Village barber Nguyen Huu Khanh is renowned for his captivating tales in Quang Nam Province

Nearly every village in Vietnam has a revered individual known for their sage wisdom, enchanting tales or historical knowledge.

In addition to his deft hairdressing skills, local village barber Nguyen Huu Khanh is also a master storyteller.

The accomplished raconteur runs his own barbershop in Chay Hamlet, Dien Ban District in central Quang Nam Province and has a steady clientele.

His customers visit not only to receive a haircut but also to hear Khanh’s fascinating tales about historic village life.

His barbershop has thus been dubbed the hamlet’s “news agency.”

Khanh’s enchanting stories have long been an indispensable part of the hamlet’s culture as he draws and memorizes family trees. He has now created records of dozens of families throughout the village.

The local record-keeper, now in his late fifties, says he learned his trade from his father.

After leaving the army as a wounded veteran, Khanh opened his barbershop to support his family.

He also writes many funeral orations and memorizes volumes of time-honored fables.

And in addition, Khanh is a self-taught expert in Han (ancient Chinese scripts) knowledge.

His stories are deeply humanitarian and are meant to inculcate traditions and good values among listeners.

One of his popular stories explains the origins of Go Tu (Death mound) on an immense field, which served as a cemetery before 1975.

The legendary story revolves around a couple who lived nearly a hundred years ago.

It is the account of a young man who stole land ownership papers from his family and gave them to his lover, causing his family to lose a field to the girl’s family.

His outraged family savagely executed him on a mound of land.

The mound was named Go Tu and later became the area’s cemetery.

Reasoning man

Ly A Cu, a member of the Mong ethnic minority group who lives in Lao Chai Village in Sa Pa, northern Lao Cai Province, is held in high esteem by his fellow villagers for having the sharpest reasoning skills in the area.

“Saying things isn’t difficult, but saying things that people are willing to listen to is difficult,” says Ly, who has been mastering the art of logical reasoning since he was a child.

Words are precious and must be uttered only when necessary, he says.

“Good reason needs not be wordy, but powerful. Reasoning is used to settle things, not to show off,” he said.

Villagers often ask Ly to settle disputes for them and he often succeeds in resolving their issues in a fair and balanced manner.

A woman whose hen was run over by a car once asked Ly to help her obtain compensation from the driver.

Ly agreed and spoke to the driver but said nothing about blame.

The wise man’s skillful persuasion led the driver to agree he was at fault and that he should compensate the woman for her dead chicken.

“Bumpkin” historian

Locals have dubbed Van Dinh Trien, a retired official, the “bumpkin” historian for spearheading two projects on two localities of central Thua Thien-Hue city Province, despite never finishing primary school.

The 91-year-old, who has lived in Vy Da Commune since 1981, is considered a living legend for his intimate knowledge of Vy Da, a well-known hamlet where many renowned works of Vietnamese poetry are said to have been written and read aloud.

“Someone told me that Vy Da means ‘the tail of the night,’ as the place used to be the rendezvous of artists who spent the night drinking and reciting poems,” Trien said.

Disagreeing with the odd explanation, Trien set out to learn the true origins of Vy Da.

He started by studying the history of Vy Da and rummaged through ancient materials left over from the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). He pored through historical tomes and discovered more information about Vy Da’s geography, culture, history and customs.

“The more I studied Vy Da, the more fascinating information about the place I garnered,” Trien said.

Eventually, the book Vy Da chi luoc (The brief introduction to Vy Da Hamlet) was born in 1994, but the author didn’t have enough money to get the book published.

He had planned to print it last year, but preparations were disrupted by his wife’s death.

However, Trien said he must print it before he passes away.

He gifted copies of the book to seven prominent families in the area to help the descendants keep track of their roots.

Vy Da chi luoc led Trien to write a similar book for his hometown, Quang Thai Commune in the province’s Quang Dien District, to remind future generations of their origins.

He began more painstaking research and in 1999 Dia chi van hoa xa Quang Thai (Monograph on Quang Thai Commune’s culture) came into being.

He published around 250 copies, most of which were gifted to the commune’s officials and locals.

The book tied for third place at the National Folk Literature and Art competition after the judges could not choose a first place winner.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff