Electric cars for Ha Noi tourists

HA NOI — Dong Xuan Joint Stock Co plans to import electric cars for tourists visiting Ha Noi this year.

Tours will be conducted in five urban districts – Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Tay Ho, Dong Da and Hai Ba Trung.

The company initially plans to offer two guided tours for a trial period. The first will take in cultural sites such as the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Tran Quoc Pagoda, Van Mieu (Temple of Literature) and Ngoc Son Temple. The second will take tourists along the Hong (Red) River and around West Lake.

More than 7,000 visitors travelled by electric car around Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarter in Ha Noi over the recent Lunar New Year Festival, according to Do Xuan Thuy, director of the Dong Xuan Company.

Nguyen Manh Hung, chairman of the Viet Nam Auto Transportation Association, said the tour operator should buy small cars that are more suitable to the narrow streets of the Old Quarter.

Top English Idol clips selected

HA NOI — The 15 top video clips made by contestants in the Apollo English Idol competition have been selected for the final round.

The competition's judging panel also announced the top five clips that won the most votes from audiences.

The clips feature Vietnamese students singing in English, and are available at the Apollo English Idol website apolloenglishidol.video.zing.vn.

The competition's first prize will see the wining video aired on YanTV for one year, plus a cash award worth VND10 million and a full English scholarship at Apollo English.

Photo exhibition builds culture

HA NOI — A photo exhibition titled All People Unite to Build a Cultural Life has opened at Exhibition House at 45 Trang Tien Street, Ha Noi. A similar show is being held at Friendship Cultural Palace, 91 Tran Hung Dao Street.

The exhibitions display the cultural activities of the Vietnamese people in festivals, handicrafts, education and sports. They will run until Saturday.

Orchestra holds auditions for choir

HA NOI — The Ha Noi Music Association will recruit members for its orchestra this Sunday at 19 Hang Buom Street, Ha Noi.

Named Ha Noi Harmony, the orchestra has been set up to perform foreign and domestic musical works.

Candidates of any age who have good voices can register. The orchestra of 32 members is a voluntary group.

Ancient graves found

QUANG NGAI — Six graves belonging to the Sa Huynh Culture that flourished between 1000 BC and AD 200 have been discovered in Tay Tra District in the central province of Quang Ngai.

Objects buried in the graves included glass earrings decorated with animal heads, stone tools, iron knives and pottery.

The archaeological site will be excavated until the end of May, according to Nguyen Dang Vu, director of the provincial department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Artists paints family on paper

HA NOI — Artist Tran Hoang Son will display portraits on hand-made Vietnamese do paper at a solo exhibition named Family Tree.

The works are composed in three parts. The first is a family tree with portraits of people from many generations. The second comprises the "new family" of friends that one adopts in their own private world, and the third is life in the village, the source of all Vietnamese family life.

The exhibition will run until March 18 at Art Viet Nam Gallery, 7 Nguyen Khac Nhu Street, Ha Noi. — VNS

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French historian writes book on life of General Giap

HA NOI – French historian Alain Ruscio has authored a book entitled Vo Nguyen Giap – A Life as part of Anti-Colonialism Week in France last week. The book, written between 1979 and 2008, was published by Les Indes Savantes.

In the preface, Ruscio expressed his pride at meeting Giap when he was a correspondent and special envoy of l'Humanite newspaper in Ha Noi in 1979 to cover the 25th anniversary of the victory at Dien Bien Phu.

Ruscio said he never forgot that first meeting and later, whenever he returned to Viet Nam, he always tried to see Giap again. However, in Ruscio's last visit in January last year, the 100-year-old general was unable to receive him due to health conditions.

With Giap's permission, Ruscio collected his writings, speeches and historic reports for a five-part book on Giap's life as a teacher of history, a patriotic youth, a guerrilla, a revolutionary theorist and a revolutionary practician to fight French colonialists and American imperialists.

Ruscio said he hoped that the book would present a portrait of the Vietnamese revolution's great and talented military strategist to readers in Europe and around the world. — VNS

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Int’l professors to join local Master’s degree program

HCMC – John von Neumann Institute of the Vietnam National University in HCMC (VNU-HCMC) has announced about 20 five professors from international universities and institutes will come to HCMC to give lectures in the country’s first Master’s program on quantitative and computational finance.

The program – a joint effort between VNU-HCMC’s University of Natural Sciences, International University and John von Neumann Institute – will start in July to provide international and local graduate students with a professional competency in finance with quantitative and computational tools.

It will take students two years to complete the degree with a tuition fee of US$18,000 per academic year. The program will be taught in English.

Applicants must hold at least a bachelor degree in one of the fields of applied mathematics (probability and statistics), computer sciences or financial banking and insurance with a relevant math score from a two-month refresh course. They must also provide proof of their English proficiency as TOEFL 550 or equivalent.

Quantitative and computational finance, also known as mathematical finance or financial engineering, is a field of applied mathematics concerned with financial markets. At the quantitative and computational finance seminar held by John von Neumann Institute and the Vietnam Bond Market Association on Saturday in HCMC, Vietnamese experts in finance said quantitative and computational finance was the world’s familiar trend but it was still quite new to Vietnam’s financial sector.

Thanks to applied mathematics, computer science, statistics, and economic theory tools, financial engineers can solve problems such as new product design, derivative securities valuation, portfolio structuring, risk management, and scenario simulation, they added.

Created last July, John von Neumann Institute is a center of excellence in applied mathematics, systems science, knowledge science, and information science with an aim to foster high quality of research and postgraduate education in the related fields at different universities of VNU-HCMC.

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Int’l professors to join local Master’s degree program

HCMC – John von Neumann Institute of the Vietnam National University in HCMC (VNU-HCMC) has announced about 20 five professors from international universities and institutes will come to HCMC to give lectures in the country’s first Master’s program on quantitative and computational finance.

The program – a joint effort between VNU-HCMC’s University of Natural Sciences, International University and John von Neumann Institute – will start in July to provide international and local graduate students with a professional competency in finance with quantitative and computational tools.

It will take students two years to complete the degree with a tuition fee of US$18,000 per academic year. The program will be taught in English.

Applicants must hold at least a bachelor degree in one of the fields of applied mathematics (probability and statistics), computer sciences or financial banking and insurance with a relevant math score from a two-month refresh course. They must also provide proof of their English proficiency as TOEFL 550 or equivalent.

Quantitative and computational finance, also known as mathematical finance or financial engineering, is a field of applied mathematics concerned with financial markets. At the quantitative and computational finance seminar held by John von Neumann Institute and the Vietnam Bond Market Association on Saturday in HCMC, Vietnamese experts in finance said quantitative and computational finance was the world’s familiar trend but it was still quite new to Vietnam’s financial sector.

Thanks to applied mathematics, computer science, statistics, and economic theory tools, financial engineers can solve problems such as new product design, derivative securities valuation, portfolio structuring, risk management, and scenario simulation, they added.

Created last July, John von Neumann Institute is a center of excellence in applied mathematics, systems science, knowledge science, and information science with an aim to foster high quality of research and postgraduate education in the related fields at different universities of VNU-HCMC.

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Int’l professors to join local Master’s degree program

HCMC – John von Neumann Institute of the Vietnam National University in HCMC (VNU-HCMC) has announced about 20 five professors from international universities and institutes will come to HCMC to give lectures in the country’s first Master’s program on quantitative and computational finance.

The program – a joint effort between VNU-HCMC’s University of Natural Sciences, International University and John von Neumann Institute – will start in July to provide international and local graduate students with a professional competency in finance with quantitative and computational tools.

It will take students two years to complete the degree with a tuition fee of US$18,000 per academic year. The program will be taught in English.

Applicants must hold at least a bachelor degree in one of the fields of applied mathematics (probability and statistics), computer sciences or financial banking and insurance with a relevant math score from a two-month refresh course. They must also provide proof of their English proficiency as TOEFL 550 or equivalent.

Quantitative and computational finance, also known as mathematical finance or financial engineering, is a field of applied mathematics concerned with financial markets. At the quantitative and computational finance seminar held by John von Neumann Institute and the Vietnam Bond Market Association on Saturday in HCMC, Vietnamese experts in finance said quantitative and computational finance was the world’s familiar trend but it was still quite new to Vietnam’s financial sector.

Thanks to applied mathematics, computer science, statistics, and economic theory tools, financial engineers can solve problems such as new product design, derivative securities valuation, portfolio structuring, risk management, and scenario simulation, they added.

Created last July, John von Neumann Institute is a center of excellence in applied mathematics, systems science, knowledge science, and information science with an aim to foster high quality of research and postgraduate education in the related fields at different universities of VNU-HCMC.

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Cesar award winner to perform in Ha Noi

Simple setting: French actress Dominique Blanc will perform in French in The War: A Memoir (La Douleur) with Vietnamese subtitle on Thursday at Ha Noi Opera House. She has received best actress award for her part in La Douleur during the 24th Molieres theatre award ceremony last year. – Photo courtesy of French Cultural Centre

HA NOI — Actress Dominique Blanc will perform her one-woman theatrical odyssey La Douleur (The War: A Memoir) at the Ha Noi Opera House on Thursday night.

Directed by Patrice Chereau, the drama won Dominique a Moliere prize for best theatrical actress last year.

Born in 1956 in Lyon, Blanc trained at the French Drama School. She is one of France's most critically acclaimed actresses, with four Cesar Awards (the French Oscars) already under her belt.

Blanc met director Patrice Chereau while working on a production of Peer Gynt in 1981, and the pair have worked together on several successful productions since.

In 1989, Blanc won her first Cesar for her supporting role in May Fools. She also received Cesars for her supporting roles in Indochina in 1992 and Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train in 1998, while also winning best actress in 2000 for Stand-by. She also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in L'Autre at the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008.

In The War: A Memoir, based on the diary of writer Marguerite Duras, Blanc adds a unique resonance to Duras's script. Her performance style is simple, yet intense.

Blanc will perform in French for one night only at the Ha Noi Opera House on Thursday at 8pm.

Born in 1914 in Gia Dinh, near Sai Gon, Viet Nam, after her parents responded to a campaign by the French government encouraging people to work in the colony, Marguerite Duras was the author of many novels, plays, films, essays and short fiction, including her best-selling, apparently autobiographical work L'Amant (The Lover) in 1984.

The book won the Goncourt prize in 1984. The story of her adolescence also appears in three other stories: The Sea Wall, Eden Cinema and The North China Lover. A film version of The Lover, produced by Claude Berri, was released to great success in 1992.

During World War II, Duras spent a long time waiting for her husband's return from a concentration camp. She wrote a diary as a testimony of her own suffering.

The War: A Memoir is a diary that reflects a punishing absence, a threatfull waiting, despair, the shame of being alive while waiting for a loved one to survive unspeakable horrors.

Despite her success as a writer, Duras's adult life was also marked by personal challenges, including a recurring struggle with alcoholism. Duras died of throat cancer in Paris, aged 81. — VNS

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Hue Palace gets royal restoration treatment

Beautiful facade: Buu Thanh Gate's beauty returns after restoration. — VNS Photo

THUA THIEN-HUE — German restorers are using traditional Vietnamese methods to restore the facade of the Imperial Palace in Hue.

Restoration work is currently being carried out on Buu Thanh Gate and screens around King Tu Duc's tomb.

The Germany foreign ministry has commissioned experts from the German Conservation, Restoration and Education Project (GCREP) to renovate six murals dating from the Nguyen kings in the lobby of An Dinh Palace.

The artwork is magnificent, but heavily damaged. Before attempting to restore the murals, team leader Andreas Teufel sent samples back to Germany for chemical analysis.

The team are using traditional mortar made from molasses, lime and sand to restore the works. Teufel said the restored parts of the palace will be indistinguishable from the original work.

"Previous restorers tried to preserve the original works but they didn't know how to do it properly and didn't have access to modern technology," she said.

"That was why relics at the site have largely been left unrestored. The work they did was far from perfect and bore little resemblance to the original. People in the past used different painting techniques. The Vietnamese restorers used modern pigments and techniques," she said.

"I discovered that the original painting technique was similar to that used in Italy."

The German restorers have used traditional pigments, which are applied to the wet mortar. The colour will be fixed when the mortar dries. Bacteria will grow on the walls during the drying process, which helps to make the artwork more durable.

The restoration work is in keeping with UNESCO's 1964 Charter.

According to Phan Thanh Hai, vice director of the Centre for Restoration of Hue Relics, the techniques used to restore the palace will be applied to other sites.. — VNS

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