Tan Da

Who was Tan Da?

Nguyễn Khắc Hiếu, penname Tản Đà was a Vietnamese poet. He used both traditional Sino-Vietnamese forms and European influences and was a transitional figure between the turn of the 1890s such as Tú Xương and Nguyễn Khuyến and the "New Poetry" movement of the 1930s.

Late in his life he published a literary magazine in Hanoi, An Nam Tạp Chí, but when this got into financial difficulty, readily accepted an invitation to come South and write for the new Đông Pháp Thời Báo in Saigon. Although popular with the newspaper-buying public his poetry was criticised by the young poets of the Hanoi-based Thơ mới "New Poetry" movement influenced by French poets such as Baudelaire.