Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee Phan Van Mai (R) and a representative of the Committee of the Tran Van Giau Science Awards offer the prize to researcher Nguyen Dinh Tu (C). (Photo: SGGP)
Attending the award ceremony were Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee Phan Van Mai and representatives of the Committee of the Tran Van Giau Science Awards.
The book was released by the HCMC General Publishing House on the occasion of the 325th founding anniversary of the old Saigon-Cho Lon-Gia Dinh area and HCMC.
The book includes six parts which are divided into two volumes. Researcher Nguyen Dinh Tu took more than 20 years to complete the work with the goal of introducing the development and history of HCMC.
Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee Phan Van Mai speaks at the event. (Photo: SGGP)
Researcher Nguyen Dinh Tu was born in 1922 in Nghe An Province's Thanh Chuong District. He has devoted all his life to cultural, historical, and geographical study and released tens of valuable books on Vietnam’s Southern region, Gia Dinh-Sai Gon-HCMC, such as "Non nuoc Phu Yen" (The land of Phu Yen), "Dia chi Khanh Hoa" (Khanh Hoa’s geographical location), "Non nuoc Binh Thuan" (The land of Binh Thuan), "Duong pho noi thanh TPHCM" (Inner-city streets in HCMC), Dictionary of the Southern administrative placenames, "Non nuoc Quang Tri" (The land of Quang Tri), Notebook of HCMC’s streets, "Loan 12 su quan" (The Anarchy of the 12 Warlords) and more.
One of his well-known works is a historical fiction book series titled "Loan 12 su quan" (The Anarchy of the 12 Warlords) which presents a period of chaos and civil war in the history of Vietnam, from 944 to 968 caused by the succession of the Ngo Dynasty after the death of King Ngo Quyen. The novel was written when he was in his 60s and earned a living with bike repair service on a sidewalk to raise his family during the 1978s.
He was awarded the Commemorative Medal for the cause of Vietnamese history by the Vietnam Association of Historical Sciences in 2017 and won the A Prize at the first National Book Awards in 2018 for the collection of two books titled "Che do thuc dan Phap tren dat Nam Ky" (The French colonialism in the Southern region) (1859-1954).
Tran Van Giau Science Award was founded in 2002 in order to honor authors and scientific and historical research works in the Southern region.
By Kim Huyen – Translated by Kim Khanh