Who was Xuân Diệu?
Xuân Diệu, whose real name was Ngô Xuân Diệu (1916 - 1985), was born in his maternal hometown in Gò Bồi, Tùng Giản village, Phước Hòa commune, Tuy Phước district, Bình Định province. His paternal hometown was Trảo Nha village, Can Lộc district, Hà Tĩnh province. He is known as a romantic lyric poet, one of the prominent figures of modern Vietnamese poetry.
Why is he considered a prominent figure of Thơ mới?
Xuân Diệu is regarded as the 'Nhà thơ mới nhất trong các nhà thơ mới', a way of saying that he pushed the renewal spirit of the Thơ mới movement further than many of his contemporaries. The Thơ mới movement was a period when Vietnamese poetry shifted strongly away from the old, heavily conventional style, opening up ways of expressing personal emotion, and Xuân Diệu is one of the names closely tied to that shift. His position in the movement lies not only in the number of works but also in the fact that he created a distinctive poetic voice, one that readers recognise immediately.
Why is he called 'Ông hoàng thơ tình'?
The public and literary researchers call him 'Ông hoàng thơ tình', a title tied to the fact that his poetry devotes most of its volume to love and to human emotional states. According to records, he left behind around 450 love poems, along with many short stories, memoirs, essays and literary criticism. The figure of 450 love poems shows that this was not a small part of his career but the main axis of his writing, alongside his work in prose and in research and criticism.
Besides writing, what else did he take part in?
Besides writing, he was also an active cultural and social figure. He was one of the founders of the Đoàn Báo chí cách mạng Việt Nam, today the Hội Nhà báo Việt Nam. The fact that a poet stands among the founders of a professional organisation of the press shows that his activities were not confined to the literary page.
How was the Xuân Diệu Memorial House formed and ranked?
To commemorate him, the People's Committee of Tuy Phước district built the Xuân Diệu Memorial House on the foundation of the poet's maternal grandparents' house in Tùng Giản village, putting it into operation from 1995. In December 2010, the People's Committee of Bình Định province issued a decision ranking the Xuân Diệu Memorial House in Gò Bồi (Tuy Phước) as a provincial-level historical relic. This ranking placed the site tied to his childhood on the list managed and protected by the state as a relic.
After nearly 29 years of use, the memorial house deteriorated, so the People's Committee of Tuy Phước district invested in building a new memorial house on the old foundation. The project was constructed from April 2024 and inaugurated on 15 December 2024, with a total area of up to 720 m2, of which garden and internal walkways account for 550 m2. The project had a total investment of more than 9.8 billion đồng from the state budget managed by the district and other lawful sources of capital. On this occasion, representatives of Can Lộc district (Hà Tĩnh) presented artefacts of the poet Xuân Diệu for display at the memorial house, a detail linking the paternal hometown in Hà Tĩnh with the place of worship and remembrance in Bình Định.
Main milestones
- Born in 1916 in his maternal hometown in Gò Bồi, Tuy Phước, Bình Định.
- One of the founders of the Đoàn Báo chí cách mạng Việt Nam, today the Hội Nhà báo Việt Nam.
- Left behind around 450 love poems along with many short stories, memoirs, essays and literary criticism.
- The Xuân Diệu Memorial House in Bình Định was ranked as a provincial-level historical relic in December 2010.