The Researcher Phan Dang (center) receives the only A prize at the National Book Prize 2022
In order to be honored, those works must be produced in an elaborate and methodical way. Compared to the national average, Thua Thien Hue has always been participated in many awards and even received the A prize - the only prize of the award.
The only A prize of 2022, presented to the work “Hoang Viet nhat thong du dia chi” [Comprehensive Geography of Hoang Viet] by Le Quang Dinh, translated and annotated by Phan Dang, and published by The Gioi Publishers and ThaiHaBooks JSC. Phan Dang, the researcher, is a lecturer at the Vietnam Buddhist Academy in Hue, former Dean of the Faculty of Literature and Linguistics at the College of Sciences (now the University of Sciences - Hue University).
The A prize awarded to Phan Dang once again affirms the serious and tireless effort of the translator, as well as the position of researchers and translators of the ancient capital. Beyond that was the development of the passion, love for research, translation and publishing in the journey of spreading knowledge to the public.
Most of the honored books had outstanding value in terms of ideological, intellectual and aesthetic contents, with strong impacts on the community; contributed to raising people's knowledge, building, protecting and developing the country.
Referring to “Hoang Viet nhat thong du dia chi”, people will immediately remember the value of the book in affirming the nation’s territory, and expressing the sense of independence, the desire for country’s unification and tradition of Vietnam.
This was considered the first set of geographies of the Nguyen Dynasty and composed since Emperor Gia Long was just crowned. With his passion and enthusiasm, the Researcher-Translator Phan Dang has worked hard to correct and evoke historical and cultural sources and aspiration for unity through each page of the book. The book has thereof helped people who love research and history in general and geography in particular have more valuable resources in their process of continuing research.
Not only the year of 2022, Hue was also famous in the past when it was recognized and appreciated by experts and the public in the journey to produce hit works. These include the B prize for the collection of “Poems of a patriot” by Tran Vang Sao (Nha Nam and the Writers' Association Publishing Houses), the C prize for “Traveling between texts - Nguyen Huy Thiep and Vietnam’s society after 1975” by Dr. Nguyen Van Thuan (Hue University Publishing House)…
While other localities, provinces and cities are good at publishing as well as introducing books related to literature and entertainment, etc., Thua Thien Hue over the years has excelled in translation and research works. The winning works affirmed not only the serious work and research efforts, but above all the passion and desire to spread great cultural values to the community and the public, thereby stimulating the love for researching and reading culture in today's life.
However, books that are researched, written, translated and honored by dedicated authors and translators are, in fact, often studied only by a small number of readers in the sector, related-major students and interested enthusiasts. Therefore, to publish and introduce a good book to the market (before winning the good book award) is not easy. It is also a business problem confronting both authors and publishers.
Talking about this issue, Dr. Le Vu Truong Giang - Faculty of History, Hue University of Sciences said that, he found many problems during his more than ten years of making books and being a collaborator of domestic publishers and publishing companies to introduce and select a manuscript.
As for Dr. Giang, first of all, making a book is a very meticulous, elaborate and time consuming job from authoring to processing a manuscript, printing, publishing and promoting a book. For Hue, the story of book making has its own characteristics associated with its position as a center of education, culture, literature and art of the country over many periods.
Recently, the nature of publishing work has changed quite a lot. In Hue, types of book-making can be distinguished as follows. Firstly, authors print, publish and promote their works by themselves. Second, there is an association between authors and publishers and publishing companies, who have the copyright on author’s books.
The first way is mainly to serve their own needs or a small community, and not distributed nationwide. Also, it does not become a commercial product, and therefore the promotion is not high. This type of work, which has to be done all by the author, with a limited printing number and uneven quality, is taking the leading position. Accidentally, many good books following “that modest” trend do not reach readers across the country.
In the second method, publishing houses do all the steps after authors delivers their manuscripts, provided that the manuscripts must be of good quality, attractive and produce by branded authors. With this approach, books are printed in large quantities, widely distributed on many bookstore systems, e-commerce sites. They are rich in content, eye-catching, high-quality, and reflect the professionalism of the book publishing and release.
Based on those two methods, it is easy to see that in Hue, any author or book that follows the first way is only limited to a small boundary of Hue. Books are mainly donated, presented. Their commercial capacity are limited and hard to reach readers in need. The second type is a positive trend and direction. Books are high-quality, ready for being commercialized, and open to more audience and readers.
However, it is a fact that the amount of book consumption in Hue at bookstores compared to that of the national average is not really exciting. Hue used to be an academic center and a land of books. In the past, books were so popular that almost every family had a bookcase with a fairly large number that was inherited over many generations. Today, the consumption of books has completely decreased, leading to a decline of the reading culture in this digital age.
Story and photo: NHAT MINH