Vietnam Map decorated from 200 Nhat Tan peach trees

Da Nang authority said on the occasion of Tet holidays, local people and tourists will have opportunity to enjoy the flower road 2015 which invested over VND 5billion and set up on the west bank of the Han River. Besides, they will be contemplating Vietnam map which is decorated from 200 Nhat Tan Peach trees.

This special Vietnam map is carried out and invested by DHC Investment Corporation; it is located on the east bank of the Han River, nearby Dragon Bridge.

Danang to host 7th int’l firework competition

The 7th Danang International Fireworks Competition (DIFC) 2015 will take place in the central city on April 28-29, the municipal People’s Committee announced on January 30.

Themed “Danang – A symphony of Colours”, the event is expected to feature spectacular performances by five teams from the US, South Africa, Australia, Poland and the host Vietnam , who won numerous awards at other international fireworks display competitions.

Many sideline activities will be held during the event, including a food festival, decorative lighting, a flower boat parade and beach sports.

According to the organising board, the Danang International Fireworks Competition will be advertised on StarWorld, National Geographic and BBC Asia.

Launched in 2008, Danang is the only city in Vietnam to host the annual competition.

Painting exhibition celebrates Year of Goat

Ten painters and sculptors are displaying their artworks at an exhibition which opened in Hanoi on February 1 to feature the image of the Goat in celebration of the upcoming lunar New Year Festival 2015 - (Tet Ky Mui - the Year of the Goat).

Most artists use traditional materials such as Do paper and India ink to create their paintings of the Goat - one of the 12 animal signs of the Zodiac.

The exhibition is taking place at Flora Café, No.713 Lac Long Quan street in Hanoi's Tay Ho district, and will last until March 1.

Display features the best of Red River Delta pottery

Pottery pieces typical of the Red River Delta are being on show at an exhibition that was opened in Hanoi on February 1.

The displayed works are created by outstanding artists and artisans who are doing their best in preserving the essence of this traditional craft.

Many of them are already familiar to ceramic art lovers such as Tran Quang Hai, Vuong Quan, Nguyen Hong Quang, Vu Thang and Nguyen Van Thang.

Nguyen Giang Van from the organising board said the exhibition is meant to introduce the art of ceramics to the public while offering a playground for artists and artisans.

It is expected to be held annually to help advertise Vietnamese pottery to the local and foreign public.

The “Vietnam Contemporary Pottery” exhibition will run through March 30 at Heritage Space in Dolphin Plaza, 28 Tran Binh Street.

Vietnamese architectural works among top five finalists

Four architectural works of Vietnamese company Vo Trong Nghia Architects has been listed among top 5 finalists in each category of the Building of the Year Award which was selected by the US magazine ArchDaily.

They include House for Trees in Houses category, Son La Restaurant in Hospitality category, Farming Kindergarten in Educational Architecture category, and Green Renovation in Refurbishment category.

The magazine evaluated over 3,000 projects of more than 18,000 architects and enthusiasts participated in the nomination process, expressing what architecture means to them by highlighting the buildings that have inspired them the most.

According to the ArchDaily, this year’s finalists represent a diverse group of projects, coming from all corners of the globe and from firms of different sizes and trajectories.

“Yet they all capture architecture’s capacity to improve people’s lives”, it says.

The duration of the vote will last until February 4th, 2015.

UK trade envoy talks creativity with artists

British trade envoy and successful film producer Lord David Puttnam spoke about creativity to a gathering of local artists in HCM City on January 30.

Puttnam discussed the concept that creativity is a "muscle" that people should work on to develop.

The five basic components of creativity were focus, imagination, collaboration, tenacity, and resilience, he said, explaining the importance of each.

The prerequisite component was imagination, a unique ability that made us think beyond the things present in front of one's eyes and that was hard to teach.

People had to find a way to foster and improve that ability because it was the source of creativity.

Collaboration was the ability to work in a team, since the abilities of many people could lead to a better result than that of a single person.

"Tenacity is the ability to try and try and try again."

He himself had to spend twice the time as others to edit a film to achieve perfection.

Resilience was the ability to deal with and overcome disappointment.

He advised people working in creative industries to control the environment since it could affect the process of creativity.

Puttnam has taught creativity at five universities in Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and the UK.

In a release, the British Council and Vietnam Creative Entrepreneurs' Club said creative industries have become an important and growing part of the global economy.

"Nowadays, it contributes 7 percent of the global GDP. The world trade in creative goods and services has reached nearly 600 billion USD, with an annual growth rate of 8.7 percent a year."

The UK Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Burma has produced films that have won 10 Oscars, 25 Baftas, and the Palme D'Or at Cannes.-

Culture, sports and tourism festival in Thua Thien-Hue

Street performances involving nearly 1,000 people kick-started the 2015 Culture, Sports and Tourism Festival in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue on January 31.

The performances were followed by art and fashion shows entitled “Hue in different periods”.

The event’s highlight was a miniature village with farming activities, folk games and Hue’s special dishes.

PhanTien Dung, Director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said this tourism promotion programme introduces different types of tourism, traditional crafts, traditional cuisine and festivals in the province.

In the coming period, besides heritage tourism, the province will explore the Tam Giang-Cau Hai Lagoon, considering it as a breakthrough in its tourism development, Dung said.

Teenage Vietnamese-German opera singer honoured in Germany

A Vietnamese-German girl, Pham Kieu Trang has won a number of prizes at young talent competitions in Germany and performed at Unicef Galas in 2013 and 2014.

Born in 1999, Trang is living in Germany with her Vietnamese dad Pham Manh Cuong and her German mother Petra Pham.

She began to study ballet and piano when she was 6.

In 2010, well-known Opera singer Thomas Seyfarth of Komiker Oper Berlin found the talented girl and began teaching her to become a real Opera Solo artist.

In 2013, Trang surpassed 14,000 contestants in “The Voice Kids Gemany 2013“ to enter top 12 and won two big prizes in You Berlin 2013.

Since then, she has invited to perform at a wide range of large events including Unicef Gala 2013 at Hilden bei Düsseldorf in Germany, and Unicef Gala 2014 at Filzmoos in Austria in August, and in Germany in November.

Writing contest offers round-trip to Brussels as first prize

Vietnamese citizens under 35 can enter a writing contest to win a round-trip ticket to Brussels.

Contestants must write essays on what impresses them most about the EU, in honour of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of relations with Viet Nam. The winner of the contest, which started yesterday, will receive a trip to Brussels to enrich their knowledge of Europe.

Contestants should express what they think about the EU and its relationship with Viet Nam, as well as their own experiences or stories. Entries have to send to the email address antuongeu@gmail.com.

Prestigious journalists, writers and activists will judge submissions. The contest will end on April 29 and the awarding ceremony will take place on Europe Day (May 9).

Festival spotlights ethnic cultural colours

The crème de la crème of traditional culture of ethnic minority groups as well as Spring’s unique features from every corner of the country will be gathered together in an festival in Hanoi.

The annual springtime festival, this year entitled “Colours of Spring from every corner of the country”, will take place at the Culture Tourism Village of Vietnamese Ethnic Groups from February 7-11.

More than 140 people, who are exemplary heads of the villages and hamlets, intellectuals, artisans from the Mong, Thai, Dao, Tay, Nung, and Muong ethnic minority groups, 100 representatives for Vietnamese overseas along with 3,000 students from schools in Hanoi will join the festival.

The festival is considered as an occasion for ethnic minority groups to meet and exchange cultural values and daily life activities as well as honouring the traditional culture of all ethnic minority groups in Vietnam.

It will focus on meetings and entertaining activities for ethnic minority groups and Vietnamese overseas at the village; re-enacting some typical traditional Tet-welcoming customs and performing folk songs, dances, games and dishes of Tet days.

Traditional craft villages will also be introduced at the festival besides local specialties. And last but not least, a meaningful event named “Wrapping green sticky rice, enjoying Tet with the poor,” will be held during the festival.

National action programme to promote Vi-Giam singing values

A national action programme to preserve and uphold values of Vi-Giam folk singing was launched directly after the central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh received the UNESCO certificate honouring the local singing as part of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage on January 31.

The event was attended by National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung, Vice National Assembly Chairpersons Tong Thi Phong and Uong Chu Luu, and Deputy Prime Ministers Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Vu Duc Dam, among others.

Vi-Giam folk singing was officially recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity at the 9th session of its Inter-governmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Paris on November 27, 2014.

The honoured form of folk music is a type of singing that takes place while working. There are an estimated 15 tunes of Vi and eight airs of Giam, reflecting the work, cultural life and feelings of the people in the central coastal provinces.

It is popular in nearly 260 villages across the central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. The two provinces have 51 singing clubs with over 800 vocalists, many of whom are actively preserving the folk music.

The preservation of the unique art form is currently facing a number of problems since fewer people sing this genre of music and many of the documentaries detailing the singing were previously lost.

Speaking at the ceremony in Nghe An’s Vinh city, Chief Representative of the UNESCO Office Katherine Muller Marin said the report seeking the recognition showed that Vi-Giam singing meets all five criteria of a representative heritage of humanity.

UNESCO hopes that authorities and people of the two neighbouring provinces will develop measures and implement the national action program so as to further uphold the values of Vi-Giam singing, she added.

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam said Vietnam looks forward to more cooperation and assistance from international organisations as well as further efforts made by domestic ministries and localities in protecting and promoting the country’s cultural heritage, including Vi-Giam folk singing.

Vi-Giam became the ninth Vietnamese cultural practice winning UNESCO’s intangible heritage status. The eight others are Hue's royal court music, Gong space culture in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands), the northern province of Bac Ninh's Quan ho (love duet) singing, the Giong festival, Ca Tru ceremonial singing, Xoan singing, Don Ca Tai Tu music, and the worship of Hung Kings.

MTV Vietnam hosts large movie dressed up party

MTV@The Movie Party will take place today in HCMC’s District 1, giving participants an opportunity to dress up like popular movie characters, enjoy live performances of movie soundtracks and win some interesting prizes.

The event marks one year of launching MTV@the Movie program on MTV Vietnam channel.

People to the event will review remarkable movies in 2014 and see popular characters like Bay Max in Big Hero 6, Optimus Prime in Transformers 4, and Minion in Despicable Me. Special settings of Into the Wood, The Hobbits, and Captain American films will be revived in an outdoor space of Gem Center.

Local artists, including Thu Minh, Noo Phuoc Thinh, 365Daband, Hari Won, and Trung Quan, will sing some well-known soundtracks like Let It Go (Frozen) and Happy (Despicable Me 2) and songs in popular local movies like Huong Ga and Chang Trai Nam Ay.

Besides from a lucky draw, participants will have a chance to win prizes for the best costumes. Interested people can register for invitations at live.mtvvietnam.com.vn.

MTV Vietnam, launched on July 1, 2011 for young viewers, is expected to have more interesting programs in more time frames to serve TV audiences. It is now in partnership with some subscription-based television services like VTV Cab, HTVC, K+, VTC, MyTV and HCATV with around four million households in the country.

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