Vietnamese writer wins Southeast Asian Writers Award  

Vietnamese writer Nguyen Chi Trung was among eight ASEAN artists to receive the 2011 Southeast Asian Writers Award (SEA Writers Award) on Feb 16.

However, the awards conferring ceremony had been delayed to 2012 due to the floods in Thailand last year.

Trung was born in 1930 in the central province of Da Nang. He served in the Vietnam People’s Army in the rank of Major General. He has worked in Ve Quoc Quan newspaper, Van Nghe Giai phong Quan   and as vice editor-in-chief of Van Nghe Quan Doi magazine.   

He won a prize in 2007 for his novel Tieng Khoc Cua Nang Ut (The Cry of Ms Ut), based on the life of a young woman during the Tra Bong up-rising against the US-backed Saigon regime in the central province of Quang Ngai in August 1959.

The novel had earlier scooped up a Vietnamese Writers' Association award in 2008.

He is also author of several short stories and novels: Da Nang (1950), Buc Thu Lang Muc (Letter from Muc village) written in 1964, and Doi thoai trong dem (Dialogue in the night) in 2011....

The SEA Writers Award has also been awarded to several other Vietnamese writers and poets, including Nguyen Ngoc Tu (2008), Cao Duy Son (2009), Nguyen Nhat Anh (2010), Bang Viet (2003), Nguyen Khai (2000), Nguyen Duc Mau (2001),Le Van Thao (2006), To Huu (1996), Ma Van Khang (1998), Tran Van Tuan (2007) and Huu Thinh (1999).

Founded in 1979 with support of the Thai Royal family, the annual award recognises and honours the works of contemporary poets and writers in Southeast Asian countries.
 
Japanese artists exhibit installation art in Hanoi



An installation art exhibition by Paramodel, a Japanese group of artists, will be held at the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Hanoi from February 16-March 11.

Paramodel is an art unit formed in 2001 by Hayashi Yasuhiko and Nakano Yusuke. Their title is a manifesto fusing the three English words of Paradise, Paradox and Model. In addition, their Japanese name Puramoderu means toy plastic dioramas.

The artists use combinations of plastic toys and other everyday objects to create blueprints of paradise, while stressing life’s paradoxes.

Their artworks range from large installations covering whole exhibition rooms to small sculptures, photographs, paintings, video, and other types of media. They are fun, popular and eye-catching works which bring visitors back to their childhood.

The two artists will have an exchange programme with Vietnamese artists and art lovers at the Vietnam Academy of Fine Arts on February 17.

MEN to come Vietnam for first time  

Gender-bending, genre-smashing sensation MEN are preparing to hit Vietnam for the first time this March 11.  
 
Coming straight from their Australia/New Zealand tour - including a headline performance at the Sydney Mardi Gras, MEN will hit Hanoi on Sunday March 11, joining local fem rockers Go Lim for a one-off show for CAMA at Hanoi Rock City, at 27/52 To Ngoc Van street at 8pm.

MEN is a Brooklyn-based band and art/performance collective led by LE TIGRE’s JD Samson.

MEN focus on the energy of live performance and radical potential of dance music.

Their music speaks of issues such as wartime economies, sexual compromise, and the demand for liberties through lyrical content and an inventive, high-energy stage show.

The group began in 2007 with the DJ/production/remix team of LE TIGRE members JD Samson and Johanna Fateman. With LE TIGRE on hiatus, when the duo began to write new songs, it made sense to merge their efforts with JD's other project HIRSUTE (Michael O'Neill, JD Samson, Emily Roysdon and Ginger Brooks Takahashi).

Fronted by feminist electro-punk pioneer J.D. Samson (Le Tigre), MEN draw on the legacy of new wave icons like Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, 80s post-punk, synth-pop and 90s electro to create a politcially charged and uniquely millennial sound.

Tickets: VND 200,000 (at the door)
For more on MEN's Vietnam debut visit www.camavietnam.org

Radical, raw, challenging, but above all danceable, MEN are one act not to miss in 2012!
 
Garbage turned into artworks

While most of us throw beer cans away after drinking, a man in the central province of Phu Yen turns them into artworks.

Tran Duy Vu, 26, together with his family and friends in Tay Hoa District, has collected these cans to cut them into small objects or familiar features of the Vietnamese countryside like the bamboos, rice fields, or an egret.

These objects are then inlayed on velvet or plywood to create a specific painting.

Vu says it usually takes him three to five months to finish a painting. An employee at the district’s verdict execution sub-department, Vu says that he will give his works to friends and relatives before opening a manufacturing plant for this kind of works in the future.

Vietnam film week in Sri Lanka

A Vietnam film week kicked off in Colombo city, Sri Lanka, on February 15.

The event was organized by the Vietnamese Embassy in coordination with the state-run National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka.

Ambassador Ton Sinh Thanh said that the film week is the first cultural activity launched by the embassy since its establishment last April. During the event, five Vietnamese movies which have won international awards will be screened, with three of them focusing on the past wars, he said.

According to the Vietnamese diplomat, the film week will help Sri Lankan audiences understand more about Vietnam and its people, both in the past and at present.

He said Sri Lanka will send an art troupe to the Hue Festival in central Vietnam in April. Vietnamese artists will open a photographic exhibition in Colombo city in June, and a Vietnamese art troupe will perform in Sri Lanka later this year.

Exhibition features early-century print newspapers

An exhibition which opens Thursday in a bookstore in Ho Chi Minh features more than 100 original copies of special edition print newspaper published in the early 20th century in Vietnam.

Called “Bao Xuan,” or Spring Newspaper in Vietnamese, these are the special editions that were put out for the celebration of the coming Lunar New Year back in the 1930s–1940s, a practice still common in the present-day press industry.

These print works belong to various private collectors from across Vietnam, including Nguyen Dinh Dau, Nguyen Huu Triet, Hoang Minh, Vu Ha Tue, and are curated by the bookstore’s owner, Duong Thanh Hoai.

The exhibition is expected to shed light on the early development of the print press in Vietnam and provide valuable reference materials important to the history of the publishing industry.

As “Tet” or Lunar New Year is a symbolic occasion in the country’s rich culture, these editions dedicated a large part to articles, pictures and design layouts embodying traditional practices and values.

These items also contained rich contents, from literary to journalistic materials distinctive of the early 19th century in Vietnam, which can suggest topics for many interesting research or academic studies.

“Even its advertisement section is worth a research or study in its own right, from the language to marketing tools for the products then. It is also a very good way to study the nascent domestic market at the time,” a journalism scholar said.

The exhibition remains open until mid-March at Nha Nam Thu Quan at 015 Apartment, 43 Ho Van Hue, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh.

Cai luong sung in English in capital show

Tourists and locals alike will have a chance to enjoy Vietnamese cai luong (Southern opera singing) in English by the Hanoi Theater of Cai Luong at Chuong Vang Theatre at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

The gala will feature a drum performance, Cham people’s dance, and cai luong pieces such as Da co hoai lang, Ke trom dem giao thua and Tinh yeu tren dong song quan ho together with a short drama and flute dance shows.

Unlike last year’s program, organizers will not translate the whole cai luong show but key extracts and typical scenes in order that international tourists will understand.

Future Cai luong shows in English will take place at weekends.
 
Hanoi eaterie to host Brazilian Festa II  

Brazilian Festa II is set to take place on March 9 at Au Lac do Brazil Hanoi restaurant following the success of November’s inaugural event.  

Diners will be overwhelmed with an animated night of music and Latin dance performances in the unique Brazilian style, the special buffet menu Barbecue Churrasco and optional drinks such as Caipirinha and Grand Marnier cocktails.

The steak restaurant is located at 6A Cao Ba Quat Street in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh District.