Seeing that January 19, 2024 marks 50 years since China forcibly occupied Vietnam's Paracel Islands, the trip has become much more meaningful.
Hundreds of exhibitions on the same theme have been held nationwide. Yet each time the documentary pictures proving the country's sovereignty over seas and islands are displayed to the public, especially inside such important historical sites like Son La Prison, they still leave a deep impression of the strong will of previous generations in protecting the integrity of Vietnam.
Among those valuable pictures is a photo capturing a birth certificate of a Vietnamese citizen, issued in the Paracel Islands, taken from the archives of the National Border Committee (under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), with the content written in French as follows:
“Full name: Mai Kim Quy – Gender: Female;
Birthday and Birthplace: December 7, 1939 at 3:00 p.m. on Pattle Island (part of the Paracel Islands).
Daughter of Mai Xuan Tap – Meteorological Officer and Nguyen Thi Thang – Housewife.
First witness: Nguyen Tang Chuan – Indochina Doctor
Second witness: Do Duc Mui – Director of the Radio Station
Signed by the delegation representative: Chauvet (This is a copy made on Pattle Island on June 28, 1940).”
The ‘baby’ in this birth certificate, if still alive, should be 85 years old now.
Another moving story about the Paracel Islands comes from journalist Vinh Quyen. He once visited his teacher in 1993 to borrow reference materials before taking a business trip to the Paracel Islands. When the teacher introduced the names of his twin sons and his daughter as Quang Anh, Huu Nhat, and Duy Mong, Quyen merely greeted them out of courtesy, paying no further notice.
Only after reading the translation of his teacher’s thesis did he recognize that the three names are actually the names of the three largest islands in the Paracel Islands, and how proud his teacher had felt when introducing those names. Not only that, the three meaningful names were also the names of the Lieutenants sent by Emperor Gia Long and Emperor Minh Mang to guard the Paracel Islands right at the beginning of the 19th century.
Among the three, Lieutenant Pham Quang Anh was in charge of the survey groups for the islands in 1815-1816. The other captains, namely Pham Huu Nhat, Le Duy Mong, Truong Phuc Si, Pham Van Nguyen stayed and protected the sovereignty of both the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands (Hoang Sa and Truong Sa in Vietnamese). They erected steles, constructed temples, planted trees, measured and drew maps of these islands.
To express gratitude and maintain the country-guarding spirit, the following generations have named their children after those figures.
Vietnamese people today use one way or another to continue the tradition of defending their nation. Teacher Nguyen Mai Trong from a school in Quang Tri Province, when becoming the principal of Huong Phung School in Huong Hoa District, decided to establish a model of the battle protecting Gac Ma Island for his students to observe. He also named internal roads inside the campus Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. Moving to a new primary school in A Xing Commune, he named the two classroom blocks Hoang Sa and Truong Sa as well, with each floor receiving the name of an island like Luoi Liem, An Vinh, Song Tu, Thi Tu.
Thousands of similar stories can be found all throughout Vietnam to remind the current generation of a beloved land in the middle of the East Sea that has not yet returned to the fatherland, and of the determination to try the best to bring it back, beginning with not forgetting the efforts of the ancestors in building and protecting that piece of land century after century!
