Writer - journalist Vu Trong Phung with reportage in Vietnam

(Baonghean.vn) -“I have the impression that Vu Trong Phung is a great writer, very great, no less than any great writer of other literary traditions... Up to now in Vietnam, no one has written as many and as well as Vu Trong Phung!”

(Dr. Peter Zinoman, American Vietnamologist)

Portrait of Vu Trong Phung (1938)

In the first decades of the 20th century, Vietnamese society was full of violent changes in all areas of economic, political, cultural and artistic life. This directly affected the country's fledgling press.

If in 1865, our country only had one newspaper, Gia Dinh Newspaper, then by early 1925 there were 35 newspapers. Seven years later, in 1932, this number skyrocketed to 132 newspapers. During the period of the Indochina Democratic Front (1936 - 1939), the press developed even more vigorously and the reportage genre, through many channels of introduction, gradually appeared, became familiar in the literary and journalistic world, and was studied and applied by many talented authors. And some authors became famous in this new reportage genre.

The 15-year historical period (1930 - 1945) is recognized by researchers as a period of development of reportage, leaving an indelible mark, a qualitative breakthrough of a series of reportage works capable of reflecting and covering quite comprehensively the colors and appearance of social life in our country at that time.

Along with a number of prominent journalists including Trong Lang, writer-journalist Vu Trong Phung was a talented writer and soon had immortal works in the reportage genre. Author Trong Lang published two books, “Making a Citizen” (1938) and “Those Who Are Young” (1944). As for Vu Trong Phung, within just 6 years (from 1933 to 1938), he left behind 7 reports: “Trap of the People” (1933), “Industry of Marrying the French” (1934), “Representatives and Representatives” (1935), “Com Thay Com Co” (1936), “Ve Nguoi Dei Clown” (1936), “Luc Si” (1937), “A District Celebrating Tet” (1938) (1). And all seven reports, at that time, caused great resonance. Writing the preface to the work “The Western Industry” (Phuong Dong Publishing House, 1936), Phung Tat Dac praised: “I do not want to consider this book as just a reportage. I want to put it among the works that have a wider influence, works that can outline the direction of literature and art, works that provide documents for future generations to examine the present day!”

In the above series of reports, the urban theme occupies the majority, overwhelmingly, because that is the forte of writer Vu Trong Phung, and reflects an objective reality of society: during the transition period of the feudal colonial regime, the city appeared and quickly became a gathering place, a hot spot, a topic very suitable for the reportage genre. Here, he caught the "right pulse" of people, society, human affairs, and the world, thereby contributing a unique voice through dedicated reports, becoming "The King of Reportage in the North" - according to the honorable name of Phung Tat Dac at that time!

In the 1930s, Hanoi society was filled with social evils. Prostitution, drug addiction, theft, and hooliganism were rampant. Reports such as “Luc Si”, “Com Thay Com Co”, “Cam Nguoi Nguoi”, and “Ky Nghe Ma Tay Tay” directly addressed contemporary issues: human degradation, the dominance of money causing havoc, fierce competition depleting humanity, etc.

Some recently published works of Vu Trong Phung

More specifically, let's see what Vu Trong Phung said through the report? That is the tragic fate of prostitutes, the poor life of servants, gambling and drinking... like incurable diseases. The report "Luc Si" can be seen as a sociological investigation into the evils of prostitution and its dire consequences. The official number of 5,000 prostitutes in a city of less than 180,000 people, accounts for 3% of the population. Meanwhile, the facility treating prostitutes (luc si) can only handle 200 people. And for every 4,000 newborns who die, on average about 1,000 children die because their parents have syphilis, or complications from that disease. Regarding the reportage "Luc Si", in Tuong Lai Newspaper No. 11, 1937, in an open letter to a reader, Vu Trong Phung expressed: "Please understand that, in writing the reportage "Luc Si", I am not only a writer, but also a journalist. A journalist must tell the truth to everyone. If something has happened, my duty is only to inform everyone, not to worry about who will benefit from doing that duty?".

The “profession” of marrying Westerners is also a disguised, long-term form of prostitution, described in detail by Vu Trong Phung in the report “The industry of marrying Westerners”. The excellent report “The rice of teachers and the rice of teachers” revives the tragedy of a ragged army, from remote rural areas moving to the city to make a living by all kinds of jobs. Con Sen Duoi went to work at the age of 12, and at the age of 13 her virginity was taken away. Hanoi society “called out to the villagers to leave the dry and withered fields to come here to starve to death a second time... It made the price of humans equal to that of animals, it made a group of young boys go to Hoa Lo prison and a group of young girls go into prostitution”. The report “The human trap” specializes in gambling; not only purely describing characters and events, Vu Trong Phung also boldly exposes the depraved nature of humans before the unprecedented destructive power of money...

Educator and researcher Van Tam, when studying the memoir genre of Vietnamese medieval literature, generalized it into two basic characteristics: Real people, real events (documents rich in historical authenticity) and the appearance of the author's own "ego" (2). Today, although the memoir genre has a long history of development, these two basic characteristics are still recognized by writers. The writer Vu Trong Phung's narrative ego, through reportage, plays an important role, leading the story, shortening the distance between the work and the reader and highlighting aesthetic emotions. That narrative ego is rich in objectivity but still flexible, sometimes it is the author himself, sometimes it is a witness, making readers always feel like they are in the story with the writer.

Dr. Tran Dang Thao, studying the narrative ego of writer Vu, also realized that ego sometimes reached a sharp, discreet commentary tone, or implied satire, profound criticism, directly revealing the writer's own perception and attitude towards things and phenomena (3).

In narrative prose, some genres such as notes, memoirs, travelogues, reports, memoirs, diaries... are collectively called notes, which are at the intersection between literature and journalism and politics. Writing literary notes, according to literary researcher Lai Nguyen An, is often popular in periods of literary history corresponding to historical and social periods when old relationships are in crisis, a new way of life emerges, and attention is paid to describing customs (4). Vietnamese literature in the 1930s is an example, here we witness the proliferation of reportage works about many social evils that are tending towards irresistible "urbanization", and the reportage of Vu Trong Phung, which was born from that, is a typical example and has increasing persuasive power!

With 27 years of his short life, including 10 years as a writer, writer Vu Trong Phung left behind a huge volume of short stories, novels, plays, essays, and especially a series of reports... for the country's literary and journalistic treasure. The ideological content carries the value of strongly denouncing society before the Revolution (1945), along with a sharp, elaborate and talented art, which has made his works have, are and will have a lasting influence on many generations of readers at home and abroad, especially for journalists pursuing the reportage genre.

In the Viet Bac War Zone, September 1949, poet To Huu made a very remarkable comment to critics and readers at that time, who had many different ways of reading and understanding the writer: "Vu Trong Phung is not a revolutionary, but the revolution thanks Vu Trong Phung".

Although history has evaluated the literary career of writer Vu from before to after the August Revolution, and until recently, there were ups and downs, here and there lacking unity, but gradually he is still a person "with an undisputed position". And in the genre of reportage, writer - journalist Vu Trong Phung is always worthy of the title "King of Northern reportage", a "giant" of realistic literature in Vietnam in the first half of the 20th century!
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(1) Please see the collections of Vu Trong Phung published in the early years of the 21st century such asSix of a Kind(collection of reports, Culture-Information Publishing House, 2002),Vu Trong Phung Collection(reportage in volume 1, Literature Publishing House, 2005);Clown(including new works discovered in 2000, Writers Association Publishing House, 2000.
(2) The article "The King of Northern Reportage with Memoir", printed in the bookVu Trong Phung, reportage and essay, Literature Publishing House, 2005, p.8.
(3) Tran Dang Thao, bookLiterary features of Vu Trong Phung, Thanh Nien Publishing House, 2008, p.104
(4) Lai Nguyen An,150 literary terms, Hanoi National University Publishing House, 2003, p.179

Kim Hung