"Stunned" with the huge collection
Talking about his passion for collecting newspapers, Mr. Dung said that the story started with his father, Mr. Nguyen Phi Hung. Since the 1970s, Mr. Hung had a hobby of reading newspapers, then binding them into books. However, later on, because of difficult life, Mr. Hung had to sell those newspapers to make money to support his life. In 2016, when he was more prosperous, Mr. Dung had the conditions to find and buy back the newspapers that his father had sold before. But he himself did not expect that when he started collecting newspapers, his passion would come from somewhere.
“When I started doing this, I was like “addicted”. If I couldn’t buy anything for a day or two, I would feel restless and uncomfortable. Then I would see a newspaper and not have time to buy it, letting someone else buy it, and I would feel regretful forever,” said Mr. Nguyen Phi Dung.
Mr. Nguyen Phi Dung in his giant "newspaper warehouse", in his hand is a collection of publications of the Journalist & Public Opinion Newspaper.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the quantity of more than 20 tons and over 500 newspapers, in Mr. Dung's newspaper "warehouse" there are many very valuable newspapers such as "Gia Dinh Newspaper" (the first newspaper in Quoc Ngu), "Phu Nu Tan Van", famous cultural and literary magazines of the time such as "Phong Hoa", "Nam Phong"... In his collection there are also many newspapers that are more than a century old.
“Here, the oldest newspaper published in 1886 is the “Hai Phong News” in French. I also keep a copy of “Gia Dinh Newspaper” published in 1896. Newspaper paper is greatly affected by the environment, termites, etc., so keeping a newspaper that is more than 100 years old is very valuable,” said Mr. Dung.
In particular, he also had in his hands the first issue of the newspaper “Co Giai Phong” published on October 10, 1942. The newspaper “Co Giai Phong” only published up to issue 33 and then stopped. Even the National History Museum only had 32 issues of Co Giai Phong, the first issue was still missing. To buy this valuable issue, Mr. Dung had to spend up to 50 million VND.
Front page of "Liberation Flag" No. 1, published in 1942, collected by Mr. Dung.
Mr. Dung proudly said that he is probably the owner of the largest newspaper "warehouse" in Vietnam. He knows a few people who also collect newspapers, but they often "play" by topic, such as Spring newspapers, Tet newspapers or collect first-issue newspapers... Most of them do not have large premises to store and preserve them, so quantity is often not their strength. Personally, he continues to collect and "thicken" the number of newspaper artifacts, especially his passion for "old" newspapers that were published several decades to hundreds of years ago.
Every article, a meaningful story
Possessing a valuable archive, Mr. Dung knows many interesting and “interesting” stories that happened that not many people know or remember. He boasts that in his collection, in addition to newspapers, there are nearly 500 books about Uncle Ho. In 2023, participating in the writing contest “Uncle Ho with Nam Dinh, Nam Dinh with Uncle Ho”, Mr. Dung won third prize thanks to exploiting this source of documents and newspapers.
“During his career, Uncle Ho visited Nam Dinh 5 times. After researching, I learned that apart from the first time the newspapers did not report on it, the remaining 4 times were reported in the press. However, when the province launched a contest to find old newspapers, I found that I had only collected 3 times. The lack of newspapers reporting on this important event made me very worried. So, after posting news online for a whole month, and then through many other channels, I had to accept exchanging a newspaper from 1946 for a newspaper that published the event of Uncle Ho visiting Nam Dinh in 1958,” Mr. Dung shared.
Mr. Dung and Ms. Vu Thi Bich Lien - the character in the photo published in Nhan Dan Newspaper 54 years ago.
Or another interesting story: While reading the People's Newspaper published on November 11, 1970, Mr. Dung saw a photo by author Ngoc Quan of four young workers of the Nam Dinh Textile Joint Stock Company: Vu Thi Luu, Tran Thi Nga, Vu Thi Bich Lien and Tran Thi Thanh.
These were the “fastest shuttles” of the Nam Dinh textile factory at that time with very high productivity. He suddenly had the idea of finding out what the people in the photo were like now, so he posted on Facebook to find the people in the photo. Thanks to the online community, Mr. Dung found Ms. Vu Thi Bich Lien, who still lives in Nam Dinh City. Giving her the old newspaper as a gift, Ms. Lien immediately recognized herself as the person in the photo, even though she was 81 years old at that time. Currently, Ms. Lien always reserves a prominent place in her house for display on the old newspaper that featured this photo.
“I also received many requests to find old newspapers that published events related to their relatives. For example, the family of General Tran Dai Quang wanted to find the newspaper that published a photo of the General with comrade Le Duan in 1983. At the time of receiving the request, I did not have this newspaper, but now I have found it. I also received a request from a leader of the Lao National Assembly to find a newspaper that published the event that his father, in 1962, visited Vietnam and was received by President Ho Chi Minh. It took years, but luckily I finally found it. Those things are small, but their meaning to the family and relatives of the character is not small at all,” Mr. Dung excitedly recounted.
Dream of a private journalism museum
Currently, to preserve the huge amount of newspapers, Mr. Dung has dedicated a room to store artifacts, installed air conditioners, dehumidifiers, and regularly maintained the room temperature at around 22 degrees Celsius. For special and rare newspapers, he preserves them by putting each sheet in a sealed plastic bag, then placing them in a glass cabinet or plastic box. According to Mr. Dung, this preservation is temporarily reassuring, however, in the long term, he still hopes to receive help from archives and state museums so that he can soon launch a private press museum.
“I am just a private collector, with limited resources, limited expertise in conservation, a lack of museums, and limited application of technology. However, I have the advantage of having a 5-storey house with a floor area of 350 m2 - something that some storage centers may not have such good conditions. The most important thing is that I already have the source of artifacts.
I determined that this is a very big task because to put the museum into operation, it needs to be calculated, it needs funding to maintain it... But anyway, I will be determined to do it. Within the scope of my ability, I will do it to the extent of my ability... If there is no change in the roadmap, the museum will be launched on June 21, 2025, the 100th anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day" - Mr. Dung affirmed.
The Vu
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/chiem-nguong-kho-bao-chi-o-thanh-nam-post300115.html
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