Vietnam Breaking News: Lifestyle

Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts

Archeologists unearth five-millennium-old skeletons believed to be remains of ancient Vietnamese

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<p><strong>Three skeletons thought to be the remains of ancient Vietnamese have been excavated in central Vietnam by local and Australian archeologists.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1IISjms"><img alt="1665700-xl3wpz55" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1IISjms" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>They are believed to date back 5,000 years.</p>
<p>Nguyen Tri Son, director of the Ha Tinh Museum, announced that the discovery of the three human skeletons was made at the Ru Diep archeological relic, located in Thach Ha District, Ha Tinh Province.</p>
<p>The remains were the latest finds from an excavation which archeologists from the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ha Tinh Museum, and Australian National University initiated in mid-March, Son added.</p>
<p>The skeletons were unearthed on Thursday last week while the team was digging at a depth of 1.8 meters in an excavation pit measuring around seven square meters.</p>
<p>According to experts’ preliminary study, the skeletons have been around for roughly 5,000 years, Son noted.</p>
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Archeologists unearth five-millennium-old skeletons believed to be remains of ancient Vietnamese Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1IISjms" width="200" /><br />

Archeologists unearth five-millennium-old skeletons believed to be remains of ancient Vietnamese

Archeologists unearth five-millennium-old skeletons believed to be remains of ancient Vietnamese

Three skeletons thought to be the remains of ancient Vietnamese have been excavated in central Vietnam by local and Australian archeologist...

Seaplane operator seeks to offer aerial tours of Ho Chi Minh City

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<p><strong>Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have just requested the local transport department to consider a seaplane operator’s proposal to launch aerial tours above the city.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1yTnHiv"><img alt="1665660-5sjuktm1" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1yTnHiv" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>The municipal People’s Committee has recently tasked the Department of Transport and other competent agencies with taking into careful consideration a proposition which was put forward by Hai Au Aviation, a private firm, regarding such tours.</p>
<p>The company earlier sought permission to launch a new tour that would allow tourists to explore the city from the sky.</p>
<p>The expected itinerary of the seaplane tours is Tan Son Nhat International Airport-Thanh Da Peninsula-the downtown area-Phu My Bridge-Can Gio District.</p>
<p>The Thanh Da Peninsula is situated in Binh Thanh District, while the Phu My Bridge spans over the Saigon River sections in District 2 and District 7.</p>
<p>Luong Hoai Nam, CEO of Hai Au Aviation, told <em>Tuoi Tre</em> (Youth) newspaper that his company will work to implement this project in the next six months if the city grants it a permit.</p>
<p>“During one of my flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne [a tourist resort in the south-central province of Binh Thuan], I was awed by the city’s stunning landscape as seen from above,” he explained.</p>
<p>He then came up with the idea of offering a tour to let tourists enjoy the alluring beauty and rich biological diversity of the Can Gio Tourism Complex, which nestles in the outlying district of Can Gio, as well as the historical value and grandeur of many other architectural icons in the city.</p>
<div id="attachment_1665661" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://bit.ly/1IISkqO"><img alt="A Hai Au Aviation seaplane operates in UNESCO-recognized Ha Long Bay, located in the northern province of Quang Ninh. Photo:" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="330" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1yTnHyL" width="500" /></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">A Hai Au Aviation seaplane operates in UNESCO-recognized Ha Long Bay, located in the northern province of Quang Ninh. Photo:</p>
</div>
<p>Hai Au Aviation</p>
<p>Nam also detailed the routes expected to be taken during such tours.</p>
<p>Seaplanes would depart from Tan Son Nhat and be destined for the Thanh Da Peninsula.</p>
<p>The aircraft would then fly along the Saigon River toward the downtown area and the Phu My Bridge, so that riders could take a look at the architectural icons and places of interest below.</p>
<p>The planes would then be maneuvered toward the northern side of District 2, District 9, and Thu Thiem Peninsula.</p>
<p>After work on the Thu Thiem new residential area is complete, the seaplane routes would be adjusted, Nam noted.</p>
<p>Passengers would then be taken to the Can Gio mangrove forests and other scenic spots before landing on a canal inside the Can Gio Tourism Complex.</p>
<p>Tourists would be allowed some hours to explore the complex, which boasts a forested area of around 75,740 hectares, over 150 botanical species, and many rare animals.</p>
<p>The planes, which would cruise at a height of 500-700 meters over the inner city and 150-300 meters above the Can Gio mangrove forests, would then get back to Tan Son Nhat on the same route.</p>
<p>“If our proposal to operate such tours is approved by the People’s Committee, we will go on to seek permission from the Ministries of Transport and Defense,” Nam added.</p>
<p>One flight is expected to be offered every day in the initial phase.</p>
<p>Tickets would cost an estimated VND12 million (US$559) apiece, and half the price for one-way flights.</p>
<p>The tours are aimed at affluent tourists from Europe, Australia, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, Nam added.</p>
<p>Domestic tourists are expected to make up some 20 percent of the tour buyers.</p>
<p>According to Nam, his company’s seaplanes are state-of-the-art U.S.-built Cessna Grand Caravan EX.</p>
<p>With a 15.9-meter wingspan, the planes are capable of carrying 12 passengers at a time and reach the velocity of roughly 260 kilometers per hour.</p>
<p>Last year Hai Au Aviation inaugurated its seaplane service on the Hanoi – Ha Long route in the north and Ho Chi Minh City – Phan Thiet route in the south.</p>
<p>Tourists depart from Hanoi to have an aerial view of the iconic Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Quang Ninh Province, and from Ho Chi Minh City to visit the famed resort city of Phan Thiet in Binh Thuan, home to the well-known Mui Ne beach.</p>
<p>Nam added his company is completing the paperwork and improving its facility to launch seaplane tours from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho City and An Giang Province in the Mekong Delta.</p>
<p>“We’re also working to expand our services in the northern and central regions, and are studying the feasibility of the sightseeing tours which would allow tourists to visit Ho Chi Minh City, its neighbors Dong Nai and Binh Duong Provinces, and other Mekong Delta locales,” he revealed.</p>
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Seaplane operator seeks to offer aerial tours of Ho Chi Minh City Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1yTnHiv" width="200" /><br />

Seaplane operator seeks to offer aerial tours of Ho Chi Minh City

Seaplane operator seeks to offer aerial tours of Ho Chi Minh City

Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have just requested the local transport department to consider a seaplane operator’s proposal to launch aer...

Test your knowledge of this tree to win free India trip

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<p><strong>You have only five days left from now to join a small contest held by</strong> <strong>the Consulate General of India in Ho Chi Minh City</strong> <strong>to win a free trip to India just by proving your knowledge of a tree.</strong></p>
<a href="http://bit.ly/1IISka8"><img about="" alt="The consulate general is inviting " and="" around="" as="" below="" chi="" city="" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" commonly="" ficus="" fig="" friends="" give="" height="295" ho="" in="" indian="" information="" known="" minh="" photo.="" rel="lightbox" religiosa="" sacred="" src="http://bit.ly/1IISka8" the="" to="" tree="" vietnamese="" width="500" /></a>
<p>The question is, “When was this tree planted by whom and where” (sic), the consulate general said on its website.</p>
<p>The tree “was planted by an Indian dignitary” as “a symbol of [Vietnam and India’s] friendship and shared Buddhist heritage,” during his Vietnam trip in 1991, the consulate general hinted.</p>
<p>The contest is running from March 23 to April 26, and participants are advised to send their answers, plus their full name, address and mobile number, to the organizer via Facebook messages (http://on.fb.me/1yTnHij) or email at cg.hcm@mea.gov.in.</p>
<p>Answers posted as Facebook comments are not accepted.</p>
<p>A lucky draw will be held in Ho Chi Minh City on April 27 to select the two luckiest winners to claim a round ticket to India each.</p>
<p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1IISizd">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1yTnHin">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em></strong></strong></p>
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Test your knowledge of this tree to win free India trip Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1IISka8" width="200" /><br />

Test your knowledge of this tree to win free India trip

Test your knowledge of this tree to win free India trip

You have only five days left from now to join a small contest held by the Consulate General of India in Ho Chi Minh City to win a free tr...

Denmark-sponsored installation art exhibit running in Ho Chi Minh City

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<p><strong>An installation art exhibition, which is backed by a Denmark-Vietnam culture development fund, is going on in Ho Chi Minh City until early next month.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1IISiiB"><img alt="1665447-f8a1aop8" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1IISiiB" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>The exhibition, “Chien Binh” (The Warriors), opened on April 17 and will run until May 3 at Saigon Domaine, located at 1057 Binh Quoi, Binh Thanh District.</p>
<p>The exhibit features sculptures and space-adaptable installations by local artist-poet Nguyen Thuy Hang.</p>
<p>Hang’s oeuvre includes 49 human-shaped objects which are made from nearly 700 kilograms of scrap iron, over 6,000 meters of fabric, and a huge amount of dye.</p>
<p>The objects, which vary in shapes and sizes, look just like an army platoon, Hang explained.</p>
<p>The exhibition, which is meant to highlight the striking differences among individuals in society, is the fruit of the artist’s four-year dedication.</p>
<p>The event is jointly sponsored by the Denmark-Vietnam Cultural Development and Exchange Fund under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Post Vidai Contemporary Art Collection.</p>
<p>Established in 1994, “Post Vidai” is the only collection in the world that focuses on the development of Vietnamese contemporary art, collecting both the internationally recognized and as yet unknown artists, according to its website.</p>
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Denmark-sponsored installation art exhibit running in Ho Chi Minh City Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1IISiiB" width="200" /><br />

Denmark-sponsored installation art exhibit running in Ho Chi Minh City

Denmark-sponsored installation art exhibit running in Ho Chi Minh City

An installation art exhibition, which is backed by a Denmark-Vietnam culture development fund, is going on in Ho Chi Minh City until early ...

In Vietnam, bee keeper exodus begins around March for premium honey

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<p><strong>Around March every year, keepers from across the country send their swarms of bees to the Central Highlands for the insects to suck the best nectar there and produce the finest-quality honey.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1bjsazF"><img alt="1665327-ldu8ym9p" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1bjsazF" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>Such Central Highlands provinces as Kon Tum, Gia Lai, and Dak Lak are home to boundless fields of coffee and rubber plants.</p>
<p>The coffee fields bloom around March and April each year, which makes it an ideal time for bees to suck the nectar from the blossoms.</p>
<p>The nectar is believed by bee keepers to be unrivalled in the country and help their insects yield the finest honey.</p>
<p>Some thousands of bee swarms are packed in tightly shut wooden containers and transported by truck for up to some hundreds of kilometers to the nectar “mecca.”</p>
<p>Many bee farmers come from as far as Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Ngai Provinces in the central region and Binh Duong Province and Can Tho City in the south.</p>
<p>The rubber forests, which nestle in Ia Chim Ward, some 25 kilometers from the heart of Kon Tum City, seemed to be jerked back to life after a shower.</p>
<p>The city is the capital of Kon Tum Province.</p>
<p>Nguyen Thi Thao, and her husband, Dinh Khac Nghi, were delighted at their most-awaited moment, when young leaves begin to sprout and their leaf stems produce the largest quantity of nectar.</p>
<p>The nectar “strings” are hardly visible to bare eyes, but are irresistibly tempting to swarms of bees, which are particularly quick to pick up the scents.</p>
<p>“During years when severe droughts raged, leaving plants withering and flowers’ quality dropping, I still brought my swarms here, as the area has become my home-sweet-home,” Nghi said.</p>
<p>As bees are a highly sensitive species, it takes great care during the transport and setting up his camp at the rubber forest, he noted.</p>
<p>“The insects must be moved during the night while they are asleep and reach the new camp early the following morning. After some weeks of relaxation and adaptation to the new environs, the bees will begin to yield honey,” Nghi divulged.</p>
<div id="attachment_1665328" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://bit.ly/1yQw3XB"><img alt="A migrant bee keeper is delighted at his first honey harvest this year's season. Photo:" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="335" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1bjs8rv" width="500" /></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">A migrant bee keeper is delighted at his first honey harvest this year's season. Photo:</p>
</div>
<p>Tuoi Tre</p>
<p>Nguyen Van Thiep and his wife, Dang Thi Thanh, took some hundred containers of bees all the way from their farm in the central province of Quang Ngai to the rubber forest in Kon Tum City.</p>
<p>“We are by and large on the move to any locality where flowers bloom. The Central Highlands region is our miss-not location every year, as the quantity and quality of nectar here are unrivalled compared to elsewhere,” Thanh explained.</p>
<p>During this peak season, most rubber and coffee forests are divided into “zones” and packed with bee keepers, their camps, and hundreds of beehives, according to Thai Khac Tuan, manager of the Ia Chim Rubber Farm.</p>
<p>Phan Ba Ngoc, a bee keeper, and his wife have taken their swarms to the coffee plant farms in Kon Tum since February.</p>
<p>His 300 hives have yielded up to almost two metric tons of honeybees.</p>
<p>“Nowhere else in the country is as serene, safe and nourishing for the insects as it is in the Central Highlands. If all goes well, I’ll harvest dozens of metric tons of honey and earn some hundreds of millions of dong [VND1 million ~ US$47] after each season,” Ngoc revealed.</p>
<p>Tu Hoi, another migrant bee keeper, said he has all the flowering rubber and coffee farms across the Central Highlands in the palm of his hand.</p>
<div id="attachment_1665329" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://bit.ly/1yQw3XD"><img alt="A makeshift tent erected by a migrant bee keeper, with the beehive containers nearby. Photo:" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="335" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1bjs8rz" width="500" /></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">A makeshift tent erected by a migrant bee keeper, with the beehive containers nearby. Photo:</p>
</div>
<p>Tuoi Tre</p>
<p>A number of bee keepers also go to great lengths to take their swarms to the Ngoc Linh Mountain, a resplendent mountain best known for its rich reserve of medicinal herbs and ginseng.</p>
<p>The mountain stands in Dak Glei District in Kon Tum Province.</p>
<p>The areas in the proximity of the mountain are overgrown with wild flowers, which are rich in nectar content.</p>
<p>Bee keepers revealed that honey produced from wild flower nectar boasts a gorgeous texture and color, and is incomparably fragrant.</p>
<p>This type of honey thus fetches good prices on the local market, they added.</p>
<p>However, few bee farmers have taken up the practice so far, which involves a number of risks, including the bees’ inability to adapt to the alien habitat and their susceptibility to getting killed by larger breeds of forest bees.</p>
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In Vietnam, bee keeper exodus begins around March for premium honey Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1bjsazF" width="200" /><br />

In Vietnam, bee keeper exodus begins around March for premium honey

In Vietnam, bee keeper exodus begins around March for premium honey

Around March every year, keepers from across the country send their swarms of bees to the Central Highlands for the insects to suck the bes...

Belgian artist to tour Vietnam

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<p><a href="#http://bit.ly/1DF9UL5"></a></p>
<p><a href="#http://bit.ly/1DF9UL5"></a><a href="http://bit.ly/1DF9WT8"><img alt="1664374-e8ad4965985f5f92295b789a59b37a3b-l" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="225" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1DF9WT8" width="400" /></a></p>
<p>Marie Warnant to tour Vietnam</p>
<p>NDO – Marie Warnant, a singer and composer from Wallonie-Bruxelles in Belgium, is set to tour Vietnam from May 1 to 7.</p>
<p>She will give free concerts at the Hue Academy of Music in Hue city on May 1; Hoa Binh Zone in Da Lat city on May 3; Youth Theatre in Hanoi on May 5; and at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music on May 7.</p>
<p>The veteran drummer Le Quoc Hung will take part in the concerts as a special guest.</p>
<p>Marie Warnant’s music, which leans toward electronic, was inspired by various famous names like Arto Lindsay and David Byrne. She has performed 30 concerts around the world and recorded three albums ─ ‘Bruxelles’ in 2005, ‘Ritournelle’ in 2010 and ‘NYXTAPE’ in 2014.</p>
<p>Among of the albums, the third album is appreciated as an important turning point of her musical style. The singer is inspired by influences as diverse as Arto Lindsay, Georges Moustaki and Tom Zé and mixes references from Lizzy Mercier Descloux to David Byrne in her own unique way.</p>
<p>Free tickets can be collected from April 22 onwards at the Wallonie-Bruxelles Delegation to Vietnam, DAEHA center, 360 Kim Ma Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi.</p>
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Belgian artist to tour Vietnam Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1DF9WT8" width="200" /><br />

Belgian artist to tour Vietnam

Belgian artist to tour Vietnam

Marie Warnant to tour Vietnam NDO – Marie Warnant, a singer and composer from Wallonie-Bruxelles in Belgium, is set to tour Vietnam from...

People scramble over fence for free baths in Hanoi (video)

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<p><strong>Many people, mostly the young, jostled each other to climb over the fence of a water park in Hanoi on Sunday morning just for free baths, causing mayhem in the area.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1DF9WCt"><img alt="1664193-e35wuzwg" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1DF9WCt" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>A number of visitors to Ho Tay Park, located in Tay Ho District, were seen chaotically climbing over its fence, which stand about two meters tall, to enter its water park only for two hours of free enjoyment.</p>
<p>Nghiem Hong Hanh, vice general director of Hanoi Entertainment Services Co., which runs Ho Tay Park, told <em>Tuoi Tre</em> (Youth) newspaper that the free session, from 8:00 am to 10:00 am, was offered to visitors on the first day of their annual program to express their thanks to clients.</p>
<p>On Sunday morning, some thousand people gathered in front of the water park for their turns to get in.</p>
<p>The management of Ho Tay Park later made an announcement on the loudspeakers that no more visitors would be admitted to the water park, which was already overloaded with the influx of bathers.</p>
<p>Many, mostly youngsters, who were probably driven by the stuffy, hot weather in the past few days, were set on entering the park by any means.</p>
<p>Hanh, the company director, added her staff did not dare to pull down the reckless clients, who were trying to climb over the fence, as it was quite risky to do so.</p>
<p>A number of parents even helped their children surmount the fence.</p>
<p>These clients finally gave up on their bid after being persuaded by the park staff.</p>
<p>Hanh told <em>Tuoi Tre</em> that Ho Tay received over 20,000 park-goers on Sunday alone.</p>
<p>Her company had deployed almost 100 security guards and sought assistance from the district police to ensure maximal security for the free bathing session.</p>
<p>A similar session held last year was also overwhelmed with visitors, but no one was found climbing over the fence, Hanh noted.</p>
<p>Some photos of the Sunday mayhem are as follows:</p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1El2hg9"><img alt="1664193-9ofp2ntt" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="333" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1DF9UKQ" width="500" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1El2hgb"><img alt="1664193-ovb0iecv" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="333" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1El2ekt" width="500" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1DF9WCx"><img alt="1664193-ekejj8rh" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="333" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1El2eku" width="500" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1DF9WCD"><img alt="1664193-meaovqkd" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="333" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1El2hge" width="500" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1DF9UKV"><img alt="1664193-j4yrr3cb" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="749" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1El2hgf" width="500" /></a></p>
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<br />
People scramble over fence for free baths in Hanoi (video) Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1DF9WCt" width="200" /><br />

People scramble over fence for free baths in Hanoi (video)

People scramble over fence for free baths in Hanoi (video)

Many people, mostly the young, jostled each other to climb over the fence of a water park in Hanoi on Sunday morning just for free baths, c...

Ho Chi Minh City authorities confiscate wartime photos featuring guns replaced by flowers

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<p><strong>Authorities in a district in Ho Chi Minh City have seized all the wartime photos that had guns replaced by flowers, sparking strong public reactions in the past few days.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1El2hg2"><img alt="1664162-e4mo57gv" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1El2hg2" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>Le Truong Hai Hieu, deputy chair of the District 1 People’s Committee, said on Sunday that the district has confiscated all the photos in the so-called exhibit “Hoa Noi Chien Truong” (Flowers on the Battlefield).</p>
<p>The display was shut down yesterday.</p>
<p>The “exhibit,” opening on April 17, was held at the florist’s Flower Box, located at 74E Hai Ba Trung Street in District 1.</p>
<p>As observed by <em>Tuoi Tre</em> (Youth) newspaper reporters, the debatable “exhibit” comprised a number of wartime photos downloaded from the Internet and retouched with flowers covering the guns and barbed wire fences.</p>
<p>According to inspectors, 11 large-size photos and 21 smaller pictures from the “exhibit” were hung around the shop at the time of their arrival.</p>
<p>These crude Photoshopped works have sparked fury among netizens in the past few days, who found the images weird and ridiculously inappropriate.</p>
<p>Hieu added that the flower shop owner was not present during the district’s inspection, whereas the manager failed to present a permit to hold a photo exhibition and related legal documents.</p>
<p>The shop manager, who could not present his identity card either, was summoned to the local police station.</p>
<p>Nguyen Thi Van, head of the Flower Box shop’s marketing department, told <em>Tuoi Tre</em> that the exhibition was meant to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the country’s reunification, and to turn the bloody battlefield into a gorgeous flower forest to relieve war-associated sufferings.</p>
<p>Vietnam will celebrate its reunification on April 30. The country was reunified on April 30, 1975.</p>
<p>She added during this time, her shop is deducting VND50,000 (US$2.3) from any flower bills to donate to Agent Orange victims.</p>
<p>“The exhibition was intended for internal use only, so we did not seek a permit. We downloaded the wartime pictures from foreign websites and clearly cited their sources,” Van explained.</p>
<p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1DF9Uuj">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1El2hg4">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em></strong></strong></p>
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Ho Chi Minh City authorities confiscate wartime photos featuring guns replaced by flowers Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1El2hg2" width="200" /><br />

Ho Chi Minh City authorities confiscate wartime photos featuring guns replaced by flowers

Ho Chi Minh City authorities confiscate wartime photos featuring guns replaced by flowers

Authorities in a district in Ho Chi Minh City have seized all the wartime photos that had guns replaced by flowers, sparking strong public ...

Royal rickshaw comes home, to be displayed in central Vietnam

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<p><strong>A rickshaw which belonged to a king of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), Vietnam’s last monarchy, has finally arrived home after some 100 years being away and will be put on display in the central region next week as a happy ending for insiders’ unprecedentedly concerted efforts.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/1HoxTk4"><img alt="1664033-sx5yl8r5" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1HoxTk4" width="500" /></a></p>
<p>The rickshaw, which was gifted by King Thanh Thai (1879-1954), the 10th king of the Nguyen Dynasty, to his mother during his lifetime, is considered a royal treasure which is highly cherished for its technical, aesthetic, cultural, and historical value.</p>
<p>The prized item was custom-made from “trac” wood encrusted with conch and boasts sophisticated carvings.</p>
<p>The rickshaw will be displayed at an exhibition, which is poised to run on Wednesday at Dien Tho Palace, part of the UNESCO-recognized Complex of Monuments in Hue City.</p>
<p>The palace is a prominent highlight in Hue, the capital city of the central province of Thua Thien-Hue.</p>
<p>The homecoming is the fruit of Vietnamese culture authorities’ campaign, with the leader of a Paris-based museum giving up its legal right to purchase the object and fund-raising efforts.</p>
<p><a href="#http://bit.ly/1D80xRm"><strong>At an auction in Tours, France on June 13, 2014</strong></a> of various treasured items, including King Thanh Thai’s rickshaw, Vietnam’s people won the bid for the vehicle for €45,000. The item fetched €55,800 including organization fees.</p>
<p>In an unexpected twist, Katia Mollet, a curator of the Guimet Museum, declared that France had the right to buy the rickshaw for the same price.</p>
<p>State-run organizations in France were entitled by law to purchase the items at the same price as that offered by the auction winners.</p>
<p>The Vietnam Embassy in France and Vietnamese culture authorities persevered in talking the French museum’s leader out of the intention, and sought for support from French cultural agencies and experts on Vietnamese culture for Vietnam’s bid to purchase the rickshaw.</p>
<p>Some days following the auction, the Guimet Museum, which is well known for its painstaking conservation of a number of Vietnamese artifacts and has helped promote them through its exhibits, gave up its right to buy the rickshaw.</p>
<p>Buu Y, a respected culture researcher in Hue, was taken aback by the full-length details of King Thanh Thai’s rickshaw in a record kept by the French auction company.</p>
<p>According to the auctioning record, the king sold his rickshaw and bed – another royal treasure – to Prosper Jourdan, head of the king’s escort team, who took it to France in 1907.</p>
<p>The rickshaw has seen repairs to and restoration of some of its parts since, the record added.</p>
<p>Jourdan’s heirs later decided to put these two invaluable items up for auction and expressed their wish that after the auction, they will be displayed in Hue, which was Vietnam’s imperial capital during the Nguyen Dynasty.</p>
<p>At the June 13, 2014 auction, where the rickshaw was offered for sale, the price of the bed began at €1,000 and soared to €100,000 only after five minutes.</p>
<p>The two Vietnamese-French people assigned by the Vietnam Embassy in France to attend the auction failed to buy the priceless bed, which fetched a total of €124,000, including organization fees.</p>
<div id="attachment_1664034" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://bit.ly/1HoxRJ3"><img alt="A close-up of King Thanh Thai's treasured rickshaw, which he gifted to his mother during his lifetime. Photo: Vietnamese Embassy in France Unprecedented concerted efforts" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="750" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1D80vce" width="500" /></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">A close-up of King Thanh Thai's treasured rickshaw, which he gifted to his mother during his lifetime. Photo: Vietnamese Embassy in France Unprecedented concerted efforts</p>
</div>
<p>Phan Thanh Hai, director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center, still vividly remembers his anxiety when he proposed that Thua Thien-Hue spend US$50,000 purchasing the rickshaw.</p>
<p>To Hai’s delighted astonishment, the chair of the provincial People’s Committee quickly approved his proposal.</p>
<p>He also underlined the vital roles of the Vietnam Embassy in France, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Sports, and the France Embassy in Vietnam in persuading the Guimet Museum’s leader to give up on the quest for buying the rickshaw.</p>
<p>Many Vietnamese expats in France and local culture enthusiasts made contributions totaling nearly €15,000 to purchase the royal vehicle.</p>
<p>National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines offered a 50-percent discount on the fares for transporting the rickshaw from France back to Vietnam, while Bao Viet, a local insurance company, also helped with half of the insurance fee.</p>
<p>“This is the very first time an auction has received wholehearted support from that many state agencies, organizations, and individuals. It’s also an unprecedented case that authorities of a Vietnamese province spent such a whopping sum purchasing an antique,” Hai noted.</p>
<p><strong>Stepping up efforts to bring back national treasures</strong></p>
<p>According to researcher Nguyen Xuan Hoa, former director of Thua Thien-Hue’s Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, though the Hue Royal Antique Museum is currently home to 11,500 artifacts associated with Hue Palace and its opulent royal lifestyle, many of the royal collectibles have gone missing after historical events and wars, or were lost to negligence or inadequate management.</p>
<p>Hai, director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center, said the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is slated to join a UNESCO convention regarding the return of stolen cultural heritage.</p>
<p>Joining the convention will provide Vietnam with a legal foundation to claim back its antiques which are currently owned by other countries.</p>
<p>Hai’s center has recently proposed that Vietnamese embassies in other countries find out about Vietnamese antiques.</p>
<p>Hai also suggested that competent agencies consider adding policies on auctioning and managing lost antiques to legal documents regarding cultural heritages.</p>
<p>Local researcher Nguyen Xuan Hoa urged that a fund be set up to help bring back home more of the Nguyen Dynasty’s collectibles in the coming time.</p>
<p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1HoxTk7">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1D80vcj">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em></strong></strong></p>
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Royal rickshaw comes home, to be displayed in central Vietnam Releated Image(s)<br />
<img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1HoxTk4" width="200" /><br />

Royal rickshaw comes home, to be displayed in central Vietnam

Royal rickshaw comes home, to be displayed in central Vietnam

A rickshaw which belonged to a king of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), Vietnam’s last monarchy, has finally arrived home after some 100 yea...

Documentary on Amerasian children of war in Vietnam to be shown this month

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>A special documentary on Amerasian children of the war in Vietnam will be aired on national broadcaster Vietnam Television’s VTV1 channel next weekend.</strong> </p><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1O5Ki1S"><img alt="1663988-53oyf4hd" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1O5Ki1S" width="500"/> </a> </p><br /><p>The 60-minute film, “Nhung dua con cua cuoc chien” (The Children of War), is scheduled to be on air at 8:10 pm on April 25.</p><br /><p>It narrates the sad stories of Amerasian children who were born during wartime in Vietnam.</p><br /><p>Most of the children have had to live a hard, poor life. They were abandoned by their birth parents but always desire to find them.</p><br /><p>“It looks like Amerasian children are being punished by God, although we are all guiltless,” said Son, who lives in Maine, a state in the New England region of the northeastern U.S.</p><br /><p>As a homeless man, Son earns his living by collecting scrap metal and receiving his monthly grant from the U.S. government. His only dream is to come back to Vietnam as living in the U.S. is “cold and lonely.”</p><br /><p>Bach Tuyet, another Amerasian child who is now a medical research assistant at a university in Washington D.C., said her birth father refused to accept her because she is only a “consequence” of war.</p><br /><p>The four-member production team spent one year and a half researching, contacting the characters, and filming in both Vietnam and the U.S.</p><br /><p>The severe weather in the U.S. went under -10 to -20 degrees Celsius sometime and froze some filming equipment while director Le Quynh Tu suffered from frostbite.</p><br /><p>“That made us understand the toughness and loneliness that those Amerasian children have to face there,” Tu said.</p><br /><p>The documentary also includes interviews with U.S. politicians about the issue as well as rare scenes depicting a meeting between former Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Co Thach and U.S. Senators Robert Mrazek and Tom Ridge in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in 1986.</p><br /><p>Mrazek and Ridge are the founders of the Amerasian Homecoming Act, an Act of U.S. Congress giving preferential immigration status to children in Vietnam born of U.S. fathers. It was written in 1987, passed in 1988, and implemented in 1989.</p><br /><p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1JjJcZr">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1O5Ki1T">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em> </strong> </strong> </p><br /><br/><br />Documentary on Amerasian children of war in Vietnam to be shown this month Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1O5Ki1S" width="200"/><br/></div>

Documentary on Amerasian children of war in Vietnam to be shown this month

Documentary on Amerasian children of war in Vietnam to be shown this month

A special documentary on Amerasian children of the war in Vietnam will be aired on national broadcaster Vietnam Television’s VTV1 channel ne...

First-hand record of the Mong way of life

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><em>VietNamNet Bridge – I wonder what motivates a young researcher to overcome several difficulties and finish a meticulous work on the Mong people.</em> </p><br /><div class='wp-caption aligncenter' style='width: 510px' id='attachment_1663892'><a href="http://bit.ly/1O5Ki1Q"><img alt="Musical tradition: Khen (bamboo flute) played a very important in the life of Mong people of the early 20th century." class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="330" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1JjJcJ4" width="500"/> </a><br /><p class='wp-caption-text'>Musical tradition: Khen (bamboo flute) played a very important in the life of Mong people of the early 20th century.</p><br /></div><br /><p>In his 400-page book Nhung Dinh Nui Du Ca–Mot Loi Tim ve ca tinh H’Mong (Singing and Travelling Mountains – A Way to Look for Ethnic Mong Personalities), Nguyen Manh Tien depicts the traditional Mong people’s way of life and language.</p><br /><p>To research for the book, Tien spent four years travelling extensively in the country’s northern mountainous regions, where he spent a lot of time living with the local people. Despite his modest salary at the Ha Noi Literature Institute, the researcher was willing to fund his own trips.</p><br /><p>The book, released by The Gioi publishing house at the end of 2014, immediately attracts the reader with its poetic title.</p><br /><p>When one begins to read the book, it comes across as a meticulously researched work about the destiny of a special ethnic group that has always lived a nomadic life. Tien tells their stories with the style of a writer and a historian.</p><br /><p>It’s no surprise that the book has been highly appreciated by domestic researchers and historians since it’s publication. This is a rare work in the Vietnamese literary landscape that tells the life story of the Mong.</p><br /><p>Tien emphasises that in his book he has written about the traditional Mong people of the past. Very few of those people are still alive.</p><br /><p>To find enough documents and information, he made several field trips to the Dong Van Plateau in the northernmost province of Ha Giang which has the largest number of Mong.</p><br /><p>As the area was still very remote and isolated, he was sure that he could discover more traditions of the Mong there than in any other region. Moreover, it was probably the only place in Viet Nam where he could meet the chiefs of Mong villages, who could tell him several stories of their traditions.</p><br /><p>“The theme research about Mong people attracted me because studying about this ethnic group is a real challenge. It’s a special ethnic group among the ones living in the northern mountainous regions,” said the 33-year-old author.</p><br /><p>Hailing from the D1oEF mountainous area in Dong Son, Thanh Hoa, Tien is passionate about reading famous books by French ethnologists that talk about Vietnamese mountains, including Sons of the Mountains by Jacques Dournes and We Have Eaten the Forest by Georges Condominas.</p><br /><p><strong>A unique lifestyle</strong> </p><br /><p>To do his research, he relied on the historical and social documents that he could collect. Moreover, he analysed the rich oral and literary Mong culture, as well as the psychology of the local people.</p><br /><div class='wp-caption aligncenter' style='width: 310px' id='attachment_1663893'><a href="http://bit.ly/1O5KfTQ"><img alt="Hardcover: The cover of the book about Mong people authored by Nguyen Manh Tien." class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="411" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1O5KfTQ" width="300"/> </a><br /><p class='wp-caption-text'>Hardcover: The cover of the book about Mong people authored by Nguyen Manh Tien.</p><br /></div><br /><p>From the observations he made, Tien then shortlisted key words that summed up the features of the Mong people: life in exile, being emigrants; orphaned, committing suicide, rebellious, free, dreaming, and powerful.</p><br /><p>With these keywords, the author explains the profound reasons behind the habits and actions of the Mongs from the past to the present.</p><br /><p>Tien explains that Mong people love living in high mountains — above 800m — where they can find the maximum freedom.</p><br /><p>What impressed him most during his research was that the Mongs have a rich literary treasure, with several thousand pages of fascinating folk songs.</p><br /><p>Surprisingly, 50 per cent of their novels talk about negative feelings of being orphans.</p><br /><p>The Mongs have spent their lives living in different places throughout different Asian and South-east Asian countries. The nomadic life didnt improve their life, but they kept moving as a matter of habit.</p><br /><p>Continuing his analysis, Tien reveals Mong wives have much more freedom than other people realise.</p><br /><p>Mong wives can receive an inheritance from their families. Every month, they have a love market, where they can meet their former lovers again. They can declare love to the men they love. And the two lovers can find ways to convince their parents to let them get married.</p><br /><p>The relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law is normally very complicated. The two women try hard to win the heart of the man (son/husband), because the woman who is loved the most by the man will have more power in the family.</p><br /><p>This ethnic group is very unique because suicide is common among them. The people commit suicide even if they are a little angry or feel deceived. And to ensure that they die, they eat laF9 ngoF9n(a poisonous leaf easily found in the forest).</p><br /><p>The Mong people are also known to be very dreamy. Vietnamese poet Che Lan Vien once said he found their songs the most interesting among those he knew. Mong girls often find lovers through the songs the men sing at spring festivals.</p><br /><p>TieE1n found even though the Mong first arrived to Viet Nam three centuries ago, they were still isolated.</p><br /><p>He faced several difficulties in doing his research, not because the people lived in the high mountains, but because it was very hard for him to penetrate their lives and talk to them. They don’t open up easily to outsiders.</p><br /><p>“If we cannot become friends with a Mong person, it will be very difficult to ask them about their private life,” Tien said.</p><br /><p>“I spent a lot of time building friendships with them. And when they began to appreciate me, they were willing to share their inner feelings,” he said.</p><br /><p>Despite his efforts, he admitted he needed more time to better understand the Mong.</p><br /><p>At the end of the book, Tien reflects on the importance of mountains in the revolutionary history of Viet Nam. The mountainous regions have a more important role than several documents had acknowledged. It’s where the Vietnamese resistance army forces hid during wars, helping the nation to be victorious.</p><br /><p>Along with an attractive storytelling style of the author, the book has precious documented photos of the local people and festivals of different periods.</p><br /><p>It’s a book worth reading for those who are curious to know more about Vietnamese culture, and particularly about the Mong, one of the four most populous and most important ethnic groups that has had a cultural and political influence on the development of Viet Nam.</p><br /><p><strong><em>Bach Lien</em> </strong><em>VNS</em> </p><br /><br/><br />First-hand record of the Mong way of life Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1JjJcJ4" width="200"/><br/></div>

First-hand record of the Mong way of life

First-hand record of the Mong way of life

VietNamNet Bridge – I wonder what motivates a young researcher to overcome several difficulties and finish a meticulous work on the Mong peo...

Vietnam model to claim ‘Asian bikini queen’ title in Korea next week

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>A Vietnamese model best known for titillating bikini shoots is poised to attend an Asian model award presentation ceremony in South Korea next week to take home her “Asian bikini queen” prize.</strong> </p><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1ESLr6X"><img alt="1663421-evuj8z7u" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1ESLr6X" width="500"/> </a> </p><br /><p>Ngoc Trinh, a sensual model, has been named “The Asian Queen of Bikini Model” by the jury of the 2015 Asia Model Awards, local media reported.</p><br /><p>The award presentation ceremony is scheduled for Friday next week in Seoul.</p><br /><p>The title went to Korean beauties in previous editions of the awards, newswire <em>VnExpress</em> said.</p><br /><p>Trinh beat contenders from Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan to earn the title in the awards’ 10th edition this year.</p><br /><p>The model appeared at last year’s event as a guest, according to <em>Sai Gon Tiep Thi Online</em>.</p><br /><p>Trinh is quite a sensation in the local modeling arena for her gorgeous curves and bikini shoots.</p><br /><p>Trang Khieu, another Vietnamese model, has also won the “Model Star Prize,” another category of the 2015 Asia Model Awards.</p><br /><p>Vo Canh, a locally-winning model, has won the prize for males.</p><br /><p>The awards are given to male and female individuals with outstanding modeling activity in their own countries and on the international stage.</p><br /><p>This year’s Asia Model Awards event, which comprises famous brand fashion shows, a gala, and K-pop performances, will be star-studded with top models and celebrities from 15 Asian countries and territories.</p><br /><p>Organized on an annual basis, the Asia Model Awards is the continent’s largest modeling festival, which serves as a global culture and fashion platform that goes beyond Asia and spreads throughout the world, its website said.</p><br /><p>In other news, Elle Vietnam will for the first time ever give away its Elle Style Awards, <em>Tuoi Tre</em> (Youth) newspaper reported.</p><br /><p>Elle Vietnam is the local version of Elle, a world-famous fashion magazine.</p><br /><p>The award presentation ceremony is set to take place at 6:00 pm tonight, April 17, at Gem Center in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.</p><br /><p>Elle’s annually-given, coveted awards honor individuals with noted contributions to music, movie, and fashion design.</p><br /><p>The award presentation event will highlight new fashion icons and trends, and bring into focus young, promising designers.</p><br /><div class='wp-caption aligncenter' style='width: 510px' id='attachment_1663422'><a href="http://bit.ly/1Jc7xAy"><img alt="Four Vietnamese models-actresses-singers nominated for Vietnam's first-ever Elle Style Awards. Photo: Tuoi Tre" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="207" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1ESLr70" width="500"/> </a><br /><p class='wp-caption-text'>Four Vietnamese models-actresses-singers nominated for Vietnam's first-ever Elle Style Awards. Photo: Tuoi Tre</p><br /></div><br /><p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1Jc7xAz">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1ESLr71">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em> </strong> </strong> </p><br /><br/><br />Vietnam model to claim ‘Asian bikini queen’ title in Korea next week Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1ESLr6X" width="200"/><br/></div>

Vietnam model to claim ‘Asian bikini queen’ title in Korea next week

Vietnam model to claim ‘Asian bikini queen’ title in Korea next week

A Vietnamese model best known for titillating bikini shoots is poised to attend an Asian model award presentation ceremony in South Korea ne...

Vietnam’s Sa Pa town launches information booths for upcoming tourism week

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>Three travel booths have been opened in Sa Pa, a famous resort town in northern Vietnam, to provide information on tourism services for visitors to the scenic locality and welcome the upcoming week dedicated to the tourist industry.</strong> </p><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1G1K7gJ"><img alt="1663235-5hbmwkki" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1G1K7gJ" width="500"/> </a> </p><br /><p>The three are erected in a flower garden, by a lake, and in a new coach station located in the heart of Sa Pa District in Lao Cai Province, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism said.</p><br /><p>The booth attendants will provide tourists with necessary information on tourism services, hotels and restaurants, among others.</p><br /><p>Phone numbers of the chair of the Sa Pa District People’s Committee, head of the local police department, and hospitals are provided outside the booths.</p><br /><p>Leaflets featuring detailed maps of scenic spots in Sa Pa in Vietnamese and English are also handed out there.</p><br /><p>The booth attendants are fluent in at least one foreign language, including English.</p><br /><p>The booths open from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm every day, and their operation time will be extended during the upcoming “Sa Pa Culture-Tourism Week,” which is slated to run from April 28 to May 3.</p><br /><p>The district’s authorities plan to operate the booths until the end of this summer.</p><br /><p>The forthcoming tourism week will boast a wide array of fascinating activities, including “Festival on Clouds,” which features ethnic minority villagers’ traditional culture; a show displaying ethnic people’s attire; and a “Being Farmers in One Day” program.</p><br /><p>Other highlights will be a music performance, a cuisine fair, stalls displaying rare flowers and ornamental plants, and an exhibition showcasing photos on Sa Pa’s picturesque landscape and cheery people.</p><br /><p>On the week’s opening night on April 30, locals and tourists will get treated to a gorgeous fireworks display, which will sparkle above the banks of Xuan Vien Lake nestled in the heart of Sa Pa Town.</p><br /><p>The town is expected to welcome over 50,000 tourist arrivals during the week.</p><br /><p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1G1K7gL">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1G1K7gN">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em> </strong> </strong> </p><br /><br/><br />Vietnam’s Sa Pa town launches information booths for upcoming tourism week Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1G1K7gJ" width="200"/><br/></div>

Vietnam’s Sa Pa town launches information booths for upcoming tourism week

Vietnam’s Sa Pa town launches information booths for upcoming tourism week

Three travel booths have been opened in Sa Pa, a famous resort town in northern Vietnam, to provide information on tourism services for visi...

Oversentimental, sex fiction of Chinese origin endemic in Vietnam

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>Rubbish Chinese fiction which is rife with mawkish and sexual elements has cast an insidious spell on a large number of Vietnamese teenagers and young adults and been thus a great cause for concern among parents and the general public.</strong> </p><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1GQ1uEi"><img alt="1662842-ty7cmin5" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1GQ1uEi" width="500"/> </a> </p><br /><p>Shelves topped with around hundreds of books of such kind are now easily seen at most local bookstores and invariably packed with buyers and perusers, who are mostly middle and high school students.</p><br /><p>Such books’ magnetic appeal is even more evident among the online community, as the books always receive staggeringly huge numbers of views and comments.</p><br /><p>An oversentimental Chinese book published in the “Literature” section of a popular online forum receives an average of several hundred thousand or up to some million views.</p><br /><p>A few are even read over 10 million times and receive some thousands of comments.</p><br /><p>The English translations of the titles of several slushy Chinese books currently all the rage on the local market include “Do You Like America?” “Moonlight Doesn’t Understand How I Feel,” “Let Me Look Toward You,” “Forever Together,” and “I’m Just Like Radiant Sunlight.”</p><br /><p>The boom in online “translators,” most of whom have a fragmentary command or none at all of the Chinese language, has added to the bountiful supply of such books.</p><br /><p>They generally use software to convert the Chinese versions into awkward Vietnamese stories before clumsily “editing” them into finished “works.”</p><br /><p>Such “translators” as Yingli, Dennis Q, and Greenrosetq are “venerated” by their fans as much as the Chinese writers themselves.</p><br /><p>Many of their “works” are purchased by local publishers to release them in books.</p><br /><p>Diep Lac Vo Tam, one of China’s four currently most-loved oversentimental writers, whose pen-name is written in Vietnamese transcription, has been pampered with profuse adoration from her Vietnamese fans just like any K-pop stars.</p><br /><p>Her exchanges held earlier this month in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were filled to the rim with local buffs.</p><br /><p><strong>Films adapted from fiction give a boost</strong> </p><br /><p>Young Vietnamese’s adoration for soppy fiction is fueled further by the recent success of Chinese films adapted from trendy works of such fiction.</p><br /><p>Around two or three years ago, Vietnamese publishers predicted the downfall of the mawkish fiction in Vietnam.</p><br /><p>However, the trend has shown no signs of abating, and has even gained in popularity.</p><br /><p>Among the four publications by NanuBooks, a local publisher, in January 2015, three were soppy Chinese stories.</p><br /><p>Similarly, five out of seven publications by Amun, another local publishing brand, in February and March 2015 fell into the slushy genre.</p><br /><div class='wp-caption aligncenter' style='width: 510px' id='attachment_1662843'><a href="http://bit.ly/1FYiPrO"><img alt="Some 1,000 young fans are seen scrambling at an April 5, 2015 exchange with one of China's most popular oversentimental fiction writers. Photo: Tuoi Tre Rife sex content" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="333" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1GQ1sMI" width="500"/> </a><br /><p class='wp-caption-text'>Some 1,000 young fans are seen scrambling at an April 5, 2015 exchange with one of China's most popular oversentimental fiction writers. Photo: Tuoi Tre Rife sex content</p><br /></div><br /><p>According to insiders, slushy Chinese fiction is primarily about oversentimental storylines, perfectly dreamlike protagonists and their embellished romances and far-fetched dreams.</p><br /><p>Many of them are casually written and sloppily edited.</p><br /><p>However, the genre has grown into at least two derivatives in recent years.</p><br /><p>One comprises shoddily written soppy stories which depict promiscuous characters and their casual sexual relationships.</p><br /><p>The other is those in which the writers make it a point to describe sex scenes between characters in great, obscene detail.</p><br /><p>Several are also plagued by a worrying frequency of sex scenes, incestuous relationships, and sexually deviant elements such as polygamy.</p><br /><p>Among hugely popular stories are those depicting in great depth homosexual relationships.</p><br /><p>While conventional oversentimental stories cause young readers to stray away from reality, indulge themselves in fantasy and far-fetched dreams, and shy away from school work, such sexually-riddled prose is considerably more damaging and even obsessive to youngsters.</p><br /><p>Hoai Huong, 17, admitted that she was addicted to slushy Chinese fiction when she was as young as 12 years old.</p><br /><p>“These obscene love-making scenes described in full detail embarrass even adults, and thus unquestionably leave a detrimental lasting imprint on teenagers,” said a person who launched a site to voice resentment at the rubbish genre.</p><br /><p>Such rubbish, “toxic” prose is not only rife online, but has also been released in books by a number of local publishing companies, who purposefully turn a blind eye to its destructive effects because of its high lucrativeness.</p><br /><p>Those already published online still sell like hot cakes in printed versions, though the books are quite expensive, according to local fans.</p><br /><p>A Facebook user told <em>Tuoi Tre</em> (Youth) newspaper that he recently noticed a middle school student offering an oversentimental book for online sale for VND600,000 (US$28). The book was soon purchased by another student.</p><br /><div class='wp-caption aligncenter' style='width: 510px' id='attachment_1662844'><a href="http://bit.ly/1GQ1sMM"><img alt="Readers choose oversentimental books at a bookstore in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre Efforts to wipe out slushy Chinese fiction" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="333" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiPI4" width="500"/> </a><br /><p class='wp-caption-text'>Readers choose oversentimental books at a bookstore in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre Efforts to wipe out slushy Chinese fiction</p><br /></div><br /><p>Members of a group which was launched last month on Facebook are making efforts to eradicate the detrimental prose.</p><br /><p>Several members have snapped photos of the book pages with offensive sex content to cement their objections.</p><br /><p>Others straightforwardly accuse publishers who overlook public reactions of releasing such books for its high profitability.</p><br /><p>Nguyen Minh Nhut, director of the Tre (Youth) Publishing House, one of the country’s major publishing companies, stressed at a seminar late last year that his company has adamantly said no to oversentimental Chinese fiction.</p><br /><p>Chu Van Hoa, director of the publishing department under the Ministry of Information and Communications, told <em>Tuoi Tre</em> that his department is stepping up efforts to combat the plague, including holding workshops to work out the problems involved in such fiction and citing public outcry to stop publishers from releasing rubbish works.</p><br /><p>Competent agencies are also urged to impose penalties on violating publishers.</p><br /><p>Efforts should also be made to raise forum administrators’ awareness of the genre’s adverse impacts and encourage them to better check the content posted by their members.</p><br /><p>This approach is considered by many to be more effective than coercively closing down infringing websites, as similar sites will keep mushrooming following some closedowns.</p><br /><p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1GQ1uEo">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1GQ1uUE">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em> </strong> </strong> </p><br /><br/><br />Oversentimental, sex fiction of Chinese origin endemic in Vietnam Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1GQ1uEi" width="200"/><br/></div>

Oversentimental, sex fiction of Chinese origin endemic in Vietnam

Oversentimental, sex fiction of Chinese origin endemic in Vietnam

Rubbish Chinese fiction which is rife with mawkish and sexual elements has cast an insidious spell on a large number of Vietnamese teenagers...

Vietnamese tennis international likely to be sued for badmouthing on social media

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>Vietnamese tennis international Lam Quang Tri will likely be sued for verbally abusing a member of the Vietnam Tennis Federation (VTF) on social media.</strong> </p><br /><div class='wp-caption aligncenter' style='width: 508px' id='attachment_1662713'><a href="http://bit.ly/1FYiQvI"><img alt="Tri, who played for Vietnam at the Davis Cup 2015 Asia – Pacific Zone 3 in Malaysia last month, has severely criticized Hoang Longy on his Facebook page. Hoang Longy is the chief editor of the" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="293" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiQvI" width="498"/> </a><br /><p class='wp-caption-text'>Tri, who played for Vietnam at the Davis Cup 2015 Asia – Pacific Zone 3 in Malaysia last month, has severely criticized Hoang Longy on his Facebook page. Hoang Longy is the chief editor of the</p><br /></div><br /><p><em>Vietnam Tennis Lifestyle Magazine</em> and a member of the VTF.</p><br /><p>Tri has accused Longy of defaming and ruining the unity of the members of the Vietnamese national tennis team.</p><br /><p>On his Facebook page, Tri flamed Longy with bad words, posted images of the chief editor, and called on people to boycott the official.</p><br /><p>In an interview with <em>Tuoi Tre</em> (Youth) newspaper, Longy said he had contacted his lawyer to prepare to sue Tri.</p><br /><p>“However, I want Tri to admit his wrongdoing, correct it, and apologize to me first,” said Longy. “Otherwise, I will go on with my steps to file a lawsuit against him.”</p><br /><p>Tri has responded that he does not care about what Longy had threatened.</p><br /><p>Nguyen Quoc Ky, VTF general secretary, said, “It is just a personal matter between the two men and they should deal with it themselves.”</p><br /><p>The VTF has contacted Longy to resolve the issue but he said he could decide on it himself, Ky said.</p><br /><p>On April 14, another Vietnamese tennis international, Trinh Linh Giang, posted an image of the middle finger on Facebook to offend Vietnamese tennis officials and journalists.</p><br /><p>However, he later removed the image from his Facebook page.</p><br /><p>All this stems from recent media reports on infighting in the Vietnamese national tennis team.</p><br /><p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1FYiQvM">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1GQ1uEc">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em> </strong> </strong> </p><br /><br/><br />Vietnamese tennis international likely to be sued for badmouthing on social media Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiQvI" width="200"/><br/></div>

Vietnamese tennis international likely to be sued for badmouthing on social media

Vietnamese tennis international likely to be sued for badmouthing on social media

Vietnamese tennis international Lam Quang Tri will likely be sued for verbally abusing a member of the Vietnam Tennis Federation (VTF) on so...

Documentary film on Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims screened in France

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>A documentary film on Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims has been screened in France, newswire <em>Vietnamplus</em> reported Tuesday.</strong> </p><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1FYiPbk"><img alt="1662478-jvvzskhb" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiPbk" width="500"/> </a> </p><br /><p>“Lien in Me Linh or War and Its Crimes” by writer-director Jean Marc Turine was screened on Monday at the Walonnie-Bruxelles center in Paris, denouncing the U.S. use of toxic chemical Agent Orange and its serious effects on the lives of millions of Vietnamese people.</p><br /><p>The film provided documentary information regarding the period from 1961 to 1972 when U.S. troops sprayed over 80 million liters of defoliant, mostly the highly toxic Agent Orange, over a quarter of the area in southern Vietnam.</p><br /><p>It is a chemical warfare with the largest scale ever in history, destroying many generations of Vietnamese and the country’s environment and ecological system as well.</p><br /><p>The main character is Lien, an 18-year-old victim of Agent Orange living in Hanoi’s outlying district of Me Linh. Her father was exposed to the toxic chemical while fighting in the Central Highlands battlefields.</p><br /><p>Lien suffers physical and spiritual agony caused by convulsions. She has to stay either on her bed or in a wheelchair at home and never dreams of being able to go to school.</p><br /><p>Jean-Marc Turine said he had spent about six months producing the film. He initially made reportage about Agent Orange victims to air on a Belgium radio where he worked as a reporter.</p><br /><p>Turine later realized that European audiences need more visual evidence to have a clearer, better understanding of the serious effects on Vietnamese victims and their families exerted by the toxic chemical.</p><br /><p>The reporter decided to make a documentary with a 74-minute and 95-minute version to introduce to different target audiences.</p><br /><p>Turine told <em>Vietnamplus</em> that he wanted to criticize the irresponsibility of the U.S. government and the companies that produced the chemical, including Monsanto and Dow Chemical which have denied compensation for Vietnamese sufferers, saying there is no connection between their products and any medical symptoms.</p><br /><p>The film was screened ahead of the April 16 court date in the French city of Evry, a case lodged by Vietnamese-French Tran To Nga to seek justice for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims.</p><br /><p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1GQ1sw9">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1FYiQfh">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em> </strong> </strong> </p><br /><br/><br />Documentary film on Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims screened in France Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiPbk" width="200"/><br/></div>

Documentary film on Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims screened in France

Documentary film on Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims screened in France

A documentary film on Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims has been screened in France, newswire Vietnamplus reported Tuesday. “Lien in Me Lin...

Rare Marilyn Monroe photos go on display in Poland

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>Pictures of Marilyn Monroe by fashion and celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene will go on display in the Polish city of Wroclaw this summer as part of a rare collection of prints of the U.S. actress.</strong> </p><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1FYiPb6"><img alt="1662476-em9ibooq" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="265" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiPb6" width="450"/> </a> </p><br /><p>The western Polish city successfully bid for the pictures at an auction last year for 6.4 million zloty ($1.69 million) according to local media, and the collection is likely to become a major attraction to Wroclaw, which is due to be one of two European capitals of culture in 2016.</p><br /><p>It is made up of more than 3,000 prints and also includes pictures of other actresses such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich.</p><br /><p>The pictures are taken on movie sets, in theaters, during magazine photo sessions and in private settings.</p><br /><p>A preview of 47 pictures of Monroe, including “Ballerina Sitting”, was unveiled to art and photograph critics on Tuesday while the exhibition, entitled “Good day, Marilyn”, opens to the public in July.</p><br /><p>“A person walking through the exhibition should be able to see a different Marilyn Monroe on every photograph because these are photographs of an actress and movie star but also a private person,” said exhibition curator Marek Stanielewicz.</p><br /><p>“Some photographs were posed but some show Marilyn Monroe in intimate situations. The key thing was to show Marilyn Monroe not only as a great actress and sex symbol but Marilyn Monroe as a human and a girl.”</p><br /><p>Greene, who worked for magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, became friends with Monroe after they met on a photo shoot. They later formed a production company and Monroe eventually moved in with the photographer and his family, where he took numerous photographs of her. Greene died in 1985.</p><br /><p>Poland obtained the pictures as part of a settlement in an embezzlement case involving a U.S. businessman in the 1990s. A first batch of pictures of Monroe was auctioned in 2012.</p><br /><br/><br />Rare Marilyn Monroe photos go on display in Poland Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiPb6" width="200"/><br/></div>

Rare Marilyn Monroe photos go on display in Poland

Rare Marilyn Monroe photos go on display in Poland

Pictures of Marilyn Monroe by fashion and celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene will go on display in the Polish city of Wroclaw this summ...

San Francisco board approves wild animal performance ban

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to ban performances of wild or exotic animals for public entertainment, including appearances in circuses or on the sets of movies, television shows and commercials.</strong> </p><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1FYiOUO"><img alt="1662474-u88ie7ig" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiOUO" width="500"/> </a> </p><br /><p>The measure, approved 11-0 by the board on Tuesday and expected to be enacted in a final vote next week, would make San Francisco the largest city to adopt such a sweeping prohibition on the commercial use of wild animals for public amusement, supporters said.</p><br /><p>The ordinance would not apply to domesticated animals, including dogs, cats, horses and other livestock or pets. Educational activities or exhibitions accredited by certain zoological and museum organizations would also be exempt.</p><br /><p>But the measure bars any public showing, carnival, fair, parade, petting zoo, ride, race, film shoot or other undertaking in which wild or exotic animals “are required to perform tricks, fight or participate as accompaniments for the entertainment, amusement or benefit of an audience.”</p><br /><p>Wild and exotic animals are defined as any non-domestic or hybrid creature, whether or not it was bred in captivity.</p><br /><p>At least eight smaller California municipalities have enacted broad circus bans, while Los Angeles and Oakland have moved to effectively prohibit elephant performances by outlawing bullhooks and other implements used to control the animals.</p><br /><p>The bullhook bans in Los Angeles, Oakland and dozens of other cities across the country led America’s oldest and largest traveling circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, to announce last month that it was phasing elephants out of its act by 2018.</p><br /><p>A spokesman for Ringling Bros.’ parent company, Feld Entertainment, called San Francisco’s ordinance and similar measures passed elsewhere “completely unnecessary,” saying all circuses are tightly regulated.</p><br /><p>“We are subject to open, unannounced, frequent inspections by local, state and federal officials, not only in California, but everywhere we go,” spokesman Stephen Payne said.</p><br /><p>Ringling Bros. will be unaffected by the San Francisco ordinance because none of its Bay Area appearances takes place within city limits, Payne said.</p><br /><p>Supervisor Katy Tang, a sponsor of the measure, acknowledged it may discourage film and TV productions from coming to San Francisco, but they were not exempted because “we don’t want to undermine the underlying message of our legislation that animal abuse is not going to be tolerated.”</p><br /><p>The board also approved a resolution supporting a proposed statewide bullhook ban introduced recently in the California legislature.</p><br /><br/><br />San Francisco board approves wild animal performance ban Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1FYiOUO" width="200"/><br/></div>

San Francisco board approves wild animal performance ban

San Francisco board approves wild animal performance ban

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to ban performances of wild or exotic animals for public entertainment, including...

Renowned Vietnamese circus play to go on 3-yr European performing tour

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><br/><br /><p><strong>A Vietnamese circus play, which has been enthusiastically raved about by Vietnamese and foreign audiences, will be staged in France and some other European countries during the next three years, starting this June.</strong> </p><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1yrIw4l"><img alt="1661682-2c6c3nr9" class="attachment-medium aligncenter" height="295" rel="lightbox" src="http://bit.ly/1yrIw4l" width="500"/> </a> </p><br /><p>Representatives of Lune Entertainment, a Vietnamese company, and France’s Scène nationale de Sénart Theater announced in a press meeting on Monday that the Vietnamese circus play, “À Ố Show,” will commence its three-year performing tour across France and in some other European countries on June 14.</p><br /><p>The two sides had signed an agreement which is the first-ever cooperation between an entertainment company in Ho Chi Minh City and a foreign partner in jointly organizing a performing tour.</p><br /><p>The critically acclaimed play adopts the language of circus and theater to depict Vietnam’s idyllic pastoral life, as well as traditional customs and folk games.</p><br /><p>Bamboos and basket boats, which are everyday items in rural Vietnam, are dominantly featured throughout the 60-minute play.</p><br /><p>“À Ố Show,” which has no script, climax or sequence, gently guides audiences through a wide spectrum of emotions.</p><br /><p>Under the agreement, the play will be staged at 60 reputable theaters in Europe during the three years.</p><br /><p>Twenty-five people including the authors, cast, musicians, and technicians will go on performing tours which last between four and six months each year.</p><br /><p>To start with, 90 performances of the show will be put on at 26 theaters in France and one in Greece from June 2015 to June 2016.</p><br /><p>Jean-Michel Puiffe, director of the Scène nationale de Sénart Theater, said at the Monday press meeting that “À Ố Show” will capture much of European audiences’ attention, judged on his 30-year experience in selecting works to be staged at theaters across Europe.</p><br /><p>Though the show does not boast bestselling formulae or world-leading performing techniques and technology, its appeal lies mostly in the genuine emotions and memory flashbacks that it arouses among the audiences, he noted.</p><br /><p>“À Ố Show,” which debuted in early 2013, is one of the purely Vietnamese art programs which most foreign tourists choose to enjoy during their stay in Vietnam.</p><br /><p>Around 400 performances of the show have been given so far at the Municipal Theater in Ho Chi Minh City to the eagerly attentive tourists from over 70 countries.</p><br /><p>According to Vo Thanh Trung, production director of “À Ố Show,” the play incurred a VND5 billion (US$233,013) loss in its first year and did not fare better until late last year.</p><br /><p>“It’s a risky move to stage the show abroad, as even if the performing trips are fruitful, the profits they yield will be smaller than those gained from performances at home. If the trips are a failure, the losses would be huge,” Trung noted.</p><br /><p>The suspension of the show in certain months in the next three years will deprive foreign tourists of a worthwhile entertainment choice to indulge in during their visits to the country.</p><br /><p>Trung said his production team is considering selecting another group of artists as replacements in a version to continue to be put on at home.</p><br /><p>He added that directors of some theaters in the U.K., Spain, and Canada have extended their invitations for “À Ố Show” to be staged at their theaters this year and next year.</p><br /><p>Trung said he would consider the invitations for next year and the year after next as the team’s 2015-2016 performing schedule is already full.</p><br /><p><strong><strong><em><a href="#http://bit.ly/1aswb42">Like us on Facebook</a> or <a href="#http://bit.ly/1yrIw4m">follow us on Twitter</a> to get the latest news about Vietnam!</em> </strong> </strong> </p><br /><br/><br />Renowned Vietnamese circus play to go on 3-yr European performing tour Releated Image(s)<br/><br /><img height="200" src="http://bit.ly/1yrIw4l" width="200"/><br/></div>

Renowned Vietnamese circus play to go on 3-yr European performing tour

Renowned Vietnamese circus play to go on 3-yr European performing tour

A Vietnamese circus play, which has been enthusiastically raved about by Vietnamese and foreign audiences, will be staged in France and some...

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