Youth dance for HIV cause

Enthusiasm reigns: Young people attend the dance4life programme at the American Club on Saturday. — VNS Photos Doan Tung Winner: Pham Quynh Anh from Ha Noi's Le Quy Don High School receives first prize for her painting There's No Difference Between You and Me.

HA NOI — Up to 1,000 young people gathered here on Saturday night to dance as part of a worldwide event aimed at drawing the attention of world leaders to the issue of HIV/AIDS.

Local participants in the dance4life programme gathered at the American Club on Ha Noi's Hai Ba Trung Street, and were linked by satellite to similar parties around the world, as young people used their voices and their feet to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and challenge the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.

Pop singers My Dung and Minh Quan, comedians Xuan Bac and Tu Long, and the Big Toe Dance Crew, together with model and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Vu Nguyen Ha Anh appeared at the event.

Xuan Bac, a well-known television celebrity, has been a supporter of the annual dance4life programme since 2006.

"HIV and AIDS don't discriminate," he said. "Anyone – me, you, everyone – can suffer from it. So I realise that I myself need to live a healthy lifestyle and so do you.... We will dance for better health, better moves, and a better life without HIV and AIDS."

Dance4life Viet Nam is a project of the World Population Foundation (WPF) with an estimated 9,000 students now involved.

"Without a doubt, this is the greatest HIV prevention event that I have ever taken part in," said student Hoai Anh, a member of a dance team performing at the event. "It's exciting and very innovative. I always feel so happy when I join the team to perform somewhere."

A dance4life art contest, with the theme this year of Living Together, also concluded on Saturday, with first prize going to the painting There's No Difference Between You and Me by Pham Quynh Anh from Ha Noi's Le Quy Don High School. Anh beat out over 600 entrants from schools around the country.

Saturday's event received support from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Durex and Akzo Nobel Paints Viet Nam, in addition to the WPF. The international programme was founded in the Netherlands in 2003. — VNS

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Families to host regional youth in cultural exchange

HCM CITY — More than 320 youngsters from Southeast Asia and Japan will arrive in HCM City early next month for an annual cultural exchange.

The Southeast Asian Youth Programme 2010 (SSEAYP) delegation, which includes 29 from Viet Nam, left Yokohama in Japan by ship on a 52-day journey through six countries that will see the youths return to Tokyo on December 15.

The city unit of the HCM City Youth Union is preparing to receive the delegates and host the annual programme that will include music, home stay, and other events as well as charitable activities. It has chosen 60 volunteers for the purpose.

Some 170 families in the city have volunteered to house the guests during their three-day stay which will expose them to Vietnamese culture.

Le Van Minh, a Youth Union official, said several families have done this on more than one occasion, explaining the ship will be on its 11th visit to HCM City.

The visitors will discuss participation by youth in social activities, including culture, environment, international relations, education, health, food, and community development.

They have been to Malaysia and Thailand and are now in Indonesia. They will next leave for Singapore before arriving in Viet Nam on December 5.

SSEAYP, started in 1974, is a joint initiative by Japan and five founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

It seeks to strengthen friendship, co-operation, and understanding between Japanese and Southeast Asian youths to help build a peaceful, stable, and developed region.

Viet Nam joined the programme in 1996 VNS

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Urbanisation increases need for preservation

HCM CITY — Preserving HCM City's architectural heritage is critically important during fast-paced urbanisation as the spirit of the city could be lost, speakers at a seminar said last week.

Nguyen Thi Hau, deputy chairwoman of the HCM City Research and Development Institute, said that the city should compile detailed information about historic structures and important archaeological sites.

Creating plans to excavate historic sites and preserve the area's buildings is urgent, she said.

Professionals are concerned about preserving many of the city's relics, including two important ones, the Giong Ca Vo relic in Can Gio District and Hung Loi Pottery in District 8.

Architect Nguyen Huu Thai told the seminar that a modern city should preserve its past.

The city has 124 national and city architectural heritage sites and archaeological relics, many of which have been damaged or are deteriorating.

Vu Kim Anh, deputy director of the HCM City Culture, Sports and Tourism Department, said rapid urban development threatens the city's historic structures and sites.

But even more importantly, urban managers were not consistent in their ideas about heritage preservation, she said. — VNS

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Three-part exhibit features multiple shades of Ha Noi

Multiple personalities: A painting by Bui Xuan Phai.

HA NOI — An exhibition entitled Ha Noi – City Mirrored in Art displaying works by more than 20 artists who have featured the capital city in their creations opened on Thursday.

The exhibition, curated by Natasha Kraevskaia and Lisa Drummond, both of whom designed their exhibits based on their passion and scientific expertise, will be held in three separate parts.

The first part, to run until December 3, with theme Nostalgic, Utopian, Romantic and Idealised, shows Ha Noi as more of a dreamy than melancholy place, bright and airy rather than dark and muggy. Part one features works by artists such as Bui Xuan Phai, Nguyen Bao Toan, Vuong Thao, Brian Ring, Do Phan and Tran Nguyen Hieu, who have all portrayed Ha Noi as a romantic and nostalgic place.

A jazz concert by Thaerichens Tentett accompanied the opening ceremony in the courtyard of the Goethe Institute.

Ha Noi – Dystopian, Realistic, and Change will be the theme of the second part of the exhibition which will open on December 7. The six-day exhibition will focus on Ha Noi as an urban structure which is undergoing rapid change and upheaval.

Long considered romantic, Ha Noi is becoming a contradictory city which can be viewed critically through the works by Do Minh Tam, Vu Bich Thuy, Nguyen The Son, Vu Dan Tan, Nguyen Nhu Y and others.

The final part of Ha Noi – City Mirrored in Art will display the artistic research conducted by Hamburg photographer Andre Lutzen along the blurred border between private and public life in the Vietnamese capital.

In his series Public/Private Ha Noi, the artist plays with the contradictions and paradoxical harmonies of these two poles.

Opening on December 16, the final part of the exhibition will run until December 30.

Enjoy the exhibit at the Goethe Institute, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. — VNS

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Buddhist Sangha publishes block calendar for holiday

HCM CITY — A special block calendar featuring Buddhist pagodas across Viet Nam is proving popular amongs monks, nuns and Buddhists countrywide, even though The Year of the Cat is still two months away.

The block calendar is the first to be published by the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha Central Dharma Executive Council in cooperation with the Loc Tai System Joint-Stock Company and Thoi Dai Publishing House.

It contains 365 tear-off pages featuring quotes from the Buddha and 365 photos of Viet Nam's popular and historic Buddhist pagodas in HCM City and throughout the country, all taken by photographer Vo Van Tuong.

Tuong said he chose the best photos among tens of thousands of photos of pagodas in Viet Nam that he had taken over a 30-year period.

"Apart from old photos, I also spent a month travelling across the country to take new photos for the calendar."

The calendar publishers have issued 30,000 copies of the 4.5 by 20.5-cm calendars and 10,000 20 by 30-cm calendars, priced at VND80,000 (US$4) and VND180,000 ($9), respectively.

"We hope the calendar will be a New Year gift that the Viet Nam Buddha Sangha will give to monks as well as Buddhists across the country," said the Most Venerable Thich Thuong Toan, deputy director of the Buddhist Sangha Central Dharma Executive Council's Economics and Finance Department.

The calendar blocks can be purchased at bookstores at pagodas in HCM City and across the country.

Calendar market

Apart from the block calendar from the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha, this year's calendars include a wide range of subjects from traditional pictures to well landscapes.

According to calendar sellers in HCM City, local publishers have released block calendars featuring Ha Noi landscapes and historical sites in 3D to celebrate the 1,000 anniversary of the capital.

Tran Thi Hoai, owner of a calendar shop in District 5, said the most prominent calendar for 2011 was Lich su Viet Nam (History of Viet Nam), featuring 365 paintings about Viet Nam's history from the beginning to the reunification day in 1975.

Large and extra-large block calendars sized 25 by 45 and 40 by 60 are also popular this year. They are usually bought for gifts for relatives and friends.

The price of small – and medium-sized block calendars currently ranges from VND6,000 ($0.2) to VND20,000 ($0.5) while larger ones are VND260,000-600,000 ($13-30).

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, local publishers are registered to produce 16.4 million copies of block calendars this year. — VNS

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Hue centre fails in bid to buy royal painting

Artist in exile: Chieu Ta (Sunset), an oil on canvas by former King Ham Nghi (1802–1945), went to an unnamed bidder at auction in Paris. — VNS Photo/Courtesy Hue Monuments Conservation Centre.

THUA THIEN – HUE — The Hue Monuments Conservation Centre outbid at an auction in Paris on an artwork painted by former King Ham Nghi of Viet Nam.

A diplomat at the Vietnamese Embassy in France who represented the centre at the auction at Millon&Associes submitted a bid of 8,000 euros (US$11,784) for the Chieu Ta or Decline dur Jour (Sunset), an oil on canvas by King Ham Nghi.

But the highest bid was 8,800 euros ($12,962), said Nguyen Van Phuc, head of the Centre's External Relations Division.

The reserve price was between $1,100 and $1,700.

Phuc said the centre decided to join the auction because it had recognised the historical value of the painting, an art work related to the Nguyen dynasty (1802 – 1945).

A number of Viet kieu (overseas Vietnamese) in France, who wanted to donate the painting to the centre, were unhappy that they could not purchase the painting.

King Ham Nghi, the eighth ruler of the Nguyen dynasty, ascended to the throne in 1884 and ruled for one year, during which he led the Can Vuong resistance movement against the French.

In 1888 he was arrested and exiled in Algeria, where he died in 1943. He was buried in 1965 in Aquitaine, France.

He painted Chieu Ta in 1915 while in exile. It is thought to be influenced by the works of Paul Gauguin, a leading French post-impressionist artist who lived in the 19th century.

Phuc said through the Vietnamese Embassy in France and the Association of Overseas Vietnamese in the country that the centre would contact King Ham Nghi's daughter, Princess Nhu Ly, the owner of many paintings by her father, to ask for transfer of ownership of these art works, to the city of Hue. — VNS

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European Music Festival features performances by Austrian duo

HA NOI — The Austrian duo z.b.+ performs in Ha Noi tomorrow as part of this year's European Music Festival.

Christof Dienz is a classically-trained musician who played bassoon for the Vienna Opera Orchestra during the 1990s, touring extensively with that organisation before discovering the zither. His 2005 album Dienz Zithered received the Pasticcio Award from the Austrian cultural radio station O1 for an exceptional Austrian CD, and Dienz was presented the SKE award in 2006. He also won a number of other prizes and appeared at music festivals around the world.

Bassist Matthias Pichler studied studied jazz at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. He has received the Hans Koller Jazz Prize twice and was named Best Sideman of the Year in 2006. Last month, Pichler won first prize in the International Double Bass Convention in Berlin.

The duo's debut performance will take place at the Youth Theatre at 11 Ngo Thi Nham Street, Ha Noi. They will then appear in HCM City on Monday for a performance at the Conservatory of Music, 112 Nguyen Du Street, District 1.

China publishes book on Ho Chi Minh to celebrate 60 years of relations

Beijing — China 's World Knowledge Publishing House has published a book on President Ho Chi Minh on the occasion of the 60th founding anniversary of the China-Viet Nam diplomatic ties.

The 296-page book titled Ho Chi Minh – A Legendary Life is authored by former Chinese Ambassador to Viet Nam Li Jia Zhong. It is divided into four chapters following the president's life since his young days until he wrote the famous testament: his journey abroad to seek the way to liberate the country, his leadership in the August Revolution and the struggles against the French colonialists and the US aggressors as well as stories about Ho Chi Minh with many photos.

In the foreword of the book, the head of the China Diplomatic Writers Association Wang Chou praised President Ho as a great leader of the Vietnamese people and a close friend of the Chinese people.

Wang said the President had devoted all his life to national liberation and independence and stood side by side with the Chinese people in the most difficult time of its revolution.

"With a revolutionary spirit and an upright life, Ho Chi Minh is forever a bright example for us to follow," he said.

Circular issued on management of excavated, salvaged properties

HCM CITY — The Ministry of Finance has issued a building circular on a Government decree on the management of excavated or salvaged properties found in Viet Nam.

The decree 96/2009/ND-CP, which took effect on October 30, 2009, concerns the authority and liability of relevant agencies over the management of excavated or salvaged properties discovered by individuals or organisations.

Under the circular 88/2010/TT-BTC, the Government must set up a council to assess the value of properties, pay the fees for exploring, excavating and salvaging the properties, and disburse the value of the properties and reward the individuals or organisations that found the properties.

Any disbursement must be in accordance with current financial management regulations, according to the circular.

Many old ships have been found under the seas in the provinces of Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Kien Giang, Quang Nam, Binh Thuan, Ca Mau and others.

Many antiques salvaged from the ships have been transferred to national museums for management, preservation and display under regulations of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. — VNS

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