I met Phan Quang for the first time in February, 1976, during a business trip to Phu Quoc Island with a colleague of mine, Le Thanh, who was working for the Liberation Radio Station, now HCM City’s Radio Station. At that time, I did not know he was 24 years older than me. My first impressions about Phan Quang were that he was such a young and strong man. Le Thanh, who is now Deputy Director of the Binh Duong Radio and Television Station, and I, asked Phan Quang for his permission to join his delegation on a canoe trip to Ha Tien (on the return trip, we took a boat trip from Rach Gia). Phan Quang cheerfully accepted.

Meeting him 36 years later, it was the same Phan Quang, who was always elegant, and sincere with his colleagues and friends. The 500-page book collects stories written by his friends and colleagues about him, his many journalism and literary works, as well as translations. I myself have learned a lot reading this book which has helped improve my skills as a journalist.

In 1997 after Phan Quang’s Poetry Collection entitled “People and Land” was introduced to the public, poet Chế Lan Viên talked about his first meeting with Phan Quang Dieu (Phan Quang’s name at birth) one afternoon in 1948 at the National Salvation Newspaper Office in the inter-regional area No. IV in Thanh Hoa (whose excerpts were later extracted by Professor Hà Minh Đức). Chế Lan Viên said: “as one of dozens of young outstanding people selected by General Nguyễn Chí Thanh for further special training, Diêu came to ask for an internship and since then always kept up the enthusiastic attitude of an intern in whatever he did. What did he learn? He finished a report at night of his first day of practice. And he keeps on writing today – for more than 40 years … He wrote everything he saw and anything he was asked to write, especially what was on-going on the battlefields at that time.

One of the first lessons of being a journalist - enthusiasm is a must for any work. Poet Che Lan Vien said: “We’ll reap what we sow. Modesty will result in cautious ways of working. Over 40 years working as a journalist, Phan Quang spared no effort visiting scenes and battlefields to write what he saw. And he read a lot”.

At the age of 80, 10 years after receiving Poet Che Lan Vien’s compliments, Phan Quang published a collection of his works over a decade (1998 - 2008), whose third part was named “Experiences on the path of self-learning and contemplation”, indicating his enduring efforts for self-study.

This publication contains more than 100 articles and writings by many authors about Phan Quang, which is a reflection of his friends and colleagues’ love for him.  Following are some of his colleagues’ writings about him, his writing and journalistic styles: “Writing about life” (page 16), “Phan Quang and his unique chronicles” (page 34), “A journalist and writer” (page 75), “Creativity never overlaps” (page 147), “Full of information” (page 259), “Write anytime and anywhere” (page 280), “A lot of commemorations, a lot of missing” (page 319), “A lot of meetings, precise observation, and sharp comments” (page 331), “It’s possible to find everything in books” (page 420) “The integration of journalism and literature” (page 448).

I’d like to talk a bit more about the work “Phan Quang and his unique style of writing chronicles” by Huy Khanh. Khanh wrote it after Phan Quang had published a series of works, including “My homeland, a complete strip” (1975), “Lâm Đồng - Đà Lạt” (1980), “A paddy grain and a flower” (1980)… Huy Khanh commented: over recent years, a new kind of chronicle about economic topics has emerged, most of which were written by Phan Quang. Phan Quang’s chronicles on economic issues kept their main investigative characteristics on current affairs, while ensuring the logical combination and arrangement of materials and sources of information, and using a sharp polemical style. More than that, the author added, Phan Quang’s chronicles on economic topics have gone beyond the ordinary journalistic style, with the application of his own investigative methods and the appropriate use of documents.

Journalist Phan Quang. Photo: internet

Phan Quang often stresses the importance of being an eye-witness for any journalist to cover the issues from every possible angle, and then apply the skills of writers in story telling. The authors should not hesitate to include their meetings, contacts, the contexts and characters of the stories, during their making of the reports, using them as lively evidence and material for their stories. In addition to the requirement of having extensive knowledge about the issues, it’s very important for the authors to wisely combine available historical and geographical documents. The issues should be covered during the whole process of its formation and development. Also according to Huy Khanh, Phan Quang’s chronicles are more literary thanks to his appropriate use of pronoun “I” in his works to express his personal point of view. Literary touches added to Phan Quang’s chronicles are his open-minded but selective thinking, and his descriptions of things through a writer’s eyes.

Huy Khanh’s article on Tuoi Tre or Youth Newspaper on November 6^th, 1980 revealed that Phan Quang categorized his chronicles as the middle works between journalism and literature which he thought might impress the audience more.

Phan Quang was happy listening to and taking into consideration his colleagues’ recommendations regarding his work, in addition to their encouragement. Regarding Phan Quang’s collection titled “Wandering Paris”, writer Tô Hoài commented that, besides several lovely poems that readers would love to read over and over again, some of Phan Quang’s works about several famous French characters in the collection were short on literary quality, which made them less charming, and unattractive.

Tô Hoài added: why wasn’t “The tử đinh hương farm” (a work in the collection of Phan Quang) named “The lilac farm”? This is because the name of the flower was in a foreign language and not many people know it. So the poem would be more poetic with the lilac name, that’s what I think it should be, shouldn’t it? (Tô Hoài, Literature Newspaper, 29/6/2002).

To end this article, let me quote journalist Trần Thanh Phương’s introduction in the beginning of the book about Phan Quang: "Dear readers, please spend your time reading the direct opinions of writers, journalists, poets, and scientists about Phan Quang and his works. I think this small book would help many of the readers remind themselves of interesting stories about our dear journalist and writer Phan Quang".

In the book’s acknowledgement (page 507), Phan Quang wrote: "I would like to express my sincerest thanks to my friends and colleagues, both I’ve known and don’t know, for their sympathy and remarks about myself and my works. I’ve told myself a thousand times that I should try more and more to satisfy all of your expectations. Unfortunately, there’s not much more I can do, due to my limited time left and the natural law. Please accept my deep gratitude to all. Thank you.”