The beginning...

Exactly thirty years after the publication of the Cultural Friend magazine (under the management of the Thanh Hoa Department of Culture) (1964), in 1994, with the efforts of the Standing Committee of the IV term, chaired by Mr. Le Xuan Giang, the Thanh Hoa Literature and Arts magazine was licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Information to officially publish. From here, the Thanh Hoa Literature and Arts Association had its own official mouthpiece.

After the 5th Thanh Hoa Literature and Arts Congress (January 1997), along with the consolidation of the Association's organization, the Thanh Hoa Literature and Arts magazine was allowed by the Provincial People's Committee to establish an editorial office (March 1997). From here, the Thanh Hoa Literature and Arts magazine had its own apparatus, editorial office, seal, account, independent accounting and operated as a press agency. The apparatus of the editorial office was separated from the Association's office.

When we moved out and "lived alone" (as we often jokingly said), the magazine was very poor. The Association was poor, so where would the magazine have any surplus? (The magazine took over a facility consisting of several level-four houses assigned by the Association along with some old tables and chairs...). The Editor-in-Chief, writer Tu Nguyen Tinh, along with the magazine's brothers, were truly "bare-handed". At that time, they started to roll up their sleeves and work... From installing a landline phone, buying a tape recorder, a camera... to asking the Provincial People's Committee to provide computers, cars, and a royalty fund... The Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department and the Provincial People's Committee paid great attention and support to the magazine.

How to improve the quality of Thanh Hoa Literature and Arts magazine is a concern of the Editor-in-Chief and his colleagues in the editorial office. Editor-in-Chief Tu Nguyen Tinh and Editorial Secretary Thanh Son "packed their lunch" and traveled to the southern provinces to learn from the experiences of other magazines and expand the network of collaborators as well as the distribution network. Deputy Editor-in-Chief Manh Le, along with Lam Bang and Phuong Thuy, took a boat to Vinh and Hue to seek advice from teachers. "A day's journey, a basketful of knowledge", but the knowledge of the world brought back and applied to Thanh Hoa is so difficult. Song Huong magazine (Thua Thien - Hue) has had a "brand" since 1983, has a distribution network throughout the country and even to faraway France, has its own editorial office, and is granted hundreds of millions of dong each year by the province (at the price of 1998). Regarding Song Lam magazine (Nghe An), the province instructed all party cells to subscribe to Song Lam magazine in addition to the Party newspaper. Therefore, each issue of Song Lam publishes up to 4,600 copies (After printing, the printing house transfers it to the post office , and the post office then delivers it to readers. The editorial office only needs to sign the confirmation book. The editorial office does not have to directly publish any magazine).

The first “learning” was to find a printing place with a reasonable price so that the cost of each magazine could be reduced. At that time, the magazine signed a year-long printing contract with a price that was only two-thirds of the previous printing place. However, the brothers in the editorial office also had to work harder because they had to travel far, and transportation was difficult. I still remember the first time I went to sign a printing contract at Nghe An printing house. When the Association’s old-fashioned cart reached Cau Bung (Nghe An), it suddenly became stubborn and refused to move. The weather was as hot as a furnace, the Central region’s scorching heat and the hot wind combined with fatigue made everyone distracted. Thanh Son and Lam Bang had to take a bus to Vinh to deliver the manuscript on time. Editor-in-Chief Tu Nguyen Tinh stayed behind to wait for his cart to be repaired, and in the end, he had to take a motorbike taxi to get to the printing house. For 5 years (from 1997 to 2002), every month Lam Bang carried the manuscript, jumped on the bus to the printing house, then took the bus to pick up the magazine. It was a bit hard but fun, fun because every month he had a beautiful and classy literary magazine delivered to his readers regularly.

Publishing was really difficult. From the Editor-in-Chief to each cadre and employee, everyone was struggling to come up with ideas. They raised the issue with the Education sector, with the districts, towns, and sectors. They contacted each agency, factory, and enterprise... Then, motorbikes from the editorial office were divided to rush to the districts and offices... everyone had a huge briefcase with dozens of magazines in it. Really, it was a last resort. Holding a literary magazine, every director and boss praised it as beautiful and interesting. But when it came to buying and selling, everyone explained: "the budget is too tight". People can spend millions to "entertain guests" for a meal, but when spending six thousand dong a month (selling price in 1997 - 2005) to buy a literary magazine, they complained that "the budget is too tight". It was bitter to think about it.

Looking back a little to remember the “beginnings…”, but indeed, the early days of Thanh Hoa Literature and Arts magazine, now Thanh Hoa Literature and Arts, were really difficult and arduous. After that, the magazine was provided with a car by the province (two times upgraded to a new car), had journalistic equipment such as cameras, recorders, was equipped with 3 computers, a photocopy machine and did the layout at the editorial office.

A very important victory was that with the support of Thanh Hoa Provincial Post Office, the magazine was distributed to more than 600 cultural post offices in the whole province.

During those years, our Thanh Hoa province's Literature and Arts magazine was evaluated by the Central Committee of Ideology and Culture (at that time) and the National Committee of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations as a local literature and arts magazine with top quality content and art in the country.

“The beginning…”, a journey full of hardships, challenges, successes and failures, harvests and also joys, sorrows, and worries. I believe that in the new journey, with new spirit and momentum, Van Nghe Xu Thanh will constantly innovate and improve the quality of both content and form, continue to be a forum for literature and art, and a close friend of many readers inside and outside the province.

Lam Bang (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/cai-thuo-ban-dau-217130.htm