Ma Van Khang - seasons of writing against the mountain

He used to be a teacher, secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and reporter for Lao Cai Newspaper until 1976, when he moved to Hanoi to work. Having experienced many different working environments, the borderland of Lao Cai was like an intoxicant that sublimated his emotions in each page of writing, making his name in the literary world. He is the writer - journalist Ma Van Khang.

Writer and journalist Ma Van Khang and his wife took a souvenir photo with the Lao Cai Newspaper delegation at the end of 2024.

In the late afternoon of 2024, the old writer - journalist Ma Van Khang had an intimate conversation with a group of reporters from Lao Cai Newspaper, lasting several hours. In his apartment in Tay Ho district ( Hanoi ), he lives a simple, peaceful life with his wife and children. Although he is nearly 90 years old, his memory is still very rich. When we recalled the years working in Lao Cai, writer - journalist Ma Van Khang became very excited. It seemed that his entire youth, struggling and attached to the difficulties and hardships of the "Borderland", immersing himself in the rich life and culture of the ethnic groups in Lao Cai province, came back. At this moment, we seemed to meet author Ma Van Khang again in his twenties.

As a son of Hanoi, who volunteered to go to Lao Cai to teach since the end of 1954, writer and journalist Ma Van Khang was attached to Lao Cai from the age of 18 to 40. During those exciting years, he could not remember how many villages he went to, but one thing is certain: he loved this land with a strange love in his own way.

Writer and journalist Ma Van Khang lives a simple and peaceful life with his family.

Starting his career as a teacher, then moving to work as a secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, writer and journalist Ma Van Khang said that he was very "grateful" for the 3 years he held this position because it helped him mature in social awareness, political vision, and ideology. Perhaps, this was what forged the mettle of a famous writer later on.

In 1968, Mr. Ma Van Khang officially transferred to Lao Cai Newspaper to work, then became Deputy Editor-in-Chief. He admitted that he came to journalism by chance and naturally like life itself! At the beginning of his work at Lao Cai Newspaper, he did not know how to write news or investigative reports. Fortunately, his experience from writing helped him overcome this "disadvantage". From here, the meeting between literature and journalism created a writer named Ma Van Khang who stood tall and proud in the sky of our country's poetry.

Writer and journalist Ma Van Khang believes that writing has only a beginning, not an end, so despite his old age, he still works hard on his writings.

As a reporter immersed in the lives of the people, he accumulated cultural and social knowledge, met real-life characters, who later became prototypes in many literary works. Even the name Ma Van Khang was a chance encounter filled with deep affection during a field trip.

He said that at that time, he was a teacher and was assigned to work in the tax office in Tung Tung village, Nam Cuong commune, Lao Cai city today. Here, he got malaria and a man named Ma Van Nho, an official of Bao Thang district, went to find a doctor to give him an injection. After a few days of treatment, he recovered and was very grateful for Mr. Nho's kindness and help. But what he really admired about Mr. Nho was that he was a cadre who was loved by the people wherever he went; he was fluent in propagating policies. So the two became sworn brothers, and the name Ma Van Khang also started from here, to the point that many readers did not know that his real name was Dinh Trong Doan.

“What I remember most are the trips. For the first time, I understood what journalism is: walking, seeing, thinking and writing. Only by traveling can I see the strangeness, see life and have the capital to write. The trips always contain freshness, so I was very excited even though I had to travel by old bicycle and on foot, but that could not stop me,” writer-journalist Ma Van Khang confided.

That's it! Journalists of all times are like that, when they are passionate about their job, they are not afraid of any difficulties.

Literary works have left a strong mark of writer Ma Van Khang on Vietnamese literature.

The strange attraction of the people and the land of the border region has urged the passionate heart and tireless feet of writer - journalist Ma Van Khang to go to the villages, from Bac Ha, faraway Si Ma Cai to the highlands of Y Ty... to record what he saw, what he encountered about the landscape and people, about the beautiful examples in life...

He recalled: “I was extremely tired when climbing the slope of Y Ty, suddenly I came across a fragrant orchid bush, which woke me up. At the end of the business trip, I went along the Red River to return, to the Coc Leu bridge area, the raft capsized, and several orchid pots given by the border guards were swept away by the water. Later, when I wrote the short story Hoa Gao Do, I recounted part of the above memories. And many other trips such as going to Sang Ma Sao to write about the cardamom season, going to Sau Chua to write about the vegetable seed season; going to Cao Son to write about the plum season; going to Cam Duong to write about the history of the armed struggle in 1948; writing about the hero Giang Lao Pa in the resistance war against the French colonialists…

“I entered life with complete innocence, without any selfish motive. The stories I collected became my subconscious, and later I continued to give back to life through literature. That is the meaning of living before writing,” the old writer reflected.

Indeed, in his years as a journalist, he traveled a lot, accumulated rich materials, after a certain distance, when meeting literary souls, they blended and sprouted into literary fields. And those who have read cannot help but love author Ma Van Khang with "White Silver Coin with Spreading Flowers", "Border Area", "On the Bank of Vach Stream", "Border City", "Meeting at La Pan Tan"... These are all novels and short stories that he wrote with the setting in Lao Cai.

Writer - journalist Ma Van Khang presents books to cadres and reporters of Lao Cai Newspaper.

In 1976, writer and journalist Ma Van Khang moved to Hanoi until his retirement. He won many major domestic and international literary awards, notably: ASEAN Literature Award in 1998; State Prize for Literature and Arts in 2001; Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts in 2012...

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/ma-van-khang-nhung-mua-chu-nguoc-nui-post403586.html