Vietnamese artists perform in Philippines

A delegation of artists led by Hua Ngoc Thuan, vice chairman of the People’s
Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, has just arrived in Manila in the Philippines for
exchange dialogues and musical performances from July 11 to 13.

The event aims to mark the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between
Vietnam and Philippines.

Participants include musicians and singers such as Tuyet Mai, Dinh Linh, Anh
Tan, Duc Dung, Anh Bang, Ha Tram and models Vo Hoang Yen, Phung Ngoc Yen, Huong
Giang, Hoang Diep, Anh Thu, Trang Nhung, Duy Nhan together with journalists from
Ho Chi Minh City TV, Sai Gon Giai Phong, Lao Dong and Tuoi Tre.

The performances will showcase the daily activities and the traditional music of
the Vietnamese people.

There will also be a fashion show of Ao dai (Vietnamese traditional costume)
performed by models of both the countries.

British Council Vietnam to launch Art Fund

The British Council Vietnam will launch an Art Fund to help Vietnamese artists,
curators and producers to further their art careers in the international arena.

The fund with an initial investment of US$4,200 will be available to artists,
curators and producers, whose entry are approved by a high profile board member
jury (BCAF).

BCAF board includes European Bureau head Nguyen Phuong Hoa, VTV3 reporter My
Linh, musician Quoc Trung, art curator Tran Luong, British film maker Paul
Zetter and Fund Chairman and British Council director of Arts for East Asian
Region Neil Webb.

BCAF will support Vietnamese artists and Vietnamese arts organisations. In
particular it aims to encourage collaborations between Vietnam and United
Kingdom while promoting an understanding of the two cultures.

In October 2010, the British Council collaborated with the Bui Gallery to
organise an Arts Auction of works donated by the Ford Foundation of artists such
as Nguyen Manh Hung, Ly Tran Quynh Giang, Pham Huy Thong and Jamie Maxtone-Graham.

“Vietnam continues to have an incredibly diverse and talented group of artists.
Much of its arts scene has developed in isolation but is now benefiting from
international influences. It’s our aim to help nurture artistic talent to
continue to open for it a wider audience and widen its influence,” said Simon
Beardow, deputy director of British Council.

Website for social campaigns launched

A non-profit website for social campaigns was launched on Sunday morning,
providing news and forums on many social projects at www.tiepthicongdong.vn or
www.socialmarketing.vn.

This online library aims at a better society by introducing 61 campaigns and
projects of 30 agencies and organizations from 20 countries that are placed into
nine categories: Education for Development, Public Health, Children Rights,
Poverty Eradication, Family Violation, HIV/AIDS and Abortion, Transportation
Issues, Green Marketing, and Climate Change.

The projects will be updated quarterly while introduction activities will be
held annually to develop outstanding ones based on FTA’s actual research. FTA is
a research agency in South East Asia, with head office in Ho Chi Minh City.

The projects are supported by experts, state agencies, corporate companies like
Viet King, Viet Marcom, RED,… and individuals.

This library’s target is every Vietnamese who want to contribute to society but
lack ideas, methods, or experience; and people that want to learn, to research,
and to teach about social issues.

Thua Thien-Hue attracts thousands to bay fest

The “Lang Co – World’s Beautiful Bay” Festival was opened on Lang Co Bay in the
central province of Thua Thien-Hue yesterday, attracting thousands of tourists
countrywide.

With numerous cultural and sports activities, such as art exhibitions,
traditional rowing races, and airplane flying shows, the event is being held to
mark the 2nd anniversary of the recognition of the bay as one of the World’s
Most Beautiful Bays by the World Bays Club, said Nguyen Thanh Ha, Chairman of
the People’s Committee of Phu Loc District where the bay is located.

Ha said as one of the activities to welcome the 2012 National Year of Tourism to
be hosted by Thua Thien-Hue, the festival isn’t just aimed to honor the bay’s
beauty but also to showcase its tourism potential.

Ho Trong Cau, Vice Chairman of the district People’s Committee said more than 30
projects, mainly in tourism and tourism infrastructure, are being built to turn
the bay into a source of social and economic development for the province.

Lang Co Bay is well known for a 13-km long beach with white sand and blue
waters, Lap An Lagoon, and about 1,500 hectares of diverse fauna and flora.

It also lies within a radius of 70 km from major world cultural heritages such
as the Hue Ancient Citadel, Hoi An Ancient Town and the My Son relics.

Korean star to visit Vietnam for charity work

Korean star Kim Hyun Joong will visit Ho Chi Minh for the first time from August
10-12 to participate in media and charity activities.

Apart from press conferences and interviews with local media, the singer-turned
actor will join an event to raise funds for Operation Smile, an NGO that
provides free surgeries to children born with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate
and other facial deformities.

The leader of the famous boy band SS501 debuted as an actor in 2009 with a major
role in series Boys over flowers, a Korean adaptation of Japanese comic Hana
Yori Dango.

Since 2010, Kim Hyun Joong, 25, has won multiple icon awards and gained
worldwide fame as Baek Seung Jo in the hit drama series Mischievous/Playful
Kiss.

Award winning German film to be shown in HCMC

On July 12, Idecaf theater in Ho Chi Minh City is screening Im Herz, Im Bauch,
Im Juli (July Lover), a film by German film director Fatih Akin.

In 2001, the romantic comedy won a German film award for best actor and an award
for best film director at a Switzerland film festival.

Daniel Bannier, a young teacher played by Moritz Bleibtreu, has a very boring
life in Hamburg city. Living alone, he has no friends and his students often
make fun of him. On a day in July he met Juli, a woman played by Christiane
Paul, who gave him a ring with a sun shape. “This ring will help you to find
happiness,” she said to him.

In the evening of the same day, Daniel met Melk, a Portuguese woman who he fell
in love with at the first sight. Then Daniel made the decision to drive to
Portugal to meet Melk again. At the same time, in the sorrow of not being loved
by Daniel, Juli also decided to leave Hamburg.

By chance, they met again during the journey passing Austria and Bulgaria on the
way to Portugal. It is was a journey of culture awakening and in the end they
both found true love.

Tickets are on sale at Idecaf, 31 Thai Van Lung, District 1, Ho Chi Minh city
for VND15,000.

L’Espace Hanoi takes a peek into ’God’s Office’

L’Espace in Hanoi will screen Les Bureaux de Dieu (God’s Office), a 2008 film by
French film director Claire Simon, on August 5.

The film is a realist dramedy about dedicated social workers who devote their
long shifts to helping pregnant women.

According to Le Nouvel Observateur, a French daily newspaper, the film examines
thoughts about sexual relationships and contraception through the stories of
several female characters before and after visits to the clinic.

Djamila likes to use contraceptives because the relationship with her boyfriend
has turned serious; Zoe’s mother who gives her condoms looks down on her. Nedjma
hides contraceptives because her mother looks for it in her bags.

Meanwhile, Helene feels she is lucky, Clemence is scared, and Adeline and Margot
want to keep the baby.

Anne, Denise, Marta, Yasmine, Milena are counsellors who advise and listen to
questions about how to be free in sexual relationship.

In God’s office, people smile, cry and are super busy with work. They dance,
they smoke on the balcony and they secretly keep coming to tell their normal or
special stories.

Tickets (VND10,000-VND20,000) are on sale at L’Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street.

Vietnam’s children chorus wins three prizes in Germany

Vietnam’s children chorus, Sol-Art, has won three prizes at the 8th
International Johannes Brahms Choir Competition and Festival in Wernigerode,
Germany.

The 35-member chorus was presented with a gold medal for folk singing, a special
prize for the chorus most loved by audiences and a prize for the best impressive
style of presentation.

Chau Anh, founder of the country’s children chorus, expressed sincere thanks to
composer Hoang Luong, leaders of Wernigerode as well as the Overseas Vietnamese
community in Germany.

Bui Manh Cuong, Counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in Germany, highly praised
the Sol-Art performance, saying the prize for the most favourite chorus showed
that Vietnam’s children chorus won German’s hearts.

Mr. Cuong expressed his deep gratitude to leaders and people of Wernigerode, and
sponsors who had created favourable conditions for the chorus to complete its
task successfully.

The festival, which was held from July 7-10 drew the participation of 43
choruses, including 1,200 members, from 17 countries and territories over the
world.

Song Hong quintet performs in Bangkok

The Vietnamese quintet Song Hong drew enthusiastic applause from the Thai
audience in Bangkok on July 11.

The group played the first and second chapters of the piano trio and quintet
composed by world famous composers Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann.

Pham Truong Son, a lecture at the Vietnam National Academy of Music and Song
Hong group leader, said his group was established two years ago and has
performed a number of concerts in Hanoi, Hue and Saigon.

Mongkhol Chayasirisobhol, the organiser of the concert and the 1st Mozart String
Competition 2011, said this is one of the most exciting orchestra concerts ever
held in the Thai capital city.

The Vietnamese quintet consists of violists Pham Truong Son and Pham Thi Trinh,
viola player Ho Viet Khoa, pianist Pham Quynh Trang and cellist Dao Tuyet Trinh.
They are all invited to the jury board of the Mozart Competition from July
11-14, in which two Vietnamese contestants Nguyen Minh Tu and Dang Viet Ha has
taken part and qualified for the final stage.

Photography competition on ethnic minority groups

The Vietnam Association of Photographic Artists (VAPA) has launched a
photography competition for 15 northern mountainous provinces.

The 16th artistic photography event will highlight the beauty of the landscape
and lives of ethnic minority groups in northern Vietnam today.

All professional and amateur photographers in the provinces of Lao Cai, Dien
Bien, Lai Chau, Son La, Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang, Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Lang
Son, Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen, Hoa Binh, Phu Tho and Vinh Phuc are entitled to the
competition.

Each participant is allowed to send a maximum of eight colour or black and white
photos sized 30cmx40cm, 30cmx45cm, 30cmx30cm, or panoramic ones (45cm in
length), each attached with a smaller photo sizes 10cmx15cm, taken in 2010 or
2011 to the jury before September 16.

PV