How did writer Vo Huy Tam write "Mining Area"?

Writer Vo Huy Tam was born in 1926 in Nam Dinh , but spent his whole life attached to and becoming famous in Quang Ninh. With the novel "Mining Area", he laid the foundation for Quang Ninh prose about miners. For Quang Ninh literature, he has a special and irreplaceable position. Many people know him, but few know how the writer wrote the famous novel "Mining Area".

Portrait of writer Vo Huy Tam. — Writer Vo Huy Tam. *(Source: Writer's family documents)*

In the Literature and Arts newspaper No. 45, published in November 1953, writer Vo Huy Tam published an article entitled “Autobiography of Writing in the Mining Region”. The writer said that he lost his father at a young age. In 1945, he worked as a trade union cadre to conduct propaganda in the Mining Region.

For Vo Huy Tam, when mobilizing workers, propaganda is the most important, as is investigation and organizing the struggle. In the circumstances of enemy territory, verbal propaganda is the easiest and most convenient form. You also have to know how to speak skillfully, concisely, and easily understood, making your brothers and sisters believe and follow, while the enemy cannot do anything to you. That is an art. Therefore, talking is a very difficult thing. If you just talk about the world situation, the situation in the country, no one dares to listen, you don't have time, and you can easily be arrested.

"That situation made us have to be realistic, talking about things that were close to the miners. But the mine itself contained many contradictions and injustices, so there were many stories. In just one morning, such things happened as: the French beat the miners, the train driver had his salary cut, the miner died due to a mine collapse, the miner skipped work to demand more pay, the old town had a man who lost money gambling and jumped into a tram and committed suicide... For important matters, I tried to take advantage of the situation to go there to examine and listen to public opinion, then put those stories together, clearly define the response, and then present them to the comrades in the Party cell to give more opinions. I reorganized them and then presented them to the Party cell and the union for approval. Those stories were considered propaganda documents of the union, and the union members had the duty to tell those stories to everyone. And then they just kept propagating them. They told each other like fairy tales. When they finished listening, they added whatever was missing. I gathered new ideas, polished them, "And then propagate it again. Each time we tell it, we add to it. Everyone from the elderly to the children likes to listen to those stories, and we ourselves like to listen to them too" - writer Vo Huy Tam recounted.

The writer said that when he was young, he often read the Bible and stories like Thach Sanh, Truyen Kieu, Tong Tran Cuc Hoa, and Tam Quoc Dien Nghia. When he had free time, he told them to his neighbors. "They loved me and often asked me to help them read their letters back home. Reading and writing letters, knowing the plight of the miners, I felt very sorry for them, because they also faced the same hardships as me. It made us hate the French and want to kill them all but we couldn't. We also sat together and cursed the foremen, the bosses and the clerks. Those curses became stories that later served as material for me to write the story "Mining Region" - the writer recounted.

For Vo Huy Tam, writing and talking about literature is a process of hard work. The writer said: I tried to write in an easy-to-understand way, but my colleagues could not memorize half a typed page for a whole week, while they could recite a very long poem fluently. I then realized that they were like me, learning rhymed prose faster than prose. At that time, I came up with the idea of writing verses and folk songs to make it easier to memorize. I read them to my party cell comrades. They agreed, memorized them, and spread them everywhere. After about a week, many workers also memorized them.

Writer Vo Huy Tam wrote the novel "Mining Area" from August 1949 to the end of January 1951. The first part was written in Cam Pha, the last part was written in the Viet Bac resistance zone. At that time, he could only read and write fluently (in 1961, Vo Huy Tam had just entered the first grade of the Workers' and Peasants' Supplementary School), and had no concept of grammar or word classes. When writing, he would put a comma to pause, a full stop to end the flow, and whenever he wanted to soften the sentence, he would add the words "then", "la", "mà"...

Originally a union official, reading articles about the Mining Region at that time, Vo Huy Tam felt unsatisfied, he intended to write a whole story, intending to name it "Strike". "Strike" was commented on and revised by many famous writers and poets, then won awards and was printed many times under the name "Mining Region". The writer recounted: Until I heard that my book was noticed by the organization, the Vietnam Literature and Arts Association called me up to revise it, I was very happy. When I got there, the critics pointed out that although this collection had many advantages andeducational value, it still had very big shortcomings such as not mentioning the leadership of the Party, the influence of the resistance war on the Mining Region and behind the enemy's back, the spirit of proletarian internationalism, the spirit of self-criticism and criticism of workers. I began to correct the mistakes and add the missing parts. Rewriting was a more difficult task, because I had to try to remember old stories to fill in the missing parts. Although rewriting was difficult, it was more motivating. Besides, there were literary and artistic comrades who always helped with ideas. Every time I finished editing a paragraph, I took it out to read for the comrades to criticize and then rewrite. Some paragraphs had to be edited seven or eight times. It took nearly two months to finish editing.

The novel "Mining Region" was completed in the Viet Bac resistance zone, but its setting is still the Mining Region. The writer shared: The reason I was able to finish "Mining Region" is thanks to my family's circumstances. From a young age, I always lived close to my relatives and mine workers. Thanks to the class struggle movement, thanks to the Party's labor work, thanks to the way of studying and writing in Uncle Ho's book "Reforming the way of working" that taught me how to fight and how to write "Mining Region". After finishing writing, I hope to be able to contribute a small part to the class.

When the novel "The Mine" was published and the writer became famous, he did not stop, but continued his literary career. He even put everything else aside to return to Cam Pha to focus on writing. Vo Huy Tam took his whole family to the mountains to live. The place where the writer and his wife exploited the mountains was named Thach Anh Trang (Khe Tam mine area, Cam Tay ward, Cam Pha city today). Thach Anh Trang made people easily mistake it for a mansion, but in fact it was a small hut. The writer named his house that because there was a lot of quartz on the mountain. His youngest son was named Vo Hong Trang to remember that hut. Thach Anh Trang was where he and his wife worked to raise their children, and it was also where he met his literary friends.

Writer Vo Huy Tam and his wife had four children. The workers' wages were meager, and the food stamp system was low, so they went hungry every month. Furthermore, the house in the city was cramped, and there was no decent place for him to sit and write, so he had to go up to the mountains. Thach Anh Trang was a wild mountainous area, full of rocks and wild plants. The writer and his wife had to move rocks and clear wild plants to plant corn, potatoes, cassava, and raise pigs and chickens. That said, the main laborer was his wife, Tuyen, while Vo Huy Tam mainly used the quiet place to write, occasionally helping his wife dig the land to plant trees.

Thanks to his wife's hard work, writer Vo Huy Tam overcame his worries about food and clothing to focus on writing. He also poeticized life in Thach Anh village: "Thach Anh gathers a few rocks/ Poetry still warms the small hut/ Cassava and sweet potatoes are attached to the fields/ Peaches and plums gather among the mountains" . In that hut, writer Vo Huy Tam wrote many works such as: Stormy Moon, Stormy Bamboo Shoots, Ruou Chat, Thin Paddle, Golden Thread...

At Thach Anh Trang, the worker writer was honored to welcome many artists and writers, including famous people such as poet Hoang Trung Thong, painter Huynh Van Thuan, painter Tran Van Can, writer Vu Tu Nam... Every time he had guests, the food served was homegrown produce grown by his wife. Later, he took one of his pen names, Ha Tuyen, as a way of expressing his gratitude to his virtuous wife.

Painter Tran Van Can and painter Huynh Van Thuan (Photo by NSNA Doan Dat) — Painter Huynh Van Thuan and painter Tran Van Can *(from left to right)* during a visit to discuss with writer Vo Huy Tam. *Photo: Doan Dat*

When the coal workers and officials joined hands to build a charity house for him on To Hieu Street (Cam Trung Ward, Cam Pha City), writer Vo Huy Tam sold Thach Anh Trang. In 1996, writer Vo Huy Tam passed away in this charity house, leaving behind a large literary legacy, with famous works such as: Mining Area, Large Coal Seam, Hammer Handle, Miners...

After the death of writer Vo Huy Tam, his family kept all the objects and decorations of his house as they were when he was alive. Mrs. Tuyen also reserved the room where he used to write as a place of worship and to preserve his mementos, manuscripts, medals, and certificates of merit. In that room, there is a bust of the writer made of kip pear charcoal given by the Coal Industry and the State Prize for Literature and Arts posthumously awarded to the writer in 2001.

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