Feelings of 9 young Asian authors

"Tuyet Duyen" is a collection of 9 contemporary short stories by 9 young, representative authors in Asia, selected and published by 2 publishing houses, Shogakukan (Japan) and Munhak Dongne (Korea), in both Japanese and Korean. The Vietnamese version of the Tuyet Duyen collection, translated by Tama Duy Ngoc and published by Tre Publishing House, has just been released to the public.

The nine authors featured in Tuyet Duyen are all prominent young contemporary writers who have achieved certain commercial success and received high praise from experts, including: Sayaka Murata (Japan); Alfian Sa'at (Singapore); Hac Canh Phuong (China); Wiwat Lertwiwatwongsa (Thailand); Han Le Chau (Hong Kong-China); Lhacham Gyal (Tibet-China); Nguyen Ngoc Tu (Vietnam); Lien Minh Ve (Taiwan-China); Chung Serang (Korea).

"Tuyet Duyen" Korean and Japanese version

Vietnamese version of the Tuyet Duyen anthology translated by Tama Duy Ngoc and published by Tre Publishing House

According to translator Tama Duy Ngoc, “Tuyet duyen” means to cut off, to sever ties, relationships with one person, many people, a land, or even with the whole world. In this collection, “Tuyet duyen” here is both the title and the keyword carrying the main spirit throughout the work. In today’s era, connection and separation have become common things between people. We connect in a hurry, and separate just as quickly. The concept of homeland itself has become blurred when modern people constantly move along migration streams. There are times when ties are broken without any attachment, but there are also many times when ties are broken that bring us much suffering, leaving a bitter taste that is hard to forget for life. Set in diverse contexts, sunny lands, rainy lands, dream lands, real lands, peaceful lands, chaotic lands, each story is a picture of fierceness, gentleness, frankly expressing all the suffering, conflict, and resentment deep in the soul. All is so confusing and twisted, human psychology has never been so nakedly exposed.

The selected writers in the anthology, though young but full of inner strength from Asia, have raised a unanimous voice, about how people face the past, present, future, and the turning point of fate. The bad must be exposed to the end, but the “good roots in our hearts” are still honored forever. Where there is separation, there is connection. Where there is despair, there is hope.

Nine stories bring nine cultural perspectives from different regions across Asia, each work has its own interpretation of the two words "Tuyet duyen". From naive children hesitantly on the threshold of puberty, young people frustrated by current events, mothers and wives with deep hidden feelings... to scars in the mind, generational conflicts, social injustice, racial prejudice, chaos due to war, etc.

Writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu is representing Vietnam in the anthology with the short story Escape. It is a story about the memories of a mother's soul about to leave her mortal body when thinking about the sacrifice of her whole life for her children. In the last moment of her life, the mother realizes that "when you give birth to your first child, you realize that it is difficult for a mother to escape from her child, even if the child actively abandons her. Even if the mother heartlessly abandons her child on the side of the road, the child still follows her until the end. As long as she has memory, she will never forget the small creature she kept warm in a thick blanket, the one that, in order to have the first meeting, both she and it had to bear scars", Nguyen Ngoc Tu wrote.

Nguyen Ngoc Tu is one of the representative young writers of contemporary literature in Vietnam with a series of short stories, novellas and essays highly appreciated by experts. She has won many literary awards at home and abroad, many of her works have been adapted into plays and films.

Most recently, Nguyen Ngoc Tu was awarded the "20th Best Southeast Asian Literature Award 2024" selected by the Dien Tri Literature magazine (China).

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