Rosy Rose

Well, I first knew of the event when the leader in Book Box TNH forwarded a link about the event. This year, due to the pandemic, this conference is held online and are open to students from all over the world, which is great because I do not need to travel to Australia in order to attend an offline conference. I had known of this for quite a long time, but I lingered and did not sign up, when I decided to sign up, it was just three days left. And payment had to be made, knowledge had to be absorbed, preparation should be made. I still have homework from my school, meetings from The Torch, so my schedule became so busy, but I managed.

Rain, A gust of wind, early breakfast, At class, sleepy, trying to focus.

"The Tale of Kieu" has been a very familiar literary work to not just the Vietnamese, but also to people around the world. But have we stopped to wonder what makes people so hyped about "The Tale of Kieu", or is it just overrated? Well, in school, we are taught a great deal about literary devices: metonymy, metaphor, foreshadowing, anastrophe, and here the list goes. But I would argue that "The Tale of Kieu" offers an avenue to the interpretation of the meaning of life. When I was discussing with my friends the motif of adventure tales and fairy tales, it struck me that "The Tale of Kieu" does not follow such a motif, which appears weird because most of the tales go with a happy-forever-after ending for people who lead a noble life. I will not summarise the plot of the story, as it can be found on the Internet, so please go read it if you want to be familiar with the topic.