Year-end pop albums make their appearance

HCM CITY – Many top singers are scrambling to release their traditional year-end album to mark the festive season and are receiving a warm welcome from fans.

Pop star Phuong Thanh released a solo album on Sunday, her first of the year, titled Nao Ai Co Biet (Nobody Knows). It has 10 romantic songs, all written by well-known composer Duc Tri.

"The album marks 10 years of collaboration between Tri and me," Thanh says.

The singer, who uses her melancholic voice to full effect, often sings about love and loneliness to strike a chord in listeners. She has never received professional training but managed to make her "God-gifted voice" unique.

"I try to immerse myself in the song to infuse them with feeling and spirit," she explains.

Her album was followed by Duc Tuan's Bay Gio… Bien Mua Dong (Now… Sea in Winter).

Tuan sings 10 romantic singles written by celebrated composer Duong Thu, the highlight being Xa Xam (Far Away) and O Lai Mua Dong (Stay with Winter).

Tuan is one of the few Vietnamese stars to sing classical and semi-classical music, not a popular genre among the youth.

"The album is my Christmas gift to fans," he says.

Last year he had won the Singer of the Year and Album of the Year awards at the prestigious annual Music Contribution Prize for his Music of the Night album in English and French.

Last week MV Productions released Cao Got (High Heels), an album featuring 15 songs starring well-known models and movie stars like Trang Nhung, Thao Nhi, and Truc Diem.

Pop star My Le resorts to classical music for the first time in her latest album My Le in Symphony also released last week. Le's delicate style has won her acclaim among both young and older listeners.

Co Nhung Giac Mo (There're Dreams) released two weeks ago by upcoming singer Giang Hong Ngoc has also been well received.

"Ngoc's album Ruby 20 released last year has many sad songs," Tran Mai Dao, a fan of hers, says.

She says she prefers There're Dreams because of its several youthful melodies like Thien Duong Tinh Yeu (Paradise of Love) and Het Roi (It's Over)."

Albums by other pop singers like Pham Thanh Thao, Khanh Doan and Oversea Vietnamese Kannan Nguyen are nearing completion.

"We won't be worried about what music to hear during the festive season," a first-year student at the HCM City Open University says cheerfully. – VNS

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Finnish artist fashions playful works in metal

Steely: Works by Maritta Nurmi at the exhibition.

HA NOI — A playful exhibition by Finnish artist Maritta Nurmi entitled After the End of Art Anything Goes, has opened at Art Viet Nam Gallery in Ha Noi.

Nurmi, a visual artist born in Finland, has been based in Ha Noi since 1994 and is well-known for her installation art. Nurmi's background both in art and in natural sciences, together with her experience of Asia, lends her work a multilayered and multicultural feel.

The artist is famed for her richly detailed work in silver, aluminium and copper leaf on canvas. In this playful exhibition, that combines art and fashion, she has managed to add text to textile to accentuate her works' effervescent surfaces.

Freed from the constraints of making art as it is currently known, Nurmi explores all sorts of media and objects, elevating the everyday and mundane into what we may call the zone of the sublime.

Large round aluminium trays used for steaming rice are suddenly transformed into whirlpools of flora and line; small wooden stools, playfully patterned, spring from the floor to the wall, while their corresponding tea tables are transformed into colourful, functional artworks.

Stainless steel work tables are essays in structure and line; dragons and Buddhas appear faintly in their mirrored surfaces, transporting the object and the viewer into a fanciful world.

Nurmi uses images of roses and repeats them many times in her artworks. "Rose means everything," she explains. "I love roses and I think people do."

In the midst of all the playfulness, Nurmi takes her ideas into yet another dimension. Inspired by the colourful textiles of the people of Benin, in West Africa, where she was an artist in residence in 2009, she had fabrics of her artworks made in India, which she then transformed into her own eclectic mode of fashion – Couture Adorable de Maritta.

Stripes and circles, angles and lines, colour and pattern all collide into a splendid kaleidoscope of fun and frolic, a true testimony to the function of art as art and art as function wherein "anything goes."

"Nurmi's artworks really surprise and attract me," says Pham Trung, lecturer at the Viet Nam Fine Arts University.

"She is an artist of liberalism. She breaks all old orders to create the art of her own. However, she is influenced by Eastern philosophy and Zen Buddhism. She stands at the border of many cultures."

Nurmi has exhibited her works in many countries including Finland, Germany, the UK, the US, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

The exhibition will run until January 7 at Art Viet Nam Gallery, 7 Nguyen Khac Nhu Street, Ha Noi. — VNS

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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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Denmark supports fine arts education in Viet Nam

HA NOI — Denmark will grant US$700,000 to fund the second stage of a fine arts education in Viet Nam's primary schools during 2011-15, under an agreement signed on Tuesday between the Danish embassy and Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training.

Building upon the success of the first stage of project during 2006-10, the project would contribute to promoting comprehensive education for Vietnamese school children and encouraging new teaching methods in the arts, said Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan at the signing ceremony.

President Ho's palm leaf testament recognised

HA NOI — The testament of President Ho Chi Minh written on palm leaf will be among 30 new Guinness Records for Viet Nam.

The Centre for Viet Nam Guinness Records says the unique display at the Thoai Son District's Cultural and Tourism Complex, southern province of An Giang, will be included in the new listings to be announced on Saturday

Almost 20 of the new listings are for art and culture.

They include musicologist Tran Quang Hai, who is able to create melodies with spoons. The "King of Spoon" plays jazz, pop, techno and flamenco.

Nguyen Vinh Bao, 92, will be recognised as "The Oldest Musician Who Offers the On-line Course on Vietnamese Traditional Music."

The 118-year-old Tran Thi Viet of southern Long An province of Long An will be recognised as "The Oldest Vietnamese Heroic Mother."

Men fail to make up numbers in quan ho love songs

HA NOI — The number of women singing quan ho (love duets) far exceeds the number of men, according to statistics from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in the northern province of Bac Ninh.

Female singers make up 81 per cent of the over 8,000 members of the 598 quan ho clubs in the province, they said.

Quan ho singing is a Vietnamese folk music characterised by its antiphonal nature – with alternating groups of female and male singers issuing musical challenges and responses – and by the fact that most of the songs in the repertoire deal with topics of love and sentimentality as experienced by young adults. The artform was recognised by UNESCO in 2009 as Intangible Cultural Heritage, while Vietnamese authorities are trying various methods to popularise it and train new singers – as well as attract more men to join in.

Writers Association awards prize for historical novel

HA NOI — The novel Hoi The (Oath-Taking Ceremony) by Nguyen Quang Than has been granted the top prize in the Novel Competition of the Viet Nam Writers Association.

The novel reflects the Lam Son uprising against the Chinese domination in the early 15th century which established Le Loi as the first king of the Le dynasty.

The competition, held for the third time, received entries from 245 writers during 2006-09.

The Viet Nam Publishers Association has also granted annual awards since 2005 for books with good design, recognising 77 titles this year. The awards presentation ceremony will take place on Sunday at the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Ha Noi. — VNS

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Vietnam to introduce 30 new records at weekend

Two brothers Bui Ngoc Vinh and Bui Ngoc Khanh in Hue set up Vietnam record by eating chilli

Photo: Tuoi Tre

President Ho Chi Minh’s will, the oldest professor, an unconventional musician and other items will be honored as records on December 18 in Ho Chi Minh City’s Rex Hotel.

Half of the records fall to art and culture categories including President Ho Chi Minh’s will written on the biggest palm leaf (1.8 meter in width, 2.05 meter in height) in An Giang and the oldest professor (92 years old) teaching music online.

Professor, Doctor Tran Quang Hai with his skills of playing spoons to produce different sounds of jazz, pop, techno, flamenco will be honored with the title: “man who can play multiple rhythms and sounds with spoons”.

Vietnam records this year also award members of the same family.

Two brothers Bui Ngoc Vinh and Bui Ngoc Khanh in Hue go into national records as each can eat a kilo of chili within 10 minutes.

Ca Mau locals Hua Van Bach and his son Hua Tay Ha will be awarded for their ability to float upon water for hours without having to move a limb. Last June, Bach played guitar and Ha sang while they were floating upon a river for 4 hours. The performance has amazed numerous spectators.

The event this Sunday is a chance for record holders around the country to meet and show off their talents to the public.

Hua Van Bach (L) and his son Hua Tay Ha are singing a song while floating on river water (Photo: VnExpress)

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War memorabilia goes on display in Ha Noi

Shot down: Belongings of US airmen are displayed at the exhibition. — VNA/VNS Photo Truong Vi

HA NOI — Many never return from war. Through keepsakes and photographs, however, it is possible to keep their memory alive.

To help us somehow come to terms with the great sacrifice made by those who died in the war-torn 20th century, the Museum of Military History in Ha Noi has launched an exhibition of war memorabilia.

On display are 1,033 personal possessions and war memorabilia from 11,000 items donated over the last three years.

The museum's campaign, launched in July 2008, received the support of surviving war veterans and martyrs' relatives. US veterans and their families also donated precious keepsakes in response to the appeal.

Major-General Le Ma Luong, the museum's former director, said it was vital to preserve the memories of those who lost their lives in Viet Nam's various campaigns so that younger generations could fully appreciate the great sacrifice made by their forebears in the name of peace and freedom.

"The campaign holds significant social meaning as it highlights Viet Nam's glorious feats of arms and teaches us to respect those who devoted their lives to the revolution," Luong says.

General Vo Nguyen Giap was the first person to respond to the museum's appeal, donating many of his most precious war memorabilia.

Memorabilia from the French and American wars was donated by martyrs' relatives and veterans themselves such as former Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, General Pham Van Tra and Colonel Nguyen Van Ich. Their private letters to their relatives are also on display.

Former American serviceman Henry Prunier, 86, donated 200 documents, pictures and videos to the collection – the largest contribution by a foreign veteran. Prunier was a member of the US intelligence Deer Team, who answered Ho Chi Minh's call to join the war against the Japanese in Tan Trao in northern Tuyen Quang Province in 1945.

Even though the personal belongings are intrinsically of little value, visitors to the exhibition will be able to understand more fully what the dead and their surviving relatives had to endure in the name of peace. One such item is the bicycle belonging to Lang Si Thuy.

Thuy was injured in battle and sent to a military hospital in central Thanh Hoa Province. Even before the young soldier's wounds had healed he begged to be allowed to rejoin his comrades at the front in Quang Tri, where the battle was very fierce. Despite doctors' objection, he discharged himself from hospital and borrowed his sister the bicycle, which he pedalled 450km to Quang Tri to be with his companions. He left the bicycle at a local woman's house in Vinh Linh District and told her he would come back to collect it after the war. If he was killed he told the woman his sister would collect the bicycle for him, and he left his sister's name and address. His sister later collected the bicycle on her dead brother's behalf.

Accounts such as these have been published in two books by Cong An Nhan Dan (Pubic Security) Publishing House.

The exhibition organisers – the Museum of Military History and Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper under sponsorship of North Asia Bank – will also be granting prizes to the winners of the War Memorabilia Writing Contest launched by Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) newspaper that has been running since April.

The exhibition's closing ceremony on December 19 will be broadcast live on VTV1. — VNS

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Australian tourists favour Viet Nam

by Huong Lan

HCM CITY — Viet Nam's status as Southeast Asia's fastest growing tourism destination is reflected in new statistics that show Australian visitors are flocking to the country like never before.

The Australians have cultivated a reputation for being voracious travellers, but traditionally, they have looked to Indonesia – particularly Bali – Fiji and Thailand when making plans to explore other parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

While these locations are still very popular, data from some of Viet Nam's top hotels, as well as Viet Nam's National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the country's tourism authority, show that growing numbers are choosing to spend their vacation in Viet nam.

HCM City's iconic Caravelle Hotel has seen a twofold increase in visitors from Australia this year while the Sofitel Legend Metropole Ha Noi, perhaps the capital city's most prestigious address, has reported a 48 per cent rise over the past 12 months.

On the fledgling central coast, the award-winning The Nam Hai resort has also witnessed a significant upsurge in visitors from Down Under. The property, recently voted among Asia's 20 best resorts by readers of travel bible Conde Nast Traveler, reported a 69 per cent increase in Australian occupants through the first eight months of the year.

VNAT has reported a 128 per cent rise in Australian visitor numbers in 2010 – the greatest percentage increase of inbound arrivals from non-Asian countries.

The trend looks as though it will sustain for the foreseeable future. The results of the Asia-Pacific Travel Intentions Survey, a poll conducted by Visa and the Pacific-Asia Travel Association, showed that an impressive 16 per cent of Australians prepared plans to visit Viet Nam in the coming two years.

"Australia escaped the worst of the global downturn and its dollar is relatively robust, which means the Aussies are travelling as much as they have ever done," said Kai Speth, general manager of the Metropole Ha Noi.

"What's more, Australia has been one of our priority markets in recent years. We have representation at all the big travel trade shows there and I think it's fair to say that our efforts in marketing the hotel are really starting to reap rewards."

John Gardner, the Caravelle's general manager, agreed that an increased focus on the Australian market has paid dividends. He also believed that Viet Nam is finally beginning to rival traditional regional heavyweights such as Thailand and Indonesia in the eyes of holidaymakers.

"Thailand is beginning to recover after the recent turmoil," Gardner said. "But throughout that stumble, and troubles elsewhere, Viet Nam has sharpened its profile as the region's most safe and secure destination. Safety and security is far more top of mind for travellers today than it was 10 long years ago."

Gardner also pointed to other factors boosting the country's reputation Down Under – its solidifying infrastructure and its value for money.

"As well, Viet Nam is catering to a wide variety of customers from business visitors to traditional sun-seekers who are steering toward an array of resorts opening throughout the country."

Also significant in the opinion of travel industry insiders is the improvement in air links between Viet Nam and Australia. Low-cost carrier Jetstar operates regular flights between HCM City and Australia's major conurbations, while competition between other airlines means that travelling to Viet Nam has never been more cost effective.

"I think Australian interest in Viet Nam has grown for a number of reasons," said Damien Van Eyk, Australasian Sales Manager for Exotissimo Travel, a company that specialises in individually tailored trips within Southeast Asia. "The country's relative proximity to Australia makes travelling to Viet Nam very easy.

"I also think that word of mouth is a very important factor. As more Australians experience the sights, sounds and cuisine of Viet Nam, they come home and share these experiences with their family and friends." — VNS

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