Visiting the "capital" of resistance literature

08:35, 23/07/2023

The land of Gia Dien, Chu Hung (Ha Hoa district, Phu Tho ) was once the place to "receive the way", the "capital" of Vietnam's resistance literature and art, where artists and writers immersed themselves in the resistance war against foreign invaders and the lives of the people...

Following the wide asphalt road at the foot of the rolling palm hills and the vast green tea hills of the midland, we stopped at Zone 2, Gia Dien Commune, where a stele was erected on a large piece of land. Next to the stele recording the event was the first headquarters of the Vietnam Literature and Arts Association, the agency of the Vietnam Literature and Arts Association - the predecessor of the National Committee of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations today, and also the place where the Literature and Arts Magazine published its first issue. The ancient kapok tree is no longer there, replaced by a smaller, towering young kapok tree, casting its shadow over the historical stele and a large piece of land.

Poet Luu Quang Vu's family visited Chu Hung, Gia Dien again.

In 1948, Gia Dien was the stopover for a group of artists on their journey to Viet Bac. At that time, this was a desolate land, sparsely populated, with forests and hills covered with trees and leaves, with only a small dirt road leading to the commune. Among the artists were poets, painters, and musicians such as To Huu, Nguyen Dinh Thi, Ngo Tat To, Nam Cao, Kim Lan, Xuan Dieu, Huy Can, Hoai Thanh, Nguyen Huy Tuong, Luu Huu Phuoc, To Ngoc Van, etc. They chose this place as a stopover to organize artistic activities to serve the nation's long-term resistance war.

Gia Dien is the birthplace of the poem written by poet To Huu. That special letter was written by poet To Huu right at Mrs. Nguyen Thi Gai's house to comfort and encourage her after many rainy and windy nights when she cried because she missed her son who went to the battlefield and had not received any letters or news for a long time. Mrs. Gai was worried that, in the midst of the fierce battlefield, sacrifice was inevitable. Knowing that, poet To Huu wrote the poem "Oh Mom" to send to Mrs. Gai. When reading it to Mrs. Gai, she was moved to tears and smiled gently because she was assured that her son was still safe on the battlefield.

Van Nghe Newspaper organizes a journey to the source in Gia Dien in March 2023.

I thought that the letter in verse was only for my mother Gai, but who would have thought that, on the distant and fierce battlefields throughout the Viet Bac war zones, soldiers fighting far from home copied the poem to send to their mothers in their homeland who were waiting day and night for news of their children. Then, that affection became mixed with the family affection, the love for the country of many soldiers, many people during the arduous but meaningful years of resistance and even today: "I go to the distant front line/I love my mother, love my country, both my kind mothers".

Chu Hung is about 3 km from Gia Dien, a village in Am Ha commune (Ha Hoa district). Along with Gia Dien, Chu Hung is also a stopover and cultural activity place for many artists during the resistance war against the French. At one time, Chu Hung village was likened to a miniature space of Hanoi because this place not only had artists and resistance fighters but was also an evacuation site for people from the lowlands, most of whom were residents of the capital. When coming to Chu Hung, people brought with them their traditional occupations to continue making a living, and brought with them the culinary flavors of Hanoi to open shops.

On the journey with the group of artists to Phu Tho that day, there was the family of artist Luu Quang Thuan and his wife, Vu Thi Khanh. At first, the family lived with the group of artists in Goc Gao village, Gia Dien commune, then moved to Ao Chau area (old Am Thuong, where the artists worked) and then moved to Chu Hung. In Gia Dien, on April 17, 1948, artist Luu Quang Thuan and his wife gave birth to their eldest son, Luu Quang Vu, who later became a talented poet and playwright of modern Vietnamese literature. When he was 15 years old, poet Luu Quang Vu wrote the poem "Chu Hung Village" to express the love and nostalgia of a person who was born in this land: "Oh Chu Hung, lying at night listening to the stream pouring/Listening to the wind and the sound of deer in the deep forest/Oh Chu Hung, cassava buried in the red stove/Warm the hard days that are hard to forget".

In his later works, the image of the midlands in the countryside of Ha Hoa returned again and again in the poems of poet Luu Quang Vu as something sacred, close and warm. Then, when he was away from Chu Hung, poet Luu Quang Vu considered this place as "The small stream through the forest there/Is the source of the river and sea of love/Going to the sea and river, I still remember forever/White wild flowers... oh Chu Hung, Chu Hung!".

Stories about the resistance war period are still preserved and told to many generations by the people of the midlands...

Nguyen The Luong

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