Nguyễn Văn Kim (31 December 1923–1982), better known as his pen name Tử Phác, was a Vietnamese writer, poet, musician, and the author of the famous song "Song of Spinning" (Tiếng hát quay tơ), which was released in 1949. He was also an important participant in the

Nhân Văn–Giai Phẩm affair The ''Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm'' affair () was a cultural-political movement in North Vietnam in the late 1950s. Two periodicals were established during that time, Nhân Văn (, ''Humanities'') and Giai Phẩm (, ''Masterpieces''), many issues of whi ...

Biography

On December 31, 1923, Nguyễn Văn Kim was born in Hàng Giấy,

Đồng Xuân Market Đồng Xuân Market (; chữ Nôm: 𢄂同春) is a market in the center district Hoàn Kiếm of Hanoi, Vietnam. Originally built by the French administration in 1889, Đồng Xuân Market has been renovated several times with the latest b ...

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

. He had often written poems since his childhood. According to Lương Ngọc Trác, Tử Phác was originally from a feudal mandarin family, his grandfather used to be a great mandarin for the

Nguyễn dynasty The Nguyễn dynasty (, chữ Nôm: 茹阮, chữ Hán: 朝阮) was the last List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty, preceded by the Nguyễn lords and ruling unified Vietnam independently from 1802 until French protectorate in 1883 ...

and surrendered to the French Army. His father, after studying in the West, returned to Hanoi to work as a road management bureaucrat. His mother was Trương Tần Phác, a descendant of

Trương Định Trương Định (1820 – August 19, 1864), sometimes known as Trương Công Định, was a mandarin (bureaucrat), mandarin (scholar-official) in the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam under Emperor Tự Đức. He is best known for leading a gue ...

. The pseudonym Tử Phác means the son of Mrs. Phác. In 1945, he joined the

Communist Party of Vietnam The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North Vietnam in 1954 and then all of Vietnam after the col ...

, later participated in the

First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam, and alternatively internationally as the French-Indochina War) was fought between French Fourth Republic, France and Việ ...

. In the years 1947 and 1948, he was Secretary of the Thủ Đô newspaper in War Zone III, under the pen name Nguyễn Anh Chấn. In 1949, he was appointed to the Executive Committee of the 3rd Inter-regional Arts Association and was assigned to Viet Bac as Secretary of the Sự Thật newspaper under another pen name Trương Công Kích. A year later, he held the position of Head of the Arts and Culture Department of the Propaganda Department of the General Political Department. He served as a general later, who was in charge of military literature in 1952. He was involved in the

between 1957 and 1958, for which he was sent to a re-education camp. Even after being rehabilitated, he still could not find a job. With no means of support, his young children and wife had to live on the sale of his family's furniture, musical instruments and financial support from relatives in France. Tử Phác died of cancer in 1982. Many of his works have not survived to this day due to his involvement in the

References

{{Authority control 1923 births 1982 deaths 20th-century Vietnamese poets 20th-century Vietnamese musicians Vietnamese male poets Nhân Văn–Giai Phẩm affair Writers from Hanoi Musicians from Hanoi