Handwritten letters of the Vietnamese people during the last hundred years are on display at an exhibition in Hanoi. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Handwrittenletters of the Vietnamese people during the last hundred years are on displayat an exhibition in Hanoi.
The exhibition is hosted by A Letter Home,a homestay accommodation provider, a space of patisserie, café and books.
This is very different from art exhibitionsbecause visitors can spend an entire day reading hundreds of letters inVietnamese, English and French, sent by intellectuals, artists, writers andpeople in a family. Some of them are love letters while some are officialdocuments.
“Handwritten letters could very well be themost beautiful means of communication between humans,” said Nguyen Da Thuong,30, owner of A Letter Home.
“They not only store information but alsolessen conflicts between us,” Thuong said.
“When you write something down and send itto another person, things slow down, and if the anger is present, it will beeased.”
“Intellectuals, collectors, even familieshave been storing these letters for years through generations. Some still keepwriting letters as a habit, which is such a natural, quiet, and beautiful thingthat moves me.”
“I would like to share this quiet beautythrough this exhibition. I hope that visitors can imagine the eras of writingand written words in Vietnam, the complicated details in handwritten letters inthe earlier years – customised letter paper, seals, symbols, stamps, signaturepaper size – and gain more knowledge on handwriting and words.”
Thuong collected these letters for manyyears as she had a passion for collecting old books.
“During the process of collecting, Iencountered some very interesting ones in the last 100 years, those ofintellectuals, of normal people, even letters about work.”
The oldest letters in her collection dateback to 1905. They are words of a labourer sent to a landlord to ask for anextension of time to repay his debt.
Visitors can read stories of poet MongTuyet (1914-2007), the first female poet to publish poems in the Vietnameselanguage, and her friends; letters between scholar Vuong Hong Sen (1902-96) andVietnamese and French intellectuals at his age; and letters of poor writers ofthe Tu Luc Van Doan (Self-reliance Literary Group, a literary movement thatproduced the first modern novels in Vietnam and initiated a new poetry shapedby nationalist and anti-colonial sentiments in 1930s) expressing theirdifficulties and asking for annuity.
“A typed writing can help a writer tell thelie but a handwritten letter can’t hide the emotion and feeling of the writer,”musician Quoc Bao said.
“We can know one’s personality andcharacteristics through hand-writings,” he said.
“Letters can carry writers’ love. It’s morethan a vehicle to transfer information. Handwritten letters help send love,admiration and emotion.”
The exhibition will run until February 7 atA Letter Home, 20 Lane 33 Tan Ap Street, Hanoi. - VNA
VNA
