Loc Minh Tan with the song "My Hometown

The song “My Hometown of Terraced Fields” was written by Mr. Loc Minh Tan, a Tay ethnic group, former Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Na Hang district in 2019. The poem was composed by Mr. Tan based on the Pao Dung melody of the Dao Tien people in Hong Thai commune, where there are the most beautiful terraced fields in the province. The poem is also expressed in the Then melody of the Tay Na Hang ethnic group. Through the performance of the poem with many musical elements, Mr. Loc Minh Tan asked musician Duc Lien, who has many famous songs about Tuyen Quang and Na Hang, to compose music.

Mr. Loc Minh Tan is passionate about his homeland's culture.

As if capturing the emotions of the poem “My hometown is terraced fields”, musician Duc Lien immediately released the song “My hometown is terraced fields”, with lyrics by Loc Minh Tan in 2020. The song was produced and released by Mr. Loc Minh Tan with “homegrown” singers and attracted attention. However, at that time, the Covid-19 epidemic was breaking out, the song had not been widely introduced to the public.

This year, Na Hang district organized the Na Hang Fragrance Festival at the district's central square stage. The song "My hometown, terraced fields" was selected by the district, and singer Trong Tan was invited to perform, accompanied by a dance performance. The lyrics and melody of the song are sweet, clear, deep, romantic, both close and simple, and affectionate and familiar: "Climbing Dan Khanh pass, my hair plays with the clouds/The highland girl is stunningly beautiful/Plums and peaches show off their white, cool pear blossoms all year round/My village is halfway up the mountain/Terrace fields, winding banks, mountains covered in layers of scarves/Waves of rice rustle, a masterpiece of nature, Oh Hong Thai, in the middle of the great forest...".

Mr. Trieu Van Quoc, a Dao ethnic group in Na Mu village, said that he really likes the song “My Hometown, Terraced Fields”. He has listened to it over and over again, but he still doesn’t get bored. Mr. Quoc feels proud when the landscape, identity, and place names of Hong Thai commune are expressed delicately, richly in images, and musically in the song. For example, the passage “… I have returned to Na Mu Pac Khoang, the first place of the revolutionary movement, visited Khau Trang to weave brocade, cap sac, and dance to bells/The Pao Dung dance, you sing, I am reluctant to leave…”.

Singer Trong Tan performs the song.

In 2006, when the Tuyen Quang hydropower project was in its final stages, I was assigned to be in charge of the Na Hang mountainous district. Mr. Loc Minh Tan, at that time the Head of the District's Department of Culture and Information, was both active in promoting resettlement and solving the problem of preserving cultural identity. I know that he has many research projects on folk culture, encouraging artisans to pass on their skills to the younger generation. In his spare time, he often goes on field trips, deeply penetrating the lives of the people. If I hadn't asked, I would have thought he was a true Na Hang native. It turned out that he was a Tay from Thuong Am commune (Son Duong), who went to Na Hang in 1975 to work in the district's Department of Culture and Information until his retirement in 2017.

Despite his retirement, Mr. Loc Minh Tan has not forgotten his profession. He continues his work of researching folk culture. After many years of witnessing, Na Hang has changed a lot. District tourism is developing, and the work of preserving and promoting identity is being promoted. Mr. Loc Minh Tan feels happy that his hometown's landscape and cultural identity are resources for local development.

In fact, Mr. Loc Minh Tan does not write many poems, but each poem he writes must have real emotions: “Oh, Hong Thai, the clouds are endless/The clouds are endless, my homeland is renewed/The village is happy, the electric lights are on/The joyful smiles of children going to school/Traveling to my homeland, I go in the floating clouds, the fragrance of sticky rice, roast pork, wine, seedless red deer, peaches, pears, and red plums/The cool scent of Shan tea is cool/The terraced fields are tilted, how I love my homeland, Hong Thai/Increasingly, I miss them, oh, Hong Thai! Sweet in the scent of the mountains/Oh, Hong Thai, my homeland, the terraced fields”.

The beauty of Hong Thai commune, Na Hang.

Mr. Loc Minh Tan affirmed that Na Hang is his second hometown. Both in his passionate youth and in his calm, composed old age, he is attached to Na Hang with “love for the land and love for the people”. Here, he feels his creative space opens up with so many emotions flooding back…

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