by Hồng Vân 

Trần Văn Dũng stumbled into a traditional Vietnamese martial art called Nhất Nam as a college kid looking for something to do. After falling in love with the activity, he has shared passion for the martial art with hundreds of pupils in his hometown in the central province of Thanh Hóa. 

Dũng has established more than 10 martial art clubs since early 2013, attracting more than 500 students from across Thanh Hóa, the birthplace of Nhất Nam.

Nhất Nam is one of a number of martial arts practised in Việt Nam, including the traditional martial art called "vovinam", considered the country’s largest and most developed martial art. There’s also the martial art of the Bình Định region, once a secluded border zone where residents developed a special combat style to protect themselves. "Văn an phái" is a style practised by the imperial guards in the Nguyễn Dynasty based in the royal capital city of Huế. The seven mountains region martial art is a culmination of styles and practices developed in the isolated region along Việt Nam’s southwestern border.

From its origins in Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An provinces, Nhất Nam martial art reached its peak in the 18th century and has been gradually fading ever since.

In the 20th century, it started to gain more attention thanks to martial art master Ngô Xuân Bính, who was born into a family with long tradition of practising this art. He inherited the basic techniques from his family and devoted time to study and develop this style of martial art.

Dũng was a first-year student at the Hải Dương Medical Technical University when he first learned about Nhất Nam.

“At that time due to my poor health, I wanted to find a sport to pursue to improve my health,” said Dũng.

There was a Nhất Nam martial art club at the university and Dũng immediately found he loved the practice.

After spending some time with the club, he was “astonished” to find out that his hometown was also the cradle of Nhất Nam.

“I quickly realised that Nhất Nam martial art is a cultural heritage of our ancestors. Practising this art, people can learn about social manners, improve health, acquire fighting techniques and have a clear and calm way of thinking,” he said.

Even though Dũng is now working full time as a technician in the X-ray department at a hospital in Thanh Hóa, he still devotes time to run martial art clubs in his hometown since 2014.

“At the beginning, we encountered so many difficulties. It was hard to attract learners because most local people would not know about this martial art. Meanwhile, local parents were reluctant to let their children join classes because they were concerned that the practice would make their children prone to violence and that it would distract them from learning at school,” Dũng said. 

There were only 13 regular students in the early days.

Dũng and those sharing his passion for martial arts had to visit families in the neighbourhood to lure kids to join his free class and explain to the parents the historical and cultural value, as well as the contemporary purpose, of practising Nhất Nam martial art.

He also called for college students to join his club. 

“My students and I often performed martial arts at communal festivals to make it better known and more accessible,” Dũng said.

In five years of operation, Dũng established more than 10 martial arts clubs and attracted more than 500 students.

The Hoằng Qùy Elementary School in Hoằng Hóa District now includes Nhất Nam martial art in its extracurricular programme for pupils.

Principal of the school Nguyễn Trường Giang learned about the martial art through Dũng. Finding it useful for improving physical and mental health, he discussed with teachers and decided to establish the Nhất Nam martial art club for the school.