Memories of a Tet article…

(Baonghean) - One day in late winter 2005, I was a probationary reporter and Minh Quan had only been in the profession for a year. Knowing that it would be very difficult to "squeeze a place" in the Lunar New Year issue, we both struggled to find a topic. Sitting all morning at Dien Dien 1 cafe (near the old editorial office), we finally agreed that the Spring issue should be about the characteristics of Nghe An, but it had to be "popular" to be published easily and "unique" to avoid duplication. The topic of artists far from home was finally chosen, but who should we write about among the dozens of famous artists from Nghe An in Hanoi? Filtering through a series of the most famous people, 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, at that time, there were only two days left to close the Spring issue, which meant we only had a little over a day to work. The location was not too worrying because we both studied at university in Hanoi, and had just graduated so it was not unfamiliar, but how to contact those famous people, even when we were in the car, we still could not figure out. When we arrived, I suddenly remembered that there was singer Tien Lam in Military Region 4, who had studied at the Hanoi Conservatory of Music, and had worked with singer Anh Phuong, so we could know the information. I immediately called him and was delighted to know that he was also on a business trip in Hanoi. We were as happy as if we had found gold, borrowing the 82 trophy from an acquaintance of Minh Quan, and both of us went straight to a restaurant in a small alley on Nguyen Luong Bang Street. Meeting singer Tien Lam, he gave us the phone numbers of singer Thai Bao, musician An Thuyen, and singer Anh Phuong. After contacting her, we decided to go to singer Anh Phuong’s house in the Army Cultural Collective in Mai Dich, Cau Giay District. At that time, she had just moved to work in Hanoi, so it was not difficult to “capture” the emotions of someone who had just left home. In just about an hour, we finished the conversation.

Author and writer Vo Thi Hao.

Saying goodbye to singer Anh Phuong, we immediately ran to Dang Tien Dong street, Tay Son ward, Dong Da district to go to singer Thai Bao's house, because on the phone she said that she was only free for 30 minutes that day, before 4 pm. Luckily, we had a lot of information about singer Thai Bao at that time, and really liked her husky, deep voice, so after the initial awkwardness, both sides caught the "rhythm" of the conversation. Engrossed in listening to her confide, when we looked at the clock, it was already past 6 pm, the conversation had lasted more than two hours longer than the original 30 minutes she had planned.

The first two meetings went smoothly! Our next targets were writer Vo Thi Hao, poet Vuong Trong and musician An Thuyen. To gain more information and inspiration before the meetings, the two brothers went to "ask for advice" from Dr. Nguyen Phuong, who used to be a literature teacher at Ha Huy Tap High School, then a lecturer at the Literature Department at Hanoi Pedagogical University. Dr. Phuong was very happy to share with us the knowledge and feelings of writer Vo Thi Hao, listening to her talk about her childhood in the countryside of Dien Binh (Dien Chau), about her house that still exists on Nguyen Van Cu Street, listening to her talk about the "crazy" nature of the Nghe people in her. When meeting poet Vuong Trong, we were impressed by the simple corner of the yard, impressed by his gentle, warm demeanor. In front of two poets, writers and two "veteran" journalists, we seemed not to be interviewers but to be guides and instructors. I was so nervous that when I took out my camera, I didn’t know why I couldn’t take a picture. Only when I asked writer Vo Thi Hao to look did I realize that the battery was dead… Regardless of who I was, everyone knows how embarrassed we both were at that moment.

The last person we most wanted to meet was musician An Thuyen. However, when we made an appointment with him, unfortunately he was busy. But he still agreed to let us write about him based on our feelings “because there are plenty of articles about him”. After much hesitation, we finally decided to express our own feelings about him, the musician of songs with strong folk music influences from Nghe An. Reading the article, no one would think we had never met him, even the family photo posted in the article was a photo we “borrowed” from a relative of his in Vinh City. We shared the entire article to write in just one afternoon.

Receiving our article “They are still Nghe An people” and hearing the compliments from the Editor-in-Chief over the phone, both of us were so happy that our hands and feet trembled. The trip was successful, the royalties at that time were not enough to cover the “travel expenses”, but both of us were still very satisfied. More importantly, through that, we learned our own experience, which is the need to thoroughly research the characters and events before interviewing, the ability to work quickly with urgent articles, the way of thinking and the seriousness and caution that we learned from the characters in our articles.

Article and photos: My Ha