Road through ancient village sparks questions

Many people are asking why a 2 km cement road is being built in Hanoi’s old Duong Lam Village, which is a heritage site strictly protected by the government.

The first 800-m section of the VND5 billion (US$238,000) project has been finished. This section connects the 17th century Mong Phu Temple with the 400-year-old Mia Pagoda.

The 5m-wide cement road is raising many eyebrows as it crosses Duong Lam, which was recognized as a National Cultural Historical Heritage in 2006 and is a famous tourist attraction.

Duong Lam boasts a hundred of old houses and a number of valuable pagodas and temples dating back to the 17th century.

To preserve the original state of the village, the local government has upheld strict construction regulations which do not allow locals to build second floors for their houses or use modern materials such as cement, concrete, steel or tin roof.

“Many locals were forced to knock down their second floors and they have to be authorized by local government and the Heritage Management Board to repair or renovate their own house,” Phan Van Hoa, deputy head of the Duong Lam Commune said.

Hoa said the villagers are only allowed to use traditional and natural building materials such as laterite, local bricks, tiles, straw, bamboo or wood and all roads inside the village were built with bricks to preserve the original architectural style.

“They built the road very fast, with machines. They only informed people who live near the road about the project in advance and the rest of us knew nothing about it,” a villager told Tuoi Tre.

Hoa said the local government did nothing wrong as the project was approved by higher authorities last year.

But he said it was the previous local administration which approved it and the current administration has simply carried it out.

Hoa said he personally thought the road would have fit in better with the surrounding architecture if it had been built with bricks.

The local government did not consult the site’s Heritage Management Board as “we didn’t know that we had to be authorized by them to carry out this local project which had already been allowed by higher authorities,” Hoa said.

Nguyen Trong An, deputy head of the board, said the board did know about the project but thought it would be a brick road.

“They did it so fast that when we realized it, they had already finished 800 m. We have told them to stop and reported to higher authorities,” An said.

VN student wins French environment film fest

A short movie made by a Vietnamese student from Ho Chi Minh City University of Theatre and Cinema has beaten 25 rivals to win the highest prize, Philips Lighting, at the French environment film festival Science Frontières.

In the 4-minute 20-second film titled “Mot thong diep nho” (A small message), the 19-year-old student Dao Minh Nguyet used simple objects like a blank notebook, pens and scraps of paper to tell a story of how a small piece of scrap paper turns a city into a landfill.

Through the film, which Nguyet dubbed in Vietnamese and English, she wants to raise the public awareness of the need for environment protection, which usually starts with small, simple actions like stopping the habit of throwing garbage on the streets.

The young student said news of her winning the prize took her by surprise.

The short movie was originally an assignment for one of her courses at school. With her French teacher François Serre’s help, she completed the clip and sent it to a film competition, the Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival, in France. From there it mysteriously made its entry into the French environment film festival Science Frontières.

“I know very little about this festival,” Nguyet said. “I was quite lucky to have the movie entered the competition.”

“I normally don’t do very well with movies I have put a lot of effort in. But after this, I’ll do my best for any of my movies.”

Born in 1992, Nguyet is currently a second-year student at the cinematography director department at the HCMC University of Theatre and Cinema.

In 2009, she won the Best Staging Clip prize for her short clip “Someday” at the “Canon – the colorful life” filmmaking contest.

The Frontiers Science Festival was held by the Frontiers Science Association, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, the European Society of Directors on Environment and Terre TV from November 4 to 5 at Marseille City.

Ukraine hosts Vietnamese Culture Days

Ukrainians are set to get a taste of Vietnamese culture as the Vietnam Culture Days caravan goes to the country’s major cities between November 14 and 20.

It will be held at the Ukraine National Conservatory of Music in Kiev November 15, the Kharkov Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kharkov city November 17, and the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre November 19.

The event will feature music performances by well-known singers like Ta Minh Tam, Thanh Thuy, and Vo Ha Tram and traditional dances by Vuong Linh and Linh Nga.

Designer Thuan Viet will show off four collections with some top models wearing his clothes and accessories.

The festival is being organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism in collaboration with Ukraine’s Culture Ministry.

It was held in the Russian cities of Moscow and St Petersburg last December to rapturous response.

10,000 pirated books seized in Hanoi

Hanoi police and market management authorities Saturday seized more than 10,000 pirated copies of best-selling foreign books from a publisher in Thanh Tri District.

The titles seized at Huy Thi publishers owned by Nguyen Van Thi include “How to stop Worrying and Living” and “How to win friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie and “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey.

The Vietnamese copyrights for the books are owned by First News, a city-based publisher.
In April the police had again seized thousands of pirated copies of 70 best-selling foreign books including “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,” “Secrets of Closing the Sale,” “Seeds for the soul,” “Chicken Soup,” and “How to stop Worrying and Living” from three bookshops on Duong Lang and Nguyen Trai Streets.

The authorities stepped in following a complaint from First News, which has the copyrights to these books too.

International Tea Festival 2011 closes

The First International Tea Festival – Thai Nguyen, Vietnam 2011 closed at the Nui Coc Lake tourist site in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on November 15.

At the closing ceremony, the organizing board presented awards to individuals and organizations for their great contributions to developing the tea industry.

Visitors to the seven-day event had unforgettable memories of tea-related activities, art performances, a beauty contest, a photo exhibition, and a cuisine festival.

Besides, an international conference on tea was also held to provide an overall view of Vietnam’s tea products and tea-drinking culture.

The festival attracted the participation of 30 tea enterprises of the Vietnam Tea Association, and 25 domestic trading and processing businesses and 50 famous tea villages in Thai Nguyen, along with foreign tea producers from six countries, namely China, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka and Laos.

Music comes to life on canvas by Dao Trong Luu

‘Rhythm and Game’ by artist Dao Trong Luu, which opens on Tuesday at Tu Do Gallery in HCMC’s District 1, features 15 oil-on-canvas paintings made this year.

Luu’s works in abstract style see musical tones presented by varied colors. In that colorful world, the artist composes visual songs such as Overture ‘Tet,’ Variation No.8, New Day Symphony, Fantasy Sentimental or Blue Rhythm. “Since I was a child, I have had a habit of painting whilst listening to music and the passion for music and painting has only grown on me as I get older,” said the artist.

The works were made in the romantic and spacious area of Sapa Town in Lao Cai Province. The artist listened to the melody of nature and put it into paintings as if they are mute songs.

“The strong or soft lines are like the rhythms of sensation of Luu as a child playing with a brush on canvas,” said artist Tran Thi Thu Ha, owner of the gallery.

The show runs at Tu Do Gallery, 53 Ho Tung Mau Street, District 1 until November 28.
 
Le Van Kinh honored by Vietking
 
Vietnam Record Books (Vietking) has handed over this year’s certificate to honor embroidery artisan Le Van Kinh, based in Hue City, for his fascinating work Cao tat thi chung (When having disease I tell everybody) by Man Giac Zen master in 14 different languages, reports Vietnam+.

Kinh plans to embroider six more paintings in six different languages, increasing the total number of foreign languages of the work to 20.

Eleven years ago, a German guest told the 83-year old artist to create a Vietnamese-style piece, helping the latter come up with Cao tat thi chung.

Since then, the poem has been embroidered with silk threads in 14 different languages, including English, French, German, Russian and Spanish.

A number of these paintings have been bought in large numbers by foreign visitors from Europe and Asia.

Kinh, who is one of the first handicraft artisans in Hue to be recognized as the country’s folk artisan, wishes to bring his masterstrokes to exhibitions in Vietnam and abroad.
 
Toyota drawing contest for kids

Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) in cooperation with the Department of Primary Education (Ministry of Education & Training) last week organized a kids’ drawing contest with the theme ‘Dream Car’.

TMV wants pupils to ‘Draw the car of the future. Let your imagination drive you far’ for primary pupils from grade 1 to grade 5 nationwide. The contest has a national contest and international contest with many attractive and interesting prizes.

The national contest will accept entries until 30 December. The pictures must express the child’s dream and is not allowed to copy or imitate ideas from available materials, pictures, photos or other people.

Each pupil or group of pupils can submit a maximum of three
pictures. Results will be announced in March 2012. The 10 best pictures will move forward to the ‘The sixth Toyota Dream Car Art Contest’ in Japan.
 
Book fair in town

Youth Publishing House will open Canh cua mo rong (Doors wide open) book fair from Thursday to Monday at 161B Ly Chinh Thang Street in District 3.

There will be numerous new titles arranged for five different themes for the five-day event. Thursday will feature books under the theme of Canh cua mo rong.

The next day themed Con duong Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs’ road) will introduce ‘Steve Jobs’ totaling 5,000 copies released by the publishing house or other books regarding economics, management and administration such as ‘Free’ by Chris Anderson.

Saturday will see an introduction on novels and film scripts of famous movies including ‘Casablanca’, ‘Roman holiday’, ‘Letter from an unknown woman’, ‘When Harry met Sally’ and ‘Twilight’ for the subject of Tu sach, tu phim (From books, from films)

At 9 a.m. on Sunday, child readers will enjoy the theme Thieu nhi va Cuoc chien voi hanh tinh Fantom (Children and the fight with Fantom planet) via  an exchange with Nguyen Binh, the ten-year old author of Cuoc chien voi hanh tinh Fantom.

Meanwhile, the final day will welcome visitors with an introduction on a collection of books on Bien dao Viet Nam (Vietnamese Seas and Islands). Books will be offered at discount prices, ranging from 10% to 80%.