PV: Hello, congratulations on your great performance in the fields of propaganda, journalism, and publishing, and your transition to the fields of research, criticism, and literary and artistic creation!
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Ky:Hello dear colleague, it's great to meet you at a time when I've been on a new path in my writing career for exactly one year.
PV: More than 40 years ago, you started your journalism career in your hometown. Could you please give readers of Nghe An Newspaper some information about those early days?
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Ky:I graduated from the Faculty of Literature, class 22, Hanoi University of Science in late 1981. At that time, university graduates were in high demand because they were both few and of high quality. I graduated with honors, so the opportunity to stay in Hanoi was very high. Compared to many others, I had a special situation: I was the only child of my parents. My father was a severely wounded soldier fighting against the French, and my mother had a serious heart condition after giving birth to me. Returning to my hometown at that time was like a call to my roots, or rather, to repay my parents' kindness in giving birth and raising me. My wish was to apply to work at the Faculty of Literature, Vinh Pedagogical University and was accepted by the school immediately. With the Faculty and the school's permission to "take a break" for a few days before starting work, I went to Vinh Television Station to visit a friend there.
Vinh Television Station at that time was one of the eight regional television stations in the country, under the Vietnam Radio and Television Commission. Meeting a friend, while chatting, I saw an old man in his fifties, with long hair, very artistic, walking in. My friend respectfully introduced: Mr. Pham Dinh Nguyen - Director of the Station. I stood up to greet Mr. Nguyen. He asked: Where is this guy from? He is young, handsome, and lovable. My friend started talking. Mr. Nguyen said without thinking: You should come back to our Station, we are lacking content people here... That's how I said goodbye to my teaching job and entered the journalism profession.
I joined the station quickly and easily, like a joke, without any complications or problems as later. In 1989, at the request of the leaders of Nghe Tinh province, Vinh Television Station was transferred to the province by the Vietnam Radio and Television Commission, merged with Nghe Tinh Radio Station to form Nghe Tinh Radio and Television Station. In 1991, Nghe Tinh was divided into two. In 1994, I was appointed by the leaders of Nghe An province as Deputy Director of Nghe An Radio and Television Station. In early 2000, after being elected to the Provincial Party Executive Committee, I was transferred and appointed as Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper. In 2003, I was transferred and appointed as Secretary of Nam Dan District Party Committee. In May 2005, I was transferred to Hanoi by the Central Ideology and Culture Commission to work as Head of the Press Department of the Commission...
PV: During his career as a journalist, he was three times assigned by the Central Ideology and Culture Committee, then the Central Propaganda Committee to manage and operate the Press Center for three consecutive congresses. Could you share more about this special task?
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Ky:The 10th Party Congress took place from April 18 to 25, 2006 at Ba Dinh Hall. At that time, Mr. Dao Duy Quat was the Deputy Head of the Central Ideology and Culture Committee and was assigned to be the Director of the 10th Congress Press Center; I was the Head of the Press Department of the Committee and was assigned by my superiors to be the Deputy Director. The Press Center still had several Deputy Directors, but my work seemed "heavy", frequent, difficult and complicated. Before the 11th Party Congress, I was appointed by the Secretariat as Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, and was assigned by the Head of the Department to be in charge of press, publishing, culture and arts work. Therefore, before the 12th and 13th Congresses, I was assigned by my superiors to be the Director of the Press Center of these two congresses. If we count all three congresses, it was a "hat trick", a record that perhaps no one before or after would be able to "break". It was also a great honor, pride, and responsibility with many unforgettable memories.
PV: Managing the operations of a Press Center with hundreds of domestic and foreign reporters is certainly not easy. There must be many interesting stories behind the scenes, sir?
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Ky:The National Party Congress Press Center is under the close and regular direction of the Congress, directly under the Congress Presidium. In addition to the leaders of the Central Ideology and Culture Committee (10th Congress), the Central Propaganda Department (11th and 12th Congress), the Congress Press Center also has members of the Party Central Office, the Central External Relations Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Public Security, Nhan Dan Newspaper, Vietnam Television, the Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam News Agency, the Central Post Office, etc.
The activities of the National Party Congress Press Center of each term are very urgent, bustling, and hard. Reporters must have new news, "hot" news, important news, including news "on the sidelines of the Congress". Therefore, they are assigned by the leaders of their press agencies to compete with other colleagues for information every minute, every hour. The hardest work is for radio, television, electronic newspaper, press photographer reporters... because they must try to be present in the Congress Hall more often, in a more convenient working place to record well. The Party Congress Press Center has a large press conference room for both domestic and foreign reporters; a press conference room specifically for foreign reporters; a specialized press conference room; and a modern technical area.
The leadership of the Congress Press Center must be very dedicated, dynamic, competent, and especially proactive, creative, and courageous to complete their tasks well. The members of the Center must be on duty there almost 24/24 hours a day, always arriving early and leaving late. All officers, employees of the Press Center, reporters, editors, and technical staff entering and leaving this place are subject to strict security control.
Along with the daily press releases of the Congress, the Congress Press Center also organizes important and necessary thematic press conferences.
Over 15 years, three congresses, there are indeed many memories, events and lessons. Some of my superiors are quite reluctant to let our cadres answer interviews to foreign press. I boldly suggested: In journalistic activities, interviews are a very necessary genre, showing “real people, real events, real contexts”, please let “us” respond to the situation. Of course, we always determine that we must take the highest responsibility for all events. All activities of the Center are based on the regulations and rules of the Congress Press Center, higher than the regulations and rules of the Party Congress. If we do this well, the foreign press will have more sympathy for us, see more clearly our “press freedom”, the initiative, confidence and professionalism of the host country’s press.
PV: Reading, listening, and watching Nguyen The Ky's publications and works, I realized that he is a writer who possesses the very profound qualities of journalism and writing. That is, he is astute in exploring and discovering problems of the past; recognizing new things that arise with regularity. Then, he finds ways to receive information, accumulate information; contemplates and processes information in accordance with the principles of life; and determines the genre, means, and time to create works.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Ky:Writing for newspapers, writing for novels or doing theoretical work, literary and artistic criticism, in the end, are all intellectual and creative work. I remember, before starting to write the script about the revolutionary intellectual Phan Dang Luu, which was later turned into a novel of the same name “Dawn”, I had to work very hard to exploit and carefully research a massive archive of documents to vividly recreate the life, career, fighting example, and sacrifice for the noble ideals of comrade Phan Dang Luu, some details were published for the first time.
Similarly, before composing the script “Mai Hac De”, I had painstakingly researched and collected many documents and books; coordinated with organizations and individuals to organize important scientific seminars such as: “Mai Thuc Loan and the Hoan Chau Uprising” (at Vinh University, 2008), “1300 years of the Hoan Chau Uprising and the hero Mai Thuc Loan” (at Nam Dan, 2013). Thanks to that, the script has vividly portrayed the character Mai Thuc Loan (Mai Hac De) almost as a prototype. Many previous mistakes, even wrong viewpoints and assessments about the nature, scale and time of the uprising, were brought up for discussion and conclusion. Plays such as “Thay Ba Doi”, “Hoa Lua Truong Bon”, “Huyen Thoai Go Rong Ap”, “Ngan Nam May Trang”, most recently “No Nuoc Non” have created deep and strong aesthetic emotions in the public.
Along with the creative work, I and the leadership of the Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts have successfully completed the assigned tasks, worthy of being the agency for research, theory, appraisal, and consultation for the Party and State on cultural and artistic issues. The activities of the Vietnam Committee for Solidarity and Cooperation in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, after 3 years of being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, are now gradually stabilizing and having steps of innovation and development.
PV: Thank you for this interesting interview!