A history of Vietnam in pictures

The idea of a Vietnamese history book in pictures was formed in the mind of Mr. Tran Dai Thang, Director of Dong A Company, 17 years ago. "We participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair (Germany) and saw many encyclopedias and histories of many countries with many illustrations. I hope that in the future Dong A will be able to make Vietnamese history books like that," Mr. Thang recalled.

Mr. Do Quoc Dat Nhan, a member of the Dong A group that made this book, also spent many years dreaming of a picture book of Vietnamese history like this. He said that every time he went to the Frankfurt book fair, he was always attracted by the books of DK, a publishing company that makes picture encyclopedias.

Inside and outside covers of the book

Both Mr. Tran Dai Thang and Mr. Do Quoc Dat Nhan then worked together to realize the idea of the book Vietnamese History in Pictures (600 pages, University of Education Publishing House). Of course, the book also went through many stages. The first outline was finalized in 2015, but after that, the path of visualizing the outline and writing the content chapters was bumpy because it was very difficult to find enough large numbers of people with the same viewpoint. A few years later, Mr. Nhan was the one who played the role of connecting the organization of the manuscript.

The book is suggestive

Associate Professor, Dr. Phan Ngoc Huyen (University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi ) said that the group of authors outlined the history of Vietnam as well as presented different cultural layers. They also found an interesting way of presenting, for example, before each section there is a summary of the content. The titles in the book are highly suggestive. "Reading makes me curious. For example, the Nguyen Dynasty has titles such as The Reformers, The Obstacles of the Dynasty... making people want to know what happens next," Associate Professor, Dr. Huyen shared.

Book page about ancient statues

In addition, for each historical period, the book also places Vietnamese history in a contemporary relationship: how the world changed, how the Asian region was, what related events occurred during that period. This, according to Associate Professor Dr. Huyen, shows how Vietnamese history has been a part of global history.

Associate Professor Dr. Huyen also likes the way the author updates the uprisings during the Northern domination period. Through that, we can see that the Mai Thuc Loan uprising in 10 years was a large-scale uprising that had an impact on countries in the region. Another update is that we used to think of it as the chaos of the 12 warlords, but now the concept presented in the book is the situation of the 12 warlords.

Double page about pottery in ancient ships of Cu Lao Cham

Another important thing, Associate Professor Dr. Huyen said, is that redrawing maps like the Hong Duc map in Vietnamese helps to visualize more clearly. Not to mention, it also meets the needs of history readers when for many years the history of many periods has been taught without visual channels. "During the Mac Dynasty, we taught for many years without visual channels, who knows if it was Lord Bau, the Le Dynasty...; but now it is in the books," Associate Professor Dr. Huyen said.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Dr. Tran Duc Cuong, Chairman of the Vietnam Historical Science Association, highly appreciated the book's updating ability. He said that many new studies were immediately updated in the Vietnamese History in Pictures . Among these are the latest excavation results at the Go Da and Rong Tung sites in Gia Lai . Accordingly, Vietnamese and Russian scientists have found traces of ancient people, and can even think of Vietnam as one of the homelands of mankind. "It can be said that the book has updated the latest research," Associate Professor Dr. Cuong said.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/mot-lich-su-viet-nam-bang-hinh-anh-185240926231105481.htm