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Things become fanciful, unrealistic to the point of madness, extremism, deadlock, terribly sad as if losing one's own identity in the hearts of one's people. That is Lam Mang, a retired nurse who " always thought he was the greatest writer in the region, the future Nobel laureate of the country " [14, 52]. He tried his best to create with the hope that after he died, those who loved Cham and literature would pass it on. However, " now the manuscript of tens of thousands of pages is lost somewhere " [14, 53] and no one knows. Or Phu Van Hoanh, only 20 years old, failed to support his family's education after making a bold statement: " geniuses don't need to be taught by anyone " [14, 53]. But it was precisely this illusion of being a genius that got him slapped by the commune police when he failed to write a proper personal history form. He loved Camus and Nietsche to the point that he always had in his mind " thoughts about the nature of all things " [14, 53]. It sounds grand but becomes extremely unrealistic for this small land of Chakleng. There are even characters who have delusions to the point of madness like Dang Phu. He was " one of the first bachelors of Cham " but " always thought he worked for the CIA, a special character in this giant American spy machine " [14, 53]. He was always so afraid of that that he had to make a fake diary to fool the authorities, then burned all the papers, and finally he couldn't bear it because of the countless questions he asked himself without answers: why was there someone always stalking him? Why hadn't they arrested him yet? Or had the CIA secretly expelled him?...so he turned himself in. The irony is that people do not acknowledge him and see him as a paranoid: “ If you continue to bother us with your paranoia, you will be arrested for real ,” making him “ weak and extremely sad, as if he had just lost something very big, even more than losing his life ” [14, 180]. And he died, died painfully, died alone, stiff in the room because of his own paranoid thoughts. And that did not stop there.
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There is still a Phu Tr - the great collection of the madness epidemic Chakleng " living carelessly reading some nonsense philosophical books that only the Cham people in the 15th century were lucky enough to find a few people reading " [14, 54]. Or the character Tra Chan, the owner of separate thoughts about people, life, literature. Tra Chan implemented a working program to prevent the " waste of the most quintessential vitality " despite people's reminders, opinions and through his separate thoughts he realized that people living in life is like a game, a road. On it there are both falling and standing up, both hope and aspiration, living must listen in silence and think in solitude, not to achieve something to prove to the crowd, great but to " rise up and overcome forever " in oneself. [14, 58]. Although living in the US for many years, the Cham guy John Thak still preserved his national identity, returned home with the idea of establishing a Cham community on the Internet, accepting all those who voluntarily participated, so that Cham could escape the national confinement and join the " open community" of humanity. An initiative that was both great and serious, extraordinary but also unrealistic in Cham society where poverty still persisted. Therefore, although very aggressive, Thak's idea became vain and a failure among the failures. In contrast to Thak is Van Kham. When he was in his hometown, with constant boredom and the feeling of being alone in the community, he "left the country and went away ". He is Cham, loves Cham but sometimes hides his face when meeting Cham, even intends to deny it by changing his last name (Dang, Han to Dang, Han) and then suffers and is tormented. In Saigon, living a miserable life, unable to deny Cham but also unable to return to his hard-working and miserable wife and children in Krong.
The multi-dimensional personalities, the confusion between aspiration and reality, dedication and mistaken thinking, can be said to be most concentratedly expressed in the character Cao Xuan Hoang. Hoang is a talented person who is "always at the top of the class" .
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from village, district to provincial schools ” [14, 107] but also full of arrogance when concluding that the history exam questions were wrong and not doing the test. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Ho Chi Minh City University and became a “ senior expert ”, advising advisors on many macro issues in the country and the region. His reputation suddenly resounded everywhere. He believed that in Cham society, only depravity could make things happen. He persistently sent letters to the authorities with the wish to restore Poklong school, the Cham Cultural Center, but at times he made reactionary statements that “ Cham is truly a wasteful race ”. He was sometimes very proud and proud to be Cham, wishing that each Cham author would be a regional ambassador, a link connecting our country with the ASEAN bloc; There were times when they proposed very practical measures that Cham needed to relearn the 19th century Cham language, read Dictionnaire E Aymonier, and cultivate Esperanto to have a timeless perspective, but there were times when they had the illusion of producing ideas originating from their ancestors' heritage to export at high prices as " a sellout of what is considered Cham identity " [21].
It can be seen that the Cham faces recorded and appearing simultaneously on the pages of Inrasara's novels are reminiscent of tragedy - comedy, satire - sadness. Each of them has a face, a fate, but they all seem to carry within themselves the so-called multiple personality disorder. The people in Inrasara's novels are different from the homogeneous, simple people in terms of personality in early ethnic minority novels, even in the novels of great names such as Vi Hong and Cao Duy Son. In Vi Hong's novels, people often have only one personality trait. They are ideal people - people of great kindness: " They are so good, so perfect that it seems absurd. They are beautiful from their appearance to their inner self. They are not only kind but also dare to sacrifice themselves for the happiness of others " [38, 69] such as: Dan ( Loving Grass Mountain ), Old Man Tap Tang ( Entering the Cave ), Thu La
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( Woman's heart ), Tu, Doctor Huy ( The man in the tube ), Quan ( The guy in the opposite world )... Or evil people - people with extremely evil tricks, insidious plots and cruel, depraved behavior such as: Doac ( Entering the cave ), Hy ( The guy in the opposite world ), Ba ( The man in the tube )... Cao Duy Son's novels are the same, the soul and character of the Tay ethnic group are portrayed by the author almost uniformly, usually only on the good side. They are people with unfortunate fates but are also brave, optimistic, and full of life despite having to go through many hardships and adversity in life: May Lin, Tai Pau ( Red plum blossom ), Ngan ( The wanderer). In the characters, honesty, loyalty, and altruism are the most prominent features: Thuc ( Dan Troi ), Lao Phu ( Hoa Mai Do ), Lao Noong ( Nguoi Van Thang )... It can be seen that the inspiration for people in the works of Vi Hong and Cao Duy Son comes from " pride in the good nature of the people of the homeland " through which the author " affirms a strong belief in the beauty of human personality " [38, 72]. The dotting of evil, degenerate people is just the writer's way of criticizing, exposing evil so that people can recognize and eliminate it, making life better. As for characters with multiple personalities, there are almost no characters. Only with Inrasara, that person with multiple personalities, even multiple personality disorder, a person who always carries within himself contradictions, torments between aspirations and reality, between instinct and reason, between ability and reality, is it shown through the perspective of an ethnologist. Before coming to the novel, Inrasara had a process of studying and researching the culture and soul of the Cham people very deeply. And now the character and soul of that nation are expressed through the fate and life of the multi-personality characters as analyzed above, both as a kind of "recording" of the national spirit" and expressing the desire for everyone to know about Cham, about the Cham people in the land of many difficulties of the country. This is probably the point that creates the difference.
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The difference in inspiration about people in Inrasara's novels compared to Vi Hong, Cao Duy Son and other ethnic minority novelists.
2.1.3. A talented, thoughtful person with a deep love for Cham culture
In Inrasara's novels, he devoted many pages to writing about Cham generations. He was always straightforward, looking at the issue of Cham people with an open mind, an open attitude: dissecting and frankly acknowledging the shortcomings and habits of Cham people, but also being proud and praising what Cham generations have done and are doing to " go on the road with humanity ". The inspiration of talented, thoughtful people with a heavy heart for Cham is therefore also quite strong in his novels. That is Tran Ngoc Lan (Hua Phang), a talent that was revealed early, a writer of Tagalau magazine . He is talented in both poetry and literature. His works are full of emotions and love for his homeland, family, and friends. The short story " Portrait of a single crop " is a work with a fresh approach to reality from the writing style and artistic language. It has " drawn a portrait of a Cham village that is both old and modern, half quiet and half wanting to create artificial excitement in the transitional period but still retaining Cham characteristics " [15, 57]. Without a rich knowledge base, a deep understanding of the culture and soul of the nation, combined with talent, Tran Ngoc Lan could not have created short stories with such ideological and artistic value.
Mentioning people who carry in their hearts the idea that each Cham person must be responsible for discovering the culture of their people, preserving and creating to enrich it (despite having to face the hardships of food, clothing, and even the negativity in life), it is impossible not to mention Tra Vigia - a key writer of Tagalau. Coming from a " poor farmer ", he was introduced to work at the Voice of Vietnam radio station but was willing to give up because he " could not stand the subservient climate and hypocritical attitude " here [15,
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58]. That man, despite having to endure the torture of illness (kidney surgery), still did not give up the habit of drinking rice wine and smoking Jet cigarettes, still drifted towards destruction and creation; and despite being chronically hungry and penniless, he still kept his poetic compositions to himself without sending them to be published, as if wasting his life for some vague goal that was awakened through each of his stories and poems.
Interested in every color of Cham culture and the people who are contributing to preserving and creating it, Inrasara shows that through the character of painter Dang Nang Tho. The creative process is not simple, success is not easy to achieve. At first, Dang Nang Tho's paintings still had the shadow of great painters in the world such as Modigliani, Picasso, Van Gogh. But with his "passion for watercolor brushes ", Dang Nang Tho still worked diligently on his paintings of Cham towers as a way to preserve the beauty of his ethnic culture and he created a unique color, not mixed in his paintings. That is Cham fire, the sinew, the soaring, also very mysterious and attractive, all blended into the paintings of Cham towers by Cham painter Hamu Crank. His talent was recognized by Phan Dang Nhat and helped to promote it to the public at an exhibition in Hanoi in 1995. Later, Dang Nang Tho switched to making terracotta statues and one of them was " chosen as a symbol in an exchange exhibition in India in 1998 [15, 64]. It can be seen that, amidst the chaos and hardship of Cham life, there is still no shortage of known and hidden talents. They always turn to Cham, to Cham cultural values and are trying to renew it, whether they are successful or still have shortcomings. Che My Lan - a Cham poetess in exile is such an example. Her works on the Chamyouth network and Vijaya specialties in the US " lack poetry but have plenty of horizontality " [15, 65]. All of them in the myriad
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The Cham people's faces converge and create a beautiful color for the national culture to develop and become richer.
In that inspiration, the image of his wife - Inrahani - was also included in the novel by the author with admiration and sincere affection. She is a beautiful Cham woman, a good singer, a good dancer like "a fairy dancing and singing in the shimmering light of fire " [15, 67]. Her life also experienced many joys, sorrows, and turmoil "... through many struggles, falling and getting up, disappointment and hope " with her husband. Sometimes she was in charge of the Kindergarten of the Ninh Phuoc Education Department; in charge of the Kindergarten of Cauk village (Hieu Le); sometimes she went to trade, selling brocade in the South, opening a shop selling daily necessities " from the most trivial things like soap, candy to coffee, beer, wine, silk, fertilizer ..." [15, 70, 71]. Finally, he carried out the third revolution in weaving and promoting Cham brocade and ethnic minorities at exhibition fairs with the desire to " let the world not forget that on this earth there is an ethnic group called Cham " [15, 73]. Hani has brought many benefits not only to himself, to Caklaing but also to the Cham community. Those benefits both the giver and the receiver must be grateful. Life will be meaningless when talent and fame are only for oneself. Sometimes the meaning of life, the value to the community and the nation lies not only in fame but also in its opposite: silent dedication. That is Quang Dai Hong. Although he was so poor that he " had to stuff rags into bicycle tubes ", " for thirty years without stopping, he worked as a soldier to eradicate illiteracy and fight against re-illiteracy in both Cham and Vietnamese, unpaid and voluntarily " [15, 218]. Inrasara reserved for him the most majestic, ironic but also the most sincere and grateful words: “ A martyr on the educational front, at the lowest level: eradicating illiteracy ” [15, 219]. There are also talents whose lives are quite ironic like JM. A teacher who likes to show off his body and even uses violence against students but is very talented in
“ composing poetry and translating Vietnamese songs into Cham language …” [15, 220]. Perhaps that was what brought out his spirit and strange attraction. He died slowly in prison with the resentment of those around him, as well as his heroic spirit and literary talent.
Not only in the field of literature, art, and Cham painting, there are talented people, but also in politics, economics, and leadership, there are many people who think about the life of the Cham people and their culture, such as: Chau Van Mo - Deputy Minister of Ethnic Development - a person " full of enthusiasm, focusing on doing rather than talking. Very specific and practical. A person who cares about the community in the broadest sense of the word " [15, 221]; Luu Quang Sang - Member of the Central Council of Ethnicities, National Assembly Representative of Saigon, a person " Calm, flexible, clever, and always cautious in words and gestures... " [15, 226]. He was present and called on people to contribute money so that Kate - Tagalau 3 could be born and come to the Cham people; Thien Sanh Canh - editor-in-chief of Panrang magazine, Voice of the Ninh Thuan ethnic community. Together with his colleagues, he composed poems, collected and translated ancient texts... to redraw the portrait of Cham society, culture and people yesterday and today: " Not counting the pages of poems and literature still at the provincial level, the collections and translations of ancient texts such as Akayet Dewa Muno, Ariya Glông Anak, or "Cham funeral", "Cham wedding", "Cham calendar calculation",... must be considered as the first bricks laying the foundation for modern Cham research " [13, 231]; Thanh Phu Ba strives to train generations of Cham youth, carefully taking care of the special issue Caung takrư Uoc vong ; Nguyen Van Ty - a principal who is always interested in the hot issues of modern Cham society and also loves and is passionate about beauty. They were once idols of many generations of young Cham. Each person has a job and a personality, but " they meet in caring for the children and the community's interests " [15, 222].