Love the Saigon stage, after the historic day of April 30
The time in 1978, when the Editor, the famous poet Luu Trong Lu and the Secretary of the Editorial Office, the playwright was also famous Xuan Trinh, accepted to be the "jealizer of the school drama" of the stage magazine, every year I was sent to work in Ho Chi Minh City, to live in the small room of the 2nd floor of the spacious three -storey building at 150/2 Nguyen Trai, with the task: every night, to see the stage of the stage, to go back to the stage, to go back to the stage, to go back to the stage, to go back to the stage, to go back 30.4, peace and reunification of the country.
At that time, I had many new and fresh impressions of the people and land of Saigon, with the stage atmosphere imbued with the special flavor of Saigon every night and the faces of famous stage artists such as: Thanh Nga, Bach Tuyet, Kim Cuong, Le Thuy, Ngoc Giau, Minh Vuong, Bao Quoc...
Poet and playwright Luu Quang Vu, who worked at the Stage Magazine 1 year before me, was also a "school playwright" like me and also regularly worked on the Saigon stage.
The two brothers also have the same interests: Going to the old book market and traveling to Hanoi with literary books, working hard every night to see and write about the Saigon stage that is transforming to become a new stage of socialism.
Therefore, my first impression is the second office of the Stage Magazine in Ho Chi Minh City, which contributes to orienting the right development of Saigon stage after the merger.
I also impressed the most profound journalist. He married Hue - Co Phuong - but still kept his voice and his personality, along with fierce. In this way, it has become the number one author of Saigon comedy, famous for a few decades, with the street category in the streets created by him for the stage of Ho Chi Minh City Television.
It was The Ngu who contributed greatly to shaping the comedy-loving public of Ho Chi Minh City.
During the working trips of the "school forgery" I traveled back and forth to the industrial parades all over the stage in Saigon and expanded to the dreamy Da Lat, back to the fertile Mekong Delta to Ca Mau and Bac Lieu.
Liu Guangyu and I both love the open-minded and elegant behavior of Southerners, especially of Saigon audiences and Saigon artist friends. I can't forget not knowing each other for many years...
Fateful fate
In 1992, I returned from studying abroad in the Soviet Union after 6 years, I decided to settle down - in Ho Chi Minh City, build a second family with a long-time friend who had moved from Hanoi to Saigon to work and live before me.
He explained to me in a funny, half-joking, half-real way: "I love living in Saigon, because this is very suitable for people who develop their careers with their independent abilities".
At that time, he was very satisfied with his English translation job for a large foreign oil and gas company headquartered in Saigon. As for me, with a doctorate in fine arts brought from Russia, I was lucky that the principal - who also graduated with a bachelor's degree in Russia - accepted me to teach at a cultural and artistic school of the Ministry of Culture in Ho Chi Minh City, now Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture.
From that year onwards, I have known how to love Saigon again and absorbed the tolerance, kindness, and generosity of the Southern people like Luc Van Tien, towards those who have settled down and established a career in Saigon from elsewhere.
Living among university lecturers, cultural and artistic students and artists in Ho Chi Minh City, I have many friends, colleagues and students, especially friends, relatives, colleagues working in the fields of literature, journalism, education... They, many people who moved from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to live and all have careers such as professors Hoang Nhu Mai, Le Dinh Ky, Nguyen Loc... and later Tran Ngoc Them, Phan Dung, Huynh Nhu Phuong...
And an entire generation of artists, becoming very famous, when "landing" in Ho Chi Minh City to start a career, have created an artistic career in Ho Chi Minh City, such as musician Tran Tien, Tran Hieu, Phu Quang, composer Y Nhi, composer Thao Phuong, singer Ngoc Tan, singer Hong Nhung, singer Le Quyen... And of course, there is me.
Ho Chi Minh City is a beautiful place, but there is a question for those from Hanoi living in Ho Chi Minh City: "Can you forget Hanoi?". Based on my experience and understanding of friends, I can answer immediately: Wherever you go, you can't forget the source. As singer Hong Nhung still sang, following her father from Hanoi to live, sing in Ho Chi Minh City and have a fate with singing Trinh's music:
Even though I have traveled to the four corners of the world, my heart still remembers Hanoi. Our Hanoi, the beloved capital, a time of bombs and bullets, a time of peace...
