Find peace
After a tiring day with the hustle and bustle of work out there, coming home, gathering around the dinner table, eating mother's cooking is always the desire of adults, especially for children who are far from home. That is also what motivated Dong Van Hung (born in 1996, from Thai Nguyen) to build the YouTube channel "Mother's Cuisine".
Although Dong Van Hung was honored by Forbes magazine as a talented young person in 2024 in the list of "30 Under 30 Asia", the way this young man spoke surprised me. Hung was warm and simple, just like what I felt through the video series "Mother's Cuisine" with more than 1 million subscribers. The young man from Thai Nguyen was proud to mention his mother - a genuine farmer, with muddy hands and feet, and the simple dishes his mother cooked.
"When I worked in Hanoi, I really missed the meals my mother cooked. Until one time when I went back to my hometown, I had a camera in hand and recorded a video of my mother cooking as a souvenir for her. By chance, that video was loved by everyone and I started a channel. Honestly, I didn't think my videos would get so much attention. I just saw a lot of people commenting that watching the videos, they also missed home, felt the peace from the rustic, simple things in the countryside" - Hung recalled.
The image of a small, rural woman, her skin tanned by the sun in the fields but her hands still nimbly cooking simple meals with love brings a sense of familiarity. Sometimes, nothing grand or grand is needed, just a few scenes of a mother cooking familiar dishes such as braised pork with Chinese plums, pickled eggplant, and perch soup... are enough to touch the heart.
To maintain the inherent simplicity, Hung and his mother "filmed whatever was there", without a script or professional crew because they wanted everything to be natural, without any arrangements in each frame. That is also what made "Mother's Cuisine" successful and maintained its appeal even though it was released in 2019.
Not only "Mother's Cuisine", but also rural cuisine channels such as "1997 Memories", "Old Farmer Vlog", "So Lo Mo"... seem to bring viewers to a warm, quiet moment in the midst of a life that is already too busy. Not only introducing traditional cuisine, these channels also evoke a sense of peace and closeness, like returning to one's old home.
Recording just a meal with dried fish rice balls, shrimp fried with star fruit, crab soup with jute... Mr. Nguyen Van Phong's (born in 1960, from Nam Dinh) videos on the channel "Old farmer Vlog" all attract thousands of views and comments. Many of them are words of nostalgia for home, nostalgia for the aroma of the small kitchen in the past or simply memories of childhood days.
Or the TikTok channel "So Lo Mo" by Nguyen Thi Kieu Giang (born in 2001, Dak Lak) with videos evoking the peaceful atmosphere of the countryside. Leaving the city to return to the countryside, Kieu Giang received support from her parents to build a TikTok channel about rural cuisine. As a young person, Kieu Giang grows vegetables, eggplants, peanuts, shrimp... to make dishes imbued with the flavors of childhood with the criterion "cook whatever is available".
Self-filmed and self-edited, the videos on the channel "So Lo Mo" still attract millions of views because they are so peaceful and a life that many young people dream of. In the midst of the constant flow of life, those peaceful moments are precious silences, spiritual medicine to "heal" anyone.
A Different Future for Farmers
Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook are now not only entertainment tools but also bridges to help preserve and spread the flavors of the homeland through culinary channels. Not only stopping at spreading traditional culinary features, hometown dishes themselves help farmers enter a new chapter of life.
Returning to being a true farmer, Kieu Giang enjoys the joy every day with the garden, the small kitchen and the meals with her parents. And partly, this also helps Giang earn extra income to cover her living expenses and continue to develop her passion.
"When I decided to leave the city to return to the countryside and build the "So Lo Mo" channel, many people asked me: "Why don't you go to work, why stay at home forever, why don't you travel when you're young? I thought to myself: Why should I hustle when I can make a living and be happy right in the most peaceful place, near my parents?
Social networks are developing, when I do it carefully and seriously, this is also a job, a way for me to have income and live up to my own values. Social networks are also a place to spread traditional dishes, preserve culinary culture so that many young people know and have the awareness to preserve it. This is also a meaningful thing I can do" - Kieu Giang shared.
For Dong Van Hung and his mother, the 5 years of building the "Mother's Cuisine" channel was a turning point in their lives. The work of developing social media platforms also helped his whole family have a better life and a more spacious house.
As a farmer who has lived around the bamboo fence of her village for many years, her rustic dishes have helped Ms. Duong Thi Cuong (from Thai Nguyen) become known to many people. She has more work and new joys after more than half a life of hard work. The familiar dishes that Ms. Cuong cooks are not only loved by millions of domestic followers but also spread to international friends.
But to achieve that is also a great effort when along with the development of technology, social networking platforms are always changing every second, every minute, requiring constant creativity.
"At first, I didn't know much about social networking platforms, so I had to figure it out and learn on my own. Whenever I encountered an error, I went to groups to ask for help to fix it. Gradually, I formed a habit of continuous learning. Social networking is now very developed and changing rapidly. Each platform has different knowledge, so I have to constantly learn, including how to shoot, edit, and edit videos.
I also set out a roadmap and plan for the upcoming journey. The more I work, the more I feel that human creativity is limitless. If we are always conscious of cultivating knowledge, ideas will never run out. The more we work, the more conscious we are of development, the more good ideas content creators will have" - Dong Van Hung said.
With the constant development of digital platforms, taking advantage of social networks to share videos with the community is becoming easier and easier. Without technology and social networks, farmers like Ms. Cuong, Mr. Phong... would probably still be "working hard day by day". Taking advantage of the development of technology has helped them have a better life.
In the future, there will probably be many more farmers or other young people developing content on digital platforms with videos that bring real value and positive influence to the community.
