 |
| Journalist Dang Ngoc Khoa is working. |
Early days at Thanh Nien Newspaper
In the 1990s, Dau Giay was still called a “three-way intersection”: the junction between National Highway 1 (North - South) and National Highway 20 (to Da Lat city), so even though it was a rural area, life here was quite bustling, with bustling trade... In those years, teacher Tran Thanh Binh had just moved from Ea Sup district ( Dak Lak ) to teach at Dau Giay High School, while I (Ha Dinh Nguyen) and Dang Ngoc Khoa were working at Le Loi Primary School (4 km from Dau Giay in the direction of Da Lat)...
We had the same interests in poetry, writing, and collaborating with newspapers, so it was easy for us to become friends. At that time, Dang Ngoc Khoa had articles such as: Children in the rubber forest, Tich Thien charity school... Tran Thanh Binh and I went to the remote communes of Dinh Quan district to promptly report the complaints of farmers when their fields and crops were destroyed by herds of wild elephants... All of our articles were sent to Thanh Nien Newspaper, the newspaper we regularly collaborated with.
Dang Ngoc Khoa (born in 1957) is originally from Quang Nam. Before 1975, he participated in the student movement in Da Nang city and advocated with some friends to publish the newspaper Ý Nghị, so he knew the members of the Thanh Nien Newspaper's editorial board. In early 1995, close collaborators like us were called back to join the newspaper's force. Coming to Saigon to work as a journalist (printed newspaper, editorial office at 248 Cong Quynh, District 1), the three of us were joined by Tran Dinh Thu (Tran Thanh Binh's brother-in-law, a geological engineer, graduated from Hue University, working at the Soklu quarry). After interning at Thanh Nien Newspaper for about 6 months, we were given the decision to become official reporters. Our journalism career began from here. However, only I was assigned to the Culture and Arts Department (VHNT) while the other three were assigned to the Economic - Political - Social Department (KT-CT-XH)...
Thanh Nien Newspaper at that time, along with Tuoi Tre Newspaper, were the two main newspapers in Ho Chi Minh City, published every other day - as if there was a convention: if Tuoi Tre Newspaper was published on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Thanh Nien Newspaper was published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Reporters at Thanh Nien Newspaper had to work hard to achieve a minimum of 4 articles and 12 news items per month (regulation). It sounded easy, but this regulation put tremendous pressure on reporters, who had to make an effort to have at least 1 article and 3 news items published in the newspaper each week, when in the departments, not only they but many other colleagues were also "sweating" to... meet the quota!
So, during the day, we rode our motorbikes to various places to work, and in the afternoon, after submitting our articles (handwritten manuscripts), we often gathered under a makeshift tarpaulin on the side of Cong Quynh Street (in front of the editorial office gate) - that was the dog meat restaurant of Mr. Hung and his wife (a Northern migrant, also from Gia Tan 3 Commune, Thong Nhat, Dong Nai). This "countryside deer" dish was truly appealing, meeting the standards of "delicious - nutritious - cheap". So, over a glass of wine, we told each other about our daily activities, gave suggestions on the topic, our experiences when working... Finally, we ordered a dish of vermicelli with bamboo shoots to appease our stomachs, considering it dinner. Then we dragged each other back to the editorial office to sleep overnight (I stayed temporarily in the room of the Arts and Culture Department, while they stayed in the room next door, the Economics - Politics - Society Department).
Seeing our group “occupying” the editorial office and going everywhere together, Mr. Huynh Ngoc Chinh (Head of the Economic-Civil-Social Affairs Department) jokingly called the group “Dau Giay School”. Then, the name “Dau Giay School” spread among colleagues at Thanh Nien Newspaper… Day by day, with the guidance of our seniors as well as the accumulation of experience, we have become more and more mature in our profession (I would also like to add that we have “quit” the “young dog” thing for a long time).
After 30 years of working in journalism, I have had 3 books published by Tre Publishing House at the same time: 35 love stories of artists, 60 beauties in poetry and music, and 50 fascinating stories of the South (October 2017).
And the turns
After a while, Tran Dinh Thu quit his job as a journalist to study law (he is currently a lawyer) and then published several books, of which Nguyen Binh - Wandering Poet is one of the books that many readers admire. Dang Ngoc Khoa, after creating a buzz through a series of articles about the wild elephants appearing in Tanh Linh (Binh Thuan) or a series of articles about the Cashew Garden Case with many wrongful convictions (defendant Huynh Van Nen, who was later exonerated), asked to return to Long Khanh town to be the representative of Thanh Nien Newspaper in the East, then returned to his hometown of Da Nang to be a resident reporter. Here, he and poet Uyen Ha established the ACE Thien Van Charity Fund to help many difficult and unfortunate cases...
After more than 15 years of working as a journalist, Dang Ngoc Khoa fell seriously ill and passed away in 2009 in Da Nang. After Khoa passed away, poet Nguyen Huu Hong Minh (originally from Da Nang) and the ACE Thien Van Charity Fund collected Khoa's poems and articles about Khoa to print into a poetry collection No Heart Stops Beating in the World, which is also the title of one of his famous poems. Journalists Huynh Ngoc Chênh and Tran Thanh Binh and their colleagues selected Dang Ngoc Khoa's reports, memoirs, and investigations (published in Thanh Nien Newspaper) to print into a full book titled The Thin Thread in the Sky...
 |
| Book by Ha Dinh Nguyen. |
Thank God, Tran Thanh Binh and I are still deeply indebted to journalism for 30 years (even though I have retired). During those 30 years, Binh moved from the Economic-Civil-Social Affairs Department to the Readers' Affairs Department. He not only wrote investigative articles full of changes in the real estate sector, shared his love and affection during disaster relief trips, but also occasionally appeared on the Literature and Arts page with articles and analyses about authors and works that were very charming... At the same time, in the Leisure Talk section of Thanh Nien Newspaper, Tran Thanh Binh is also considered an expert because just a sudden thought, a person he occasionally met, a small event is enough material for him to write a "leisure talk" article that makes readers extremely interested... That's why during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a space under a lot of pressure from infection - isolation, also in a state of being "contained" at home, unable to move around as usual, but Binh refused to sit still and... wrote. So he has the book Saigon - Quarantine Diary (Chibooks Company in collaboration with Lao Dong Publishing House, printed in December 2021). He also collected his leisurely discussions that appeared in Thanh Nien Newspaper, planning to publish them into a book in the near future with the title Southern Winter Miracle...
As for me, when I was assigned to the Department of Literature and Arts, I felt very lucky because I loved poetry, literature, and music. Furthermore, our “teachers” at that time, musician Phan Ba Chuc and poet Le Nhuoc Thuy, wholeheartedly guided us in our professional work. What makes me feel most honored is the luck to meet and interview famous people, "big names" in the field of culture and art such as: musicians Tran Van Khe, Huynh Van Tieng, Mai Van Bo, Pham Duy, Nguyen Van Dong, Trinh Cong Son, Chau Ky, Vu Thanh An, Phan Huynh Dieu, Ton That Lap, Tran Long An... The "geniuses": Van Huong, Tung Lam, Thanh Hoai, Tong Son, Huynh Hoa... Singers: Che Linh, Hong Van, Phuong Dung, Trang My Dung... Visual artists: Photographer Vo An Ninh, Nick Ut, Doan Cong Tinh... or painters: Tu Duyen, Ho Huu Thu, Do Quang Em... to sculptors Diem Phung Thi, Pham Van Hang, Truong Dinh Que... Writers, poets: Toan Anh, Duong Ha, Minh Huong, Tham The Ha, Kien Giang, Son Nam, Nguyen Quang Sang, Du Tu Le and even Major General - Academician Tran Dai Nghia... Especially with the homeland of Dong Nai, I had the opportunity to write about writers: Ly Van Sam, Hoang Van Bon, Binh Nguyen Loc...
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day (June 21), we would like to send our readers a few memories about the journey of journalists who have the same starting point: from Dau Giay intersection (Dong Nai) to Saigon to work as journalists, then spread out to all roads of the country to record important events of the country, or to be restless with the words on the newspaper to serve readers, and together wish for our lives to become better and better...
Ha Dinh Nguyen
Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/dong-nai-cuoi-tuan/202506/truong-phai-dau-giay-trong-lang-bao-sai-gon-4a010ae/
Comment (0)