Son Goku Wood Carving

Tran Duy and Japanese anime characters. Photo: FBNV

In 2019, Gen Z young people shared a special clip - a young man carved a wooden statue of Songoku with exquisite details as if it had just come out of a Japanese comic. Youtube channel: Artisan Au Lac Woodart Vietnam also achieved more than 5.4 million views of this clip just a short time after posting.

Tran Duy got his name from there. The character Songoku of Dragon Balls is a global phenomenon with a huge fan base. And that is probably the reason why the wooden statue of this character and the journey of creation of a very young person attracts viewers. What is more special is that Duy's clips all use English. It opens up access to the whole world through a common language.

Tran Duy and the Wood Carving Class tour at the Au Lac cultural tourist site. Photo: LTK

In 2022, Tran Duy went to Bhutan to teach sculpture at the invitation of the former Minister of Education of Bhutan. On his personal page, the boy born in 1997 wrote very innocently: “I came to Bhutan to teach sculpture. The luggage I brought with me was twenty kilos of luggage, filled with the excitement of high school days, to come, live, and experience in the remote snowy land, rolling hills (....). The uncles here have watched my sculpture videos on YouTube. They want me to come and pass on to the young people. Not only skills, experience, but also the mindset (thinking) to do new things. So I immediately agreed, packed my tools, put them in my backpack, got on a horse and went straight to Thimphu, Bhutan.”

Tran Duy and his foreign friends are excited about the carved products. Photo: LTK

Tran Duy has the inclination of an artist and a craftsman. His beginning with wood carving was natural as it was supposed to be. When he was mature enough and realized his inclination, it was natural to be passionate and start.

“When I decided to pursue a serious career, I wanted to “change the wind” by making statues. But instead of learning from the workers in the workshop, I taught myself - imagining the 3D structure, bringing the wood into the kitchen and carving it myself. I did this because I found myself having an “anti-school” tendency - meaning I wouldn’t be able to absorb it if someone taught me, but when I researched it myself, I did it very quickly. This might not follow the rules, but I will try my best to achieve my goals and what I want,” Duy once shared.

Artisans Tran Thu and Tran Duy, father and son. Photo: LTK

Nowadays, Duy’s wood carvings are diverse, both in the lines of paintings and wooden statues. Duy’s carvings are meticulous, sharp and have a unique quality - unlike his father’s somewhat serious carvings. Emotions in the wood’s flow, perhaps began to speak from his childhood - although at that time, Duy admitted that he hated the sound of chisels, saws, and planes.

Now, the Au Lac fine art wood workshop has become a cultural tourist destination in Au Lac, located in the middle of Go Noi village. Also from Duy, a wood carving experience - Wood Carving Class was born right here. Crisp laughter rang out. "Suddenly, behind the bamboo fence of the village, the sounds of Western and Vietnamese sounds were so pleasant to the ears...", as Duy confided on his personal page.

The message of bringing Vietnamese sculpture closer to international friends, is it a continuation of the spirit of "writing folk songs with wood" from his father?

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/tac-go-songoku-3140892.html