A memory related to a Tet (Lunar New Year) newspaper article…

(Baonghean) - One late winter day in 2005, I was a probationary reporter, and Minh Quan had only been in the profession for a little over a year. Knowing that it would be difficult to get a spot in the Lunar New Year issue of the newspaper, we both racked our brains trying to find a topic. After spending an entire morning at Cinema Cafe 1 (near the old editorial office), we finally agreed that for a Lunar New Year issue, we should write about the unique characteristics of Nghe An province, but it had to be "popular" to be easily published and "unique" to avoid repetition. The topic of artists and writers from Nghe An living far from home was finally chosen, but who among the dozens of famous artists and writers from Nghe An currently living in Hanoi should we write about? Filtering through a list of the most famous figures, we decided to interview musician An Thuyen, writer Vo Thi Hao, singer Anh Phuong, poet Vuong Trong, and singer Thai Bao. And that very evening, we rushed to Hanoi.

Actually, there were only two days left until the deadline for the Spring issue of the newspaper, meaning we only had a little over a day to work. The location wasn't too worrying because both of us had studied at universities in Hanoi and had just graduated, so we weren't unfamiliar with it. But how to contact those famous figures was something we couldn't figure out even while sitting in the car. Upon arriving, I suddenly remembered that singer Tiến Lâm from the 4th Military Region, who had studied at the Hanoi Conservatory of Music and had worked with singer Anh Phương, might have some information. I immediately called him and was delighted to learn that he was also on a business trip in Hanoi. Overjoyed, we borrowed a Honda Cub 82 from an acquaintance of Minh Quân and rushed straight to a shop in a small alley on Nguyễn Lương Bằng Street. Meeting Tiến Lâm, he gave us the phone numbers of singer Thái Bảo, composer An Thuyên, and singer Anh Phương. After making contact, we decided to visit singer Anh Phương's home in the Army Performing Arts Collective Housing area in Mai Dịch, Cầu Giấy District. At that time, she had just moved to Hanoi for work, so capturing the emotions of someone who had just left their hometown wasn't difficult; we completed our conversation in about an hour.

Author and writer Vo Thi Hao.

After saying goodbye to singer Anh Phương, we quickly rushed to Dang Tien Dong Street, Tay Son Ward, Dong Da District to visit singer Thai Bao's house, because she had said on the phone that she was only free for 30 minutes that day, before 4 PM. Fortunately, we already had quite a lot of information about singer Thai Bao, and we really liked her husky, deep voice, so after the initial awkwardness, we quickly found the rhythm of conversation. Engrossed in listening to her stories, we didn't realize it was past 6 PM; the conversation lasted more than two hours, exceeding the 30 minutes she had initially suggested.

The first two meetings went smoothly! Our next targets were writer Võ Thị Hảo, poet Vương Trọng, and musician An Thuyên. To gather more information and inspiration for these meetings, we sought advice from Dr. Nguyễn Phượng, formerly a literature teacher at Hà Huy Tập High School and later a lecturer in the Literature Department at Hanoi Pedagogical University. Dr. Phượng happily shared her insights and feelings about writer Võ Thị Hảo, listening to her stories about her childhood in the rural area of ​​Diễn Bình (Diễn Châu), about her house which still stands on Nguyễn Văn Cừ street, and about the "eccentric" nature of the Nghệ An people in her personality. Meeting poet Vương Trọng, we were impressed by his simple courtyard and his gentle, warm demeanor. In front of these two poets, writers, and veteran journalists, we felt less like interviewees and more like mentors and instructors. We were so nervous that when we finally took out our cameras, we couldn't figure out why we couldn't take a picture. It wasn't until we asked writer Vo Thi Hao to take a look that we realized the battery was dead… Needless to say, everyone knows how embarrassed we were at that moment.

The last person we most wished to meet was composer An Thuyên. However, when we tried to arrange a meeting with him, he was unfortunately busy. Nevertheless, he agreed to let us write about him based on our own feelings, saying, "Because there are already plenty of articles written about me." After much deliberation, we finally decided to express our own feelings about him, the composer of songs deeply rooted in the folk music of Nghe An province. Reading the article, no one would guess we had never met him; even the family photo published in the article was one we "borrowed" from a relative of his in Vinh City. We only spent one afternoon writing the entire article.

Upon receiving our article "They Are Still People of Nghe An," and hearing the editor-in-chief's praise over the phone, both of us were so happy our hands and feet trembled. The trip was a success; the royalties we received weren't enough to cover our travel expenses, but we were both very satisfied. More importantly, we learned valuable lessons: the need to thoroughly research the subjects and events before interviews, the ability to work quickly on urgent assignments, and the way we thought, as well as the seriousness and caution we learned from the subjects of our articles.

Text and photos: My Ha