Documents related to the Tale of Kieu were collected and displayed by Mr. Tai.
Going down Cua Dai Street from the center of Hoi An ancient town (Quang Nam) to the sea, visitors will easily notice a building whose front facade is hung with pictures of stamps bearing the images of world greats.
Portrait of the great poet Nguyen Du parallel to the playwright William Shakespeare, the famous French writer Victor Hugo...
Stepping inside, visitors will be truly overwhelmed by the fact that almost everything in the world related to Nguyen Du's Tale of Kieu has been collected, classified, and arranged into topics by the owner of this CSO Hoi An exhibition house to explain to visitors.
Tran Huu Tai, the 50-year-old owner of CSO gallery, confided that he spent almost his entire life searching for Kieu verses, trading many things to have this massive collection.
In 2022, the Vietnam Book of Records established "The most publications and items related to the Tale of Kieu in Vietnam" with Mr. Tai's gallery. Next, in 2023, the Vietnam Book of Records continued to establish the largest collection of horse mascot stamps from countries around the world in Vietnam, also at the CSO gallery.
Kieu, Kieu, and Kieu...
Mr. Tai's treasure trove on display to the public includes: 1,630 publications including books, newspapers, magazines, paintings, music sheets and even costumes printed with lines from the Tale of Kieu. All are arranged chronologically and by theme in the display corners.
The collection includes the Tale of Kieu written in Nom script in 1906 by Lieu Van Duong printing house (Hanoi), the manuscript and printed version of Kim Tuy Tinh from 1917 by author Pham Kim Chi, the Kieu collection by Ms. B in 1930, the Nguyen Du commemorative collection of literature and paintings in 1942...
Not only all the versions of Kieu published in Vietnam, Mr. Tai also "traveled his entire youth" to most countries in the world that publish and distribute the Tale of Kieu such as Korea, Japan, Hungary, and Russia to find and buy them and bring them back.
There are documents that he has to hunt for years, find every way and go through many hardships to get.
In addition to books, newspapers, and magazines, there are also many excerpts of the Tale of Kieu printed in internal documents of businesses distributed to employees that he painstakingly collected. There are even uniforms with Kieu poems printed on the back of the shirt with illustrations of Thuy Kieu, Thuy Van...
Walking through the collection where each item is a treasure, each contains a history, a story, Tran Huu Tai reveals his own story: "I seem to have a "root" with The Tale of Kieu.
Many times I feel restless because this passion costs a lot of money and causes a lot of trouble for my family, but I can't stop. Some people say I'm a tycoon. This is completely wrong because I'm just a salaried worker, I have to help my wife and children, but my fate with Kieu seems to have come into my life."
Foreign visitors visit the exhibition booth of Tale of Kieu and artifacts
People who have "roots" with Tale of Kieu
The story of Tran Huu Tai coming to Truyen Kieu started from his hometown (Thong Tay Hoi area, Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City). Since he was a child, Tai was exposed to many elders and teachers around his house. They often read Kieu, sang Kieu, quoted Kieu, and told fortunes about Kieu, which made Tai fascinated.
Gradually, Tai understood the humanistic spirit of the Tale of Kieu. Each six-eight verse is truly Vietnamese but holds the stature of a masterpiece of world literature. Each verse in Kieu has its own meaning, truth and message, corresponding to a human value.
Since high school, whenever he had a little money from his parents, Tai would save it. Whenever he went to old bookstores and saw newspapers, magazines, or books that had Kieu's poems published, Tai would try to buy them.
Entering university with a major in economics and working as a sales manager for multinational corporations, having the opportunity to travel to many countries, knowing that Truyen Kieu - Nguyen Du, a world cultural celebrity in 2013 honored by UNESCO, is the image of Vietnam in many places around the world, Tran Huu Tai's passion for collecting things related to Truyen Kieu became even stronger.
"Just like that, the collection kept growing, filling up the house, and I thought it was necessary to share it for Vietnamese people and foreigners to admire," Mr. Tai said.
A lifetime of wandering and collecting and still continuing to collect, he spent another 6 years wandering from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang and Da Nang to find a place to rent a house to open a gallery.
When choosing a house near Hoi An ancient town , he himself drew up the blueprints, designed the space, trained the staff and then instructed the operation. In early 2023, the gallery opened to welcome guests amid the owner's anxiety and excitement.
Documents related to the Tale of Kieu were collected and displayed by Mr. Tai.
Overwhelmed with Kieu
Mr. Le Truong An - architect, poet and collector of Tale of Kieu in Quang Nam - was amazed when mentioning CSO gallery: "Collecting is already a passion for picky players, collecting Tale of Kieu is even rarer because the documents are very ancient.
I accidentally learned about this gallery when Mr. Tai came to my family's tourist ticket counter in Hoi An to introduce and invite tourists to visit. As a collector myself, I was completely overwhelmed by Mr. Tai's rich, valuable and elaborate collection.
In fact, to collect and classify more than 1,600 documents, including many very ancient documents, including versions of the Tale of Kieu in very rare languages such as Belgian, is not a simple task, requiring the player to have enough fate to pursue it.
Ms. Nguyen Quynh Van, principal of Phan Dang Luu Primary School (Da Nang), said that she found many rare documents about the Tale of Kieu at the CSO gallery.
"In addition to the Tale of Kieu translated into dozens of languages around the world, there are also many valuable research and commentary works. It is also surprising to see that the Tale of Kieu's mark is also found on ceramics, on costumes... The more we read, the more proud we are of our nation," said Ms. Van.
In an email response to the CSO gallery, Mr. Shingo Takeuchi, a Japanese professor teaching at a university in Vietnam, said that at first he was a bit hesitant when he had to spend money to buy a ticket to visit CSO.
However, when he witnessed the massive, elaborate treasure trove of ancient documents collected by just one individual, he was truly surprised. "I will introduce it to all my contacts and friends so they can come and admire it," Mr. Shingo pledged.
Selling tickets to visitors, in addition to more than 1,600 documents of the Tale of Kieu, the CSO gallery also has six areas displaying 20,000 artifacts dating from 50 to 2,000 years old, including coins, paper money, and stamps from 200 countries around the world.
Booth displaying world stamp collections.
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