Unknown things about the song Thanh Chuong invites you to visit!

Phan Hong Truong - a soldier, a war invalid during the anti-American war, wrote many songs in the early 70s of the last century. Returning to his hometown, he was involved in the mass cultural movement. When he wrote "Thanh Chuong Invites Friends to Visit", he still ate corn, and worked as a painter of scrolls, parallel sentences, and the word "Tho" to "feed his songwriting".

In 1979, during a meeting at the poet Vo Thanh An's house, with Nguyen Trong Tao, Pham Tien Duat and many "Nghe Kieu", Hong Truong enthusiastically sang "Ngai ngoi chi"... Everyone was moved. Vo Thanh An hugged him and said: Hong Truong - you are Thanh Chuong! The stage name Phan Thanh Chuong came from that time. We found it rare to find a district that had a "country musician" who was polite but sincere, romantic but sincere, "rebellious" but meticulous, luxurious but rustic,... His works were like rice grains, potatoes, close but imbued with the soul of the countryside: Nha me co anh Bac, Chieu lang, Tieng que, Voi que, Hat ve nhung trai nhung ban, Tinh ca song song Giang, Tieng dan bau tren dac Champa,...

For more than 40 years, that song still exists with great vitality. In Hanoi, Saigon, Da Lat,... people sing "Thanh Chuong invites you to visit". The singers and listeners sometimes choke up, are moved with nostalgia for their homeland, hug each other and "shout" out passionately: "When you go far away, you still remember the saying: Thanh Chuong land has salty and sour pickles",... Not only Thanh Chuong people consider it a "District song", but many Nghe people also sing it passionately, because it seems that every countryside of Nghe An has its shadow in it. People in the countryside sing "ngai ngoi chi..." to welcome friends, call friends, make friends; people far away sing "the old song that only remains in memory" with sobbing, choking with the past of Thanh Chuong, of Nghe An.

Mr. Ngo Duc Tien, from Yen Thanh, said: Writing about a small and narrow countryside is even more difficult. There are localities that have invited many famous musicians and singers to compose district songs but were not successful. "Thanh Chuong invites you to visit" is a unique case. Not only Thanh Chuong people, Nghe An people but also other places spread and popularized it. Every time they sing, people see their hometown, their village in it "the land is meaningful to those who go far away, the land is heavy with love for the homeland". Although not noisy or heroic, it touches the deep source of love for the homeland, the country,...

With music, I am an outsider. But it must be said that when writing this song, the author had romantic premonitions about the future. “Thanh La land is flooded with electric light at night” actually at that time Thanh Linh commune (former Thanh La) received a sponsorship program from the former Soviet Union with a generator. It would run at around 7 pm and turn off at 10 pm. It was only during harvest and holidays, the electricity was only on at the warehouses (the centers of the hamlets at that time), but every time there was electricity, the whole commune was bustling. The district center at that time was not recognized as a town, and electricity was usually only available at 9 or 10 pm. “The factories and construction sites that sprung up…” were just a few tea drying factories of the farms Hanh Lam, Ngoc Lam, Thanh Mai, and moreover, it was still “On the dry fields, in the deep fields/The husband plows, the wife plants, the buffalo harrows,…”.

Along with the changes of the country, Thanh Chuong district has made quite a long progress. Just yesterday, "Homeland is the road to walk on" but now most of it has been cemented and asphalted. In 1992, there were only 800 meters but now there are more than 450 km of asphalt road. The land of 36 ferry piers now has only 5 ferry piers. Dung bridge, Ro bridge, Thanh Duc bridge, and soon Do Cung bridge connect the two banks of Lam river. Hundreds of large and small bridges have broken the situation of separatism and congestion. Products from tea trees, cassava trees, acacia trees, orange trees, chickens (including pickled vegetables!) have been exported to the South and North in recent years. People's lives have also improved a lot...

In that development, there was investment from the State in large projects such as Ho Chi Minh road, the road to Thanh Thuy border gate, roads 46B, 46C, the road from the district center to the resettlement area... And it can also be said: Along with the exchanges and invitations of district leaders of all periods, following that song, many investors who are children of the homeland such as Nguyen Minh Hong, Vo Van Hong, Nguyen Canh Son, Nguyen Canh Hong, Vo Van Minh... with programs, projects and kind hearts turned to the poor countryside that was once loyal and steadfast to the revolution. In the exchanges, connections, and inaugurations of projects, "Thanh Chuong invites you to visit" was raised again as a confession, introduction, gratitude, as a warm invitation...

However, as a border district, far from growth poles, the economy is still mainly agriculture and forestry; industry and services are underdeveloped, Thanh Chuong is still a poor district.

With 4,500 hectares of tea, there is a project for a high-quality tea processing factory for export; more than 20,000 hectares of raw acacia have an on-site processing factory, no longer having to be transported hundreds of kilometers away. ABC garment factories in Thanh Tien commune, TAAD in Thanh Khe commune, Matsuoka garment factory in Thanh Lien commune, Thanh Huong and Thanh Tung biomass pellet factories, Thanh Thuy high-quality tea processing factory... 267 small businesses have been operating, creating jobs for thousands of workers in the area. A promising future!

As a large, populous district with nearly 250,000 people, Thanh Chuong people still yearn for more factories and small and medium-sized enterprises to create jobs, gradually creating new ways of doing things with linkage models in agriculture, increasing income right in their homeland. Thanh Chuong people still sing "Ngải thủ chi ma anh no về"? Singing to remember a time not long ago. Singing to connect, to learn, to rise up when "new business has opened up horizons".