American band to perform at Hue Festival

Acclaimed American music band The Amigos will perform at a free public concert and take part in outreach events for disadvantaged people from April 12 to 14 during the Festival Hue.

Its performance will be part of an eight-day tour of Viet Nam as part of a cultural programme sponsored by the US consulate in HCM City.

"With The Amigos band, we are also happy to support the arts and music, which are so important to the history and culture of both Viet Nam and the United States," Alex Titolo, the consulate's public affairs officer s quoted as saying in a release.

The Amigos performed more than 40 concerts in New York City schools, hospitals, and community centres as part of the famous Lincoln Center's outreach programme in 2012 – 2013.

Before coming to Viet Nam the band was in Cambodia, China, Laos, and Myanmar.

Liu Xiao Ling Tong meets with Hanoian fans

Chinese movie star Liu Xiao Ling Tong on April 6 met with hundreds of his loyal fans in Hanoi and signed the book The Monkey King Journey to the West.

Dedicated fans began assembling in front of FAHASA bookstore on Xa Dan road very early in the morning hoping to meet their idol and get his autograph of one of his best books.

Liu offered up his sincere appreciation to the Vietnamese people for the affection shown him and the character he portrays in the fantasy film Journey to the West (version 1986).

”As soon as I stepped onto the Vietnam Airlines’ jet for the journey here, I felt the warm sentiment and love of Vietnamese fans,” he said.

“Everyone here has warmly welcomed me and I truly appreciate it” he added.

He also conveyed sincere thanks from millions of Chinese people for Vietnam’s effort in searching for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crewmembers on board, including 152 Chinese nationals.   

Commemorative site for cai luong musician listed as national relic

A commemorative site for cai luong (reformed opera) musician Cao Van Lau has been listed as a national relic, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The musician's grave is located on three hectares of land in Bac Lieu City in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta Province of Bac Lieu.

The site was designated a historical and cultural relic by the province's People's Committee.

Cao Van Lau (1892-1976) is the composer of Da co hoai lang, a song that started a new genre of cai luong in the 1920s.

The Tan Hung Communal House and Thien Hau Temple in the province are also recognised as national relics.—

HTV award honors Vietnamese artists

The closing award ceremony of the 8th HTV Awards was held at Phan Dinh Phung Indoor Sport Stadium on April 5.

The annual award aims to honor talented individuals and famous artists of music, film, and theater. Audience votes for the recipients of the awards.

Winners for favorite male and female singer are Ho Trung Dung and Van Mai Huong.

Huy Khanh and Ngoc Lan received awards for favorite drama actors. Minh Luan and Phi Phung received awards for favorite supporting actors.

Hoai Linh received the award for favorite comedian. Tan Giao and Phuong Loan received the award for favorite Cai Luong artists.

This year’s ceremony included additional awards such as young talented artist award, friendly artist award, and contribution awards.

Japanese painter finds Vietnamese inspiration

Shuji Ohba of Japan is showing 29 of his lacquer works in his debut exhibition in Vietnam at the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum.

"Ten years ago when I saw a lacquer painting by Yojin Iwabuchi, I fell in love with it," said the 68-year-old artist who specialises in oil painting. "Since then, I've travelled several times from Japan to Vietnam to learn about lacquer."

The artworks include still lives and paintings of women and famous destinations where he has visited, including Vietnam, Italy, France and Germany .

Japan's Mount Fuji and Vietnam's Ha Long Bay are shown in different seasons and moments, including spring and winter, and at sunset.

Well-known European destinations like Rheinstein Castle in Germany and Amalfi Beach in Italy are also depicted in the paintings.

Born in Shizuoka Prefecture , he joined the Mikuriya Arts Association in 1972.

Shuji Ohba is a member of the IAC Art Group. He has had 20 solo exhibitions and several group exhibitions in Japan and other countries, and has published six books on the arts.

Activities kick off Hung Kings Temple Festival

The annual Hung Kings’ Temple Festival kicked off in the northern province of Phu Tho on April 5 (the sixth day of the third lunar month), beginning with two photo exhibitions.

Displaying 108 pictures by the province’s photographers, the exhibition “Phu Tho’s land and people” is bringing visitors an insight into the traditional culture, festivals and relic sites of Vietnam’s ancestral heartland.

Meanwhile, the worship of Hung Kings is also being introduced to visitors through 98 photos and objects. The worshipping ritual was honoured by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2012.

The two exhibitions will last until April 9 and are expected to contribute to maintaining and promoting the province’s cultural values.

On the day, art performances, firework display and sport activities, including volleyball, crossbow shooting and traditional wrestling, were also held to mark the festival.

The annual Hung Kings Temple Festival commemorates the 18 Hung Kings, the founders of the country and who started a golden age in Vietnamese history. Beginning as a local holiday, the ceremony was recognised as a national event in 2007.

The ceremony takes place over several days, but the 10th day of the third lunar month is considered the most important one. It demonstrates a strong desire for national prosperity and symbolises community spirit. Coming to the festival is a deeply rooted custom in the minds of Vietnamese people in and outside the country

The Hung Kings complex is located on Nghia Linh Mountain, Phong Chau district, about 100km northwest of Hanoi. It is a complex of ancient tombs, monuments and temples.

Nine foreign troupes to join Vietnam int’l dance festival

Nine foreign troupes will join 16 local ones at the Vietnam International Dance Festival 2014 scheduled for the central province of Thua Thien-Hue from April 14-18.

The first-ever event, to be hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), aims to promote the land, people and unique culture of Vietnam to international tourists.

It will help further boost cultural and artistic cooperation between the country and the rest of the world.

At a press conference in Hanoi on April 4, MCST Deputy Minister Vuong Duy Bien said that the Vietnamese audience will have an opportunity to enjoy colourful dancing performances by artists from many countries around the globe.

It will also offer local dancers a chance to learn from their foreign colleagues and seek ways to improve their work in the future, he added.

Each art troupe will stage a performance of less than 20 minutes, with dances featuring the traditional cultural identity of each region and nation.

A five-member arts council, including three Vietnamese and two foreign representatives, will be set up to assess the quality of performances.

HCM City museum to use modern technology for new project

HCM City will use 3D technology to build a museum of historical-cultural relics, which will provide information about the country's iconic monuments.

Envisaged under a programme to use IT to foster cultural tourism, it will see the use of modern equipment and technology such as radio frequency identification and geographic information system.

The city hopes to welcome around 4.4 million foreign arrivals this year – or more than 55 per cent of the total number visiting the country - according to its Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Festival organised to celebrate memories of Long Bien Bridge

The 112th birthday of historic Long Bien Bridge will be celebrated on Saturday by an all-night series of cultural events.

Exhibitions, film screenings, talk shows and performances will last from 11pm to 6am on Sunday.

The night is the first of the five-night White Nights on Long Bien Bridge series, which will be held monthly by non-profit arts centre Maison des Arts.

"We organised the culture and art series to inspire bridge lovers and prepare for the Long Bien Bridge Festival in October," said architect Nguyen Nga, the centre's director and founder of the Long Bien Bridge Festival, which has been held annually since 2009.

The five nights focus in succession on the following themes: Memory, Love, Blood and Flower, Hope and Live. They aim to encourage Ha Noi youth to preserve the cultural, historic and architectural values of the Long Bien Bridge, according to Nga.

Traditional cake making contest commemorates Hung Kings

A traditional Chung cake and Day cake contest was held in the northern province of Phu Tho on April 6 to celebrate the annual Hung Kings’ Temple Festival.

Taking part were teams from Hanoi city, Phu Tho, the northern province of Hoa Binh and the southern province of Binh Duong.

The capital won the first prize in the Day cake category, while Phu Tho 2 topped the Chung cake competition.

Vu Ba Chung, a member from the Hanoi team, expressed his honour at winning the opportunity to offer traditional cakes to the Hung Kings at a similar festival in 2015.

The contest is held annually with the aim of paying tributes to the kings - the founders of the nation - and fueling national pride.

Legend has it that the two kinds of cake were first made by Prince Lang Lieu, a son of Hung King VI. Thanks to this invention, he was given the crown from his father.

The Prince made Chung cakes (glutinous rice cakes) in a square shape and Day cakes (glutinous rice dumplings) in a round shape to symbolise the earth and the sky respectively, and offered them to the king to express his respect and gratitude for his parents and to thank the gods for the year’s good harvest.

The tradition has been well preserved by the Vietnamese people nationwide, especially during the lunar New Year festival.

Northern Vietnamese make the Chung cake in square shape, while the southerners or ethnic people in mountainous areas wrap the cakes in a cylindrical shape.

Making Chung cake requires simple materials and ingredients which can be found in every market in Vietnam : glutinous rice, green bean, fatty pork spiced with salt, onion and pepper. All are wrapped in phrynium leaves before being boiled for at least 10 hours.

Day cake requires a more complicated process. First of all, sticky rice is dipped in water and then steamed. Steamed sticky rice will be pounded in a mortar until it turns into a soft paste, which is then shaped into round.

The worshipping ritual of the Hung Kings was honoured by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2012. Meanwhile the Hung Kings’ Temple Festival was recognised as a national event in 2007.

Vietnam press cartoon winners awarded

Nu Cuoi Phong Bi (Envelope Smile) was one of three first prize winners at the biennial Vietnam press cartoon contest, taking the Rong Tre (Bamboo Dragon) Cup at a ceremony organised on April 6 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The others are Nu Cuoi Viet Nam 1 (Vietnam's Smile 1) and Nu Cuoi Viet Nam 2 (Vietnam's Smile 2), done by painter Vu Thanh Hien (pen name Zin). The winning entries were chosen from among 420 works submitted by both amateur and professional cartoonists.

April 6 was also observed as Cartoon Day in the city with several activities including graffiti and cartoon exhibitions and music performances.

This is the fourth edition of the Bamboo Dragon Cup organised by The Thao & Van Hoa (Sports & Culture) newspaper.-

Project Runway winner to travel to Paris, New York

This year’s winner of the second season of designer search competition Project Runway Vietnam 2014 will receive a scholarship to study at Atelier Chardon Savard, one of Paris’s leading fashion schools, and have his/her collection presented at New York Couture Fashion Week in September.

This year’s twelve finalists aged between 18 and 31 also showed up at the news conference at the Grand Palace Convention Center in HCMC yesterday. The organizer said the finalists have good knowledge and skills in fashion and tailoring techniques after passing some tough challenges of making drafts, designing, sewing, and interviewing with the judges, including actress/host Truong Ngoc Anh, designer Nguyen Cong Tri, mentor Tung Leo and reporter Tran Nguyen Thien Huong from Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam magazine.

Contestants in the country’s south take precedence over those from other regions with eight chosen for the fi nal. Th ey are Le Dinh Chieu, Phan Nguyen Minh Quan, Ly Giam Tien, and Nguyen Hoang Nguyen Phong from HCMC; Dang Tuan Vu from Long An; Nguyen Minh Cong from Vinh Long; Ha Th i Hong Lam from Ca Mau; and Nguyen Th i Lan Anh from Daklak.

The northern finalists are To Phan Viet Linh from Hanoi, Doan Thuy Nga from Hung Yen, Pham Dang Khanh from Quang Ninh, and Nguyen Thi Thao from Thanh Hoa.

These 12 finalists will enter a common house for the final round which will be aired on VTV3 in nine episodes every Sunday night starting from May 11 at 8 p.m. During the contest, the best designers will come to Seoul and Paris to find inspirations for their collections.

The coronation night is slated for July 6. The winner of the competition will take home cash prizes of VND200 million from Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam magazine, VND300 million from HCMC-based Canifa fashion brand, and VND200 million from Nokia, as well as a one-year Centurion Membership worth VND450 million from California Fitness & Yoga Centers.

At a news conference yesterday, Frank Cintamani, founder/president of the Asian Couture Federation (ACF), acknowledged Le Thi Quynh Trang, producer of the contest, as the first Vietnamese member of the federation.

Spring festival opens to honour national culture

A festival themed ‘Spring honouring nation’s culture’ is underway from April 5¬–9 at Bao Son Paradise Park in Hanoi to commemorate Vietnam Ethnic Groups Cultural Day (April 14) and the Hung Kings Temple Festival (lunar March 10).

Held by the Vietnam Journalists’ Association (VJA) in co-ordination with related social organisations, the festival also aims to honour and promote the nation’s tangible ​​and intangible cultural values, in addition to launching a fundraising movement for a charity that supports disadvantaged children in Vietnam.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, VJA Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper Thuan Huu said that the festival has practical significance for cultural activities in general and journalistic activities in particular. Journalism and culture have a close relationship that cannot be separated, he said, adding that the era of the digital information explosion has created both advantages and challenges for the media in preserving and promoting the traditional cultural values ​​of the nation.

He urged VJA members and the media to co-ordinate closely with other related authorities, social organisations and the people towards the common goal of building and promoting an advanced Vietnamese culture filled with national identity.

After the flag raising ceremony that opened the festival, special cultural activities are taking place including exhibitions on craft villages and traditional Vietnamese bravery as well as food fairs, traditional music, and folk games.

One hundred booths have also been set up that introduce the products and services of villages and artisans across the nation.

Under the framework of the festival, an incense burning ceremony to commemorate the Hung Kings is organised today and two chung cakes weighing a total of 2 tonnes will be made during the event.