Nghe people return to Nghe An

Without much delay, the trip back to Nghe An of the three of us was "decided" during a morning coffee break on the sidewalk of Pleiku.

It must be said that Nghe An is the province with the largest number of people who travel from one place to another. They are present everywhere in the country, not only in the whole world, but also in every corner of the world. And "Artisans" have a very high level of connection, wherever they go, they make friends with their fellow countrymen, then they return home, their hometowns, bringing their relatives to settle down, creating clusters of "Artisans" all over the world, so the fact that we returned to Nghe An has no meaning when the number of Nghe An people going back and forth every day is in the tens of thousands.

But for me, it was extremely meaningful, when, for the first time I returned, returned properly, for a long time perhaps just passing through, as someone whose ancestors were in Nghe An more than 600 years ago.

Yes, more than 600 years ago, the Van family's ancestor was buried in a mountain in Mai Hung ward, Hoang Mai town. Now there is a provincial-level historical and cultural relic called the Tomb and Temple of the Van Family. After many years of wandering, the descendants of the Van family were scattered, not knowing where their origins were. Recently, some uncles of the Van family in Hoang Mai found their ancestor and a "return" movement appeared. Tens of thousands of Van descendants from all over the place came to recognize their ancestors. I am one of those people.

For a long time, I thought I was from Hue. My personal history was very clear: Father from Hue, mother from Ninh Binh, born in Thanh Hoa, currently working in Pleiku. And for a long time, I also wondered where my Van family name came from. When Professor Tran Quoc Vuong was still alive, he confirmed that I was... Cham. And what Professor Vuong said was correct and above. It turned out to be wrong. A few years ago, Professor Van Nhu Cuong told me that the Van family's origin 600 years ago was from Quynh Luu, now Hoang Mai, Nghe An, and he invited me to come back because the descendants of the Van family were building a church and renovating the ancestral tomb. But before I could go with him, he passed away, the current honorary president of the Van family council in Vietnam.

During the year, I wrote an article for Nghe An Newspaper, Tet Ky Hoi issue, titled “Artisan”, about some Nghe people that I am close to, such as Nguyen Trong Tao, Le Huy Mau, Van Nhu Cuong... and Pham Duc Long. Long is a real Nghe person, graduated from university and then worked in Gia Lai, nearly 40 years but still a native Nghe person. Although he is an agricultural engineer, he is also a writer, a member of the Vietnam Writers Association. Very few people in his hometown know this, so when the article came out, many people were surprised...

After Tet, Long, I, and Architect Le Vinh, from Quang Binh, also went to Gia Lai to work since 1976, former director of Gia Lai Department of Construction, all three of them retired, on my Grand i10, Nghe Tien.

It turns out that people have very mysterious and difficult to explain things. All along the way from Pleiku to Hue, Pham Duc Long... slept and got carsick. Stopping in Hue for a few days, Long was as drowsy as... malaria. Until the noontime stop at Ha Tinh city for lunch, inviting two famous Ha Tinh writers, Duc Ban and Tran Quynh Nga, to sit down, Long was still as drowsy as ever. But as soon as the car touched Nghe An land, he suddenly woke up, jumped up like a lark and... turned on the engine. He told in detail about the place names, about memories, about premonitions, about the future... of Nghe.

So, I'm also from Nghe An, also... an Artist.

But as a "new" artist, the "old" artist Pham Duc Long had to teach me his art knowledge.

Luckily we have a lot in common.

First of all, eating. We all agree that Nghe coffee is the best in the country, so when we go to a restaurant, our eyes are always looking for... coffee. Then green tea with toothpicks, then eel porridge, eel soup, then... Nghe sunshine, Nghe air. Even things that used to bother me like talking loudly, like pulling my legs up on a chair, like walking on the street with a toothpick in my mouth... now I find them... familiar.

Then came the memories. Oh, the memories. Long recounted everything in his wheelchair, even though when he was still in his hometown, he did not go beyond the neighboring communes of his hometown Quynh Luu when he was in high school, and then went to university in Bac Thai and then to the Central Highlands. He explained how the La River was different from the Lam River, where the Bung River was, where Mr. Tao (Nguyen Trong Tao) was from, where Mr. Chau, Mr. Loi (Nguyen Minh Chau, Thai Ba Loi) were from, and so on. He recounted in detail the hometowns of Mr. Ho Duc Phoc, Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue, Mr. Nguyen Sinh Hung, Ho Xuan Hung..., told with pride, with unbelievable knowledge. And then concluded, that place was prosperous, that place was sacred. He talked about solidarity, about the Nghe An ties, about the complicated relationships. Then the mountains, the creeks, the names that were so simple and rustic, but now that he was far away, he felt they were as dear as flesh and blood.

A friend from Vinh drove us around the city, introducing the city gates, going up Dung Quyet mountain, driving on the Lam river dike, going to all the places he felt needed to be introduced. The most interesting thing was driving on the Lam river dike at dusk, the sun casting fan rays on the sky and the river, the lights that were both real and dreamy made people far from home like Long feel restless, and for me, it was the first time but it felt like I had known it for a long time.

The Secretary of Hoang Mai town welcomed us like... family. This man is... the king of reading. He read us and when he knew we were going to Hoang Mai, he texted us that he would welcome us in a... friendly manner, that when the car rolled to Hoang Mai, we would be his honored guests. And it was true that he was very enthusiastic with us during the 2 days there. Hoang Mai is a new town but full of potential, in the region, not just the province, but the 2 great strengths are tourism and industry. And it was already obvious, not just potential anymore. Looking at the way the Secretary knew the shortcuts by heart when he led us, from the mountain ravine full of sim mua to the rocky cliff by the sea with the familiar waves as he used to go there every day, the way the people greeted him, then chose to sit with us right in the middle of... the restaurant yard instead of in a private room, showed how confident and friendly he was with the people. Then the Van clan "officials" as well as business directors met him in the morning, being as close as family, enough to see the attraction of this guy who looked very scholarly but also quite determined.

According to the schedule on the bus, we would return to Hoang Mai. But when we reached Noi village in Tru Son commune, Do Luong, a very beautiful village, people specialized in making clay pots, which became the brand name of "Kingdom of clay pots", with a village gate made of clay pots as high as a pyramid with several wings like a windmill on top, having a meal in the village, a restaurant that I didn't think was in the middle of a Vietnamese village, all Nghe dishes such as chicken stew, beef stew, of course, couldn't be without... pickled eggplant, costing only... 160 thousand dong, then Long decided... to go down, stay with the village. It was rumored that during the Tran dynasty, there was a type of pottery that when fired, produced a very beautiful orange color. And at that time, there were many rare translucent products of our country. And it was said that the Tran dynasty pottery originated from this village...

And at this moment Pham Duc Long is truly a... "Artist".

Back home, he took a motorbike and roamed all over Nghe An. Wandering into the countryside market, he took pictures like crazy of chè vằng, lá vằng, eel, fish... Lá vằng is a rather strange leaf in Nghe An, sometimes in Pleiku I also got to eat it, also invited by some people from Nghe An. It is great when cooked with shrimp. But most of the leaves are dried. Here, all the fresh ones are very fragrant. Then there is chè vằng, the rustic, rustic thing that every woman who has just given birth had to use. Now, in addition to fresh leaves sold in the market for local people to use, it is also cooked into a paste "distributed" throughout the country. In offices nowadays, it is rare to see teapots anymore, but mostly teapots with chè vối, chè vằng...

Nghe people are now very rich, many are rich. My Van relatives are all very rich. Several patriarchs and deputy patriarchs in Hoang Mai are all famous businesses. One of them has a fleet of ships that run across the ocean and inland waterways, and even a fleet of trucks. In Vinh, there is a man whose house is like a... castle, all Van relatives from all over the country who come to Hoang Mai to visit their ancestors, "transiting" in Vinh, are all "paid" by him to go home, no need for a hotel because the house is... more luxurious than a hotel, bigger than a hotel. In the past, Nghe people went to work far away and brought money back, now people like Pham Duc Long come back to their hometown and are bewildered because... their hometown is richer than theirs. But the love, the loyalty, the products of Nghe are the things that moved him. Just the Van relatives in Hoang Mai, in Vinh, receiving me, meeting each other for the first time, made my two friends Pham Duc Long and Le Vinh both... surprised and moved. As for me, needless to say, when I sit down to write these lines, my emotions are still rising and my fingers are shaking as I type.

Writing up to here, I texted Long to ask if he was home yet, Long replied: Not yet, and I don't know when...