Writer Hoai Huong: I like to write about family and love in wartime.

After decades of writing about war and armed forces, writer Hoai Huong still maintains her passion for this meaningful topic. The author of the short story collection “Blue Sky, the Color of Love” (People's Army Publishing House, 2024) shares about her favorite topic: writing about family - love during wartime, a topic that she was “inspired by” through the stories her father told and wishes to write about so that the younger generation will not forget.

Writing a lot about family and love in wartime, is it because modern family topics are less attractive to writer Hoai Huong?

In most of my works, the theme of family - love in wartime, not because this theme is less attractive in peacetime . Perhaps I was born in wartime, my father was a soldier who fought from the time of the French - American resistance to the time of the Southwest and Northern borders, my parents' love also from the resistance against the French spread throughout the wars that my father participated in, and my mother is one of the "waiting husband" images of the loyal wives of soldiers waiting for their husbands, raising their children to adulthood. From the image of my mother, of the families of my friends and children of soldiers, witnessing many touching stories about love - family, all have always kept in me many deep impressions, so that I have "formatted" myself, definitely paying attention to this theme, will write with experience, with feelings, with all the wishes that my writings will be left for today's youth to know how the grandparents' generation loved and lived in the past to be devoted to the country, good at housework...

Today's family topic is also a very attractive topic because there are many issues arising, from the multi-generational family, to the social - technological - globalization - marketization impacts... directly affecting each individual. In the past, during wartime, material and spiritual needs were not much, because everyone was focused on the war, everyone was willing to sacrifice personal privacy to reach the common goal of final victory. But today, the needs of all aspects are unlimited, giving rise to many complex, diverse, colorful, multi-dimensional, multi-style issues..., and not only obligations - responsibilities - contributions, but also enjoyment - enjoyment - dialogues between generations, between conflicts in approaching problems in life, views on life, views on happiness...

The topic of love and family today is really attractive, there is a lot of room for writers to show off their skills, but perhaps I still prefer the topic of love and family during wartime.

What are the differences and similarities between family affection during wartime and now?

Family affection in wartime and in this era have many similarities and differences. Family affection in any era requires loyalty, sincerity, love, sharing, sympathy, taking on family responsibility, civic responsibility... But in wartime, we cannot only selfishly think about our own love and happiness, our family, but also the duty and responsibility to protect the Fatherland, to protect the happiness of every home across the country. In wartime, we can think of family affection as no longer being private to each small family, but larger, a cohesive block, loving together, and steadfastly overcoming all challenges.

Today's family affection has some differences from the wartime, when new values ​​are promoted, for example the categories of "privacy", "individuality", "independence"... Traditional values ​​sometimes fade away, for example, having a full family meal with everyone in the house is very rare, or in the era of technology 4.0, sitting together to chat with family has become a luxury. Today's family always feels fragile and loose...

Writer Hoai Huong's real name is Dang Dieu Ha, currently a member of the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association and the Vietnam Writers Association.
Published works: Blue sky, the color of love (short story collection, People's Army Publishing House), Ngoc Suong - Sparkling morning dewdrops (Short story - Da Nang Publishing House), Moments of life and death (Short story collection - People's Army Publishing House), Saigon! I love you (Essay collection - Dong Nai Publishing House), Phu sa chau delta (Short story collection - General Publishing House), Hanoi flower of love (Essay - Writers' Association Publishing House), Tham - San - Si (Short story collection - Writers' Association Publishing House), Wandering love (Essay & Essay - Writers' Association Publishing House), In my heart there is a general (Short story collection - Writers' Association Publishing House)...

“The Blue Sky of Love” (People’s Army Publishing House, 2024) - your new collection of short stories continues to be about the love of soldiers. Why do the themes of war and armed forces have so much appeal to you?

I have a love for the green of the army uniform that is difficult to explain, like a love that comes from my blood, from my heart. First of all, perhaps because of my military background. My father was a soldier of the 5th Special Forces Battalion of the South during the resistance war against the French - the predecessor of the fighting style and Special Forces of our army later, then my father was an officer of the General Department of Research of the Ministry of National Defense, and was a "Viet Cong undercover" during the resistance war against the US. Then I myself was also a soldier of the Vietnam People's Army, my younger brother also spent 4 years in the army.

Because I always heard many wartime stories from my father and his comrades, and later, during my time in the army, I also had direct access to many uncles who had fought in the two resistance wars against France and the US and were continuing to fight to protect territorial sovereignty and fulfill international obligations... Later, while collaborating with media agencies, I wrote a lot about the armed forces, from memoirs about generals to heroes of the armed forces...

Every time I write and access information, I discover many emotional stories behind the campaigns, feats, victories... And I always have the ambition, why don't I rewrite these stories, so that today's young people can understand "war", "peace", understand the sacrifices of youth of many generations of fathers to have a Vietnam today that these young people are enjoying...

You dedicate many pages to your father. How has he influenced your life and writing?

If we count the time I spent with my father, it probably wasn't much, since I was young, I was far away, then I grew up and he passed away early, but to me, he was both a father, a teacher and a friend. My father was a talented musician, a chess player, a poet and a painter. Before going to war, in 4 years, he worked and studied at the same time to graduate from the Faculty of Literature and History of Hanoi University, not to mention he was fluent in three foreign languages. When I was young, my father went to the South to fight, the bookshelf he left behind was not only a "legacy" but also a wide open world that he gave me. Then when I grew up, in the conversations between father and son, my father taught me many lessons of knowledge, lessons of behavior, lessons of communication...

In particular, my father often told stories about his comrades during the war, their exploits, their youthful sacrifices contributing to the peace and unification of the country... And those stories have always inspired me to write about them, to write to express gratitude, to spread to young people the understanding that there was a time like that with people like that, to have a life like today... In me, even though my father has been gone for a long time, I still feel that he is by my side, encouraging, motivating and motivating me to keep writing, writing as long as I can.

Thanks for sharing!

Source: http://baolamdong.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202406/nha-van-hoai-huong-toi-thich-viet-ve-de-tai-gia-dinh-tinh-yeu-thoi-chien-444330b/