5 Sept 1876, Chatte, Isère, France — 23 Dec. 1956, Chatte) was a French writer who authored several books about Vietnam and Indochina in the years 1910s-1930s, drawing from her life in the countryside near Hue with husband Michel Baron. She had arrived in Vietnam in 1909, with her daughter from a previous marriage.

Advocating women’s empowerment and more compassion to the civil society from the colonial administration, she depicted the Vietnamese daily life in various contributions to the local newspapers, collecting Vietnamese folktales and legends in Contes et légendes de l’Annam (1917) (Stories and Legends of Annam, for the 1920 English translation), in which she portrayed several Vietnamese ​“who died for their country” fighting the Chinese rule. She also authored La femme française aux colonies (Paris: Larose, 1929).

Her last published book in 1939, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), was the relation of her travel to this African country, commissionned by the French Governor-General of Indochina.