At the age of 8, he dreamed of becoming a student at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Nguyen Anh Tuan is a special guy. Because behind his slim and scholarly appearance is a persistent and steadfast personality with his own choices.

Love of History

Born into a family of businessmen, but since his primary school years, Tuan has shown a special love for History. While most of his friends were engrossed in games and paid little attention to reading, Tuan's passion at that time was the book "Complete Annals of Dai Viet”- a book that even many History majors have the chance to read in college. It is also a memorable gift that your thoughtful parents bought for you to indulge your child’s interests. That was the year Tuan was in 3rd grade.

At that time, VTV2 with the program "Through history" has begun to attract the boy who loves History. Historical events with unique interpretations, along with the layered meanings of culture and life hidden deep inside, have attracted Tuan even more. History is not dry! History has a colorful beauty with logical cause-and-effect relationships, with flows continuing from the past to the present to the future. History is also lessons and accumulated values. Loving the program, Tuan also loves the erudite teachers and scientists who appear in the media to talk and spread the love of History to the public. Those leading experts mostly come from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU. So Tuan himself researched about the University. A leading university in Social Sciences and Humanities - famous for its team of famous teachers and a long history of brilliant achievements. That is more than enough for an 8-year-old boy to make a firm decision: to study History and become a student of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in the future.

Valedictorian Nguyen Anh Tuan/Photo: Thanh Long

Interestingly, in secondary school, Tuan studied in the specialized Math class at Ngo Sy Lien School, and in high school, he studied in the specialized D class. While his classmates were busy studying for the A or D block, Tuan alone decided to take the C block exam just because he liked History. A score of 9 in the university entrance exam for History is not a surprising result for a young person who likes History in depth, not superficially like Nguyen Anh Tuan. However, over time, when he had more knowledge of social sciences, Tuan made some adjustments in his major choice. He chose Chinese Studies because he believed that having a solid knowledge of one of the original cultures of the region would be a solid springboard to move on to broader research on the culture and history of Southeast Asian countries in particular and Asia in general.

Be proactive in learning

If anyone asks Tuan for the secret to studying well and getting high scores, you will be stunned for a few seconds. Because for Tuan, there is no secret to studying. Study because you love it, want to get to the bottom of the problem you want to learn. Study not for the score or any title. And because besides studying, you won't know what else to do.

Tuan was fortunate to receive absolute support from his parents from a young age in his decisions about his future career. In addition, since his junior years, he studied in selective classes and specialized schools, so Tuan soon formed the habit of planning his own studies and conducting small research projects on a topic that interested him. Therefore, since his junior years, Tuan had long cherished the path of scientific research. With such a foundation, Tuan easily adapted to the proactive learning method at university. With favorable conditions such as teachers who are good at their profession, enthusiastic, close to students, always encouraging students to pursue their own passions; a free and open-minded learning environment... has further motivated you to go further in your passion for knowledge exploration as well as to exploit your other abilities more deeply.

Lecturer Tran Truc Ly (Department of Chinese Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies) commented on her student: in the 3 subjects taught to Tuan's class, Tuan has never missed a class, often prepares the content of the next class in advance, and is always proactive in discovering research questions related to the subject's content. In addition, Tuan is someone that teachers can completely trust when assigning him general management tasks for the class such as photocopying documents, managing discussion groups, taking attendance... Normally, teachers often have to take attendance themselves because if they assign it to the class monitor, it is easy for there to be cases of favoritism and cover-up. But with Tuan, he takes attendance very completely and does not compromise with any case. However, because he is always fair and is also strict with himself, his classmates still have to "admit it".

Memories of overcoming oneself

Tuan's most memorable memory in 4 years of university was the time he did his graduation thesis.A First Look at Tang Dynasty Feminine Poetry (A Survey of Female Authors in “Quan Tang Poetry” and Their Works)”. This is a difficult topic and not his forte, but Tuan is still very determined because he wants to challenge his own abilities. Thanks to this thesis, he has acquired a lot of “brand new” knowledge about Literary Theory and Tang poetry. And more importantly, the will and experience of overcoming difficulties to achieve what he wants is the biggest lesson that Tuan has gained after all his efforts. The thesis received a score of 10 from the Council with very positive compliments.

Lecturer Tran Truc Ly shares memories of guiding this excellent student's thesis: "Tuan's choice to do his graduation thesis on Chinese Literature surprised me a lot, because although he always achieved excellent results in all subjects, Tuan once shared that the field he wanted to pursue in the next levels of study was Economic Geography. Moreover, in the curriculum of the Chinese department, Chinese Literature is only an elective subject, and the subject content is general in nature and does not go into in-depth content like the program of the Literature department. Thus, choosing to do a thesis on Chinese Literature will be quite a challenge for students majoring in Chinese Studies.”.

Therefore, in the subject of Chinese Literature, Tuan's initial expression in the class discussion was still somewhat naive in terms of methodology, but by the final essay, Tuan had shown remarkable progress in choosing topics, choosing methods to approach the research object, collecting and processing documents.

In the process of developing from a final report on Chinese Literature into a scientific report (winning second prize at the faculty and school levels), and then continuing to develop into a graduation thesis, Tuan demonstrated his determination, perseverance and courage in daring to go all the way with his choice.

The topic Tuan chose was a completely new topic, requiring a huge amount of meticulous work, requiring additional specialized knowledge of Literary Theory that was not yet equipped in the training program for undergraduate students of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, but Tuan overcame all those difficulties with a specific research plan for each day.

“It was the first time I met a student who submitted a detailed thesis plan to his supervisor every week, even stating clearly which tasks to do in the morning and which tasks to do in the afternoon. And that plan was seriously implemented with clear results." - Ms. Truc Ly recounted her impression of the student.

There is a funny memory that on the day of Hung King's death anniversary, Tuan also called to ask to meet the instructor at school to report on the progress and discuss the thesis. It turned out that during that whole week, he had been working in the library from morning to night, so he had forgotten the date.

“Guiding Tuan’s thesis is very time-consuming and quite “stressful” due to the large amount of work, especially near the end of the semester, I myself have a lot of work to do, my thesis reading and editing progress sometimes cannot keep up with Tuan’s writing progress. But it also brings great joy and pride to the teacher, I even feel that there are things that can be learned from his working method and determination” -Ms. Truc Ly shared more.

After all that he has achieved, Nguyen Anh Tuan looks at life with simplicity and love: “Having love is having everything, sister. That's the important thing. in life. It is the love and support of my parents, teachers, and friends that gave me the opportunity to do what I want. And the love for learning and research helps me truly have joy.”.

This year, the Department of Chinese Studies has many scholarships for graduating students to continue their master's studies at universities in China and Taiwan. With excellent academic achievements, Tuan is always at the top of the list of candidates. However, he proactively and resolutely asked to withdraw, and the quota was reserved for other students. The reason Tuan shared was that he had made a specific and detailed plan for continuing his doctoral studies at the Faculty (Tuan is in the direct transfer to doctoral studies). This may make many people feel that Tuan's thinking is a bit "strange". But perhaps this is a carefully considered decision, stemming from practical considerations and from Tuan's clear planning of his study path. Once again, Tuan has chosen to go his own way with a determined and proactive attitude. And no matter which path he takes, I am sure that with his persistent personality and passion for research and exploration, success is not difficult to predict.