50 years - A season of colorful literature

50 years after the country's reunification, Vietnamese literature has made great strides. Along with that historical flow, over the past 50 years, Thai Nguyen writers have "burned themselves out" in creativity, creating a colorful literary season that has the power to spread throughout the community.

Thai Nguyen Literature and Arts Association organized the launch of new works.

Continuing the literary values ​​from the Viet Bac period, in the early years of the 70s and especially after the years of national reunification (1975), Thai Nguyen literature, with prose as its spearhead, achieved remarkable achievements; many writers appeared at the same time, typically: Le Minh, Xuan Cang, Vi Hong... and young writers such as: Trinh Thanh Son, Hoang Minh Tuong, Ho Thuy Giang, Nguyen Anh Binh, Chu Hong Hai, Nguyen Duc Thien... with works that reflected quite truthfully and deeply the resistance war against the US and the construction of the country.

During this period, prose was quite diverse in topics, from soldiers on the front lines to mothers and wives in the rear; from rural and industrial topics to mountainous topics, all were extremely rich.

The appearance of many lively and attractive works by veteran writers and young authors in these years created a quite powerful team. Two awards from the Literature and Arts Weekly - Vietnam Writers Association (1972) by writers Vi Hong, Ho Thuy Giang and four awards in the same short story contest in the Army Literature and Arts Magazine (1980) by Xuan Cang, Trinh Thanh Son, Ho Thuy Giang, Chu Hong Hai received the attention of readers and critics.

During those years, experts assessed Bac Thai as one of the few provinces and cities with strengths in prose writing, especially short stories.

After the years from 1980 to 1985, many writers in Bac Thai returned to work in the Central or moved to other provinces (Xuan Cang, Hoang Minh Tuong, Trinh Thanh Son, Nguyen Anh Binh, Nguyen Duc Thien...), leaving the province with a large gap in prose in particular and literature in general. Only two or three prose writers remained in the province. Poetry and critical theory had no voice in the national literature.

Regarding poetry, it was not until twenty years later, starting with Vo Sa Ha with the poetry collections "Song nhac hon toi", "Ngau da"... followed by Nguyen Thuy Quynh with "Gia ma em tu nhan", "Mua mua dong"... Ho Trieu Son with "Mua bui", Nguyen Kien Tho with "Thanh Minh" and awards from the Army Literature and Arts Magazine, Vietnam Literature and Arts Association... that Thai Nguyen gradually saw the emergence of promising poets.

From the early years of the 21st century until now, Thai Nguyen poetry has become a phenomenon in the national poetry scene, many people have been admitted to the Vietnam Writers Association.

Before the explosion of poetry, prose was still quite quiet. Entering the second decade of the 21st century, Thai Nguyen prose has just flourished again. The beginning of this creative period was the novel "Forest Storm" by Pham Duc Thai Nguyen. The book was based on a real case that happened in Thai Nguyen in the late 20th century. The work won the Third Prize of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations in 2011.

After the novel "Forest Storm", as a creative stimulus, Thai Nguyen authors simultaneously published novels on many different topics: industrial topics such as "Com ao cho doi", "Linh khi" by Phan Thai, "Danh gia dat co", "Lo dien" by Nguyen Van; rural topics such as "Gio Dong lang Am" by Ngoc Thi Keo, "Canh dong mua nguyet" by Co Thi Thom; topics about the rich/poor relationship during the period of entering the Renovation period such as "Con duoc cat bui" by Ho Thuy Giang...

Also during this period, history became a special topic of interest to Thai Nguyen prose writers. In a short period of time, authors in the province published about fifteen or sixteen historical novels. Some examples include "Linh Son Tu Chien", "Thanh Kiem Va Cay Tinh Tau", "Thai Nguyen Quan Hieu Uy" by Phan Thai; "Te Tuong Luu Nhan Chu", "Thai Nguyen - 1917" by Ho Thuy Giang; "Duc Thanh Duom Duong Tu Minh" by Pham Duc...

A great advantage of historical novels in Thai Nguyen is that writers have replaced the old "historical celebrity" writing style with the "Historical character" writing style so that readers can perceive history more realistically.

Recently, in preparation for the conference summarizing 50 years of achievements in Thai Nguyen literature and art after the country's reunification (April 30, 1975 - April 30, 2025), the Provincial Literature and Art Association conducted a survey and evaluation of 50 outstanding works of Literature and Art to be honored at the conference. Including 6 prose works: The memoir "The Road to Mother's Letters" by Vi Hong; the novel "The Pathfinders" by Ho Thuy Giang; "Forest Storm" by Pham Duc; the short story collection "The Roads, the Rivers" by Le The Thanh; "The Sound of the Ky Giang Bird" by Bui Thi Nhu Lan; the novel "Three Vegetable Heads" by Ha Duc Toan. 4 poetry works: "The Song Over the Shoulder" by Ma Truong Nguyen; "The Bird's Wings Returning to the Mountain" by Vo Sa Ha; "Forgetting and Remembering" by The Chinh; "To the Last Wave" by Nguyen Kien Tho were selected as typical works. These are works that can represent the provincial literature of the past 50 years.

Although the above achievements have become milestones for the literature in the province, but besides those achievements, it is still easy to see the weaknesses that cannot be overcome. Most of the works published in the past 50 years, including the honored works, although they have won prizes at the Central and high local levels, are generally still small in volume and there is no work that has a great generalization, of the era. Especially, there has not been a breakthrough in writing style, innovation in poetics...

However, in the folk saying of ethnic minorities, "when there are buds, celebrate buds, when there are flowers, celebrate flowers", literary works over the past 50 years expressing the Party's viewpoints and thoughts have contributed to orienting and propagating directives and resolutions to the people. Literary works with educational and humanistic values ​​have contributed to orienting political ideology, encouraging patriotic emulation movements, condemning evil, contributing to preventing crime, corruption, and waste; fighting against wrong viewpoints to protect the Party's ideological foundation, promoting socio-economic development and building Thai Nguyen people to develop comprehensively.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/202505/50-nam-mot-mua-van-chuong-day-huong-sac-7a92619/