Music book gets place in Vietnam Guinness Book of Records 

A press conference was held in the Loging Restaurant in District 1 on January 19 to announce the entry of a music book composed by 48 year-old composer Le Van Tuan in the Vietnam Guinness Book of Records. 

The music book naned "Tear for the Ocean and CROR Music" is 1.6 - meters high, 1.2 - meters wide, 0.28 - meters thick and weighs 250 kilograms. It is a compilation of classical, romantic, opera and rock (COROR) forms of music. The book also includes poems, drama, paintings and allegorical stories.

Among the eight symphonies in the album are also Late-coming Spring, Thatched Roof Home, Princess and Come Back to the Desolate Hamlet.

A ceremony to make the formal announcement will be held on January 27 when the Union of UNESCO Vietnam organizations will also introduce a new centre for culture and communication.

Hanoi hosts gala to congratulate Party Congress’s success

A large number of Hanoians joined a gala at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi on January 19 welcoming the success of the 11th National Party Congress.

Presented at the gala were newly-elected General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung and other Party, State and Fatherland Front leaders.

The gala began with many cultural activities performed by artists from the Vietnam Tuong Theater, the Vietnam Circus Federation, the Vietnam Puppetry Theater and other art troupes from 54 ethnic minority groups across the country.

Speaking at the gala, the Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong declared that the 11th National Party Congress was a great success. This was a political event of great significance for the whole nation. On behalf of the Party and State leaders, Mr Trong expressed his gratitude to all the Party, people, armed forces, overseas Vietnamese and international friends who had contributed valuable opinions and proposals to the Congress.

He urged the Party, Government, Fatherland Front and other mass organisations to engage on the national patriotic emulation movement in celebration of the Party’s 81st anniversary and the day the late President Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam 70 years ago to directly lead the country’s revolution.

Mr Trong also called for co-coordinated efforts to overcome the consequences of the recent cold spell and assist families of social policy beneficiaries, disadvantaged households, and people in remote and mountain areas in preparing for the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday.

Hanoi hosts Asian Children's Festa awards ceremony

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held an awards ceremony for the Mitsubishi Asian Children's Enikki Festa and the logo design contest for the annual summit of the Asian Development Bank in Hanoi on January 19.

After two months of competition, the organising board of the Asian Children's Enikki Festa received more than 19,850 paintings submitted by school children across the country.

The jury panel granted sent 8 paintings winning the A prizes to Japan for an international painting contest, the Mitsubishi Asian Children's Enikki Festa 2010-2011.

The Festa will be an excellent opportunity for Vietnamese children to express their knowledge and feeling about their surrounding areas through their pictures.

The organising board of the logo design contest for the 44th Asian Development Bank (ADB) summit also selected 8 excellent logos from 200 designs by 52 artists nationwide.

The winning logo by designer Pham Tam will be used as an official logo for this year’s ADB annual summit in Vietnam.

Saint Giong Festival to receive UNESCO certificate

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Hanoi Municipal People’s Committee and the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO will organise a ceremony to grant UNESCO certificate to the saint Giong Festival as a world heritage in Hanoi on January 22.

The saint Giong Festival was the third cultural heritages in Vietnam recognised by UNESCO in 2010 along with the 82 doctorate steles in the Temple of Literature and Thang Long Royal Citadel.

It is an annual traditional festival held in many provinces across the country to commemorate the glorious victory of the legendary saint Giong, one of Vietnam’s Four Immortals, the four chief cult figures in the pantheon of genii worshiped by the ancient Vietnamese people.

The ceremony aims to promote the festival as well as the country and people to international friends and improve public awareness to preserve the priceless cultural value of the heritage.

Free documentaries to be screened in Vietnam

Six free documentary films produced in the 1960s will be aired at a two-day Vietnam Documentary Film Festival in Hanoi, starting today to mark the country’s Communist Party’s anniversary, falling on February 3.

At the fest, the audience will have a chance to see six films namely “Images of late President Ho Chi Minh’s life”, “The South in My Heart”, “Ho Chi Minh – His Image”, “General Vo Nguyen Giap – one Century, one Human Life”, “Communist Soldiers”, and “From Ba waterfall to Son La hydroelectric plant”.

Also in the program, the filmmakers will have a Q&A session with the audience.

In other news, Ho Chi Minh City-based Idecaf will screen the film “Luon o ben con” (Always by your side), which won the Best Documentary award at the Vietnam International film festival in Hanoi last October.

Tickets costing VND15,000 (US$0.75) each are available at 28 Le Thanh Ton Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

Spring Fest to welcome New Year in Hanoi

Some 600 local and international firms join Hanoi’s Spring Fair, which opened on January 20 at the Vietnam Exhibition and Fair Center to satisfy the consumption needs of city dwellers as the Lunar New Year festival is approaching.

The fair, from January 20 -31, will include daily goods for Tet like confectionaries, food, beverage, cookies and jams, furniture, household commodities, decorative plants and food specialties from different localities.

As a part of the fair, there will be beverage festival with 120 booths with well known brands such as Habeco and Sabeco.

The fair is expected to be a great event for trade promotions and also for preservation of cultures of Hanoi and Vietnam .Art performances and festivals will be organized during the event.

The fest is to take place at Giang Vo Exhibition Center, 146 Giang Vo Street, Hanoi.

Style TV to host fashion show in city

Style TV will organize a fashion show titled “Code of Style” in Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow, featuring collections by top local designers like Hoang Ngan, Vo Phan Huy, Chung Thanh Phong, and Kelly Bui.

Ngo Quang Hai, who made the art-house favorite “Pao’s story,” will direct the show, the organizers said.

Top models like Thanh Hang, Vo Hoang Yen, Ngoc Quyen, Phuong Mai, and Kim Minh will show off the clothes.

They are scripted to play four characters from Hollywood film “Sex and the City.”

Exhibition showcases Indochina cultures

An exhibition of photographs depicting cultural relics from ancient Indochinese capitals opened at the French Culture Center in Hanoi, L’Espace, Monday.

“Communities through Time,” by French photographer Sebastian Laval provide a window into the life and culture of people in Hue (Vietnam), Angkor (Cambodia), and Luang Phabang (Laos)

Laval’s floating houses, flickering cooking fires, smiles of kids, and the austere expression on the face of a Co Tu man capture the enigma of these Southeast Asian countries.

Laval, who lives in Poitiers, France, became a professional photographer in 1993.

His first exhibition in Vietnam last January featured 36 pictures of minorities living in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue’s mountainous areas.

He visited the country first in 1995 and says its various ethnic minorities have become a source of inspiration for his works.

The exhibition will go on until February 11 and admission is free.

Rock music author talks on The Beatles

At 2.30 p.m. on Saturday, Saturday Café will host a talk and a music performance on “John Lennon and The Beatles - A cultural phenomenon of the 20th century”.  

Huynh Chi Vien, the author of the book “The Beatles, Half of century - A legend” published last year, and a second book that will be released this year, “History of Rock from 1950-1970”, will give the talk. 

Vien who is an academic and lecturer will talk about the business and artistic success of The Beatles, the hallmarks of each band member, especially John Lennon, the solo singing career of each one after the band broke up, and John Lennon who is considered a cultural phenomenon of the 20th century.

There will be a 35-minute music performance of The Beatles’ songs by the Vietnamese band Psychedelia. The café is at 37 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, HCMC’s District 1.

Sebastien Laval and communities through time

A photo exhibition named “Communities through Time” by French photographer, Sébastien Laval, opened Monday at the French Culture Centre in Hanoi, L’Espace.

The photos portray the life and culture of people in Hue City (Vietnam), Angkor (Cambodia) and Luang Prabang (Laos). Laval’s treatment of the floating houses, flickering cooking fires, innocent smiles of kids, the austere expression on the face of a Co-Tu man, and a tobacco pipe between a Paco woman’s lips captures the enigma that endures throughout these South East Asian countries.

Last year, Sébastien Laval’s photos of Vietnamese minority people in remote areas in Thua Thien Hue Province, left deep impressions on Vietnamese and visitors alike.

Sébastien Laval, a famous French photographer, arrived for the first time in Vietnam in 1995. Most of his photos are about Vietnamese ethnic minority people.

The exhibition runs till February 11 at the L’Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street in Hanoi.

PV