Thai ethnic girl tells village stories with all her heart
Amidst the green mountainsides, the villages of ethnic minorities in Tri Le commune, Nghe An province appear peaceful and rich in identity. There, every day, Thai Ngan Thi Hong Quyen, a girl from Tan Thai village, persistently turns everyday life into clear frames with a simple yet great dream: Bringing her hometown's agricultural products closer to consumers.
Thanh Phuc - Khanh Ly/Technique:Hong Toai• 09/02/2025
It's autumn, the sun is still harsh, but in the highland commune of Tri Le, the morning dew has mixed in with a bit of chill, cooling the deep green mountainsides. The landscape appears like a watercolor painting drawn from the green of the old forest, of the young rice fields, of the streams flowing through the rocks.
The road leading to Tan Thai village is winding, winding through steep slopes, along the road are forests of young bamboo shoots, occasionally mixed with lush purple myrtle bushes and bright red rhododendron flowers.
Deep inside the village, you can see simple stilt houses hidden under the tree canopy, the sound of children laughing and running in the vegetable garden, the sound of old ladies humming traditional songs with their mouth harp... All create a simple, familiar picture but full of humanity, warm and sincere to the point of touching the heart.
That village is where Ngan Thi Hong Quyen - a girl with a soul full of emotions and aspirations was born and raised. But the memories of the girl born in 1997 are not only the beautiful colors of nature, but also a series of hard days, full of storms...
As the eldest daughter in a family of four sisters, Quyen had to shoulder the responsibility early when her mother died early. Her father remarried, Quyen lived with her elderly grandmother, and her siblings were divided into those who lived with their father and those who lived with their uncle.
Those seemingly peaceful years were once again turned upside down when Quyen's father got cancer and passed away. From then on, the four sisters could only rely on each other, on the thin arms of their grandmother, and on their relatives...
The winding dirt roads leading to the fields, the slippery rainy season, the days of returning late with corn baskets… all forged Quyen’s perseverance. The girl told herself she had to study hard, so that one day she could step over the bamboo fence of the village, leave the slope to the fields, and reach new horizons. After graduating from junior high school, Quyen passed the entrance exam to the provincial boarding high school for ethnic minorities.
3 years of studying away from home were a series of days of studying, while also packing up the memories of her village, her grandmother, and her orphaned siblings. With extraordinary efforts and hard work to overcome her circumstances, Quyen was admitted to the Faculty of Primary Education, School of Education, Vinh University - one of the choices that the young girl had always dreamed of. During her university years, Quyen worked as a tutor, a shop assistant, a waiter, and a dishwasher to earn money to support her life.
After graduating, the young girl stayed in the old Vinh city as a contract teacher for 2 years. Then love brought her back to her hometown, working as a teacher in a border village. But after a while, Quyen quit. “It’s not that I stopped loving my job, but I wanted to find another direction, to be close to my family and do something meaningful for my village…” - Quyen confided.
Quitting teaching to stay home and take care of her children, Quyen started to experiment with making videos. At first, they were just short clips, recording the daily moments of the villagers: going to the fields in the morning, going to the stream in the afternoon, and gathering around the fire for dinner.
The scenes were simple, no props, no elaborate script, just an old phone that she jokingly called “a crappy phone”, with her cousin holding the camera for her. In those videos, Quyen was both the narrator and the main character.
Grandmothers, villagers, and barefoot children… became the most natural “actors”. Without makeup or acting, they appeared with all sincerity and naturalness.
And every day, with perseverance, always trying to overcome her own limits, Quyen researched, learned and produced 7-8 pieces of content, regularly posting 2 videos/day. “After learning, I know how to make videos in a more systematic way, with more consistent content, know how to find highlights, know how to choose more vivid angles…”, Quyen shared.
The natural scenery in Quyen's videos is realistic and vivid. The small, clear stream flows through moss-covered rocks, providing valuable sources of shrimp and fish for the people.
The children in the village laughed loudly, happily catching crabs and fish among the cool rocks, and then at the end of the day they giggled together while showing off their achievements.
The lush green forests around the village are not only a habitat for birds but also a “treasure trove” containing various forest products such as bitter bamboo shoots, sweet bamboo shoots, fern fern, wild spinach, etc.
The image of Quyen and the locals cutting young bamboo shoots and picking fresh wild vegetables has become a highlight in the videos, making viewers feel the cool taste of the mountains and forests and the skillfulness and meticulousness of the Thai people in each stage of labor.
Corn fields stretching along the hillsides, ripe melon fields, and fragrant sticky rice fields interspersed create a vivid, vibrant agricultural picture. Quyen goes to the fields with the locals to take care of the crops, from sowing to harvesting, filming each step so that viewers can see the hardship but also the joy of labor.
Another highlight in Quyen's videos is the traditional Thai dishes that are filmed close-up, both authentic and appealing.
Viewers can see the image of grilled stream fish on hot coals, each piece of soft cooked fish meat mixed with the smell of forest smoke, making viewers smell the characteristic aroma. Or the bamboo rice dish associated with the mountains and forests, filmed every step from choosing bamboo tubes, washing rice, grilling on hot coals, to peeling off the hot bamboo skin, the white, fragrant rice grains, evoking the feeling of closeness and intimacy of the highlands.
Or the meat dish, or the bon soup cooked from forest leaves, the ot dish... the dishes contain the flavor of the mountains and forests, prepared according to traditional methods, appearing attractive and precious through each frame. Besides, there are indispensable natural specialties such as salt-roasted bee pupae, stir-fried rock moss with garlic, which are very rare in places, but are carefully preserved by the Thai people, and are now brought to the air by Quyen for many people to know and love.
Quyen not only records the scenes of labor and cuisine, but also meticulously takes viewers to the unique festivals and customs of the Thai people. The colorful new rice celebration ceremonies, with the sound of flutes and gongs, the images of women in traditional brocade costumes, holding Ban flowers, with solemn yet joyful gestures.
The custom of making a spirit, a sacred ritual to pray for a good harvest and good health for the villagers, is also vividly portrayed in the film. The elders teach the younger generation traditional dances and songs, making viewers feel the flesh-and-blood bond between people and the mountains and forests, between the past and the present.
“I just want to record what happens every day, so that anyone far away can feel the scent of new rice, the clear laughter of the village children, or the bright eyes of the villagers when carrying agricultural products home” - Quyen shared. The videos that Quyen makes are not simply clips, but vivid slices of the working and living life of the villagers. We can clearly see the image of the Thai people perched on the mountain slopes, barefoot clinging to the roots of trees, their hands nimbly cutting handfuls of wild vegetables, cultivating rows of corn, and tending to melons...
There are scenes that are simple but full of humanity, such as the image of a mother carrying a basket of wild vegetables back to the village, a child following her mother to catch fish in the stream, the sound of water lapping on the rocky shore like the music of the mountains and forests. Quyen is not afraid to wade through the stream, pick bamboo shoots, scoop fish, and then cook typical dishes of the Thai people such as grilled fish, bamboo rice, wild vegetables stir-fried with garlic... those dishes are seasoned with all her soul and childhood memories.
Those simple videos unexpectedly touched the hearts of many people. Comments of love and encouragement appeared under each clip. Many people said that watching them reminded them of their childhood village, while the villagers far from home were moved to tears when they saw their parents and relatives again.
Step by step, patiently but surely, Quyen's videos conquer and attract viewers with sincerity, simplicity, and plainness but imbued with love for the village. Currently, Quyen's TikTok channel has 10,000 followers, and the Fanpage "Truong Son Girl" has 50,000 followers.
The simple storytelling and vivid images of the Thai ethnic girl take the audience on a journey to discover the mountains. The scene is not only a beautiful image, but also Quyen's way of telling a story about diligence, hard work, cultural identity, and the close bond between people and the mountains and forests.
What's special about Quyen is that she not only makes videos for entertainment or to preserve memories, but also spreads her love for her homeland, promotes the beauty and peace of the Thai village, and inspires those around her... From widely spread videos, Quyen has become a bridge between the village and the outside world.
The young girl's aspiration is to connect and expand the output for her hometown's agricultural products, products made with the sweat, passion, and skillful hands of ethnic people: corn, melon, fragrant sticky rice, local pigs, stream fish... all carry the flavor of the mountains and forests, but are not known to many people.
Quyen wondered: “How can we make clean, quality products not only stop at the village but also reach further? How can we make people feel secure in production, and pay the right price for each grain of corn and each fish? I cherish the dream of a day when Thai Tri Le products will have their own brand, a place in the market, and bring sustainable livelihoods to our people.
In the video, the images of baskets of golden corn, baskets of young green melons, bundles of vegetables soaked in dew, and stream fish splashing in the water… are not only beautiful but also send a message: These are the quintessential products of the mountains and forests. Thanks to Quyen’s videos, upland corn, upland sticky rice, local pigs, and stream fish have spread throughout the regions, in the South, in the North, and even across borders.
Ms. Lo Thi Tien, a local resident who appeared in the clip, smiled brightly: “This is the first time in my life that I see myself online and that many people are asking about me. I am very happy and excited. Thanks to Quyen, people know me better.”
Amidst the hustle and bustle of work, Quyen still maintains a deep love for the trails, slopes, and streams of her hometown. Each video is a slice of life: the bustling weekend market with laughter, the colorful Xang Khan festival, the golden harvest season on the fields, or a simple meal by the red wood stove. That little girl tells the village story not only with words, but also with her heart, with the love for each grain of corn, bunch of vegetables, fish...
“Behind each video posted is the desire to spread the hometown’s agricultural products, to connect the consumption of local products. Everything has just begun, everything is “a difficult beginning. On that journey, I really need the support of my fellow countrymen, the government and those who love the mountains.”
I also hope that the story about myself, how I overcame a difficult childhood, learned, and sought opportunities for myself, will inspire those around me, the young people in this remote village to be more confident, there will be more people building canals, and there will be more beautiful, deeper, and more touching stories to tell..."
In the middle of a remote border area, there is a heart that always turns towards the village, a voice that is clear and persistent like the sound of a stream flowing through many rainy and sunny seasons...
The story of Ngan Thi Hong Quyen is like a small, flickering flame in the middle of the mountain night, lighting up hope and fanning dreams for the highland villages. While the old phone screen still lights up every morning and evening, Quyen's journey is still long. And the villages in the border area of Tri Le in particular, and the highlands of Nghe An in general, will be mentioned not only for their customs and landscapes, but also for the clean products with the scent of the mountains and forests that enter the market through an honest path.
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