Taiwan vocal band performs in Hai Phong

The Semiscon Vocal Band from China’s Taiwan on March 6 gave a performance in the northern city of Hai Phong, reported the Hanoi Moi daily.

The art programme was jointly held by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hanoi and the Taiwanese Businessmen Association (TBA) in Vietnam.

During the event, the band performed special items with a unique acappella style (singing without musical instruments), in combination with dances and limelight.

The programme aimed to help Vietnamese spectators to enjoy special characters of Taiwan’s music and culture as well as promote exchanges with the Taiwanese community in Vietnam.

UNESCO official sees Buddhist Sutra-carved blocks

Ray Edmondson, Chair of the Asia-Pacific Regional Committee for Memory of the World Programme, saw wood blocks printed with Buddhist Sutras that are seeking for UNESCO’s World Documentary Heritage recognition at Vinh Nghiem pagoda in the northern province of Bac Giang.

The UNESCO official, accompanied by the Sectary General of the Vietnam UNESCO Committee Pham Sanh Chau and others, visited Vinh Nghiem pagoda and held a working session with provincial authorities on March 5.

Ray Edmondson said he was touched when seeing with his own eyes this collection of valuable woodblocks while other people can only view them via video.

Vinh Nghiem pagoda houses 3,050 woodblocks, which provide a wide range of information on the formation, development and ideology of Truc Lam Zen Buddhism, founded by King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong in the 11th century.

The blocks also tell a history of wood block carving in Vietnam and the careers of some eminent monks.

Vice Chairman of the Bac Giang provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Linh said the study, preservation and promotion of woodblocks’ values will greatly help local people be aware of conserving traditional culture and promote the regional community’s understanding on the preservation of oriental culture.

Pham Sanh Chau emphasised the woodblocks kept in Vinh Nghiem pagoda were unique as they signified Truc Lam Zen Buddhism’s ideology of bringing religion into life by the founder, King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong, which made it different from other Zen sects.

Vietnamese film days to open

The Vietnamese documentary film days will take place in Hanoi from March 8-10, according to the National Documentary and Scientific Film Production Studio (DFS).

The programme is held jointly by the DSF and the Vietnam Cinematography Association (VCA) to celebrate the VCA’s Canh Dieu (Kite) 2010 awards, which will be held in Ho Chi Minh City on March 13.

Seven films produced in 2010 on different topics will be screened during the event, including a documentary on Vietnamese brides overseas and a story about researcher Nguyen Thi Trang Nha who developed a plant that produces both tomatoes and potatoes.

Other films deal with the bio-diversity of Ca Mau mangrove forest, the alarming decline in the safety of food, the ancient capital city of Hoa Lu and preserving the traditional art of “Tuong” (classical) opera.

Admission is free and the films will be shown at 465 Hoang Hoa Tham Street, Hanoi.

HCM City busts maker of pirated movies, music

During a raid on a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Chanh district early yesterday morning, the city’s joint inspection team found a large quantity of CDs produced illegally.

The workshop is located in the premises of the branch of Tam Bao Co., Ltd., at D8/3 village road 11, Tan Quy Tay commune.

The company’s director is Ms. Huynh Thanh Tuyen, a resident of District 8.

According to its business license, the company is allowed to produce blank CDs, but it has illegally recorded music and movies.

Among those CDs, many contained Vietnamese songs composed overseas and films with violent, horror and erotic contents.

The inspectors seized 37 packages of CDs, three recording machines, a screen-printing frame, a computer and a CPU.

The workshop has operated since 2009 and can daily produce and launch onto the market thousands of CDs with banned contents.

With a big capacity thanks to advanced machines and equipment, the workshop has supplied such CDs in large quantity to the city and many other cities and provinces at cheap prices, the inspectors said.

“Don’t burn” screened to mark OSPAAAL’s anniversary 

Vietnam’s film “Don’t burn” was screened on March 4 in Havana to kick off the celebrations of the 45 th anniversary of the Organisation of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America (OSPAAAL). 

Along with this film, twelve films from the OSPAAAL Secretariat’s member countries will be shown in succession until February, 2012 at the ALBA Cultural House in Havana.

Before the screening of “Don’t burn”, a short documentary on the solidarity and friendship between Cuba and Asian countries including Vietnam was presented, recalling images of President Ho Chi Minh and the fight for national independence of Vietnamese people.

Addressing the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Cuba Vu Chi Cong said that “Don’t burn” film is based on a diary written by a war doctor Dang Thuy Tram, a representative of Vietnamese youths during the war.

On the occasion, Ambassador Cong presented Alfonso Fraga, OSPAAAL General Secretary with a copy of “Diary of Dang Thuy Tram” which was published in Spanish by the Cuban Publishing House of Social Sciences.

Local dance movie to hit American screens

Vietnamese-American director Stephane Gauger will debut his 2010 movie about local hip-hop, Saigon Electric at the San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival next week.

Gauger, whose first movie “Owl and the Sparrow” won the Jury Award of this festival in 2007, will also discuss the Vietnamese movie industry during the event.

Providing an insight into contemporary Vietnamese youth culture, Saigon Electric features a young and charismatic hip-hop crew struggling to win the national championship and to save a community center.

Other Vietnamese movies to be screened at the festival include Phan Dang Di’s “Bi, Don't Be Afraid!,” the winner of two International Critics’ Week prizes at last year’s Cannes, and “Clash,” a 2009 martial arts blockbuster.

Held every March, the San Francisco International Asian- American Film Festival is the US’ largest showcase for new Asian-American and Asian films.

This year’s festival, to be held from March 10 to 20, will screen more than 100 films and videos from 20 countries.

Local youths to promote Earth Hour

As of March 13, environmental clubs for youths around Ho Chi Minh City will screen films at universities, hold musical shows at cafés and collect rubbish on the streets to help raise awareness about Earth Hour.

This year’s Earth Hour is scheduled to take place at Ho Chi Minh City-based Van Thanh Park in Binh Thanh District from 8:30 to 9:30 pm on March 26.

Environmental clubs are also urging individuals, businesses and the government to minimize carbon dioxide emissions in addition to turning off the lights during Earth Hour with the hopes of contributing to saving the planet.

Last year, major cities countrywide took part in Earth Hour on March 28 and saved 140,000kWh.

Fann Wong and Christopher Lee to visit HCMC

Singaporean TV and movie star couple Fann Wong and Christopher Lee, well-known in Chinese-speaking communities worldwide, will attend Salvatore Ferragamo’s fashion show in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday.

The show, which will also invite local celebrities such as Miss Grand Slam Asia Huong Giang, is to mark Salvatore Ferragamo’s launching of its new stores in the city

The luxury Italian brand opened its first store in District 1’s Diamond Plaza last year.

Its guests of honor, Fann Wong and Christopher Lee have become a household name across Asia, starring together in eight TV dramas and playing lovers in six of them.

They wedded in 2009 and became one of Asia’s most talked- about couples.

Fann Wong was the first Singaporean actress to break into Hollywood, playing Chon Lin in 2003’s Shanghai Knights.

2006 Miss Vietnam may contest Miss Universe

Talk on internet forums that the 2006 Miss Vietnam, Mai Phuong Thuy, could represent Vietnam at this year’s Miss Universe contest has sparked off excitement.

While many are rooting for her, some say the biggest problem for her is a possible breast implant she may have had.

However, Miss Universe rules do not prohibit cosmetic surgery of any kind.

Others say there is no precedent of a contestant who won a national beauty contest five years ago competing in the global beauty pageant.

But, according to Elite, the company that trains and sends Vietnamese contestants to international beauty pageants, Mai Phuong Thuy is likely to go to this year’s Miss Universe to be held in Sao Paolo, Brazil, next August.

A website, ABC (name changed), claimed Thuy cannot compete because she is overage. However, Thuy is just 23 and Miss Universe contestants need to be “at least 18 years of age and under 27 years of age by February 1st in the year they hope to compete in the Miss Universe.”

Pham Dinh Thang, the chief of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Performance Art Department, said his Department has no information about who will represent Vietnam.

“We have yet to receive any information about the nominations, so nothing to say now,” he added.

Recently Thuy told an interviewer that she would contest the 2011 Miss Universe if she got the chance.

At 179 cm, Thuy is thought to be the tallest Miss Vietnam ever.

The model and actress is involved in charity work like visiting orphans and providing relief to victims of natural disasters.

Ancient citadel likely to become world heritage

Vietnamese cultural authorities are pinning their hopes on the Ho dynasty’s citadel being recognized as a World Heritage site this year.

To local officials, the possibility of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognizing the citadel in a meeting in Bahrain this June is high.

Pham Sanh Chau, Head of the Foreign Ministry’s Cultural Diplomacy Department and General Secretary of the Vietnam National UNESCO Committee, said Vietnam could be optimistic as long as she was able to show the citadel’s cultural significance.

Those who have seen the citadel all agree that it is a cultural treasure.

Built by the short-lived and controversial Ho dynasty (1400-1407) in the central province of Thanh Hoa, the Ho citadel is the country’s oldest citadel with a relatively intact exterior structure and a well of valuable artifacts yet to be unearthed.

Louis Bezacier, an early 20th century French expert on Oriental cultures, said it was a unique example of how huge limestone blocks were shaped and joined to form an elegant and strong work of architecture.

The squarish structure that reaches up to 10m in height and 900m in length consists of huge square limestone blocks joined nicely without adhesives. A local legend has it that the citadel was completed in just 3 months.

In a two-day visit to the citadel with UNESCO heritage representatives from 21 countries in January, Katherine Muller Marin, the UNESCO representative in Vietnam, said she was impressed, especially with the citadel’s Nam Giao praying platform and King’s well.

Marin said provincial authorities would need to pledge to protect and restore the citadel as well as raise living standards for local residents if they wanted it to be recognized by the world.