Ha Long carnival about to start

The 2015 Ha Long Carnival is set to open in the city, in northern Quang Ninh province, on May 8.

This year’s carnival, featuring 2,700 amateur and professional artists, will include an opening ceremony, fireworks and art performances on stage, and dynamic live street performances by both locals and foreign performers from Thailand and Taiwan (China).

A series of art and sports events will also be organised as part of the festival, such as circus performances, beach volleyball tournaments, bike racing and badminton matches alongside a photo exhibition titled “Quang Ninh – My Beloved Land”.

Last year’s event cost the province about 12 billion VND (555,840 USD).-

Vietnam int’l choir contest launched in Hoi An

The 4th Vietnam International Choir Competition was officially opened on April 29 in the city of Hoi An, central Quang Nam province.

The competition, co-organised by Hoi An’s authorities and the German Interkultur organisation, attracted the participation of 45 choir groups from 15 countries worldwide.

The groups will compete in six categories: male choir, female choir, mixed choir, chamber choir, church choir and folklore choir.

The event aims to send the message of “Sing together to bring nations closer”, said Nguyen Van Dung, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee.

This is the third time Hoi An has hosted the event since 2011.

The city is a tourist hot spot famous for its renowned historic old town and its miles long beaches.

In 1999, the old town was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO and hailed as a well-preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port from the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a unique blend of local and foreign influences.

Hanoi moves to protect intangible cultures

The Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has implemented a number of projects to preserve the city’s intangible cultural heritages, including a project carried out from 2014-2015 to review the city’s intangible cultural heritages and apply effective conservation methods.

The sector will continue working to protect intangible cultural heritages fading into obscurity and those in urgent need of preserving.

According to Pham Thi Lan Anh, an official from the Department, the sector will focus on protecting the Trong quan singing in Phuc Lam village, Phuc Tien commune, Phu Xuyen district and Khanh Ha commune in Thuong Tien district by recording its lyrics and tunes this year.

Other practical activities will also be organised to raise community awareness of their heritages, such as publicity campaigns and mass media communication products.

Hanoi is home to more than 850 intangible culture heritages, including oral literature, performing arts, social customs, festivals and traditional handicrafts, n early 100 of which have begun to vanish .

Besides Trong quan singing, other heritages in urgent need of protection for not having been regularly practiced in communities include slang in Da Chat village, Dai Xuyen commune in Phu Xuyen district; Tuong co (traditional theatre opera) in Coc Thuong village, Chuong My district; wrestling in Thao Chinh village, Phu Xuyen commune, Phu Xuyen district; and embroidery and lacemaking in Binh Minh commune, Thanh Oai district.

According to Pham Van Nam, a cultural official from Phuc Tien commune in Phu Xuyen district, the locality has seen its traditional trong quan singing falling into oblivion. A very small number of local residents still practice it and those who do are all over 60 years old.

The loss of intangible culture heritages is attributed to quick changes in social environment and living style and modernisation.

Glittering line-up for Beethoven's ninth in HCM City

Some of Norway's top orchestral musicians and internationally famed opera artists like Siri Torjesen, Magnus Staveland, and Cho Hae Ryong will join the HBSO Symphony Orchestra and Choir for concerts at the HCM City Opera House on May 8 and 9.

The concerts will feature Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, which was chosen as the anthem for the European Union and to be played on the moon by a US mission as a message from humanity to other civilisations in the universe.

Maestro Terje Mikkelsen, who has performed at many prestigious European halls, will wield the baton at the concerts.

They are organised by HBSO in collaboration with the Norwegian Transposition Programme.

Vietnam’s first walking street opens in HCMC downtown

The first in Vietnam walking street officially opened in Ho Chi Minh City downtown on April 29 and attracted thousands of residents and visitors.

Pedestrians stream to Nguyen Hue Street that was opened on April 29 (Photo: SGGP)

Many took cameras with them to take pictures of Ho Chi Minh Statue Square and the pedestrian street that was Nguyen Hue Boulevard. The most attracting zone was the colorful musical fountain.

Vietnamese expatriate in Australia Le Van Thai said he was so happy and surprised to witness marvelous changes of HCMC after 40 years of the Reunification Day.

Ho Chi Minh Statue Square and Nguyen Hue Street packed with visitors from 7-8 p.m. Most parking lots near the area were full, forcing visitors to move farer to look for parking space.

Nguyen Hue Street upgrading project has been completed in time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Reunification Day--April 30 at a total cost of VND469.5 billion (US$21.75 million).

The road face and pavements are paved with natural stones with trees rows along each side, musical water fountain, underground management center and public restrooms.

4th Folk Cake Festival opens in CanTho

The fourth Southern Folk Cake Festival opened on April 27 as part of CanTho City's activities to commemorate the Hung Kings, the Reunification Day and Labour Day.

The five-day event, held at Cai Khe Islet aims to preserve traditional cuisines and activities of South Viet Nam.

It features performances and stalls showcasing how the typical kinds of cakes are made and allows visitors to taste more than 100 kinds of traditional cakes and 50 kinds of specialties, which have been exhibited in around 100 booths.

There are many other activities, such as contests for grinding flour, grading coconut meat, beating eggs and making dough to make sponge cakes, and contests to eat banh Tet (a glutinous rice cake), banh Bo (a sweet and chewy sponge cake), and many traditional games, such as o quan (mandarin square capturing), mua sap (bamboo dance), and others.

Do Anh Dung, the deputy chairman of the city, said this year's festival featured several new events.

"The traditional southern cakes highlight the differences and creativity in the cuisine culture of localities," Dung said.

"Banh khot VungTau (small, fried rice flour pancakes in Vung Tau style), banh Xeo Long Hai (fried rice cake with shrimp and pork in Long Hai style), banh Bao hat Dieu (ball-shaped bun filled with pork and cashew), banh Hoi Long Dien (extremely thin noodles that are woven into intricate bundles in Long Dien style) are really impressive, compared with the same kind of cakes in CanTho, SocTrang, BenTre, and Tien Giang.

During the inaugural night of the festival, organisers set a new record for making banh xeo, which had a 1.9 metre diameter and was made from 6kg of flour and 8kg of meat, shrimp, and sprouts in 30 minutes.

The festival features activities that help promote creativity, including a playground for children.

Former Pho Hien trading port in spotlight

Pho Hien, the land once a bustling port town in the north hundreds years ago, was brought back to its glorious past through a special art performance programme.

The event was held on April 26 in the Red River Delta province of Hung Yen on the occasion of the reception of a certificate of the special national relic site given to Pho Hien.

The programme was to restore artistic values of the former international trading port in the North, Pho Hien.

Hung Yen province, about 60 km southeast of Hanoi, is rich in cultural heritage sites with more than 1,200 ancient monuments including 161 classified as national heritage and 400 festivals and traditional ceremonies.

Pho Hien relic complex lies in Dang Chau village (Lam Son district) and Ne Chau village (Hong Chau district) in Hien street.

The site was a bustling commercial port on the Red River with its heyday recorded in the 17th -18th century.

Pho Hien was second to the Imperial capital city of Thang Long as a trading point. It was well-known among foreign traders, especially those from China, Japan and the Netherlands.

The area is home to more than 100 cultural and historical relics, including Hien Pagoda, Mau (Goddess) Temple, May (Cloud) Temple and Chuong Pagoda. Eighteen of them have received national recognition.

Late President Ho Chi Minh praised in Cuban magazine

The Cuban magazine Resumen Latinoamericano y del Terner Mundo has recently released a special issue on the late Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh to mark his 125th birth anniversary, which falls on May 19.

The issue explores Ho Chi Minh’s political and military strategies and tracks his successful leadership of the Vietnamese revolution.

His intelligence and charisma have are highlighted in articles by two Cuban journalists who interviewed him in 1965.

Six of Ho Chi Minh’s poems from his “Prison Diary”, along with excerpts of some of his political writings, have been translated into Spanish and published in the magazine.

In addition, the life and career of General Vo Nguyen Giap and a feature on the Vietnamese struggle for national reunification are also covered in the magazine.

Preserving and tapping intangible cultural values of Xoan singing

Xoan singing is a typical cultural product of Phu Tho province, home to the 18 dynasties of Hung Kings, the legendary founders of Van Lang – the first known State of Vietnam.

The local worship of the Hung Kings was officially recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of mankind by UNESCO in 2011. The preservation of Xoan singing is vital for developing Vietnam’s cultural identity.

This year’s Hung Kings’ death anniversary and Hung Kings’ Temple Festival coincide with the fourth anniversary of UNESCO’s recognition of Xoan singing as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

To mark the event, various celebratory activities will be held to promote the singing and help people nationwide better understand the culture of the land of the Hung Kings.

A Phu Tho Folk Songs Festival held at the Hung Kings’ Temple Complex will feature Xoan guilds and clubs of Xoan singing and other folk song genres. A performance of Xoan singing by children and teenagers will be held in Viet Tri, the capital city of Phu Tho. The program will show how the singing has been handed down and spread among younger generations.

This is one of several activities the Phu Tho authorities have organized to preserve the genre, according to Ha Ke San, Vice Chairman of the Phu Tho provincial People’s Committee.

San said under the program, Phu Tho has trained 62 artisans and organized 101 community-based courses, excluding training courses in schools.

“We strongly believe that this effort will help to get Xoan singing removed from the UNESCO’s list of endangered cultural heritages,” San said.

Music researcher Dang Hoanh Loan, who has been directly involved in the program “Preserving, training, and practicing Phu Tho Xoan singing” in the 4 years since the art form was recognized by UNESCO, said the province has successfully developed a class of Xoan listeners by organizing many clubs to teach them to sing and listen to Xoan songs.

“Expanding the number of listeners is the most important way to maintain a musical art form. Otherwise, it would be a dead art. And Phu Tho has been successful in this effort,” he said.

Under this program, students have learned the main features of Xoan singing from artisans of the original Xoan singing communities.

Phu Tho province has conferred the title of Xoan artisan on those who have contributed to restoring and preserving this intangible cultural heritage and to upgrading temples and communal houses which can provide performance venues.

Musician Loan gave additional details about the program. Phu Tho’s People’s Committee and the Culture and Sports Department have implemented the national program of preserving and developing Xoan singing. First the province completed the restoration of Lai Len Shrine, which was believed to be the place where a Hung King taught Phu Tho residents to sing Xoan. The restoration of Lai Len Shrine meant the restoration of a performing space for Xoan singing.

The revival of Xoan singing after the shrine’s restoration was the result of a joint effort by the provincial administration and local citizens to preserve their traditional culture.

Associate Professor Nguyen Binh Dinh, Director of the Vietnam National Academy of Music, said “we’ve revitalized almost all the main forms of Xoan singing. In Phu Tho there remain many materials, temples, and shrines relating to the heritage and a number of artisans who are skilled and have a profound knowledge of Xoan singing. Provincial leaders and concerned parties have found ways to get Xoan singing into the school curriculum, set up clubs, and organize overseas performance tours to promote Xoan singing.”

This year Phu Tho will promote Xoan singing abroad to introduce foreign friends to the genre. During the 2016-2020 period, Xoan singing and Hung Kings worship rituals will be linked to tourism development through performances in Xoan singing guilds and at international cultural exchanges.

Phu Tho will also promote Xoan singing via mass media through programs on the province’s e-portal in both Vietnamese and English

Millennia-old jewelry on display in former imperial city

Some 100 jewelry items, many dating back to the Bronze Age, are on display in the central town of Hue.

The exhibition, which opened on April 28, includes earrings, necklaces, and bracelets from the Bronze Age Bau Tro civilization that flourished 5,000 years ago in central Vietnam and the Sa Huynh culture dating back 3,000-1,800 years along the central coast.

The highlight is a royal jewelry collection of the Nguyen Dynasty from the 18th to 20th centuries. It features golden tiaras, hairpins, and bracelets encrusted with gemstones.

The exhibition at the Hue Museum of Royal Artifacts, 3 Le Truc Street, will go on until June 28.

Vietnam War correspondents return to reminisce

More than 20 foreign correspondents who had covered the Vietnam War that ended four decades ago have arrived in Ho Chi Minh City for an event organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to mark the 40th anniversary.

“International Journalism Week” will be celebrated until April 30 and feature various activities.

On April 26, the journalists held a meeting with HCMC war veterans where they talked about war stories.

Lieutenant General Tran Thanh Huyen, deputy chairman of the HCMC War Veterans Association, briefed the journalists about the historic victory on April 30, 1975, that reunited the country and ended the War.

More than 20 former war correspondents attend a meeting with representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City War Veterans Association on April 26, 2015. Photo: Phuc Duy

He praised the former correspondents for their bravery in revealing the truth about the Vietnam War.

Don North, an American reporter, said he was glad that the Vietnamese foreign ministry had organized this event since it gave war veterans and former journalists a chance to share their memories of the Vietnam War.

“I think Vietnam, a foe in the past, is now a friend of America.”

Peter Arnett, who was awarded the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his work in Vietnam, where he worked for most of the time between 1962 and 1975 as an AP reporter, said he had learned the lesson about the truth when he came to Vietnam.

British Council launches global celebration of Shakespeare

To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of the great English poet, playwright, and actor William Shakespeare, the British Council has launched a global programme to honour his life.

Entitled Shakespeare Lives, the programme is the largest-ever global celebration of Shakespeare. Shakespeare Lives is an invitation to the world to join in the celebration by participating in a unique online collaboration and experience the work of Shakespeare directly on stage, through film, exhibitions and in schools. The programme hopes to reach over half a billion people throughout the world.

Ciaran Devane, chief executive of the British Council said, "Power struggles, brutal politics, murder, love, passion, bitter feuds, human weakness and plain farce are universal themes, as relevant now as they were when Shakespeare was writing. Shakespeare Lives will engage audiences overseas and in the UK with both the work of the Bard and with the best of contemporary Britain, and will open up opportunities for UK institutions, businesses and organisations to work around the world, and for organisations around the world in the UK."

Launched this autumn, Shakespeare Lives will run throughout 2016, exploring Shakespeare as a living writer who still speaks for all people and nations.

Activities across English, education and the arts will explore the story of how a playwright from England came to be shared all over the world.

A major highlight will be All The World's A Stage, a mass participation project that will invite people from throughout the world to upload and share clips of themselves performing lines from Shakespeare plays.

The Shakespeare Lives programme will include screenings of leading Shakespeare productions, including the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre's film of Hamlet starring Maxine Peake, as well as a new film adaptation of a Shakespeare play developed by Indian and UK Asian filmmakers.

Other highlight of the global programme will be a massive online course aimed at intermediate level English language learners, which will explore the key themes and characters in Shakespeare's plays and his continuing resonance around the world. Other teaching resources include Shakespeare-themed lesson plans for all levels, a series of webinars for English language teachers and animated Shakespeare stories for children.

In addition, the British Council is offering ten research and development grants for artists and companies to develop new collaborative project ideas with counterparts overseas.

The celebration will also feature a global tour of Royal Society of Literature poets who have written responses to the Sonnets. There will also be opportunities for emerging poets and graphic novelists from around the world.

Another activity will be Sonnets on the Underground – a collaboration with Bloomsbury Publishing that will see Poems on the Underground's popular London programme replicated in cities, including Moscow and Dubai.

The agenda will also include a global short film competition, called Bitesize Bard. The contest will invite budding filmmakers from around the world to reinterpret one of eight iconic Shakespeare scenes in a single take. The 12 best films will be selected by a renowned panel from the world of theatre and film, with prizes awarded.

Another highlight will be a new education pack developed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, exploring some of the broad themes that run across his writing – themes that still resonate with people all over the world today. The pack will be distributed to all 25,000 schools in the UK and promoted around the world through the British Council's school network.

In addition, a series of workshops and public panel discussions on Shakespeare in translation, involving world renowned academics, experts and performers, in partnership with the National Centre for Writing and Shakespeare's Globe, will be held.

To inspire the global celebrations of Shakespeare Day, a downloadable tool kit will be developed in partnership with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. It will include a Shakespeare speech available in many world languages and fun resources, such as a Shakespeare quiz, Elizabethan recipes and playlists.

Young people will be invited to join World Voice -- the British Council's international singing programme, to compose a special Shakespeare-inspired song that will be featured in the World Voice songbook. The song will be used in World Voice workshops and teacher training sessions around the world, and will be sung by children at a variety of events during 2016.

Finally, the global celebration will consist of a touring programme of the best British Shakespeare films, which will be screened internationally in partnership with the British Film Institute. The film programme will include everything from early silent films to new productions.

Quiz winners to travel to India

Two lucky draw winners have earned tickets to travel to India while three others have won hampers and books from the Indian consulate in HCM City, which held a quiz competition on the bodhi tree planted by former Indian President R Venkatraman at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum in 1991.

"Today's event is not a mere quiz competition; it is a commemoration and celebration of our strong relations," Smita Pant, the Indian consul, said.

"I thank the people of Viet Nam for nurturing the sapling which has now turned into a beautiful tree.

"I wish to say that India and Viet Nam are connected in many more ways than we know. The historical Cham temple, the Indian temples and mosques in HCM City or the Vietnamese pagoda in India. [They] all symbolise the importance of love and spirituality in our lives."

The Buddha achieved enlightenment in India under a bodhi tree.

Jet Airways started flights between India and Viet Nam last November.

Reprinted book highlights Sai Gon's architectural growth

People keen to discover the architectural changes in Viet Nam's largest city may find a lot of information in a book released on April 25 in Vietnamese-English and Vietnamese-French.

Entitled Sai Gon – Ba The Ky Phat Trien Va Xay Dung (Sai Gon – Three Centuries of Developing and Building), the book is the result of co-operation between top French and Vietnamese researchers.

The book is divided into four parts, comprising information and figures of the city from its establishment to 1859; its French architecture and urban planning after 1975; a review of the major changes in its architecture since 1945; and remarks by writer Son Nam, a researcher of Sai Gon's heritage in different periods.

There are also photographs and information about 63 renowned sites and major buildings of the city, such as Phuoc Hai Pagoda, Phuoc Kien Pagoda and Chandaransay Temple.

The book was first printed in 1998 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Sai Gon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City), as a joint effort of the city's administration, the urban community of Lyon and the French consul-general.

Mall customers set a mosaic record

The Viet Nam Book of Records has certified a mosaic of the mythical Hung King assembled from 3,258 blocks as the biggest of its kind in the country.

The mosaic was assembled by customers at the newly opened SC Vivo City shopping mall in HCM City's District 7 between April 19 and 25.

Speaking at a ceremony held to award the certificate to the Vietsin Commercial Complex Development Joint Stock Company, the mall owner, Truong Nhu Ba, editorial head of record content, called the mosaic a beautiful gesture of respect to the "first king of Viet Nam" on the occasion of his supposed death anniversary on the 10th of the third lunar month.

The mosaic is on display at the central court of the five-storey mall.

Gia Lai takes measures to protect oral storytelling tradition

The Central Highlands province of Gia Lai has accelerated its efforts to preserve a traditional form of oral storytelling, knows as Bahnar epics, which are fading away in the locality.

For the past few decades, the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has launched studies of the Bahnar epics, which recount legends about the group’s heroes and great events. These poems and stories have been collected and preserved.

One of these tales, the epic of Dam Noi, was first discovered in the 1980s in Kong Chro. Other epics found in the region have been translated and published bilingually.

Currently, there are more than 20 storytellers across the province who know 70 Bahnar epic poems by heart.

On April 24, the epics received national intangible heritage recognition. This will help promote them and facilitate further research, collection and preservation.

The province has also asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to bestow the local storytellers with ‘excellent artisan’ titles.

The Central Highlands region, which comprises the five provinces of Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Gia Lai and Kon Tum, is home to stunning mythical landscapes and a significant population of diverse ethnic minorities and cultures.