Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra to perform in the US

Artists from the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra along with Japanese conductor Honna Tetsuji and violist Le Hoai Nam will be on a performance tour in the US.  

The first performance will take place at Carnegie Hall in New York on October 23 and the second one at Symphony Hall in Boston on October 24.

The show, having a mix of Western and Oriental musical styles, will provide US audiences and international friends a window into Vietnam’s successes in the Doi moi (renewal) process.

National ca tru singing festival held in Hanoi

More than 100 artists from 15 ca tru (ceremonial singing) clubs from across the country are attending the National Ca Tru Festival in Hanoi from October 13-16.   

The festival aims to review the practices of ca tru in 15 provinces nationwide as mentioned in their 2009 profile submitted to UNESCO for recognition of ca tru as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind.

Participations have the chance to exchange experience in preserving and developing the art of ca tru over the year.

Ho Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said ca tru is of great value to both Vietnamese and international music.

Goethe Institute spotlights famed artist

Images from the career and style of the late German photographer Sibylle Bergemann are now on display at the Goethe Institute in Hanoi.

Bergemann (1941-2010) was one of the most important and progressive European photographers, said art historian and curator Matthias Flugge.

“Her timeless portraits and fashion photographs for her magazine Sibyl created style icons for an entire generation,” Flugge said.

Bergemann was also able to critically reflect the social developments of her time, and many of her photos have made history, such as a picture of two graces, posing in beach chairs with downturned mouths, which offered a counterpoint to the feminine ideal in Germany.

The dozens of black-and-white photos in the exhibition are just a small sample of Bergemann’s collections but represent her different schools of art, such as cityscapes, portraits, and fashion.

“Bergemann documented the desire for freedom and the creative potential that could develop in spite of political restrictions,” Flugge said.

“She was a sensitive observer, and the people in her photographs were presented with dignity and authenticity and with highest aesthetic standards. Her work has not lost its relevance and continued to be valued internationally.”

She represented individualistic ideals within an ‘apparently controlled, pseudo-egalitarian society’ and transferred of images, Flugge wrote in the preface to the exhibition catalogue.

The exhibition will run until November 12 at the Goethe Institute on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street.

Further exploration at Thang Long Imperial Citadel

The Centre for Conservation of Co Loa relic- Hanoi ancient citadel is working with the Archaeological Institute to dig five holes in Kinh Thien Palace area in the middle of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel.

Exploration started at the end of September, in conformity with UNESCO’s recommendation, as part of the research plan on Thang Long Citadel, focusing on the Long Tri Royal Courtyard and Kinh Thien Palace.

The centre is also cooperating with the UNESCO office in Hanoi to implement the project on preserving the cultural heritage complex of Thang Long, with funding from the UNESCO Japanese Funds – in- Trust.

The relic site of Thang Long Imperial Citadel has received more than 20.000 tourists, including foreigners, in the first nine months of this year.

Japanese language festival to take place in Hanoi

A Japanese language festival will be held at Hanoi Foreign Trade University on October 16 by the Vietnam-Japan Human Resources Cooperation Centre (VJCC).

The festival will include two contests for pupils and students who are currently studying Japanese: a Japanese language eloquence competition and an art performance. The winner of the eloquence contest will have the chance to visit Japan in two weeks.

The first Japanese eloquence contest was held in 1997 with the aim of providing Vietnamese students with opportunities to use their knowledge of the Japanese language while also promoting relations between the two countries. In 2003, the contest blossomed into a Japanese language festival.

Over the past 14 years, the festival has attracted an increasing number of pupils and students eager to show off their skills.

French treats, entertainment in town

Food and wine lovers should head to the French Weeks organized by the Hotel Equatorial HCMC from Friday until October 30.

Sumptuous Gallic dishes will be featured at special dinner buffets and a special brunch on October 30. A free flow of champagne and wine with Jazzy melodies from the Bigot Swing band from France will make for an unforgettable experience for diners.

The dinner buffet is priced at VND750,000 while Sunday Brunch is VND620,000.    

Another exciting event this month at the hotel is the Balade en France, the largest French food-related event on October 21 and 22. This is a culinary taste of seven French regions.

After last year’s success with more than 1,600 visitors, the event hopes to bring visitors to a bigger and more exciting festival evening with food, wine, games, dance, lucky draw, animation and fun. On this occasion, wine importers and major French restaurants in the city will offer the best local recipes that come perfectly with white, red or rose wines. Furthermore, diners will be welcome to dance to the rhythm of Bigot Swing and Petanque games, lucky draws and animations for the children. All funds will be donated to the ONG Poussieres de Vie.

Ticket prices for early birds are VND490,000 while entrance on the night is VND540,000.

For tickets or reservations, call: 3839 7777 ext 8041. The Hotel Equatorial HCMC is located at 242 Tran Binh Trong Street, District 5, HCMC.
 
Ho Dynasty Citadel’s stones excavated in Thanh Hoa
 
The northern province of Thanh Hoa has decided to start the excavation on ancient stones at the Ho Dynasty Citadel located at An Ton Mountain, Vinh Yen Commune in Vinh Loc District, reports Vietnam+.

This is part of a series of activities promoting the Ho Dynasty Citadel to celebrate receiving the world cultural heritage certificate from UNESCO in June next year.

As scheduled, the project will be carried out within three years and the Ho Dynasty Citadel’s Heritage Preservation Center will excavate ancient stones on an area of 300 square meters.

Based on ancient stones discovered at An Ton Mountain in August, researchers reckoned that the Ho Dynasty had exploited these stones to build its capital. Thus, the excavation activity is expected to help specialists understand more about the building stones’ origin which is unknown.
 
CitySmart hosts reading record attempt

Book lovers are invited to join the ‘Read for the Record’ campaign to break the world record for the most children reading the same book on the same day at Golden Westlake luxury condo in Hanoi and Ben Thanh Theater in HCMC’s District 1 from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Saturday.

The event, organized by CitySmart Vietnam, gives kids a chance to read and discuss the same book besides exciting activities such as Q&A, magic shows and receiving gifts from the event’s sponsors.

“By hosting Read for the Record, we aim to raise public awareness about the importance of reading books and share our goals for enriching children with the knowledge to become creative thinkers, skilled leaders and resourceful problem solvers,” said Thomas Chan, director and owner of CitySmart Vietnam.

For registration and free tickets, contact CitySmart Vietnam in HCMC at (08) 3832 8488/ 3775 5008 or in Hanoi at (04) 2220 6848/ 3728 2528 or email to  info@citysmart.vn with the subject “Registration for the Read for the Record event”.
 
Second E-Learning contest launched

Following the success of the first contest on designing electronic curriculum (E-Learning), the Ministry of Education and Training and the Lawrence S. Ting Community Assistance Fund on Wednesday started a second competition for the school year 2011-2012.

The contest is part of the third phase of the program Tien buoc cung IT (Developing with information technology) with total value of prizes of VND3.9 billion sponsored by Phu My Hung Corporation.

It is aimed at teachers in high schools and secondary schools throughout the country in 13 subjects, including mathematics, physics, chemistry and geography.

It is expected that the competition will contribute to encouraging local teachers to apply information technology to invigorate their teaching methods, especially E-Learning.
 
English speaking festival for students

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL – HCMC) will host an English speaking festival for students at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday at SEAMEO, 33C-35 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, HCMC.

The festival with the theme ‘Improving English reading and writing skills’ will be a forum for students from universities and colleges in town to learn from each other and discuss effective ways to improve their learning methods.
 
Local award-winning films to screen in Germany

Three Vietnamese films will be screened at the Asian Film Festival in Berlin 2011 at the end of this month in Germany.

“Bi, don’t be afraid” by rising filmmaker Phan Dang Di who won Cannes Film Festival 2010’s ACID and SACD Awards will be shown at the fest’s premier night, followed by the dancing movie “Saigon Electric” by Stephane Gauger.

An adaptation of Vietnamese writer Pham Thi Hoai’s short story, the short film “Sunday menu” directed by the Vietnamese – German filmmaker Liesl Nguyen will also be screened.

Tapping into the blurred boundaries of the notion of nationality, identity, kinship, sexuality and gender roles in this globalized era, the fest receives 30 entries from Asian, Asian transnational and diasporic filmmakers from around the world.

Asian Film Festival in Berlin 2011 will have a panel discussion on the film industry featuring Phan Dang Di and others like filmmaker Kong Rithdee from Thailand, Aya Hanabusa from Japan and Yau Ching and Arnika Fuhrmann from Hongkong.

First held in Berlin in 2007, the festival taking place every two years was originally titled Asian Women’s Film Festival before changing to its current name this year.

It will take place from October 26 to October 30 at the World Cultural Center and Korean Embassy in Berlin.

Beauties under criticism for sham charity trip

A group of local beauties have come under heavy criticism after a charity trip they joined donated little money -- a modest sum of less than $100 that was not even enough to cover the cost of their lunch with disadvantaged children -- and was alleged to be nothing but a photo op.

The trip was part of the “Miss Vietnam 2010 – A year looking back” program that gathers the Top 20 winners of last year’s pageant to have their photos taken for the book “Vietnamese ao dai,” which will be auctioned to raise money for Agent Orange victims around the country.

According to the organizers, the women would be taken on a charity trip to Thanh Xuan Children Support Center where they would spend about five hours cleaning the place, gardening, cooking, picking up the children to schools and having meals with them from 3pm to 8pm on October 3.

Because they were late, by the time they arrived at the centre, the staff already cleaned and tidied up the place, leaving the beauties with but a few simple tasks to perform, such as weeding and collecting trash outside of the institution for a short time -- and posing for pictures.

Moreover, Ngo Thi Kim Hong, director of the center told Phap Luat Newspaper she was stunned to receive VND1.5milion (US$75) from the organizers, saying the amount was to be spent on preparing meals for 110 people, including 40 of them and 70 kids at the center.

“The money wasn’t enough for a decent meal for 110 people, so I decided to throw in VND1million from the center’s budget,” Hong said.

“I had suggested that they give us more money for the meal instead of offering gifts, but they refused.”

Van Thi Chau, a nanny at the center also said that she had to use some of her own money to prepare the meal.

“I got VND300,000 to prepare the meal for children in the block I was in charge of (the center has 5 blocks). But there were 10 more people than they had informed us, so I had to take VND100,000 from my pocket to buy foods,” she said.

A volunteer taking part in the trip told to the newspaper that the volunteers donated VND2million of their own money to buy candies, cookies and notebooks for the kids.

Fielding questions from reporters, most of the women said they were shocked at the criticism.

“People usually associate doing charity with giving money. But how much money should be enough when there are so many disadvantaged people around?” Miss Talent Pham Bich Tram expressed her thought.

Other beauties like Ngoc Han, Nha Uyen and Thuy Duong, said the idea for the trip came to them accidentally when they thought of marking their one-year reunion with something meaningful.

“We did not bring much money and gifts but they represented our love and care for those kids,” Uyen said. “I was very upset about the criticism.”

The beauties also confirmed that they did not intend for it to be a “charity trip.” They were just hoping to bring laughter and emotional support to the children.

For his part, Dao Duc Hieu, head of the organizing board, said he had given the sum to the center on the basis of the daily cost of a meal there.

“The center said a meal for a kid costs VND6,000. So we gave VND1.5million for 100 meals.”

He also said that the delegation did not plan to bring them a lot of money but to offer the kids plenty of attention and love.

He added that there were many other gift donations from the trip’s sponsors, including the Hue-based Khanh Shyna Studio, Viet Da Travel Co and Cedadon, but the center had not told the media.

About the rumor that the beauties just pretended to do the gardening for some photo shoots, Hieu dismissed it all.

“We divided them into three teams and had them compete with each other to see which one could finish their job in the shortest time. It took us all an hour – it’s not true that we staged the whole thing in a few minutes for photo shooting.”

“We will meet Thuy Xuan center to talk about this and figure things out,” Hieu added.

Palestine documentary presented in Hanoi

A book and documentary film entitled ‘Palestine In Between Occupation Walls’ by a group of Vietnamese journalists were presented in Hanoi on October 12.

The event was held jointly by the Hanoi Union of Friendship Organisations, the Palestinian Embassy in Vietnam and the Vietnamese National Library.

The book includes articles and photographs describing the lives and feelings of Palestinians living in occupied territory. The 23-minute documentary follows the group of Vietnamese journalists on their first trip to Palestine in May of this year. Both works feature the friendship and solidarity between the Vietnamese and Palestinian people.

Speaking at the ceremony, Palestinian Ambassador to Vietnam Saadi Salama said he hopes that the book and the film will encourage Vietnam to support the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.
 
PV