From a promise made to Uncle Tô and General Võ Nguyên Giáp
When mentioning writer Trinh Quang Phu, one cannot fail to mention his tireless work on President Ho Chi Minh : "The South in His Heart," "He Is My Faith," "The Path Ho Chi Minh Took to Save the Nation," "Following Ho Chi Minh in the Resistance War," "From Lang Sen Village to Ben Nha Rong," and "Following in His Footsteps." Among these, "From Lang Sen Village to Ben Nha Rong" has been reprinted 22 times in 26 years of publication, while "The Path Ho Chi Minh Took to Save the Nation" and "Following Ho Chi Minh in the Resistance War" have been reprinted 17 times.
Professor Trinh Quang Phu recounted that after his work "From Lang Sen Village to Nha Rong Wharf" was first published by the Literature Publishing House in 1996, he brought the book to Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, whom he affectionately called "Uncle To." During that intimate meeting, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong advised him: "You should dedicate your time to researching the 30 years Uncle Ho spent abroad. Thirty years, from the day Uncle Ho left Saigon until the day he returned to the country, is a very fascinating treasure trove." Similarly, General Vo Nguyen Giap, during a conversation, also urged him to research and write about Uncle Ho's time abroad. "The work 'From Lang Sen Village to Nha Rong Wharf' chronicles Uncle Ho's life from his childhood until May 5, 1911, when he left Nha Rong Wharf to embark on his journey to save the country. The General was very much looking forward to me writing about Uncle Ho's time abroad," recalled writer Trinh Quang Phu.
After a long period of tireless searching for valuable documents, traveling, collecting, documenting, comparing, and diligently working on the page, at the age of 84, writer Trinh Quang Phu published his memoir "Following in the Footsteps of the Great Leader," as a way of fulfilling a promise he made to Uncle To and General Vo Nguyen Giap years ago.
Depicting the portrait of the young man Nguyen Tat Thanh
Following in the footsteps of the Great Leader, with nearly 600 pages and numerous valuable documentary images, this book immerses readers in the 30-year journey of young Nguyen Tat Thanh from the moment he boarded the Amiral Latouche Tréville ship leaving the Saigon River. Throughout this journey, the portrait of young Nguyen Tat Thanh emerges, both intimate and revealing the exceptional greatness of a young man who harbored great ambitions from an early age.
To create this work, Professor Trinh Quang Phu traveled to France, England, the United States, the Soviet Union (now Russia), Guangzhou, and Hong Kong (China)... He visited places like France and Russia dozens of times. He even went to the Soviet Far East, to Khabarovsk and the port of Vladivostok, to the train station and the Versailles Hotel in Vladivostok. Notably, he traveled even during extremely cold periods in Russia, simply because this was the time when President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked there. Thanks to this, the work touches the hearts of readers with its vivid details and imagery.
The book opens with the years Ho Chi Minh spent in France. There, he had to work various jobs such as shoveling snow, waiting tables, baking, and taking photographs to make ends meet. In particular, the spirit of self-learning was always present in the young Nguyen Tat Thanh, serving as an example for many generations to follow. From France, his footsteps continued to spread to England, the United States, the Soviet Union, China… and ended his 30-year journey on January 28, 1941, when he returned to Pac Bo.
Writing about President Ho Chi Minh goes beyond mere love and respect. Professor Trinh Quang Phu also painstakingly traveled to many places both domestically and internationally to collect, record, and compare documents, finding the most plausible stories and details to write about. Therefore, when turning the pages of "Following in the Footsteps of the Great Leader," readers gain new, interesting, and reliable information about the life and revolutionary career of President Ho Chi Minh.
Professor Trinh Quang Phu is currently the Director of the Institute for Oriental Development Studies. He is also a member of the Vietnam Writers Association and the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association. He began his writing career between 1960 and 1962, and won second prize for his feature writing in the Cuu Quoc newspaper.
Many of his works have been honored with prestigious awards such as: "Travelogue Abroad" won the Mekong Literature Award in 2022 and the Ho Chi Minh City Creative Award in 2023; "From Sen Village to Nha Rong Wharf" won the A prize in the Award for creating and promoting literary, artistic, and journalistic works on the theme "Studying and following the thoughts, ethics, and style of Ho Chi Minh" for the period 2021-2023 of the Central Propaganda Department... Recently, his memoir "Following in the Footsteps of the Great Leader" won first prize in the literature field in the "50 Years - Proud of the Heroic Epic" writing campaign of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/mot-doi-theo-dau-chan-nguoi-post790838.html
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