ESTEEMED SCHOLAR - 103-year-old researcher Nguyễn Đình Tư (in áo dài) receives the Trần Ngọc Giàu Prize for his two-volume publication on the history of HCM City from 1968-2020. — VNA/VNS Photo Thu Hương

HCM CITY — A book on the history of HCM City compiled by 103-year-old researcher Nguyễn Đình Tư won a prestigious annual history prize named after the revolutionary and philosopher Prof. Trần Văn Giàu.

Gia Định – Sài Gòn – Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh: Dặm Dài Lịch Sử (1698-2020) (Gia Định – Sài Gòn – HCM City: A Mile of History) consists of two volumes. Each volume has around 800 pages with 80 chapters.

The book depicts the history and development of the city in all fields of politics, administrative activities, economics, society, culture, education, health, religion, and sports since the city was established in 1698 to 2020.

Tư said at the awards ceremony in HCM City last Saturday that he spent more than 20 years visiting libraries and archive centres in the city and neighbouring provinces to collect research, documents and news articles on the city.

He hoped the book would be a valuable source for people to find any information related to the city.

Tư has released more than 60 books on the history of the south of Việt Nam. He was awarded a medal for the cause of Vietnamese history given by the Việt Nam Association of Historical Sciences.

The book Gia Định – Sài Gòn – Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh: Dặm Dài Lịch Sử (1698-2020) was published by the HCM City General Publishing House in February to celebrate the 325th anniversary of Sài Gòn - Chợ Lớn - Gia Định - HCM City.

Phan Văn Mãi, Chairman of the city People's Committee, said that the research work reflected the author’s devotion to the history and culture of the country in general and the south and HCM City in particular.

In addition, the studies would offer precious documents and references for planning the city's cultural and social development strategies and policies in the future, he added.

The Trần Ngọc Giàu Prize was established in 2002 to encourage and honour research on Vietnamese history and culture.

Giàu, born in 1911 in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Long An, was former secretary of the Việt Nam Communist Party in the south of Việt Nam and chairman of the South Việt Nam’s Resistance Committee.

He is the author of many scholarly and philosophical works about Việt Nam, especially about the south, as well as a teacher of many leading researchers and historians across the country. — VNS