Recently, the Conference to announce the China - Southeast Asia Book Impact Report (ASEAN) 2025 was held in Nam Ninh, Guangxi within the framework of China Book Culture Week - ASEAN 2025.
According to China's Finance Sina and The Paper sites, at the conference, the 2025 influential Southeast Asian Book Awards in China were announced based on the selection of statistics in China in 3 criteria: consumption, feedback from readers and media evaluation.
The award went to the Chinese edition of the book "Hanoi People, the story of eating and drinking at one time" by author Vu The Long.
The representative of the organizing committee commented that "Hanoi people, eating and drinking in the past" gives readers a vivid picture of the changes in Hanoi's culinary culture in particular and Vietnam in general.
Without academic noise, without a flashy guide, the work leads readers into an old Hanoi with a rustic, lively narration.
From familiar gifts such as brocade water, banh tet, pho, sweet soup Tau, banh mi, cha ruoi..., author Vu The Long suggests the value of the dish. It does not stop at cuisine but is also a manifestation of Hanoian culture and lifestyle throughout the 20th century.
What makes the book so effective is not only because of its rich documentation from ancient documents, archaeology, and personal memories, but also the way the author approaches the mindset of a responsible storyteller.
"We don't hear much about food and drinks from old men... People move on to other things. From eating and drinking to life...", author Vu The Long confided.
The author listens to the elders, records from seemingly disjointed stories to take readers back in time to relive an old Hanoi, feel the "deepness" of Hanoi cuisine, of Hanoi's cultural identity throughout the 20th century.
The book "Hanoi people, the story of eating and drinking at one time" was first published in Vietnam in 2021 by Chibooks.
The work was later translated and published in Chinese by Quang Tay Science and Technology Publishing House in November 2024.
