People and flowers are passionately in love.

When describing Nguyen Thi Minh Thai, I can't help but use two words: "passionate and intense." Someone meeting her for the first time might be intimidated by her outburst of forceful, direct speech—sometimes even off-putting if they're not used to it. But just reading her writings, no matter what she writes about, reveals an unbridled outpouring of emotions, a need to find a way to express them, and to do so in any way possible, without regard for genre or style. And whatever she writes, it's always deeply passionate. Even her way of speaking is like that. Once you get used to it, you feel that she has to speak that way. Speaking – not just with words and language – but also with tone of voice, gestures, intonation, facial expressions, eyes, hands… This means that whatever Minh Thai is passionate about, likes, or loves, she wants to convey it all, and even more, to ignite it, to make it burn brightly, and all of that will spread from her to others, those who listen and converse with her.

Therefore, she chose literature and theater as the medium to showcase her understanding and feelings through each word and layer of theatrical art, penetrating the depths of life and the humanistic values ​​of people. It seems that even if she were to write more and more about writers, poets, playwrights, and more broadly, those blessed with artistic talent, belonging to a lineage that loves and creates beauty, her pen would never run dry of material, emotion, meaning, feeling, color, and rhythm. And so, after several substantial and insightful books about various professions, Minh Thai has released two new books about the lives of talented individuals in the human world – whose joys and sorrows throughout history have never left people indifferent or unmoved.

Her most recent book is titled "Searching for Flowers on the Road." How strange! Traditionally, when we hear the phrase "searching for flowers because of flowers," we imagine the person tirelessly searching for them to be a man, and the one being sought out to be a woman, the flower, belonging to the fairer sex. Now, while the one being sought out is still a beautiful person, the beauty here transcends gender, becoming artistic beauty. The person searching for flowers here is seeking kindred spirits, yearning to converse, analyze, and comment with/with/the people who create beauty in works of literature and art. In essence, the seeker is Nguyen Thi Minh Thai, a literary and theatrical researcher and critic, a doctor of art studies, an associate professor of linguistics, and later a cultural researcher. And the artists sought out, the "flowers" admired, are Che Lan Vien, Van Cao, Hoang Cam, The Lu, Nguyen Dinh Thi, Nguyen Dinh Nghi, Luu Quang Vu, Xuan Trinh, Xuan Quynh, Trinh Cong Son, Le Dung, Hoang Ngoc Hien, Ho Anh Thai..., the Vietnamese ao dai, the Vietnamese oil lamp, the Vietnamese bodice, the Vietnamese quilted cotton jacket... Oh, walking along this path of searching for flowers with Minh Thai, one sees the countless hardships of the thorny path of art, the multifaceted fate of art, and the lofty artistic values ​​that, with the ups and downs of life and the ebb and flow of time, may only remain in the memories of contemporaries, or only on faded, hard-to-preserve pages of writing. Perhaps that is why Minh Thai vowed to be a companion, an art archaeologist, someone passionately striving to transcend boundaries like Thuy Kieu, "walking alone through the garden at night" to reach her lover, firstly to satisfy her own yearning for love, and secondly to prevent the creator from feeling lonely during the creative process, and to provide a sense of warmth with someone to accompany them. Often, the audience only knows the work, basing their understanding solely on the achievements the artist has presented to the public. But readers/viewers/listeners are also naturally curious about the artist, about the secrets behind the work. Minh Thai has accepted and voluntarily embarked on a path to explore the deeper, hidden aspects of the creative consciousness and even the everyday life of the artist, to shed a different and new light on their work, allowing readers/viewers/listeners to better understand it. Minh Thai, when appreciating authors and literary works in her own unique way, with her reading/viewing/listening mindset and distinctive perception, has often surprised and delighted both the creator and the audience.

Nguyen Thi Minh Thai has embarked on a journey to discover the true face of both the flower and the people, and not only see but also know, not only know but also understand, not only understand but also love, not only love but also feel regret, and not only feel regret but also worry and ponder deeply… about the flower and the people. Each book follows the previous one; the book you are holding is the author's persistent urging and prompting. Passionate and deeply concerned, that is Nguyen Thi Minh Thai's genuine affection for art and artists. Therefore, she has poured all her energy into introducing, illuminating, and "high-valued" the blossoming aspects of literature, art, and spiritual culture, so that viewers can know, love, cherish, and respect the artists.

"Human Faces, Flower Faces," a continuation of "Searching for Flowers on the Road," further develops the new approach of cultural and artistic researcher Nguyen Thi Minh Thai, who sincerely and diligently explores the beauty of spiritual values ​​from the perspective of those who create them, and interestingly, from the perspective of those who enjoy them. Reading this new book by Nguyen Thi Minh Thai, readers will discover fascinating aspects of the artist's soul, of everyday simplicity that might seem lost if not for someone with a discerning eye to discover and appreciate it.

The writer spared no effort in "searching for flowers." Not only that, the writer also illuminates the "faces of people and flowers" for readers to admire and cherish. Therefore, readers should not begrudge the time to follow the writer in discovering the fragrant flowers and sweet nectar offered to life, and the writer herself now seems to be the sweet nectar and fragrant flowers for life, through her writing, as she diligently searches for and reveals the beauty of the work of art. The passionate charm of Nguyen Thi Minh Thai's words and prose, therefore, stems from a love of beauty, first and foremost in literature and art, and then from the desire to directly engage readers/viewers/listeners with the work. And once you have seen and known the faces of people and flowers revealed under the writer's passionate, fervent pen, you will catch glimpses of the beautiful figure of someone hidden behind the pages. Do you recognize anyone? Beneath the flowers, there seems to be a figure… If you do, you will surely be delighted. If you don't realize it, you might regret it later because you... unintentionally overlooked it.