Collaborative performing arts project to be launched

People's Artist Le Khanh.

A project to promote co-operation in culture and performing arts between the Vietnam Youth Theatre and Japan's Marionette Edo Youkiza Theatre will begin on January 28.

Under the project, a six-member group, comprising actors, stage designer, sound and light technicians from the Vietnam Youth Theatre, led by veteran People's Artist Le Khanh, will go to Japan to study and improve their performing skills.

After two months, a stage adaptation of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck is expected to be performed by the Vietnam Youth Theatre at Theatre East and Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre.

The project is being funded by The Japan Foundation Asia Centre.

Vietnam Youth Theatre's Director Truong Nhuan will attend a workshop on Ibsen from January 28 to February 1 at Digital Hollywood University in Tokyo.

Nhuan has adapted Ibsen's literary works such as Doll's House, Brand and The Wild Duck.

Hanoi: Activities welcoming 12th Party Congress in full swing

The capital’s Department of Culture and Sports has planned a range of events on the occasion of the 12th National Party Congress.

A performance, featuring musical and circus acts, is due to be held at Ly Thai To park in Ha Dong district on the night of January 21. Similar concerts are scheduled to take place in the rest of 30 local districts and communes on January 21 and 22.

The Hanoi-based centre for film production and cinema is organising 150 free screenings for approximately 4,500 people across the city. The screenings, which began in December 2015, will last until mid-February 2016. Documentaries about party congresses, national reform, sea and islands, and the late President Ho Chi Minh have been selected to be shown to the public.

An exhibition, themed “loyalty to the Party”, is scheduled to run from January 22 to 30, with 100 pictures and pictorial books on display.

On January 28, the city will host a night of musical and sport performances at Ly Thai To park and at the local training centre for outstanding athletes, to mark the conclusion of the 12 th National Party Congress.

Quang Ninh: Ngoa Van festival to be held annually

The Ngoa Van spring festival in the northern province of Quang Ninh will be held annually with the opening ceremony starting from the 9 th day of the first lunar month.

The information was revealed during a press conference to announce the activities of the festival in 2016 and the inauguration of the upgrade of Ngoa Van pagoda. The conference was organised on January 21 by the People’s Committee of Quang Ninh’s Dong Trieu town and the Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam-Quang Ninh branch.

This year, the Ngoa Van festival will officially open on February 16 and run for about three months.

The festival will create an opportunity for Buddhist monks, nuns and followers across Vietnam to make a pilgrimage to the national relic site Ngoa Van pagoda, which is considered a holy land of the Vietnamese Truc Lam Zen Monastery.

The pagoda, located on Bao Dai Mountain in Dong Trieu town, is where King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong, the third king of the Tran dynasty and the founder of Truc Lam Zen Monastery, attained Nirvana.

The upgrade of Ngoa Van Pagoda began in 2014 with a total investment of nearly 90 billion VND (nearly 4 million USD).

The Tam Duc Company will inaugurate a 2-kilometre cable car system worth 500 billion VND (21 million USD) to better serve tourists to Ngoa Van pagoda.

Tickets for the cable car are free on the first day of the Ngoa Van festival.

Students engaged in Vi-Giam folk singing festival

Students from 12 high schools, colleges and universities in the central province of Nghe An delivered brilliant performances at the first Vi-Giam folk singing festival for students, which opened in Vinh city on January 20.

The festival is held with the aim of encouraging the practice of Vi-Giam folk singing in schools while creating a playground for students to develop their musical and performing aptitude, thus helping preserve this age-old folk music genre.

Vietnam’s Vi-Giam folk singing was officially recognised by UNESCO as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity on November 27, 2014.

The folk music is a repartee singing while working. There are an estimated 15 tunes of Vi and eight airs of Giam, reflecting the work, cultural life and feelings of the residents in the central coastal provinces.

This type of folk singing is popular in nearly 260 villages in 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 is currently facing a number of problems since fewer residents sing this genre of music and many of the documentaries relating to the singing were lost.

The country committed to implementing an action programme to preserve Vi-Giam singing, carrying out policies to honour artisans, and intensifying communication campaigns to educate young generations on this type of art.

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.

Da Nang set for tourism drive

The Central city of Da Nang plans to hold a series of culture, sports and tourism events throughout the year to promote tourism, its Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said.

The Clipper 2015-16 Round the World Yacht Race will touch down and be received with celebrations during the stopover from February 17 to 27.

The crews will join locals and tourists for a kayaking competition on the Han River, the annual Bare Foot Run on Da Nang Beach, Cau Ngu (traditional beach festival), and an art and cultural exchange evening fair.

The Beach-Leisure and M.I.C.E Travel Mart, the first of its kind in Viet Nam, will take place on June 24-26 at the Tin Son Sports Centre.

It will be an expo on beach vacations and the meeting, incentive, conference, exhibition (MICE) industry and one of the country's major events to promote the country's tourist attractions among foreign travel agencies and others.

This will be followed by the hosting of the fifth Asian Beach Games (ABG5) from September 24 to October 3.

The biennial sand and sea sports extravaganza is expected to attract nearly 5,000 athletes and officials from 45 countries and territories and feature 14 sports.

Free wifi at HCM City festival spots

The Saigon Postel Corporation (SPT) plans to provide free public wifi from January 20 to February 17 at Flower Street areas and markets in six cities, Ha Noi, HCM City, Da Nang, Can Tho, Nha Trang, and Hai Phong.

In HaNoi, free wifi will be provided at flower markets on Lac Long Quan and Hoang Hoa Tham streets, Buoi Market and Hang Luoc Flower Street, Nghi Tam, and Quang Ba flower markets.

In HCM City, it will be available at the Tao Dan Spring Flower Festival, Gia Dinh Park, September 23 Park, Le Van Tam, and Le Thi Rieng Park and Phu My Hung.

The company will also install five transceivers near Nguyen Hue Street to serve visitors.

Wifi will also be available at Bach Dang and Tran Hung Dao Flower Streets in Da Nang, and Ninh Kieu Wharf and Art Flower Street in Can Tho.

Free wifi will cover Tran Phu Street, Yen Phi Park and Le Thanh Ton Street in Nha Trang, and Le Hong Phong and Nguyen Van Troi streets, Le Chan Flower Garden, and Tran Hung Dao and Tran Phu Flower Street in Hai Phong.

The S-wifi system will offer unlimited bandwidth to help festival goers access the internet with their mobile devices, according to SPT.

Work begins on Tet flower show

Installation work began yesterday on the 720m-long Nguyen Hue Flower Street, covering the entire pedestrian area on Nguyen Hue Boulevard in downtown HCM City.

The work began five days earlier than scheduled in order to extend the opening time during Tet (Lunar New Year) for local residents and tourists.

The street, to be covered with various kinds of flowers running from the Ho Chi Minh Statue in front of City Hall to Ton Duc Thang Street, will be one of the must-see venues during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.

Representing the Year of the Monkey will be a family of nine monkeys at the entrance to the street. Each monkey figure will be one to two metres high.

In order to create favourable conditions for the flower street, the city's Department of Transport will close parts of Nguyen Hue Boulevard to traffic.

Documentary on Japan to be aired in VN

A documentary series entitled Sắc Màu Nhật Bản (Colours of Japan) will be aired on Channel 2 on Sunday.

It is the first joint production of Viet Nam National Television (VTV) and Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) Television in documentary film making.

The nine-episode series will introduce typical cultural characteristics of seven prefectures in Japan, which are Aomori, Yamagata, Niigata and Toyama, besides Nagano, Oita and Kagoshima.

"The provinces extend from the north to the south of Japan, which caused difficulties for the film crew. We had to adapt to dramatically weather change," director Minh Hà said at a press conference held yesterday in Hà Nội.

The documentary series will not only feature the natural beauty and traditional culture of Japan, but also highlight scientific and technological achievements in local prefectures.

"However, the things that impressed me the most during the making of the documentary were human values and the Japanese people," the director said. "We filmed forest growers in Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture in the south-western corner of Japan. They spend their whole life growing saplings to preserve rare trees for the younger generation."

The episode entitled Thong Điệp Từ Những Người Thợ Rừng (Messages of Forest Growers) will be screened on March 27.

"We hope Vietnamese television viewers will get to know more about the primitive beauty of the Japanese countryside," TBS producer Shiro Otsuru said. "We also want Vietnamese audiences to see different sides to Japan, and not just well-known tourist destinations such as Tokyo, Mt Fuji and Sky Tree."

Each 60-minute episode shows amazing experiments such as Yamagata mountain-climbing in Yamagata Prefecture; production of glass used for the Hokuriki Shinkansen Line express in Toyama; and production of geothermal electricity from hot springs in Oita Prefecture.

"The fact that hot springs are used as a source of renewable energy is amazing," MC Hồng Phúc said. "It's my great honour to get involved in the series. I got rare opportunities to go to areas in Japan where many Japanese have not been to."

Phúc worked with seven women to do the narration in the series, which was shot in 20 days. The series will be aired weekly on Sunday morning at 9.25am from January 24.

They are part of a co-operation project between VTV and TBS to enhance mutual understanding between the people of Việt Nam and Japan.

The two televisions groups have co-operated to produce series such as Người Cộng Sự (The Partner) in 2013 and Khúc Hát Mặt Trời (The Sun's Song), as well as the Sasuke Viet Nam game show, which have been being shown on VTV's Channel 3.

Quang Ninh approves three tours

The Quang Ninh Province People's Committee has approved three new tourism tours in CoTo, the furthest island district in the northern province and one which has many islands, untouched forests, picturesque landscapes, beaches with blue water and soft sand and corals.

They take visitors from CoTo town to Dong Tuyen Commune, small CoTo island, and Thanh Lan Island Commune, and offer seascapes and adventure tourism.

The route to Dong Tuyen Commune will take in several tourist attractions such as Cau My rock ground, Bac Bo (Tonkin) Gulf fishing logistics centre, the district's central market, President Ho Chi Minh memorial site, Nam Hai Beach, the CoTo light house, and Choi forest.

Quang Ninh plans to develop CoTo into a national ecological and resort tourism area and a major destination in the Cat Ba-Ha Long-Van Don- CoTo-Mong Cai tourism circuit by 2020. It takes about three hours to reach CoTo, some 100km from the mainland, by boat from Cai Rong Port in Van Don District.

Visitors flock to blooming Delta

Flower villages in the Mekong Delta are attracting a large number of visitors as they are filled with colourful flowers and ornamental trees that are being readied for Tet (Lunar New Year), which falls on February 8 this year.

The delta, the country's largest rice, fruit and aquaculture farming area, has many famous flower villages like Sa Dec in Dong Thap, Phuoc Dinh in Vinh Long, My Tho in Tien Giang, Thoi Nhut in Can Tho city, and Cai Mon in Ben Tre.

Cai Mon in Cho Lach District's Vinh Thanh Commune is renowned for its ornamental trees. The village has hundreds of households who grow various kinds of flowers and ornamental trees, including animal-shaped and 100-year-old ones.

Khanh Hoa preps for whale festival

The Nghinh Ong (Whale Worship) Festival in the central province of Khanh Hoa will be held on January 24 in fishing villages.

The festival, held on the 15th of the last lunar month every year, is held to worship Whale Saint for protecting fishermen at sea and pray for bumper fish catches.

The festival begins early in the morning and involves several rituals, including a procession on land and at sea by local fishermen wearing traditional costumes, traditional games, and music and dance performances.

The festival, organised in the communal house of each fishing village, has been recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage.

Nghinh Ong Festival is celebrated in many coastal provinces and cities during various times of the year.

Hai Phong ramps up tourism efforts

Hai Phong authorities have approved two new tourism routes in the city and recognised six prominent attractions as "tourism destinations".

One route takes visitors to rural areas, the temple of General Le Chan (the woman who is believed to have founded An Bien Village at the location of present-day Hai Phong nearly 2,000 years ago), the temple of cultural celebrity Nguyen Binh Khiem (1491-1585), Tien Lang hot spring, and several attractive landscapes.

The other, from the city to Cat Ba, takes in forests and beaches on Cat Ba Island, a UNESCO world biosphere reserve.

The six tourism destinations are Nguyen Binh Khiem Temple; Voi (Elephant) Mountain; Tien Lang hot mineral spring ecology resort; historical site Height 177 (Cannon Bastion); Lan Ha Bay; and Cat Co 1, 2 and 3 beaches.

Hai Phing is superbly linked with the Cat Bi International Airport, a railway station, and an expressway to Ha Noi.

Travel firms roll out Tet promotions

Many travel companies have launched Tet (Lunar New Year) promotional tours with discounts.

Saigontourist is offering discounts on tours to Phu Quoc, Phan Thiet, Nha Trang, Con Dao, and the central and northern regions.

Vietravel has unveiled an VND8 billion (US$360,000) promotion with many prizes for customers.

This year Tet tour prices have not increased much unlike in previous years because a fall in fuel prices has reduced the costs of transport and other services, according to travel companies.

Thai Binh celebrates 790th anniversary of Tran Dynasty

A ceremony was held on January 21 by the People’s Committee of Hung Ha district in the northern province of Thai Binh to mark the 790th founding anniversary of the Tran Dynasty (1225-1440), which falls on the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month.

The event, the first of its kind, drew in representatives from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; local authorities; the Tran family; and crowds of domestic and international tourists.

Addressing the event, Chairman of the District People’s Committee Vu Tien Khoai said the event aims to recall, honour and uphold the tradition and its values among the people who live where the Tran Dynasty was founded.

He also highlighted the role and the significant contributions the Tran Dynasty has made to the course of history, in terms of the nation’s defence, development and prosperity.

Over the past years, the Party Committee and the people of the district have held events to honour cultural heritage of the Tran Dynasty.

In 1989, the Tam Duong hamlet in Tien Duc commune, Hung Ha district was recognised as a national archaeological relic site.

The Tran Temple Festival was recognised as national intangible heritage in 2014, and the Temples and Tombs of Kings of the Tran Dynasty as special national cultural heritage in 2015.

A procession and a number of traditional rituals formed part of the activities during the ceremony.

Hoi An to host Vietnam-Asia silk festival

A Vietnam-Asia silk festival set to take place on March 28-29 will be a major cultural highlight of myriad of events celebrating the 41st anniversary of Hoi An City.

The festival will provide insight into traditional cultural features of Vietnam silk through festivities and display products of seven Vietnam silk villages like Nha Xa, Van Phuc, Ma Chau and Tan Chau.

Besides, artisans and silk businesses from Vietnam, Thailand, India, Japan and China will exchange silk making experience at a seminar themed ‘silk in modern life’.

Hoi An Silk Village in Hoi An province- one of the founders of the Asia Silk Alliance and International Silk Union will serve as the main organizer of the event.

VNA/VNS/VOV