Vietnam revolution history on display in Ha Giang

An exhibition named “History of Vietnam’s Revolution” featuring more than 200 photos, documents and objects has recently opened in the Ha Giang provincial museum, reports VietnamPlus.

The show briefly introduces several periods in the country’s contemporary history from the struggle against the French colonialists at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam on February 3, 1930, the movement for national independence (1930-1945), the resistance wars against the French dominance (1946-1954) and the U.S., gaining liberation for the South and the national reunification (1955-1975) to the cause of national construction and renewal (from 1975 until now).

The exhibition is aiming to help ethnic groups in the mountainous province, especially the younger generations, find out more about the nation’s history.

The exhibition will run until April 24.

President Ho’s time in Thailand to be aired on Thai TV

Directed by Thai scholar Artha Nantachukra, a documentary series titled ‘Spirit of Vietnam’ - which features President Ho Chi Minh’s time in Thailand - will be aired on Channel 7 and Mornine TV in April.

Vietnam’s VTV channel also plans to broadcast the program - consisting of 15 episodes, each lasting 15 minutes - twice a week since April 11.

The documentary covers the time Nguyen Ai Quoc (an alias of President Ho Chi Minh) lived and worked in Thailand (1928-29) and features Vietnamese communities in various localities in Thailand, like Ubon Rachathani, Mukdahan and Nakhon Phanom.

On his personal blogsite, Dr. Arthe made a statement: “Actually, I have the idea of making such a documentary for more than 10 years … when I did research for my PhD in Hanoi University.”

“I would like to present the documentary to the public in this year (2011) to mark 100-year anniversary of President Ho leaving Vietnam to seek ways to save the country,” he added.

The series, which took two years to produce, was backed with financial support from the Vietnamese community in Thailand.

Vietnam’s VTV earlier purchased copyright to 12 episodes “Ho Chi Minh – Vietnam’s great leader” produced by Thailand’s NBT channel, and documentary films “President Ho Chi Minh’s National Funeral Ceremony” by Japan’s NDN channel.

Born in 1959 in Ubon Ratchathani, Nantachukra is now working as deputy head of the History Department of Mahasarakham University in Maha Sarakham Province, according to Vietnam News.

He did research on Thai ethnic groups in Vietnam’s north-eastern region for his doctorate thesis at Hanoi National University between 1995 and 1999.

He also initiated the building of a Thailand-Vietnam friendship village at Nachok Village in Thailand’s Nakhon Phanom Province, where President Ho Chi Minh once lived.

Binh Duong TV to make film on Vietnam’s highlights

The Binh Duong Province television station and Ha Long Media Joint Stock Company have started filming a 200-episode film on Vietnam’s geography and history and cultures of regions along Highway 1A and the East Sea.

“Along the country” will be in two parts: The first 100 episodes will be a sojourn through 30 provinces and cities from Lang Son to Ca Mau and the next 100 will feature 27 coastal provinces from Quang Ninh to Ha Tien.

The film is expected to be broadcast weeknights in December on BTV1.

Hue city Festival to be held next April

The seventh Hue Festival will be held next April in the central province of Thua Thien- Hue, local authorities said.

The festival, themed “Cultural heritage with integration and development- rendezvous of historical cities”, will be a spotlight of the National Tourism Year 2012, which will also be hosted by the province.

The festival, slated for next April 7-15, aims to realise a government decision on making Hue Vietnam s festival city and to affirm Thua Thien- Hue to be one of Vietnam ’s unique culture-tourism centres.

Along with traditional festivals, a new festival to preserve and promote Hue cultural heritage values will be held during the event.

According to the Thua Thien- Hue authorities, focus will be placed on enhancing the quality of festive programmes and promoting the province’s image.

Hanoians to see real cherry blossoms at festival

Real cherry blossoms rather than artificial ones will be displayed at this year’s cherry blossom festival to be held by the Japan Foundation on April 16-17 in Hanoi.

Yoshio Murakami from the Japan Foundation in Vietnam said though the foundation’s budget was tight, it managed to transport real trees to Vietnam this year.

Last year, as the festival was held in May, when the cherry blossom season in Japanese had passed, the organizers had to make do with artificial flowers.

Besides contemplating cherry blossoms, visitors to this year’s festival, which will take place at Giang Vo Exhibition Center, can also take part in other quintessential Japanese cultural activities such as Yosakoi dancing, tea drinking, Kendo sword-fighting and origami in which visitors will fold 1,000 paper cranes as prayers for victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

There will also be a fund raising event for the victims at the festival.

This year’s festival, which is the 4th of its kind organized by the Japan foundation, is called Genki, the Japanese word for energy.

Vietnam’s documentaries to be aired on Discovery channel

Four Vietnamese documentaries are scheduled to be aired on Discovery channel’s most-viewed Travel & Living category in May.

The documentary series includes “Thanh pho 1.000 tuoi” (1000-year-old city) directed by Nguyen Manh Ha, “Nhung chien binh chong tac duong” (Warriors Combat Traffic Jam) by Phan Duy Linh, “Rap chieu phim di dong” (Mobile Cinema) by Nguyen Manh Cuong, and “Le cai tang” (Exhumation) by Dao Thanh Tung.

Through the films, audience all around the world will have a chance to learn about architecture, spirituality, and cultural heritage of Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, which has been known for its ancient houses and European-style public squares and tree-lined boulevards and others.

It is a good way to promote Vietnam’s image to the world, local officials said.

First Vietnam Ethnic Minority Youth Festival in Hanoi

The First Vietnam Ethnic Minority Youth Festival will be held at the Culture Tourist Village in Hanoi on April 17.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism introduced the new festival at a press conference in Hanoi on April 9.

The festivals theme “Vietnamese Youth for Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Cultural Values” will feature various activities such as a meeting with the Party and State leaders, a seminar on Vietnamese youth for preservation and promotion of traditional cultural values, a youth camp, traditional sports and folk games and many other creative activities.

The event is the brainchild of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, aiming to welcome Vietnam Ethnic Minority Cultural Day on April 19 and respond to Youth Year 2011.

Vietnam’s first International Tea Festival to take place in Thai Nguyen

Vietnam’s first International Tea Festival will be held in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on November 11-15.

Tea enterprises and importers from 10 countries such as China, India, Russia, Japan, the U.S and others will attend the event, together with 25 local companies and 50 traditional handicraft villages of around 30 provinces and cities in the country.

The festival will also include various cultural activities consisting of seminars on tea, a beauty contest, tea cultural festival, street festival, Vietnam land and people exhibition, international trade and tourism expo, cooking fair, music and martial arts performances, boat race, human chess and more.

The International Tea Festival- Thai Nguyen is a chance to promote local tea brand names on the international market, especially Thai Nguyen tea.

Hanoi to host Vietnam reading festival

Vietnam reading festival will be held at the Literature Temple in Hanoi on April 23 under the theme ‘Reading for tomorrow’, announced the Ministry of the Culture, Sport and Tourism, the organizer of the event.

A series of contests will be organized during the festival including book arrangements; drawing; eloquence contest about favorite books; speaking contest on the reading culture, fast reading skills; book exhibitions and book donations for libraries.

A campaign to collect signatures supporting Vietnam Reading Day on April 23 will be one of the highlight activities in the festival.

The first-ever Vietnam reading festival is part of a strategy to honor and develop reading culture from now until 2020.

Hanoi joins celebration of ancient wine

Hanoi will join several big cities across the world to celebrate the first ever Malbec World Day on April 17 to honour the famous wine.

The event is an initiative by Wines of Argentina to promote its most famous variety, which “is among one of the country’s specialities, along with red meat and the tango,” according to Argentine Ambassador Alberto Kaminker.

Malbec has been acclaimed by European palates, especially the English and French, who have indulged in this grape since Roman times. Centuries later, the variety found its way to Argentina and flourished, reaching unprecedented levels of quality.

Nowadays, Argentina is the largest producer of Malbec in the world, with vineyards across the country specialising in the grape. That’s why Wines of Argentina has decided to pay tribute to this emblematic variety.

Organised by the Argentine Embassy in Viet Nam, Malbec World Day in Ha Noi will be held on the Opera Terrace in the Hilton Hanoi Opera, 1 Le Thanh Tong Street, 5-9pm, April 17.