Wooden fish: When to eat?

(Baonghean) -When I was in school, I was very lazy, I only jumped when the water was up to my feet, but I was smart so I never choked on water. My father often told me in dismay: "Oldest son, do you know, when I was your age, I had to sit under an electric pole to study? I didn't have the luxury of eating and dressing like you do now. If you're lazy like me, you won't even have wooden fish to eat, my son!" Of course, I had never eaten wooden fish before, so I found it very strange.

Later, I learned about the story of the wooden fish of the Nghe students. The funny thing is, people created the story of the wooden fish to tease the poor students who had to study in the capital. But somehow, the Nghe people did not take it as a thing but accepted it as their "tradition", their own characteristic, and were even proud of it! His parents were poor, so he was poor, that was his fate. Being poor is not a crime, why should we be ashamed of being poor? If he was poor because he was lazy, then that would be shameful. But if he did inhumane and unjust things and became rich, and sat back and ate from a golden bowl, it would not be comparable to the student who ate the wooden fish and worshiped Confucius!

It is not by chance that when thinking of Nghe people, we immediately think of wooden fish. People choose the image of wooden fish perhaps for two reasons: first, when talking about Nghe people, we talk about "chopping big, stewing salty", because salty food helps to save food and can be kept for a long time - which means the thrifty, frugal and foresight nature of people from the Lao windy land who often have to endure natural disasters. The fish also evokes the image of a carp jumping over the dragon gate to become a dragon, symbolizing the desire to rise above poverty through knowledge and writing of Nghe students. The story of the wooden fish has therefore changed from a satirical image to the "mascot" of Nghe people in general and Nghe students in particular.

Until now, although I don't have to borrow street lights to study like my father, wherever I go, whenever I stutter, people will exclaim: "Ah, the wooden fish people!". However, instead of implying "the wooden fish people are poor", people understand it more as "the wooden fish people are good at studying". Is it true that wooden fish is a special dish that is good for intelligence? Jokingly but honestly, because it is often in difficult circumstances that people have the motivation to rise up. But from there arises a paradox: Why do the wooden fish people who are good at studying still have to eat wooden fish?

Actually, the people of the wooden fish only eat wooden fish in Nghe An, but when they go abroad and become successful, they don't need to eat wooden fish anymore. And people like that, naturally, the Nghe quality, the wooden fish quality, fades away and instead they eat Australian beef, French wine, Japanese salmon, etc., etc. Those who eat wooden fish to grow up do not return, so this poor land remains poor, the new generations are still loyal to wooden fish. Therefore, the Nghe people are known to be talented, but they are only talented in a foreign land. I rested my chin on my hand, looking at the plate of salty braised fish my mother made, and thought: I wonder how long our people will have to eat wooden fish?

Hai Trieu