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| Artist Trần Đại Thắng. |
Đông A Books and Hà Nội Pedagogy University Publishing have released a picture book on Vietnamese history. Titled Lịch Sử Việt Nam Bằng Hình (The Illustrated History of Việt Nam), the book is printed in large size with 660 pages and nearly 2,000 illustrations.
Đông A Books' director and artist Trần Đại Thắng,who took almost all the pictures in the book, spoke about how he was inspired to create it.
Could you tell us about how the book came about?
I attended the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time in 2007, three years after Đông A Books was established. I was fascinated by knowledge encyclopedias and history encyclopedias from British, French and German publishers. They are printed with a lot of eye-catching and attractive illustrations.
I could see that the publishers can turn any topic into a photo book. I dreamed that Đông A Books would make books like these and when I returned home I discussed the idea with my colleagues.
So, the inspiration came from foreign picture books?
There are books on Việt Nam written by foreigners and published in English and even in Vietnamese. This makes me feel sad. I silently was looking how to make a picture book on Vietnamese history for all readers of all ages and for both Vietnamese and foreigners, but made by Vietnamese.
It can be said that The Illustrated History of Việt Nam was inspired by and based on the arrangement of content and presentation method from books with historical and cultural themes of UK DK Publishing House.
But why did you officially start the book until eight years later?
There are two reasons. First, at that time, printing technology in Việt Nam was still out of date and costs of producing such a book was very high. The second reason was the content. We need to meet with researchers and ask them to help compile.
Although everyone was very excited and surprised by such an attractive historical book format, they also saw that it was a huge and complicated body of work, so they all refused. We had to pause the plan although the desire to create a picture history book still motivated me.
By 2015, Đông A Books had translated and published books from DK Publishing House in Việt Nam. We learned and gained more experience from DK. At that time, we also completed a first outline of the book. We began to contact experts and history research institutes to order them write for the book.
The initial goal was that the articles should not be too hard to read and their accuracy must be ensured. Therefore, the articles in the book are more literary than historical. However, when we reviewed the articles, they were no longer suitable. Many of them had to be abandoned completely or rewritten. The current printed version of the book is very different from the original articles.
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| The book contains nearly 2,000 illustrations. — Photos courtesy of Đông A Books |
The pictures and the content, which is more important in the book?
The core of the book is to convey and attract readers through pictures. The way to make the book is inspired by DK Publishing. However, it must change to be flexible to create harmony and appeal.
The difficulty is that while the content can rely on available historical sources, the pictures cannot.
Therefore, nearly 80 per cent of the pictures in the book were taken by me. I began to go field trips taking pictures in 2017.
PhD in Archeology Hoàng Văn Khoán went with us to relic sites such as Phật Tích Pagoda, Bút Tháp Pagoda and Dạm Pagoda in the northern province of Bắc Ninh and Côn Sơn - Kiếp Bạc complex in the northern province of Hải Dương. Everywhere we went, he gave detailed instructions about the artefacts.
We were still taking photos until the very last moments before we went to print. The latest picture is taken at the Thai History Museum in May. The main sources of the pictures are taken from museums and monuments but we also have pictures from Vietnam News Agency and some photographers.
I went to more than a hundred museums inside and outside Việt Nam, the relic sites and handicraft villages in the nation to take protos.
Tell us about the research and fact checking involved?
Our editorial team referred to different historical sources to check and compare the facts and historical details and review different parts of the book.
There are some contents we approached in different ways and at different times, so it is perhaps inevitable that controversies exist to this day.
Plus, we needed to ensure a consistency of style from hundreds of articles from dozens of authors. This process lasted for years, with additional time needed for editing and changing outlines and chapters.
Will you publish the book in English?
We are translating some of chapters to introduce to foreign publishing houses. However, it is not simple as just translating a historical book into English. We need more time. Furthermore, we want to know more about western culture to find out if the book will be well received. — VNS
