Prehistoric artefacts found in Ha Giang 

Ancient artefacts, from a prehistorical culture dating back 4,000 – 7,000 years; have been discovered in a cave in the northern province of Ha Giang’s Bac Me District. 

According to Trinh Nang Chung from the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology, head of the excavation team, two tombs have been excavated in the Khuoi Nang Cave.

Archaeologists said one of the tombs contained bone fragments and teeth from an adult, while the other had the remains of a child. The adult’s grave also contained stone tools.

In addition, Archaeologists have found hundreds of stone tools in the cave, including hatchets, hoes and knives, together with lots of ‘red stone powder’. It is believe that this red power is painted onto the corpse, so that the decease person reaches the ‘afterlife’.

Chung said that Khuoi Nang is the residence of prehistoric people, dating back 6,000-7,000 years ago.  Prehistoric human culture was in existence 10,000 years ago.

Fabric patterns on display in Hanoi

An exhibition featuring diverse Oriental and African patterns on cloth fabrics by Finnish artist Maritta Nurmi is taking place at the Art Vietnam Gallery, No 7 Nguyen Khac Nhu, Hanoi.

Nurmi draws different patterns and sends them to India to be printed upon fabrics, from which she makes clothes in her own style.

She has held 14 exhibitions in Vietnam, Thailand, Finland and the US.

“Nurmi is one of the pioneers in introducing an exhibition mixed between fashion and art," commented art director Suzanne Lecht of the Art Vietnam Gallery. "She discovers all materials and shapes, bringing everyday details into a higher level."

Last year, she went to Africa and was amazed by colorful clothes Beninese women wore. Back to Vietnam, she tried to represent their patterns and colors à la her designs.

“Colors, how beautiful and attractive they are,” Maritta, who has lived in Hanoi for the past 13 years, said in Vietnamese.

A late starter, Nurmi graduated from the Turku Academy of Art when she was 40 years old after working in the chemistry industry in Finland for 10 years.

She is now living in Vietnam with her brother.

“Influenced by modern arts, her works still have oriental spirits and femininity. Her bending all laws and creativity is something young Vietnamese should learn,” said Pham Trung, chair of the modern art faculty at the Vietnam University of Art.

Her exhibition opens until January 7 next year.

Korean TV features Vietnamese subtitles

A Korean television network has launched an internet protocol television service with programs having subtitles in several languages including Vietnamese.

The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) also carries subtitles in English, Chinese, and Japanese.

Newswire VietnamPlus quoted KBS president Kim In-kyu as saying since Vietnamese form one of the largest expatriate communities in Korea, the network chose their language.

The number of Vietnamese marrying Koreans has risen to 35,000 and counting, and making foreigners quickly adapt to Korean society is a top priority for the government.

KBS broadcasts movies, documentaries, entertainment shows and other popular programs for the benefit of mixed families, subtitling shows with high ratings.

The new service has been introduced in cooperation with the Korean internet and security agency and SK Broadband.

Artificial snow, the latest Christmas attraction

Children enjoying the artificial snow during Christmas celebrationThere is a new attraction in town for Christmas this year – artificial snow.

Briton Mar Goldinga and American Marc Spindel have brought to Vietnam a kind of resin which, when added to water, turns into a fluffy white substance that looks exactly like snow. It can exist by a week, depending on weather conditions.

Spindel said he knew about it from film crews who often use this in their films.

Now, it is available at souvenir shops in Ho Chi Minh City, priced around VND50,000 (US$2.5) a box.

Goldinga told Tuoi Tre that he used the artificial snow at performances in some schools in District 7 like RMIT, South Saigon International School, and Khai Sang (Renaissance) International Primary School, fascinating the kids there, especially those coming from cold countries.

Pharmacist Ma Chi Thanh said the product is non-toxic, harmless, and non-polluting.

US poet returns to Vietnam

American War veteran and poet Bruce Weigl is in Vietnam for the launch of his poetical memoir ‘After the Rain Stopped Pounding’.

He has participated in several discussions and literary exchanges during his ten-day visit which began on December 10.

Bruce Weigl, whose name is familiar in literature about the American War, has published several poetical anthologies, including ‘The Monkey Wars’ and ‘Song of Napalm’ which earned him a Pulitzer Prize-nomination in 1988.

He was granted the Lannan Literary Award in Poetry in 2006.

In addition to writing poetry, he worked with editor and translator Nguyen Thanh from the William Joiner Research Centre to translate poems of liberation soldiers captured during war.

He recited his poems during the Friends poetry programme at the Quang Tri Old Citadel on December 13.

The venue was among the fiercest battlefields of the American War, and Vietnamese veterans who are members of varied poetry clubs will join the programme.

He also exchanged views with ‘Song Huong’ (Perfume River) magazine which publishes creative writing, reviews and cultural research in the central city of Hue on December 14.

He presented his memoir ‘The Circle of Hanh’ in Hanoi on December 15. First published in the US in 2000, the memoir is his own story about his struggles with drugs and alcohol after the war and his subsequent redemptive return to Vietnam, where he adopted an eight-year-old girl, Nguyen Thi Hanh.

The launch of ‘After the Rain Stopped Pounding’, which has been translated into Vietnamese by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, will take place at the University of Culture, 418 La Thanh Road, Hanoi, at 7.30pm on December 16.

National library presented with German books

The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Goethe Institute today presented fifty three textbooks, worth US$2,500 to the National Library of Vietnam.

A presentation ceremony was held this morning at the National Library of Vietnam (NLV), 31 Trang Thi street in Hanoi.

Addressing the ceremony, Charge d'Affaires of the German Embassy in Vietnam, Carsten Meyer-Wiefhausen, said that the presentation was being made under an agreement on document provision and qualification based training signed between the Goethe Institute and the National Library of Vietnam on September 22, 2010.

He said he hoped that the 53 textbooks, which cover elements of law, economics and technology, will provide Vietnamese readers with updated information on these fields.

Director of the NLV, Phan Thi Kim Dung, expressed her special thanks to the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Goethe Institute.

“These meaningful gifts would be made available at the Library’s newly-opened multi-language reading room,” she said.

The director also stressed that the event, which is among activities held during ‘German Year in Vietnam’, would contribute to promoting cultural exchange and mutual understanding between the two countries.

In September 2010, the Frankfurt Centre for International Book Fairs and Exhibitions presented the NLA with 800 books from German publishers.

11,000 items sent to ‘Resistance War Mementoes’ collecting movement

Around 11,000 items have been sent to the ‘Resistance War Mementoes’ collecting movement, announced the event’s organising board at a press conference in Hanoi on December 14.

The movement was launched in 2008 by the General Politics Department of the Vietnam People's Army, the Vietnam’s War Veterans Association and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee. It received the positive response and support from war veterans and the people at home and abroad.

On the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army (1944-2010), 1,033 items selected from the 11,000 mementoes are being displayed at an exhibition entitled ‘Imprint of Time’ at the Vietnam Military History Museum, 28A Dien Bien Phu street in Hanoi from December 15.

Various activities were also held across the country as parts of the movement, including four exhibitions, three exchange programmes, 11 meetings with historical witnesses and a writing contest, which attracted over 300 entries.

A closing and awards ceremony will take place on December 19 in Hanoi and will be broadcast live on the Vietnam Television.

Heather Jakeman performs at Purple Jade

Californian singer Heather Jakeman will play every Tuesday to Saturday night from 8 p.m. till late at the signature bar Purple Jade on level 1 of the InterContinental Asiana Saigon in HCMC’s District 1.

After graduating from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, she performed as a singer for the United Services Organizations (USO) and played at many national events on the USO World Tour. Heather also won a Toppers Award for Best Actress for her performance as Audrey in the ACT production of Little Shop of Horrors in Italy.

Heather has performed alongside Wayne Newton, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, Miss America, and Diamond Rio and has entertained crowds across the United States and internationally, including a special invitation to Washington DC to sing for the first lady.

Chill out to her smooth soulful tunes while enjoying the exclusive cocktail drink menu at Purple Jade during happy hour from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m.

InterContinental Asiana Saigon is at the corner of Le Dua Boulevard and Hai Ba Trug Street, District 1, HCMC.

Grey, white and black in Nguyen Trung’s painting

An art exhibition called Grey White Black by Nguyen Trung last weekend opened in Galerie Quynh, 65 De Tham Street, District 1, HCMC.

Since the monochromatic Blackboard paintings (2004), Nguyen has been experimenting with canvases of minimal color. The works in this exhibition are images of the city. The artist was inspired by the pavements, the walls, the scratches and marks present in the urban fabric of HCMC. Unlike in his earlier, textured abstract works that were more somber where histories behind crumbling facades were highlighted, these new paintings seem to take viewers on a walk through a familiar city where tiny new discoveries are revealed.

Born in Soc Trang in 1940, Nguyen Trung is Vietnam’s foremost abstract painter. His artistic career spans over fifty years in a life marked by French colonial rule and the Vietnam War.

The exhibition runs till Dec. 26.

Homeland spring programme to be held in Thang Long Royal Citadel

The Xuan Que Huong (Homeland Spring) programme is scheduled to take place in Thang Long Royal Citadel, Hanoi on January 28, 2011 to welcome the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, said the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese (SCOV) on December 14.

As part of a series to celebrate the successful hosting of the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi and the 11th National Party Congress, the programme is to be jointly organised by SCOV under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other related agencies.

The programme will see the presence of high-ranking leaders of the Party and State, ambassadors, chiefs of foreign diplomatic missions in Vietnam and overseas Vietnamese, along with press agencies.

The “Xuan Que Huong” programme is held annually and attracts a large number of overseas Vietnamese, helping preserve national traditions and cultural identity as well as promoting national unity.

PV