African night at Chez Xuan

Musbaba Traore

Chez Xuan will feature the talented Musbaba Traore and his team of musicians on its stage this Saturday evening.

Traore , a well-known drummer from Bamako, Mali, will play some favorites with a chorus of traditional instruments from Mali. His performance at Chez Xuan is one detour in a long Asia Tour.

Before Traore's performance, a documentary on Fela Kuti, Finding Fela, will be screened at 6pm.

Attendees can also enjoy a photo exhibition by Kaalvoet Ranger.

Ticket cost VND100,000, which includes a drink. Chez Xuan is at No 41, Lane 76, An Duong Street, Tay Ho District.

L'Espace presents new version of Aladdin

L'Espace will screen the French blockbuster Les Nouvelles aventures d'Aladin (The New Adventures of Aladdin), a modern rethinking of the Arab folktale starting tomorrow until December 24.

Directed by Arthur Benzaquen, the 15-million euro (US$17 million) movie features French comic star Kev Adams.

The story begins on Christmas Eve, with Sam (played by Adams) and his best mate Khalid dress up as Santa Claus to steal from Galeries Lafayette. Sam, stopped by a group of children, gets pulled into story time. He tells them the story of Aladdin, his own version.

In the role of Aladdin, Sam begins a journey in Baghdad to win the heart of Princess Shallia.

The movie will be presented in English with Vietnamese subtitles. Ticket costs VND60,000 and are available at L'Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street.

Music show for students at Cargo Bar

After School, a special music show for students, will be held at Cargo Bar on December 22.

The event will feature resident DJs and singers Jake Ryan, Daniel Mastro, Tia Hai Chau, D. Cizzle and Bnuts. MC Callous will host the show.

The concert will begin at 7.30pm at 7 Nguyen Tat Thanh Street in District 4.

Tickets are VND100,000 and 50,000 for students via www.ticketbox.vn. Tickets at the door are VND120,000 and VND70,000 for students.

National Tourism Year closes with cultural performances

Amateur troupes from seven provinces are performing Vietnamese traditional art forms, recognised as world cultural non-intangible heritage by UNESCO, in Thanh Hoa Province.

The performances were organised last night at a ceremony that closed the Thanh Hoa–National Tourism Year 2015, the theme of which was Connecting World Heritage Sites in Viet Nam.

This is the first time all world cultural non-intangible heritage art forms in Viet Nam, such as nha nhac (court music), xoan song, quan ho (love duet song) and gong culture in the Central Highlands, besides ca tru (ceremonial song), were performed at the same place.

The art troupes are from Ha Noi, Thua Thien Hue, Bac Giang and Phu Tho, besides Kon Tum, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa. The performances will be held today and tomorrow at the Ho Dynasty Citadel in Vinh Loc District and Lam Kinh relic site in Tho Xuan District in Thanh Hoa Province.

The Ho Dynasty Citadel was recognised a world cultural heritage site in 2013. It measures 870m by 883m and was built in 1397.

The citadel's construction was supervised by the Tran Dynasty's top mandarin Ho Quy Ly, who later occupied the citadel when he forcibly took the throne in 1400, changing the country's name from Dai Viet to Dai Ngu.

Ho Quy Ly's rise to power launched the short-lived Ho Dynasty, and that is why the citadel is still known as the Ho Dynasty Citadel.

At the Thanh Hoa National Tourism Year's closing ceremony last night, the troupes performed traditional art forms that connected the unique ethnic group cultures in Viet Nam.

Many cultural, sport and tourism events such as fold song competition, sea tourism festival, international sculpture camp and gastronomy festival were held in Thanh Hoa Province.

The tourism year was expected to promote the tangible and intangible cultural heritage and natural tourist attractions in Viet Nam to domestic and international visitors, while boosting tourism co-operation between Thanh Hoa and other localities in the region and across the country.

In 2015, the province was expected to attract about 100,000 foreign tourists and about 5.5 million domestic tourists.

Located 150km to the south of Ha Noi and 1,560km to the north of HCM City, Thanh Hoa is a key tourist destination. With a magnificent history and cultural traditions, the city is home to several national heroes and cultural celebrities. It has more than 1,500 relic sites.

Along with that, hundreds of festivals, folk songs, dances and local specialities also contribute to developing the Thanh Hoa tourism brand.

Heritage Photo winners chosen

A photo collection featuring a festival in the northern province of Vinh Phuc by veteran photographer Pham Anh received the Special Award for Photo Collection – the highest prize of the Heritage Photo Awards.

The collection, titled Le Hoi Trau Rom Bo Ra (Festival of Straw Cows and Buffaloes), captures festivities in Dai Dong Commune of Vinh Tuong District, Vinh Phuc, during a festival to pray for a bumper crop and healthy cattle herd.

The prize winnings included two round-trip Vietnam Airlines tickets to any destination in Northeast Asia and a professional Olympus camera.

For the Best Single Photo Award, the jury failed to find a winner amongst the nearly 200 entries, saying that none of them met all of the award's tough requirements.

Organised by Vietnam Airlines' inflight magazine, Heritage, this year's photo awards was themed, "Journey through Heritages", and attracted 50 photo collections submissions from photographers across the country.

To offer applicants the opportunity to shoot quality photos, the organisers and partners from Viet Nam World Heritage sites and Ford Vietnam organised photo tours in June and September.

Photographers travelled to mountainous provinces of Yen Bai, Nghia Lo and Son La and also to heritage sites in Ha Noi, Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa and Quang Ninh provinces.

On Monday, alongside the awards ceremony, an exhibition was organised to highlight some of the best entries. It will remain open to public until December 21 at the Viet Nam National Museum of Fine Arts, 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street.

The organisers also launched the fourth year of the Heritage Photo Awards, for which they will accept entries from January 15 through October 31.

Exhibit shows Buddhist heritage

An exhibition of Buddhist costumes, architecture, language and heritage has opened at Yen Phu Pagoda in Thanh Tri District on the outskirts of Ha Noi.

Hundreds of photos, objects and documents are on display at the exhibition, which has also launched a series of activities for researching and preparing a draft plan that will focus on the characteristics of costumes, architecture, language and heritage in Viet Nam's Buddhism.

The central culture department of the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha will organise workshops to discuss the plan.

The exhibition will run till June 16, 2016.

Copyright infringement holds back e-book market: workshop

Copyright infringement is among causes that hinder the development of e-book publishing in Vietnam, heard a recent workshop in Ho Chi Minh City.

Nguyen Hai, from the Ho Chi Minh City General Publishing House, pointed to the open availability of unauthorised books on the internet, which he said allows netizens to copy, gift or resell them easily.

Although the Publishing Law, the Copyright Law and the Law on Intellectual Property all prescribe the settlement of copyright violations, competent agencies fail to take strong measure against the problem, Hai said.

Echoing Hai’s views, Nguyen Minh Nhut, Director of the Tuoi Tre Publishing House, said copyright holders find it hard to file a lawsuit against online copyright violators due to complicated procedures and the difficulties in getting fines paid.

Many said the existence of unlicensed websites not only causes damage for the authors and publishers but erodes the domestic newly-emerging e-book market.

Participants urged strict inspection over and punishment of violations in publishing activities, especially e-book copyright infringement.

Delegates also blamed the limited infrastructure for e-trade activities and loose coordination between publishers for the sluggish e-book market.

Vietnam takes part in Saint Petersburg Int’l Cultural Forum

A Vietnamese delegation led by Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Le Khanh Hai attended the 4th International Cultural Forum in Saint Petersburg, Russia on December 14-16.

As part of the activities to celebrate the 70th founding anniversary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the event drawn the participation of over 7,000 delegates from nearly 40 countries worldwide.

In his opening speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin affirmed that culture plays a crucial role in society and is also important for each person.

A series of seminars focusing in culture and arts were organised during the event, which served as a venue for participants to enquire into humankind’s cultures.

In the framework of the forum and the third International Tourism Forum in Saint Petersburg, a plan to promote tourism links between Vietnam and Russia in 2016-2018 was signed by Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism and the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST).

The document lays a foundation for the two countries to spur their cooperation in the exchange of tourists and in attracting visitors from third countries, thus forging the bilateral friendship and cooperation.

Under the plan, Vietnam and Russia will support each other in tourism promotion activities in respective nations, while exchanging information on important tourism events in each country.

Connections will also focus on developing investment and tourism projects in the two countries and training human resources.

Russia and Vietnam committed to facilitating the operation of their travel agencies to open representative offices in respective countries and boost tourism collaboration.

They agreed to strengthen coordination within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to promote their tourism products.

The document will help open new opportunities for Vietnam’s travel firms and tour operators to enlarge their activities in theRussian market, affirmed Le Ngoc Dinh, deputy head of the MCST’s International Cooperation Department.