Press photo contest launched

A press photography contest entitled 'The Nation – Current Beat of Life', was launched on September 15 in Hanoi for professional and amateur reporters and photographers across the country.

The contest is co-organised by The Newspaper Maker’s Magazine and Photography Magazine, under the Vietnam Association of Reporters and the Vietnam Association of Photographers.

Works submitted can reflect the country’s political, economic, cultural, social, and public security situation in the process of national construction and the protection of its sovereignty.

Each photographer can send a maximum of ten previously unpublished colour or black-and-white photos, 13 x 18 cm, taken between September 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012 to The Newspaper Maker’s Magazine at 5/43/17 Kim Dong Street, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi and 226/23 Le Van Sy Street, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City.

The deadline for entries is September 30 2012.

Design concept approved for Hanoi Museum

The design concept for five exhibition spaces in the Hanoi Museum was approved by the Hanoi People’s Committee on September 13.

According to the design, the first floor will be used as function rooms and for temporary exhibitions displaying the image of the Ascending Dragon, the spirit of Hanoi’s history and culture.

Works from the pre-Thang Long period and cultures of the ethic groups in Hanoi will be showcased on the museum’s second floor.

The third floor will introduce the Thang Long capital during the Dai Viet period and Hanoi in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, while the fourth floor will feature the capital from 1945 to the present.

In addition to the indoor exhibition spaces, the museum also has outdoor space for ornamental plants and sculptures, displays about the Old Quarter, traditional toys and folk games.

The exhibition design has a total capital of VND 775 billion (about US$37 million) from the State budget, nearly VND 333 billion (around US$16 million) of which willl be spent on technology and equipment.

Covering an area of nearly 54,000 square metres, the inverted pyramid-shaped Hanoi Museum was inaugurated in October 2010 as a significant construction to welcome the millennial anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi.

200-year-old mummy unearthed in Dong Nai  

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in the southern province of Dong Nai has announced the discovery of a mummified woman in an ancient tomb in Cau Xeo commune in Long Thanh district.

The department was excavating an ancient tomb site for clearance, to facilitate construction of the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay highway road, when they unearthed the 200-year-old mummy.

The excavation team was led by Professor Pham Duc Manh from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Ho Chi Minh City and renowned archeologist Do Dinh Truat. The mummified remains of the woman as well as its coffin have been preserved and brought to the museum.

Scientists said that the tomb had a secretive rectangular chamber. The tomb was 8.5 meters long including its wall and 4.5 meters wide. The coffin was shaped like a semicircle. It was adorned with a floral patterned cloth and the mummy was wrapped in cloth of a lotus leaf print.

After studying the structure of the tomb chamber and the coffin, archeologists came to the conclusion that the mummy was of noble birth during the Nguyen Dynasty.

Archaeologists will now conduct further research on the mummy along with medical experts from the University of Medicine in HCMC.
 
Photo exhibition highlights beauty of Vietnamese women  

A photo exhibition entitled “Vietnamese Lotus-Beauty of Vietnamese women” by photographer Tran Bich, opened in Ho Chi Minh City on September 18.  
                      
Visitors will enjoy 66 photographs representing the beauty of Vietnamese women; their brilliance, pureness, motherliness, their hardships, sacrifices and resilience in the face of many difficulties in their daily lives.

Proceeds from the photographs will be donated to the Ho Chi Minh City Women's Charity Association.

The exhibition will run until September 22 at 1-5 Le Duan Street, District 1, HCMC.
 
Mekong Delta Province of Soc Trang to host Vietnam Rice Festival  

The Mekong Delta Province of Soc Trang will host the 2nd Vietnam Rice Festival which aims to honor farmers and Vietnamese rice, from November 8-14.   
 
The Vietnam Rice Festival is an opportunity for enterprises to exchange experiences, new technologies and introduce their products to consumers and future business partners.

Many seminars on promoting Vietnamese rice to the world market will be held during the festival.

The festival will also feature a wide range of activities, including exhibitions on water-rice cultivation and the development of Vietnamese rice, firework displays, music performances, Vietnamese rice trademark competition, “Miss Countryside” beauty contest and a photo contest.

Vietnam Rice Festival will coincide with the Ooc-om-bok Ngo boat race, a traditional cultural activity of the Khmer people.

On the two days leading up to the tenth full moon of the year, when the rains have ceased and the rice is ripening in the fields, the Khmer people who live in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang entreat their moon deity for a bumper crop and good fortune in the festival of Ooc-om-bok. The people pray for good luck, happiness, good weather and a bumper crop, and express their sadness and worries and pray that their god will bestow favors on them and give them a better life.

The first Vietnam Rice Festival was held in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang in 2009.

21-year-old supermodel to represent VN at World Supermodel

Phuong Mai, 21, will represent Vietnam at the World Supermodel Contest to be held in Italy from September 25 to October 1, newswire Dan Tri reported.

“The contest is a good opportunity for me to learn from supermodels and broaden my knowledge of the Italian fashion industry,” it quoted Mai as saying.

Phuong Mai, who is studying at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Ho Chi Minh City, made her catwalk debut in 2007 and has become a familiar face on the local fashion since.

She made it to the top 10 of the Asian Supermodel Contest in China in 2009 and finished in the top 15 in the Miss Vietnam World a year later.  

Look of the Year, one of the world’s most prestigious modeling event, aims at looking for the year’s most impressive face.

Hanoi kids offered sexy dance for festival

A Moon Festival celebration held last Sunday for children in Tien Phong commune in Hanoi’s Ba Vi District featured an erotic dance performance.

Young women from a dance company in Hanoi wore scanty clothes and moved in a sexy manner.

Present in the audience, besides the children and their parents, were also authorities, including the head of the Tien Phong people’s committee.

According to the organizers, the event was postponed to last Sunday due to the national mourning on September 10-11 for the passing of former president Vo Chi Cong.

Hanoi students win environment video contest

Nguyen Van Thanh, a fifth year student at the Ha Noi University of Industrial Fine Arts, has won a video clip contest on sustainable development organized by German company Siemens.

His cartoon “Natural Balance” beat around 250 other entries to win the “Sustainability – All we need is U” contest.

It tells the story of humans appearing on the planet and living in harmony with nature until modern man overexploits and destroys the environment.

The clip took Thanh a month to finish.

At an awards ceremony September 16, the German company gave away the second prize to “Trees' Talk” by Tran Quang Tung from the Hanoi Arena University.

It tells the moving story of a family of flowers that is threatened by people's lack of environmental awareness before being finally saved by a young citizen.

Tung said: "Environmental issues are not just big ones like climate change. Mundane aspects of daily life can also offer new perspectives to viewers.”

The contest, which was open to students aged 18 to 25 in Vietnam, aimed to increase awareness of sustainability and appeal to youth’s responsibility about environmental issues.

“Vietnam is a developing country where urbanization is taking place at a very fast pace, but it is also one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change,” Erdal Elver, president and CEO of Siemens Vietnam, said.

“And yet not all Vietnamese, especially the young, are fully aware of the consequences of these two trends and the necessity to act sustainably – with respect to the economy, the environment, and society.”

This is the second contest for Vietnamese students organized by Siemens Vietnam after the “Ho Chi Minh City 21 – A Green and Sustainable City” photo contest last year.

The winning clips can be seen at www.thanhphobenvung.com.vn.

Japanese conductor ups profile of classical music

Japanese conductor Tetsuji Honna has been director the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra for the last 11 years.

Western classical music has for long been struggling to attract audiences in Vietnam where an average person would rather pay to watch a pop music concert.

But the VNSO, which has a repertoire ranging from classical and romantic to contemporary music and been performing around 60 concerts a year under Tetsuji’s baton, has been playing a part in demystifying classical music and making it more accessible to the public.

“We start with easy and popular pieces that everyone must know like Johann Strauss’s or Leroy Anderson’s, which are all cheerful compositions,” he says.

“Then we play longer and more sophisticated symphonies like Gusta Mahler’s. I believe when they get used to it, Vietnamese will like Mahler a lot.

“We have tried many different ways since we know most Vietnamese do not have the habit of going to classical concerts.”

A multiple award-winning musician who once led the National Symphony Orchestra of Hungary and Slovenia, Honna first came to Vietnam in 2000 when he was touring Asian countries with the Japanese Nagoya Philharmonic.

Right after his first concert in Hanoi, he was approached by Ngo Hoang Quan, VNSO’s general director, and offered his current job. “We need people like you here,” was Quan’s pitch.

The orchestra’s managers had ambitions to develop it with the help of an internationally known conductor like Honna.

“They hoped to advance the orchestra to regional status in 2005 and world ranking in 2010, which was really ambitious but hardly realistic.

“I was very surprised then, but still accepted their offer for it showed that they knew where they were and were determined to improve their standard.”

Since then, he has used his personal connections to invite internationally known classical artists to train VNSO’s musicians and perform with them at concerts.

Some were even willing to work for free for a short period and return in future, he says.

“It is hard to evaluate where VNSO stands regionally and worldwide. But I am confident that it has grown substantially in the past years.

“All the musicians even look different; they all have a real musician’s look now when they play since I think they have matured in their profession.

“VNSO could become one of the best orchestras in Asia if they work more on their music knowledge and skills.”

As for the audiences, “more go to classical concerts now and also willing to pay for tickets, though I have some acquaintances who still ask me for free tickets,” he says with a smile.

Honna was recently awarded a special prize by the Japanese Foreign Minister for his contribution to Vietnam-Japan relations.

Hanoi flower festival 2012 to open in December

The Hanoi Flower Festival 2012 will open in the capital city of Hanoi from December 30, 2011 to January 2, 2012.

According to Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Khac Loi, the festival aims to honor the cultural heritage sites and values that were recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), especially those of Hanoi through the means of flower.

It is part of activities to promote cultural tourism in the capital city and respond to the National Tourism Year 2012, which takes the theme of “Heritage Tourism”

This year’s festival will be held in streets of Dinh Tien Hoang, Le Thai To, Le Lai, Le Thach, the downtown, on the surface of Hoan Kiem lake and in popular sites of Ngoc Son temple, Tran Ba temple, The Huc bridge and But and Hoa Phong towers.

In the framework of the event, a wide range of activities such as flower arranging competitions, traditional games, exhibitions of ornamental plants, handicraft and tourism products will be also organized.

Vietnam takes part in Moving Planet

More than 1,500 Vietnamese volunteers in 16 provinces will participate in the Moving Planet Day this September 24, a campaign packed with activities to raise environmental awareness organized by the international organization 350.org.vn.

On this day, people are encouraged to walk or get on a bike to move the planet away from fossil fuels and push it towards a safe climate future.

In Hanoi, the event will take place in Thong Nhat Park at 6.30-11am. at the event, hundreds of people wearing conical hats will line up to form the number 350. Besides there will be an award ceremony for a photo contest on climate change. Local artists like Tung Duong, Khanh Linh, Duong Cam will perform songs related to the environment.

In Ho Chi Minh City, 350 volunteers will ride bicycles around the city starting from the Notre Dame Cathedral in the morning. A show called “Moving arts for climates” will take place at Labor Cultural House in District 1 featuring the exhibition of a big picture made from recycled straws and performances with skating boards, rollerblades and BMX bikes.

|Singers My Tam, Doan Trang, Thao Trang will sing at the event.

This is the third time Vietnam has participated in the Moving Planet campaign and the first time ever it has become a nation-wide event.

The campaign 350.org is designed to fight climate change and has been launched in 188 countries. 350 means 350ppm – the maximum safe level for the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere according to scientists’ latest calculation.

The current CO2 concentration is at 393ppm, so there is an urgent need to engage in prompt actions to avoid serious consequences caused by climate change.

Painting exhibitions

An exhibition featuring oil paintings drawn by young painter Nguyen Thuy Duong is on show in Hanoi.

Titled “Look,” the exhibition showcases 15 paintings focusing on human eyes. The works express the painter’s feelings about what the 26-year-old has seen and felt in this life.

“My paintings do not express what people want to see, they’re my own feelings”, Duong said.

The “Look” at Maison des Arts Gallery 31A Van Mieu will continue until September 25.

Elsewhere, 60 ink and wash paintings about many topics drawn by a group of Chinese painters from the District 5’s Fine Art Club in HCMC are being displayed at the district’s Culture Center.

The painters include Tien Nam, Lu Hong Phuc, Tran Nang Minh and Ly Dinh Tuong.

The exhibition at 131 Trieu Quang Phuc Street will run until September 25.

National flower photos exhibition

An exhibition titled “Lotus Life 11” featuring 66 photos about the beauty of the national flower lotus taken by photographer Tran Bich is being held in Ho Chi Minh City.

This is the 11th time the exhibition has been held since its first in 2009 in HCMC.

All money from selling photos will be handed over to the Women's Charity Association to help disadvantaged women around the city.

Bich has donated over 1VND billion through his 10 exhibitions so far.

The exhibition at Café Molinari at 1-5 Le Duan in District 1 will last until September 22.

Children choir concert

The Sol Art Choir, who won a gold medal and the Audience Prize at the Seventh International Johannes Brahms Choir Festival held in Wernigerode in Germany last July, will perform in a concert tonight (September 19) in Hanoi.

The choir will perform iconic Vietnamese folk songs including Con Ga Gay Le Te, Beo Dat May Troi, and Bac Kim Thang.

The choir founded by musician Dang Chau Anh three years ago consists of 37 singers aged from six to 16. The choir has been known widely for its participation in many big events in Vietnam. In 2009, Sol Art won a bronze medal in the folk music category at the World Choir Festival held from July 7-17 in Korea.

The concert will take place at the Hanoi Opera House at No 1 Trang Tien Street.

Speed filming contest opens in Ho Chi Minh City

The 48 Hour Film Project international filmmaking contest was launched Saturday morning at Megastar cinema complex in Ho Chi Minh’s Parkson Paragon mall.

The global contest, which requires filmmakers to write, shoot, edit, and complete a short movie within 48 hours and was first held in HCMC in 2010, is set to welcome Hanoi as a new addition.

Each contestant will have to work with a character, a prop, a line of dialogue, and a genre assigned by the organizers.

A jury comprising Hollywood’s Phillip Noyce, director of “The Quiet American,” renowned Vietnamese director Vinh Son, and Nguyen Quang Dung will judge the entries.

The winner will stands to get US$3,000, filmmaking equipment, a screening at the 48 Hour Film Project’s global festival Filmapalooza, and a possible chance to be shown at 2012 Cannes Festival.

“A Good Day To Die,” last year’s winning entry, was screened at the iconic French festival last May.

The 48 Hour Film Project will be held in Hanoi from October 14 to 16 and in Ho Chi Minh from November 4 to 6.

Registration closes on September 18 in Ho Chi Minh and September 23 in Hanoi.
Instituted in the US in 2001 by Mark Ruppert and Liz Langston, the 48 Hour Film Project attracted nearly 3,500 shorts in 84 major cities last year.

Heineken brings top British DJ to Hanoi

UK-based DJ Eddie Halliwell, known internationally for his stage presence and mixing skills, will perform this weekend in Hanoi at a dance music show sponsored by Heineken Beer.

The gifted young musician was named “DJ of The Year” by the UK’s leading dance music magazine Mixmag in 2003 and 2005.

Since starting his music career since 2002, Halliwell has toured Australia, the US, and Europe, and currently hosts his own radio program, “Fire It Up,” on the BBC which has an estimated 10 million listeners around the world.

He is also known as “ED-IT” (Eddie DJing with Integrated New Technology) for pioneering the use of modern sound techniques and appliances to create his frenetic tunes.

“Heineken Green Planet,” held annually since 2007, brings some of the world’s top DJs to Vietnam -- like Yoda, named one of the "Ten DJs To See Before You Die" by British music magazine Q in 2010, and Craze, who topped the DMC World DJ Championship six times.

“Heineken Green Planet” 2011 will take place September 24 at Gallery 42, Trang Tien.

More information is available at http://www.heineken.com.vn/music/.