Quang Trung collective market - a bit of nostalgia in everyday life

(Baonghean) - Since when did people start to gather at the foot of the high-rise apartment buildings in Quang Trung? That is the question that people of the younger generation like me often ask ourselves when passing through this most crowded but also very simple market in the city...

Quang Trung Market is located in the middle of Quang Trung Street, Hong Bang Street and Le Hong Phong Street - a very "prime" location in the city center. I remember when I was a child, I followed my mother to the market, she did not call it Quang Trung Market but called it "C8 Market". According to my mother's explanation, that was the name of the C8 Quang Trung apartment building. The market is held right next to the house, the entrance is narrow and winding, there is no main door, large door, and even less a nameplate like other markets in the city. However, it has become a tradition that Quang Trung Market is still the first or second favorite choice of housewives in the city. I once asked my mother about this and received the answer: “In fact, in the past, the city was not as crowded and bustling as it is now. Even the area around the bus station is so bustling now, when it was just a deserted, empty land. In the 70s, the Quang Trung apartment building was considered one of the city's "skyscrapers". 6 A blocks, 6 B blocks, 9 C blocks, 2 D blocks surrounding the area on both sides of Quang Trung Street were the residences of state officials and their families. Gradually, from an empty lot, a "navel" was formed that attracted city residents to come here to do business and small trade, and thus Quang Trung market was formed and maintained until today. Because of the large number of customers, sellers were not afraid of unsold goods, and could import new goods every day, thanks to which the food was always new and fresh. Another reason is that the market has many entrances from three Quang Trung streets, Hong Bang, Le Hong Phong (extended) is very convenient for shoppers who do not have much time to stop by the market.

Quang Trung apartment building - an old corner in the heart of modern Vinh street.

Quang Trung Market and the apartment buildings here, for my mother and many other city residents, are not simply a crowded, gathering place of the city but also hold many memories through each period of change and development of society. The Quang Trung apartment buildings are witnesses of the period when the country was on the path of rebuilding and recovering from the wounds of war. That was the subsidy period, when people now think of trading stores with stamp books, coupons and lines of people waiting to receive food and necessities at the beginning/end of the month. My maternal grandmother was a trader, raising my uncle and mother by herself after my grandfather died in the war in Laos. She often told me that in the past, people used to say "men drive, women trade", meaning that these were the two most "ideal" occupations to choose a wife and husband at that time. Then the subsidy period passed, people like her and my mother witnessed important changes in society. The market economy opened up to many sectors, and trading stores gradually gave way to private stores and businesses. Perhaps Quang Trung market was also formed and grew larger and more crowded during this period?

Nowadays, the old Quang Trung apartment building is somewhat contradictory, isolated from the modern urban landscape. High-rise buildings with glass doors and elevators are springing up one after another, causing the old A, B, C, D buildings to suddenly become small, humbly nestled in a very old, very ancient corner, witnessing the breath of the times blowing into the city with changes every day. Like old, worn-out witnesses of a time gone by, a time far away and no longer present, no longer existing in the minds of today's and tomorrow's generations, those apartment buildings leave young people with a curiosity and unanswered questions. A frown when thinking about the contrast between old and new, old and young. Need or not, keep or delete, that could be a naive question of a child before something that he has never known to understand, to love, to remember. The same question will be very difficult, sometimes even painful for those who have gone through a time...

I still remember when I was a child, my mother let me go to Quang Trung market with her, and I often stopped by an old lady's bean curd stall near the entrance of the market. Since I was a child, I was weak, often sick and had internal heat, so my mother taught me the habit of eating foods made from nuts and vegetables that are cooling, cooling, and detoxifying, including bean curd and soybeans. Every afternoon when I stopped by the market, my mother let me linger at the bean curd stall, eating as much as I wanted while waiting for her to go to the market to buy things. Even later, when bean curd and soybeans were no longer popular and were replaced by imported functional foods and drinks, I often vaguely recalled the rustic but very real, very gentle taste of a bowl of pure white bean curd with a few drops of fragrant banana essential oil on a hot summer afternoon. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Quang Trung market again, and was surprised to see that the bean curd stall was still there, but the seller was not the old lady from back then. The young girl who used to hang around helping her mother sell goods, now has very skillful hands in scooping beans and squeezing milk. I pulled up a chair and sat down next to the small stall, ordering a bowl of mixed beans and a cup of soy milk. The taste of the past is still intact, even the daughter's smile seems to retain the gentle, tender look of her mother from the past, making people feel warm and want to get closer to see and hear the echoes of a lovely, memorable past...

Entrance to C8 market on Hong Bang street

Quang Trung Market is still as crowded as ever, only the old apartment buildings are now much more deserted and quiet. At the foot of those old buildings, there are still tailor shops and small shops whose signs alone make one feel a sense of nostalgia. Many new shops have sprung up, attracting a large number of young people from the city every afternoon. They sit and enjoy street food, chatting animatedly. They probably have no idea what the history and origin of the place they are sitting and leaning on is, and even less do they understand the nostalgia and longing of those from the previous generation. This afternoon, an old man sat at the foot of Quang Trung C8 building, sipping a cup of bitter tea, feeling bitter in his heart as he imagined the future when these rows of houses will be replaced by modern, new buildings, more suitable and more in sync with the whole city.

But it cannot be held on forever, because nothing tangible can last forever with time. I'm afraid that only the nostalgia and preciousness will be forever imprinted in the hearts of those who lived, saw, and were attached to a past time. In the future, when there are no more apartment buildings, the name will follow this market and linger for a while in the consciousness of the city's people. The daughters will grow up, and will follow their mothers to Quang Trung market, or more affectionately called C8 market, to sell or to buy - it doesn't matter. The most noteworthy thing is that in that market, people clearly see the transfer, inheritance, and continuity between generations. Between the old society and the new society, between mother and child, between ancient and modern, all create a regular cycle of life, so that the breathing rhythm of the city will continue forever, never stopping...

Thuc Anh