Comrade Hoang Van Thu lives in the hearts of Xu Lang’s children forever

(LSO) – It is more than 76 years since his Hoang Van Thu’s death (24/5/1944 – 24/5 2020), but his biography and life of revolutionary activities and his great contributions to the revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation live in the hearts of children of Lang Son forever through poems and preserved and cherished documents and objects.

We met Mr. Be Van Dan, a 90 years old artist, in his house, in Chien Thang village, Hoang Van Thu commune, Van Lang district. He told us about his career as a teacher and sang to us two folks songs “Then” named “Visiting Hoang Van Thu museum and “Please come and visit my hometown” written by himself. With simple and sincere words, the songs go deeply into the hearts of the listeners and recognizing his feelings and pride of an elite son of Xu Lang homeland. Mr. Dan told that they had a full life like today thanks to the sacrifices of national heroes, in which, Lang Son is proud to have comrade Hoang Van Thu. That is the very reason he composed 2 songs  based on Lang Son’s traditional folk song rhythms to praise the hero with the desire to educate the descendants of  the tradition”Once drink water, remember its source”, arousing national pride and efforts to study, work to build the homeland more prosperously and beautifully.

People visited and read materials about comrade Hoang Van Thu at the Provincial Museum

Leaving Mr. Dan’s house, we went to meet Ms. Chu Que Ngan, an office worker from the Provincial Museum. During her working period of nearly 30 years, she and her colleagues had collected hundreds of additional documents, images and objects related to comrade Hoang Van Thu. With each trip, she often records in detail, carefully the content and meaning of each document and object. Ms. Ngan said that she remembered best was the trip with the delegation of the Provincial Museum to Long Chau town and Ha Dong area (Long Chau district, Guangxi, China). With the enthusiastic help of the staff of Long Chau Museum, they had been exposed to most of the relics, documents, and objects about comrade Hoang Van Thu which were well preserved and kept there. When we had returned, we researched and sequenced the data to recreate the years of comrade Hoang Van Thu’s activities in Long Chau. The work “Some relics marking the activities of comrade Hoang Van Thu in Long Chau, China”, “House No. 74, 76 South Street – the secret agency of the Party in Long Chau” published on Lang Son’s People Newspaper on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of comrade Hoang Van Thu’s birthday.

Together with Mr. Dan and Ms. Ngan, the life and revolutionary career of comrade Hoang Van Thu had always been an endless creative inspiration to help Lang Son’s children, especially artists to create art works.

Provincial Museum staff revised and displayed artifacts and documents of comrade Hoang Van Thu

According to the statistics of Department of Culture – Sports and Tourism, the whole province has 250 artists, 50 folk  song clubs with nearly 1000 members. From 2015 up to now, artists and members of folk song clubs had composed nearly 100 works in various genres, poems, music, autographs, art … praising  the great contributions of the hero Hoang Van Thu.

These achievements are the results of the leadership at all levels over the past years including propaganda activities educating young people’s patriotism and encouraging people in the whole province to study and work for the province’s socio-economic development tasks. For example, the emulation movement celebrated the 188th anniversary of the foundation of Lang Son province (4/11/1831- 4/11/2019) and the 110 years of comrade Hoang Van Thu’s birth (4/11/1909 – 4/11/2019); 5th Hoang Van Thu Literature and Art Prize with 143 works; the writing contest “Learn about the life of revolutionary activities and the great dedication of comrade Hoang Van Thu to the revolutionary cause of the Party and nation” with 18,188 writing works.

Mr. Phan Van Hoa, Deputy Director of Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that since October 2020 our department had carried out a wide range of meaningful activities such as enhancing propaganda, educating traditions; organizing exhibitions, tours and pilgrimage routes, and opening the Film Week about the life and career of comrade Hoang Van Thu. At the same time, we embellished relics related to Comrade Hoang Van Thu … The organization of these activities were aiming at commemorating Comrade Hoang Van Thu towards the 189th anniversary of the province’s foundation (4/11/1931 – 4/11/2020). It is believed that through these activities officers ordinary people in the province would  have a deeper understanding of the status, career and dedication and sacrifice of comrade Hoang Van Thu and the history of foundation and development of Lang Son province in nearly 200 years.