Fireworks, festivals ring in new year

Day in the sun: Many pilgrims flock to Yen Tu site in the northern province of Quang Ninh to attend the spring festival and pray for good fortune in the new year. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Tran The sand flies: A wrestling competition in the traditional festival of Mai Dong Village, Hoang Mai District, Ha Noi, on the occasion of new year. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhat Anh

HCM CITY — Splendid displays of fireworks and traditional festivities animated the country during the first week of February to welcome Tet (Lunar New Year), which falls under the zodiac sign of the Cat.

On New Year's Eve, when the Cat takes over rule from the Tiger, fireworks lit up the sky across the country.

A 15-minute display of fireworks entertained various ethnic groups in the capital of the northernmost province of Ha Giang, while fireworks were accompanied by a count-down concert in Dien Bien Phu city in northwestern province of Dien Bien, which borders Laos.

Fireworks in Ha Giang were made possible with funding from local enterprises rather than from the provincial budget, according to Hung Thi Hong, a senior provincial official.

This year's Tet Holiday coincided with the 81st anniversary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and followed a successful Party Congress, the country's premier political event which takes place every five years.

Thousands of locals, including elderly people and children took to the streets in spite of chilly weather to view a fireworks display at the sports arena in northern Ninh Binh Province.

A fireworks display was also staged in Thu Dau Mot Town and every district of southern Binh Duong Province, while provincial party chief Mai The Trung headed a delegation to pay New Year's visits to soldiers, police officers and workers of state-owned enterprises.

Trees and houses lining downtown streets in northern Nam Dinh City, were decorated in red with thousands of flags and flower lanterns, and artists of traditional opera like cheo and cai luong performed classical dramas in colourful costumes during the New Year's Eve.

The sun finally emerged after many days of a severe cold spell.

Droves of people thronged into Buddhist pagodas and temples in Ha Noi to pray for a happy new year and the well-being of their families, and streets surrounding the Temple of Literature were lined with calligraphy stalls where calligraphy-painted Chinese characters representing "Luck" and "Happiness" were on sale.

In HCM City, downtown avenues like Nguyen Hue and Le Loi have become traditional magnets that drew thousands of revelers during Tet with colourful arrangement of flowers and decorations.

The city's Party leader Le Thanh Hai joined the revelers on the avenue on Sunday and tossed a coin into a lake to wish for peace and prosperity for citizens.

"I'm so glad that the city has made great changes in the past years," said Nguyen Van Dac, an overseas Vietnamese in the US who returned to the country for the first time after 15 years.

In the world heritage town of Hoi An in central Quang Nam Province, lanterns in various shapes of the cat made by local craftsmen, lit up both sides of the Hoai River that runs through the town.

Farmers in the Mekong Delta took to rice paddy fields on Saturday, the third day of Tet, in a symbolic deed to wish for good crops. — VNS

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Spring festival to stir up capital

HA NOI - A bursting spring atmosphere will be bought to downtown Ha Noi by a festival gathering typical products such as bonsai trees from handicraft villages on the outskirts of the city between January 27 and February 1.

The festival, which will be held on Tran Nhan Tong Street and nearby areas in Thong Nhat Park, will feature not only bonsai trees, but flowers from the villages of Nhat Tan, Tay Tuu, Me Linh along with artificial flowers made of paper, metal, bronze and wood by artisans living in the city.

Various traditional festive food such as gio cha (boiled minced pork paste), nem chua (fermented pork paste) from Uoc Le Village and jams from Xuan Dinh Village will also be available at the festival, along with worshipping wares from Ha Noi's Son Dong Village, and furniture from the northern province of Bac Ninh's Dong Ky Village.

Traditional folk performances will also take place including quan ho (love duets), cheo (traditional opera) and ca tru (ceremonial singing), as well as folk games and traditional handicraft competitions. - VNS

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Flowers, drinks fest planned for Tet

HA NOI - A festival of Spring Flowers and Drinks will be organised next Tuesday to celebrate Tet (the Lunar New Year).

The festival will be held in Ha Noi's Viet Nam Culture and Arts Exhibition Centre. It will introduce traditional customs and feature arts performances and games for visitors such as the traditional long dress show, calligraphy exhibition and a photo exhibition of lotus flowers, the top candidate for the title Viet Nam National Flower.

The exhibition will also show wines and spirits made by modern and traditional methods, with rewards for the most popular.

As many as 50 entrepreneurs will take part in the festival to introduce products served for Tet, such as decorative objects, ornamental trees and consumer goods.

This year the annual event will feature a market-day of the mountainous province of Ha Giang with local specialities, cuisine and festivities of the area's ethnic people such as a pan-pipe, dance and folk duet.

This year's festivities will run at the centre, located at 2 Hoa Lu Street, until the end of January. - VNS

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Windy Days and Land of Asylum at Idecaf

The artists performing tonight at Idecaf - Photo: The organizers

A concert called “Windy Days and Land of Asylum” will be at Idecaf, 8 p.m. tonight, at the Idecaf, 31 Thai Van Lung Street in HCMC’s District 1.

Pierre Diaz (saxophone), the string trio Zephyr, Huong Thanh (vocals), Alex Tran (percussions) and Nguyen Thu Thuy (Vietnamese violin) will perform.

The artists will play a subtle fusion of jazz, Eastern and Mediterranean rhythms and traditional Vietnamese music through song, words and improvisation.

Pierre Diaz began music in Languedoc-Roussillon (France) at age 12 and soon joined a band, touring around the region. His first CD (Duo), released in early 2000, was noticed by “hot jazz” critics. He toured in Vietnam in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

 Zephyr has members - cellist and soprano singer, Claire Menguy, violinist and mezzo-soprano singer Marion Diaques, violinist and alto singer Delphine Chomel.

Huong Thanh began learning cai luong (traditional southern opera) at age 10 and moved to France in 1988. In 1995, she met the jazzman Nguyen Le and found a whole new world of music. The result of this combination between cai luong and jazz was a CD titled Ile – Tales from Vietnam (2006), that became a hit and won prizes.

Born in France in 1975, Alex Tran began learning percussion and piano at the Academy of Metz at age seven. At 20, he taught for four years in a percussion school in Metz. Then he found his inspiration on stage. Meanwhile, Nguyen Thu Thuy often travels abroad for traditional music training and performances. She leads a group of traditional musicians and they tour all around Vietnam.

Ticket are VND100,000 and VND50,000 for students and are on sale at Idecaf.

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“Don ca tai tu” – the southern spiritual creature

Coming to life no more than two centuries ago and becoming much loved by southerners of Vietnam, “đờn ca tài tử” is deeply rooted in the culture and spirits of locals and considered a traditional music of the nation.

Origin

Two professional forms of arts, “Tuồng” and “Nhạc lễ”, have taken roots among the southern community in Vietnam since the 19th century. “Tuồng” is a kind of theater in which drums and oboes are the main instruments and “Nhạc lễ” is the other genre serving ritual customs and mainly uses string and percussion instruments.

Starting from playing for relaxation during periods between crops or during free time, musicians started to create “don cay” movement (playing musical instruments without percussion). This movement quickly expanded its influence all over the region.

In the late 19th and the early 20th century, many musical mandarins and musicians of the Nguyen Dynasty moved to the south during a revolutionary movement and they combined their Hue music and that of the south to compose new “tài tử” songs and open classes to locals.

Successful learners of “tài tử” can be listed as Nguyen Quang Dai (Ba Doi) (1880) in Long An Province, Tran Quang Diem (1853 – 1927) in My Tho, Le Binh An (1862 – 1924) in Bac Lieu, together with masters like Tam, Dzung, Phan Hien Dao and Ton Tho Truong who studied music in Hue.

They contributed to composing songs and transmitting them to the south. Thanks to the “don cay" movement, musical teachers of Hue – the old capital – created physical changes to make “don cay” music the new kind of traditional music: “đờn ca tài tử”.

The art

It often takes people from 2 to 3 years to play fluently some of the most famous pieces and to be able to well deploy the techniques of “điệu” and “hơi” (tune and air).

Now there are hundreds of pieces in “tài tử” repertoire, in which 20 typical songs include Luu Thuy truong, Phu Luc Chan, Binh Ban chan, Co ban truong, Xuan tinh chan, Tay Thi truong, Xang xe, Ngu doi thuong, Ngu doi ha, Long dang, Long ngam, Van gia, Tieu khuc, Nam Xuan, Nam Ai, Dao ngu cung, Tu dai oan, Phung hoang, Giang nam – cuu khuc, Phung cau.

While playing these 20 oriental pieces as well as others, musicians are allowed to improvise new sub-melodies based on “long ban”, which is the basic theme.

Each musical sentence has a fixed number of measures. There are usually two types of sentence: sentence with 4 measures of 4/4, sentence with 8 measures of 4/4. The basic tunes was created on Bac tune (Bac air, Ha air), Nam tune (Xuan air, Ai air, Dao air) and Oan tune (Oan air).

All “tài tử” musicians have to learn by heart the basic tune of each repertoire from which they can improvise, yet maintain the integrity.

A traditional “tài tử” orchestra comprises such instruments as don kim (Vietnamese two-chord guitar), don tranh (Vietnamese 16-chord zither), don ty ba (Chinese four-chord lute), don co (Vietnamese two-chord fiddle), don bau (monochord) and ong tieu (flute).

Since the late middle of 20th century, guitar and violin have been added into the “tài tử” orchestra.

But the guitars’ frets are carved so as to leave a concave surface. With such a deep fret, the guitar, now called “guitar phim lom” or concave-fret guitar, offers a unique sound that goes along well with other acoustical sounds produced by traditional instruments in the “tài tử” orchestra.

Based on “tài tử” music, lyrics are composed for singers. Lyrics soon became a very effective tool to promote the art values and educational functions of “đờn ca tài tử” to the public.

Soon after that, “tài tử” singers changed the way of performance which does not only include singing but also acting called “Ca ra bo”, which was the first step for forming “cải lương”.

In 1917, the play “Luc Van Tien” by Truong Duy Toan was opened in Sa Dec and it was considered the first “cải lương”, the third Vietnamese stage art after “tuồng” and “chèo”.

Thanks to great artists and improving repertoire from “tai tu” music, “cải lương” has been developing fast and became one of the most attractive on-stage performances in the south during the 20th century.

In its turn, cai luong plays an active role in helping “tài tử” expand.

People who play “đờn ca tài tử”

Most “tài tử” performers are also composers. They don’t earn their life as singers, just act alone or sometimes together for relaxation in their free time. Usually, they are close friends and neighbors joining together to perform the music, as a way of expressing own emotions.

That is the reason why they perform with their whole hearts.

And when “đờn ca tài tử” became popular, public demand for it increased and that has urged greatest artists to build the “tai tu" band for greater performances in larger places.

Four criteria to list “đờn ca tài tử” as traditional

“Đờn ca tài tử” is the youngest in comparison with other kinds of Vietnamese traditional music such as “Hát xoan”, “Ca trù”, “Hát văn”, “Ca Huế”, “Hát xẩm” because its age is less than 200 years old. However, the music is considered traditional for the following criteria:

Firstly, it retains the Vietnamese traditional structure with “long ban” structure.

Secondly, it employs the musical scales and the ranges of scale of Vietnamese traditional music.

Thirdly, performers use Vietnamese traditional musical instruments. The instruments are promoted with new techniques by their composers.

Fourthly, professors keep their traditional teaching by direct instruction with traditional songs.

Nowadays, although the Vietnamese culture is greatly impacted by integration, information technology and globalization, the southern people still hold dear “đờn ca tài tử” and perform them in their daily life.

“Đờn ca tài tử” is thus worthy of being regarded as the Vietnamese spiritual creature.

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Culture Vulture

Tai tu music inherits thousands of years of Vietnamese traditional music

Prof Dr Nguyen Thuyet Phong is an ethnomusicologist who was honoured by the US government as a National Heritage Fellow in 2007 and one of two Vietnamese listed in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians alongside Prof Dr Tran Van Khe. Phong talked about the possibility of tai tu music being recognised as an Intangible World Cultural Heritage by the UN.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has tasked the Vietnamese Institute of Music and its departments in HCM City and other southern provinces to develop a thorough profile for tai tu music. This would be submitted to the United Nations' Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) which would consider the music as an Intangible World Cultural Heritage status. What role do you have in the project?

It was my pleasure to be invited by Culture Minister Hoang Tuan Anh to work on the project. What part I will play depends on the assignments of the Vietnamese Institute of Music and the HCM City's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

In my opinion, the road ahead is still very challenging. The art form has lost most of its luster to cai luong (reformed theatre), while its performances are much influenced by tan co giao duyen (a mixture of elements of traditional and pop music).

Tai tu music is traditionally performed in visiting rooms. Its standard orchestra includes a dan tranh (16-string zither), a dan kim (two-chord guitar), a dan co (two-chord fiddle), a ty ba (pear-shaped four-chord guitar), a doc huyen (monochord zither) and a flute.

Performing tai tu music on a big stage as pop and rock music groups do, or like performances during tourism festivals, is not true to its nature.

We should take into account its chamber concert nature when we are striving to restore the art form to its original form in terms of instrumentalists, singers, repertoire, style of singing and instruments, among others.

The most noteworthy surviving tai tu music figures in HCM City include musicians Vinh Bao and Ba Tu who are quite old now and some other musicians. Also, there are artists we don't know about, but we still are trying to find out who they are.

Even though tai tu music today has a much bigger audience, we still need to restore its chamber space that can accommodate small audiences.

Compared to other kinds of traditional Vietnamese music, tai tu music has a much shorter history. Will it pose any hurdle for UNESCO's recognition?

In my opinion, UNESCO recognition is not based on the history of the art form, but on its quality and musical system. In this respect, we can see tai tu music as unique in that it synthesises traditional music of the north, centre and south of the country over thousands of years.

So it has an extraordinary power. Its performance adheres to strict specific rules. Its theory, which has been handed down by generations through word of mouth, draws on many traditions of the past.

Once the art form is restored, we should commit to conserving it.

What do you have to say about the get-together of ethno-musicologists from over the world during a recent conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) in Ha Noi city and Quang Ninh Province?

It was a good opportunity for us to advertise our traditional music and learn from international experts in studying and conserving traditional music. It's noteworthy that the ICTM is also advising UNESCO on appraising intangible heritage profiles.

With 54 ethnic groups, Viet Nam is of great interest and inspiration to the world's ethnomusicologists. Some presentations at the conference deal with subject matter like ethnic groups' music and youth, ethnomusicological applications in education, sociology and the mass media. — VNS

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Uncle Ho's father's death noted

To mark the 81st anniversary of the death of President Ho Chi Minh's father, Nguyen Sinh Sac, authorities of Dong Thap in the Mekong Delta opened the Nguyen Sinh Sac Tourist Area in the province's Cao Lanh city.

Sac came to Dong Thap in 1917 to teach and give medical treatment to local residents until he died in 1929. When completed, the area, which is located on 9.3 hectares, will have Vietnamese culture and history displays and a traditional craft village of nine wooden houses built in the traditional southern style. Displays will include palm leaf weaving, metal forging and carpentry, all jobs that Nguyen Sinh Sac did in the province. The village will also feature canals, rows of coconut trees, vegetable farms, maize and sugarcane fields.

Tourists can participate in traditional farming and learn about southern culture when they visit the village, which will open to the public in mid-2011.

Tourism Year focuses on coasts

The National Tourism Year 2011 programme will encourage more protection of the beautiful beaches in the south-central region, which includes the provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan as well as Da Nang city.

During a press conference earlier this week, organisers said the festival, which will kick off in Phu Yen Province' Tuy Hoa City on April 1, will hold more than 30 cultural, sport and tourism events. Under the theme of "Visit Viet Nam Year - Phu Yen 2011: Exotic Beach and Island", major events will include an international mountaineering tournament at Da Bia mountain, a Viet Nam-South Korea cultural exchange, a sea and island month and an ASEAN traditional music festival.

VNAT focuses on four main markets

Viet Nam's tourism industry has singled out China, Northeast Asian countries, Europe, and ASEAN as its four main source markets for next year's business plan.

According to Vu The Binh, head of the Travel Department under the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Viet Nam is expected to welcome 900,000 visitors from China and 800,000 from Europe this year. Meanwhile tourists from ASEAN, mostly Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia, have also been soaring in the past two years.

HCM City tourist discounts

A tourism promotion programme that offers 5 to 10 per cent reduction of prices on tourist products and services was introduced by the HCM City's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism during a ceremony to welcome the city's three millionth visitor in 2010.

Under the programme, the discounts will be offered at hotels, tourist and entertainment parks, shopping centres, restaurants and travel agencies between December 19 and January 9.

Hotels, tourist and entertainment parks and travel agencies that want to join the programme must register at the HCM City Department of Trade and Industry.

Ha Noi hotel ranked in top four

International travel journalists and tourism experts have voted Sofitel Legend Metropole Ha Noi as one of the top urban hotels in the world in the Fifth Annual Hotel and Resort Survey of Cigar Aficionado magazine.

The 109-year-old hotel was ranked after the Four Seasons George V in Paris but was on par with the Peninsula in Hong Kong and the Oriental in Bangkok by the jury, which included travel agents, tour operators and staff from Virtuoso, CBS News as well as Forbes Life and National Geographic magazines. — VNS

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Traditional music of capital to be released

A DVD set featuring the traditional music of Hanoi will be released later this month in honour of the capital's millennium in October.

The set, which is the first of its kind, includes four DVDs featuring the history of Hanoi 's traditional music, including songs and music works in different styles performed by veteran and young singers and musicians. Most of them work for the city's traditional theatres.

The DVD-producer Music Publishing House invested a great deal of money and human resources to record and film the artists on stage and in daily life.

The film's directors, People's Artist Tran Van Thuy and Nguyen Si Chung, perfected the film with beautiful scenes and music.

Veteran artists Thanh Ngoan, Xuan Hach, Minh Anh and The Dan, four of the region's leading traditional singers and music players, perform at their best in the film.

"Our artists' performances and talks provide audiences with the knowledge and beauty of traditional music and instruments," said Chung, the film's director.

He also added that through the DVD audiences could improve their knowledge of the different forms of music and could sing traditional tunes.

The film will be available in bookstores to celebrate 1,000 years of Hanoi . The film highlights Ca Tru, Hat Xam and Canh Hong Tu, three popular genres of music in the royal citadel of Thang Long (former name of Hanoi ).

Ca Tru (also known as Hat A Dao or ceremonial singing), an ancient genre of chamber music, features female vocalists who sing while playing music on bamboo tablets.

This was associated with a geisha-like form of entertainment.

The music was inscribed on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2009 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Hat Xam (blind buskers music) is a type of folk music dating from the Tran Dynasty in the 14th century.

It was generally performed by blind buskers who travelled around the citadel to earn their living by singing in common places like markets.

Xam artists often play Dan Bau (monochord) or Dan Nhi (two-chord fiddle) to accompany the song themselves. The most famous surviving artisan of the art form is Ha Thi Cau, a Hanoi resident.

Canh Hong Tu is the kind of music used in religious ceremonies which dates back thousands of years ago in Thang Long.
 

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Capital city assured of crafts conservation

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has promised investments in traditional crafts village conservation that will not only target production but also be friendly to the environment.

Deputy MARD Minister Ho Xuan Hung unveiled the plan at a workshop on Friday as part of a one-week festival entitled “Crafts Villages, Crafts Streets of Thang Long-Hanoi” beginning on Thursday.

Hung said the scheme would also aim to harmonize production while maintaining traditional cultural identity and focusing on crafts of rich cultural and economic value for sustainable development.

Along with the conservation of traditional crafts in danger of extinction, such as handmade Nepal paper in Van Canh village and traditional music instruments in Dao Xa village, MARD plans to develop new crafts in several villages to meet market demand, said the deputy minister.

He said the ministry has worked out numerous concrete steps to speed up the work such as upgrading rural traffic and communications systems, integrating tourism into traditional crafts development and intensifying investments in personnel training.

MARD also plans to diversify financial sources for conservation and development of traditional crafts villages, Hung added.

The scheme was prompted by the fact that craft village conservation has been ignored to some extent since 2000 and the work has revealed some problems such as serious environmental pollution, limited market share, poor product design and unknown trademarks.

Hanoi is home to 1,350 crafts villages, accounting for almost 59 percent of the total number of villages nationwide and providing jobs for over 626,000 locals.

Their production value reached over VND7.65 trillion (US$38.76 billion) annually, making up 8.4 percent of the municipal industrial revenues.

The history of municipal crafts villages dates back hundreds of years. For instance, the Bat Trang ceramics village was founded 600 years ago, the Chuon Ngo mother-of-pearl village, 1,000 years ago and the Van Phuc Natural Silk village, 1,200 years ago.

Many of these crafts were typical to Hanoi as they are only produced in the capital city - such as porcelain, gold and silver coating and natural silk making.

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Parents favour traditional toys for Mid-Autumn fest

Many parents in Hanoi have turned to traditional hand-made toys for their children for the coming Mid-Autumn Festival instead of the once dominant made-in-China imports.

Traditional toys are cheaper and safer, they explain.

Although shops on Luong Van Can street, Hoan Kiem district, are flooded with Chinese toys of various types and designs, those in nearby Hang Ma Street display more made-in-Vietnam toys.

Nguyen Chi Hai says he has saved money buying traditional toys.

"My son already had too many modern toys," he says as he inspects a mask and a lantern from a Hang Ma street shop.

"I bought him some traditional toys so that he would know what my parents, my wife and I played when we were small."

He also worries that imported toys may contain substances harmful to children.

"I hesitate when buying such toys for my son," he says.

"Traditional Vietnamese toys are our best choice now."

Le Thu Huong, an employee of a private company in Dong Da District, also prefers folk toys.

"I can buy Vietnamese toys of beautiful shape and colour for the cost of just one Chinese toy," she says.

Hang Ma Street shop owner Truong Quoc Khanh confirms that customers now prefer traditional Vietnamese toys rather than modern Chinese imports.

"A customer asked me for a Vietnamese lantern yesterday but it was sold out," he says. "I showed her a Chinese lantern with music but she refused it."

The family shop sold only about 100 Vietnamese folk lanterns last Mid-Autumn Festival. So far this year it has sold almost 800 in the shape of a star, rabbit, fish and lotus.

"I expect to sell more than 1,000 Vietnamese lanterns this year," he says.

Other Vietnamese folk toys are also selling better.

Luong Van Can street in Hoan Kiem District shopowner Nguyen Ngan Hoa says every kind of traditional toys including drums and masks made from cardboard is selling well.

"I sell wholesale and retail an average of about 300 masks a day," she says. "Last year I sold only slightly more than 700 for the entire festival."

Customers have become saturated with Chinese toys, she argues.

Hang Ma Ward People's Committee deputy chairman Nghiem Xuan Giao says his committee joins with the Hoan Kiem District People's Committee each year to organise the Hanoi Traditional Mid-Autumn Fair.

"The fair opens a week before the day of the festival day is held to display and introduce Vietnam's traditional toys," he says.

"I'm glad to see that this year children are more interested in the toys."

Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month when the moon is at fullest and brightest.

This year it falls Wednesday next week.

It is one of the most important festivals of the year in Vietnam when family members gather for a feast and children dance and parade with colourful lanterns and cakes in the moonlight.

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Designer adds flare to traditional dress

HCM CITY — Fashion designer Vo Viet Chung has presented his latest creation – a nine-train ao dai (traditional dress) accompanied by a gold and diamond-inlaid head-dress.

According to the designer, the creation includes nine 100m-long trains with sophisticated dragon and phoenix embroidery patterns. "The nine trains symbolise the nine branches of the Cuu Long (Mekong) River," he said.

One thousand metres of silk has been used to create the dress, while 0.5kg gold and 2,000 diamonds have been used to beautify the head-dress.

The unique dress will be presented to the public at a fashion show in HCM City on October 4, before being put on display in Ha Noi during the city's 1,000th anniversary.

Livers contract for the onset of Oktoberfest

HA NOI — A traditional German Oktoberfest will be held in Ha Noi on September 24-25.

Hosted by the German Embassy in Viet Nam, the event is among the activities for German Year in Viet Nam as part of the celebrations of the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The Oktoberfest this year will include the Munich-based band The Happy Bavarians will perform during the event.

First held 200 years ago in Munich, the world's biggest beer festival attracts around 6 million people every year.

To mark the 200th anniversary of the Oktoberfest Festival in Germany, Lion Restaurant in HCM City will hold its own annual Oktoberfest on October 1 and 2.

There will be a selection of draft beers as usual but this year the festival will also feature traditional German dishes, music shows, fire dances, bartending performances, and games.

New TV drama highlights Hanoian lifestyle, customs

HA NOI— Lifestyle, customs and the traditional way of thinking of Hanoians are the topic of a new series, which began on the VTV1 channel last night.

Entitled Nep Nha (Family Customs), the 40-episode series focuses on an old Hanoian family. Produced by the Viet Nam Television Centre (VFC), the series features several well-known actors and actresses. — VNS

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Traditional arts find few takers among youth

HCM CITY — Vietnamese educators are worried that the younger generation is turning its back on the country's traditional arts after seeing applications for traditional arts courses plummet this year.

The HCM City Theatre and Movie College this year saw only 27 candidates taking the entrance examination to enrol for cai luong (reformed opera). Only 11 passed.

The HCM City Conservatory saw 13 students apply for the traditional music course.

There is a fear that the minuscule number of applications will mean a dilution in the competition to get into courses and, thus, a dragging down of quality.

Pham Ngoc Doanh, deputy director of the conservatory, assured, however, that despite the small number of applicants, standards have not fallen since everyone admitted to the course already have exposure to traditional arts and musical instruments.

"Their love for the country's traditional arts is the biggest motivation for them," he added.

But other educators fear that the attraction of films is proving too strong for young people and dragging them out of traditional arts.

Phan Thi Bich Ha, principal of the city's Theatre and Movie College, said that many youngsters lured by TV serials and movies do not consider if they have acting talent.

"We tried to convince many students who had potential in traditional arts to study traditional music, but in vain," she added.

In this scenario, educators felt enrolment requirements, especially for traditional arts, must be tweaked to prevent talent from falling through the cracks.

Writer Le Duy Hanh said for traditional performing arts, students' main requirements are looks and voice; any deficiency in general knowledge can be addressed later.

"Let us look back at the history of Vietnamese arts. Hundreds of successful artists had low education." — VNS

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