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| Authors at the closing ceremony |
The writing contest "Heritage, Culture and People of Thua Thien Hue" organized by the Propaganda Bureau of the Provincial Party Committee has come to the end, but its echo still lingers not only with the organizers and the award-winning authors but also readers. It is because it has been a very long time since there was a writing contest just about Hue _ a renowned region of poetry.
Hue, through the writing styles of authors, becomes both familiar and strange beyond description to Hue people living far away from home or those who have chosen Hue as their second homeland.
Selected to be included in the writing anthology, Bach Diep’s second-prized piece “Người uống nước sông Hương” is a touching memoir about the poetic river of Perfume. The writing attracts readers with a writing style which is soft, but full of memories.
The well-khown poetic beautiful Perfume River flowing through the heart of Hue City gave Bach Diep, a young girl from Quang Binh who had just arrived in Hue, the first sip of fresh water. And then, over the past 40 years, that river has shaped the very Hueish Quang Binh girl.
Hills, bends and villages… along the Perfume River running from its upstream to its downstream before emptying itself into the sea, are depicted with lots of emotion by the author. Reading Bach Diep's memoir, one feels like being immersed in the river itself.
With “Sóng Mỹ Hoà đủ để bạc đầu” winning the second prize, Tran Bang Khue writes about the culture which is hundreds of years old and has existed till now through the image of a woman in the context of a marine festival.
There, the author belonging to the Vietnamese early 8X generation portrays a typical Hue woman living near the sea who does not study much, but has a passion for singing and reciting. Especially she fulfills her duty of a woman who loves her husband, her children and her grandchildren so much.
According to Tran Bang Khue with her own observation and cultural experiences, people living near the sea like those in her native village My Hoa are so pure and hospitable. Villagers behave well toward one another as if they were in a family. They are willing to share with each other just some fish or a bottle of fish sauce.
As a matter of fact, in the coastal village, there are unique features which people can understand only when they “touch” them. There are tales about fishing and fishers and people’s habits and taboos. Their cultural and spiritual festivals which aim to connect people together are unique too.
“All that makes me feel the sea at my village has its own original features that cannot be found elsewhere. I often think the sea is the heart of the village,” confides Tran Bang Khue. She still wants to explore her own being and those with their Hue identity or write about ancient traces in the flow of memory and history.
Also, deeply in love with Hue, Hai Hac Phan, a young author from Ha Tinh who has lived and worked in Hue for more than ten years now chooses A Luoi to write about and nature as her main character to tell the story that she has experienced herself.
In order to write “Lên ngàn tìm tiếng ríu ran,” Hai Hac Phan has carried out countless field trips to A Luoi in which she really lived there so as to figure out how “big” the natural treasure of A Luoi is.
Hai Hac Phan adds the writing is also about her youth as well as her love for the mountainous part of Hue. “I consider Hue a human being full of compassion, tolerance, and richness. Hue preserves many layers of cultural sediments and boasts its beautiful nature. Hue people’s behavior toward their hometown and their knowledge and wisdom impress me,” confided Hai Hac Phan.
With that in mind, in this writing, the young girl wants to get across the message about the Hue way of living, Hue people’s behavior toward nature, their love for their local culture, and the beauty of a land through the beauties of those whom she comes into contact with.
Apart from this writing contest, she hopes she will have more experiences so that she will be able to write deeper and “bigger” pieces just as her passion for writing is growing. If she has another opportunity to write about Hue in another piece, Hai Hac Phan will definitely write a story about unknown Hue people right in Hue. As for her, it is the beauty of Hue in depth.
The spiritual legacy is important and enduring
As the fist-prize winner of the contest with her writing "Dưới bóng quê hương chợt lòng mưa nắng,” Le Hang (born in Huong Thuy, Hue, but currently lives and works in Da Nang) says the writing contest is a chance for a Hue girl living far away from home like her to share her way of living and thinking, her soul, and her love for her hometown.
“As for me, the spiritual legacy is the most important and enduring thing. Without it, those temples and ancestral houses become lifeless. Tangible things may someday be damaged or even disappear for some reasons, but what belonging to the spirit can never be lost as long as we are still aware of it,” concludes Le Hang.