The Thai student is considered a 'strange person' in the border village of Nghe An.

(Baonghean.vn) - At the age of 4, he can read, is a good student in the province in Chemistry and Physics, loves baseball, speaks English fluently and is especially talented in drawing... All of these things make the boy nicknamed Kem considered a "wonder" in the border village.

Dang Dung is sitting and drawing at his house. Photo: Ho Phuong

Recently, on the personal Facebook page of a teacher in the highlands of Nghe An, drawings by his student Dang Dung appeared. He lives in Tan Son village, Mon Son border commune, Con Cuong district (Nghe An) and has been drawing since he was 3 years old.

The pictures on Facebook of the male student about to enter grade 10 have attracted the attention of many teachers. Dung draws Japanese comic characters. The student, nicknamed “Kem” by his friends, also adapted a part of Conan Doyle’s detective series Sherlock Holmes into a comic book. The characters created by “Kem” have their own characteristics close to Vietnamese culture, simple costumes. The drawings have the appearance of a professional comic writer.

Many of Dung's drawings show Doraemon in different activities. Photo: Huu Vi

Colors like blue, red, yellow and orange are the main features of my comic characters. The colors are cleverly arranged to make the characters look approachable.

According to Ms. Kha Thi Lien (Dung's mother), when he was 3 years old, Dung started imitating the character Doraemon in Japanese comics. Since then, Dung has specialized in drawing pictures inspired by comics. Doraemon has always been the favorite character of this amateur artist. In addition, he also spends time on landscape paintings.

Clip of Dang Dung sketching a painting:

Not only good at drawing, the student was once considered a "prodigy" of the Thai village where Dung lived. At the age of 4, Dung began to read, and at the age of 5, he could read fluently. Later, Dung was an excellent student at Tra Lan Secondary School - one of the top specialized schools in the mountainous districts of Nghe An. During his 9 years of study, Dang Dung was continuously an excellent student. In the last school year (2016 - 2017), he brought home 2 provincial-level excellent student awards, including the second prize in Chemistry and the third prize in Physics.

An introduction of the characters in the comic series that Dung is working on. Photo by Huu Vi

“Painting is still my greatest passion. My parents want me to pursue a medical career, but I still want to choose a field related to painting,” Dung shared. Following the reporter’s suggestion, after only 10 minutes, Dung completed a drawing of the Pha Lai dam landscape in his hometown from memory. The drawing is the innocent and somewhat mischievous perspective of the student born in 2002 on nature and his hometown.

The comic book was adapted by Dung from a detective story. Photo: Huu Vi

Along with drawing, baseball and comics are the three spiritual foods that he loves the most. The boy expressed this in a “3 in 1” picture – Doraemon playing baseball.

Dang Dung is also particularly good at communicating in English. This past summer, the border student had a rather interesting “achievement”. A British couple came to Con Cuong for a backpacking trip. Without any English signs, they spent a whole afternoon trying to find a place to exchange foreign currency into Vietnamese currency. However, no one at the exchange counter spoke English. Luckily for the couple, they “found” Dung wandering around the mountain town. With his fluent communication skills, he helped the foreign guests out of their predicament.

Ho Phuong - Huu Vi