Tet Flower Festival on January 28

Local authorities are gearing up for the annual Spring Flower Festival
at Tao Dan Park in HCM City as the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday
approaches.

The event will begin on January 28 and end on February 8 (the sixth day of the lunar calendar's first month).

More than 8,000 indigenous and foreign flowers, ornamental fish, bonsai
plants and trees will be featured at the festival. They will be
provided by florists, farms, handicraft villages and business people
involved in agriculture, according to Tran Thien Ha, director of the HCM
City Green Tree and Park Company, a member of the festival's organising
board.

Well-known handicraft villages and farms in HCM
City , Hanoi and the provinces of Binh Duong, Ben Tre, Tien Giang,
Vinh Long and Lam Dong will introduce their products at the festival.

In addition to the flower displays and sales, the event will include
musical and dance performances, as well as cultural exhibits such as
traditional food festivals and painting displays. The festival's themes
highlight the 11th Congress of the Vietnam Communist Party, which opens
today in Hanoi .

The opening ceremony will include
three music and song programmes in praise of the Party and President Ho
Chi Minh, which feature dozens of veterans and young performers.

The show titled “Flowers for the Party and Uncle Ho” will highlight revolutionary music.

Designed to feel like a colourful garden, Tao Dan Park will attract children and young people who find inspiration in nature.

Visitors will participate in a variety of street shows featuring folk
art and games staged by hundreds of puppet and circus performers, which
begin at 8pm every night.

Organisers said they have received help and support from the city People's Committee and other offices and organisations./.

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Vietnamese teen star to compete in Australian Open

Nguyen Hoang Thien

Nguyen Hoang Thien has earned a berth in the Australian Open junior category which starts on January 24 in Melbourne as he jumped from 323 to 212 in the International Tennis Federation junior rankings announced January 3.

16-year-old tennis player, who is the first Vietnamese to compete at one of the four grand slams, will have to beat 63 other contestants in the tough tournament from January 19 to be among the 8 best players competing in the final round from 24th.

Thien has set a target of entering the world’s top 200 young tennis players this year.

He will warm up for the Australian Open by taking part in the Loy Yang Traralgon International from January 15-20 in Traralgon, Australia.

Also at this competion, he used to win the championsip title of Group V and advance into the semi final of Group III.

Australian Open is an annual event organized by the International Tennis Federation.

It consists of both men's and women's singles and doubles draws as well as a mixed doubles event.

There is also singles and doubles events for both boys and girls (players under 18) and for tennis players on wheelchairs.

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Book show welcomes Party Congress

A special book exhibition has opened at HCM City 's Nguyen Hue
Bookstore to welcome the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party
of Vietnam.

The
exhibition, featuring more than 1,500 titles in different fields,
attracted many readers, young and old, to its opening ceremony on Jan.
10.

The display has three major themes: The Party's
Documents; The Life and Work of President Ho Chi Minh; and Historical
Events during the American War in Vietnam .

Around
10,000 books cover events and heroes of different periods over the 81
years since the Party's inception, according to the HCM City Books
Distribution Company (Fahasa), a member of the event's organising board.

Participating in the exhibition are leading printers like
the HCM City General Publishing House, National Politics Publishing
House, Tre (Youth) Publishing House and Thanh Nien (Young People)
Publishing House.

The Culture-Theatre Publishing House's Hanh Khuc Giai Phong (Liberation March) is one of the exhibition's highlighted books.

The book is a research work compiled and edited by Lu Nhat Vu, Le Giang
and Le Anh Trung, three of the city's veteran composers and art
critics.

Hanh Khuc Giai Phong displays nearly 600 songs
and 54 works by musicians and authors during the 1954-75 period. They
creatively capture the people's thirst for national independence as well
as their love for President Ho Chi Minh and soldiers.

The
Tre Publishing House introduces one of its bestsellers of last year,
Tran Thai Binh's Vo Nguyen Giap -Hao Khi Tram Nam (General Vo Nguyen
Giap - Magnanimity for a Hundred Years).

The book
portrays the life and military career of Vo Nguyen Giap, focusing on the
General's outstanding contributions to the victories against French and
American aggressors.

Organisers said they hope the
exhibition would help people, particularly young readers, learn more
about the country's heroic history, the Party and its causes and
victories.

Nearly 1,000 books will be presented to soldiers working for the Border Guard Command, they said.

The exhibition will remain open at 40 Nguyen Hue Street , District 1, from 9am to 10pm until January 16. Entrance is free./.

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Experts praise Vietnamese folk values

Don ca tai tu (music of the talented) should be recognised as an
intangible heritage of the country to curb the impact of Western music's
influence on indigenous musical forms, according to international
scholars at a conference on preservation of the art form.

Speaking at the three-day event in HCM City , Professor Sheen
Dae-cheol of  the Republic of Korea  (RoK) said Don ca tai tu, which began 100 years
ago, holds an important position in Vietnam.

The
history of Don ca tai tu is similar to Gagok of the RoK and Nanyin
of China, both of which began as amateur music and developed into more
sophisticated forms.

Don ca tai tu, however, has retained its original characteristics.

Because it does not require a stage, it quickly became popular in every
corner of society and could be performed under a tree, in a house, on a
boat, or under the moonlight.

The Korean professor said
he was impressed with the musical instruments. Some of them have only
one, two or three strings, such as the monochord, two-chord fiddle and
the three-string fretless box spike lute.

"The feeling and
soul of the Vietnamese people are embedded in tai tu music. The music,
which is an invaluable heritage, applies the yin-yang theory of the
East," he said.

"The value of gender equality is also
mentioned in Don ca tai tu. Since it began, it has always been performed
with the participation of both men and women. Everyone considers Don ca
tai tu amateur music, but it is not amateur at all. It is noble amateur
music. It deserves to be considered as a world cultural heritage," he
added.

Dr Joe Peters of Singapore , who noted that Don
ca tai tu was important to the Vietnamese people's life, said that video
and audio clips on the art form could be found on the internet.

Prof Yamaguti Osamu of Taiwan 's Nanhua University said
improvisational music like Don ca tai tu appears in other countries,
including India and, especially, Africa .

The music is transmitted orally and has no printed musical notation.

More recordings of the music must be done so that documents can be
submitted to UNESCO and the art form can be approved and recognised as
an intangible cultural heritage of the world.

Gisa
Jaehnichen, a professor in the music department at University Putra
Malaysia , praised the charm of Don ca tai tu and the instruments used
in performance.

The music is traditionally played in informal venues, often in a close friend's home or in a neighbour's garden.

Its standard orchestra includes a dan tranh (16-string zither), a dan
kim (two-chord guitar), a dan co (two-chord fiddle), a ty ba
(pear-shaped, four-chord guitar), a doc huyen (monochord zither) and a
flute.

Professor Tran Van Khe, musician Nguyen Vinh Bao, who are
experts in Vietnamese traditional music, and other local artists said
they were highly impressed about the knowledge of the foreign experts
who spoke about Don ca tai tu at the conference.

Experts said that
performing the music on a big stage or during tourism festivals, which
has been done in recent years, was not true to its original nature./.

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Vietnam’s Hung wins HD Bank chess trophy

Vietnam's Nguyen Mai Hung claimed the top spot at the International
Chess Tournament – HD Bank Cup which ended in HCM City on Jan. 9.

The 17-year-old grandmaster grabbed 4.5 points over
the nine rounds. By doing so, she equalled the scores of three other
rivals but ended up taking the title because of her better sub-index.

Hung, from Bac Giang province, had previously won a
gold medal at the National Sports Games which helped her to become
Vietnam 's No 1 master.

She needs just one standard
to become Vietnam's fifth – and youngest ever– International Female
Grandmaster and is expected to earn this at a training course in
Hungary this summer.

It was a great tournament for
Vietnam's women with Hung's teammates Pham Le Thao Nguyen and
Nguyen Thanh An coming second and third at the HD Bank Cup.

On the men's side, the No 1 seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam had a
disappointing event, earning fourth place overall with 6.5 points, half a
point less than event champion Yu Yangyi of China .

Chinese Wen Yang and Filipino Gomez John Paul were the two runners-up
on the men's side of the draw. Liem said he wasn't too worried about his
performance here.

"In general, I had a fairly good
tourney although I wasted several chances to improve my position. But
this is normal in chess. I do not have to worry about my performance
here because results at this tournament don't influence my Elo rating,"
said Liem who ranks 79th in the world.

"In 2011 my
target is to reach the rating of 2,700, which is the level for a super
International Grandmaster (IGM)," added Liem whose present Elo rating is
2,664.

Other male Vietnamese players failed to make
top three. IGM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, the former world U10 champion
was at fifth. While Nguyen Anh Dung and Dao Thien Hai suffered losses in
early round./.

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US-based footballer eyes Vietnam national team

Vietnamese-American footballer Lee Nguyen is applying for Vietnamese citizenship to be able to appear in the national team of Vietnam

Vietnamese-American footballer Lee Nguyen, who played for the US national squad in 2007 as substitutes, is applying for Vietnamese citizenship to be eligible to play in the Vietnamese national team.

The 24-year-old midfielder, who is working for Binh Duong FC, told Tuoi Tre that filing for Vietnam naturalization is an initial move aimed at being called into the Vietnamese national football team in the future.

“It is his legitimate aspirations and so, we will offer him legal support to attain the status,” said Binh Duong club’s general director Doan Van Ut.

Nguyen almost rose to stardom after returning to play for Vietnam’s top-flight V-League club Hoang Anh Gia Lai in 2009 and scored 12 goals from his 24 appearances.

He had appeared in the US side as substitutes to play against Paraguay and Colombia at the 2007 Copa America and staged a friendly match with China, but scored none.

According to FIFA regulation, a player who joins the national team of a country from the starting line-up and plays no more than three games is still permitted to play for other national team.

Thus, the plan of Lee Nguyen to play for Vietnam is still within his reach if he is granted citizenship and selected by head coach of Vietnam, according to Vietnam’s football governing body – VFF general secretary Tran Quoc Tuan.

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Kesley Alves wins Golden Boot award

HA NOI – Brazilian-born striker Huynh Kesley Alves formerly of V-League club Binh Duong won the nation's Golden Boot award for the highest Vietnamese goal scorer of the year, the prize organising committee told Viet Nam News yesterday.

Kesley, who now plays for First Division Xuan Thanh-Sai Gon, scored 23 total goals in the national football championship, V-League, the Asian Football Confederation Cup and the National Cup to rank first with 74 points. He won the award with 17 goals in 2009.

This year Kelsey beat off runner-up Nguyen Quang Hai of Khanh Hoa, who scored 14 goals with 41 points, while Binh Duong's Nguyen Anh Duc stands in third place.

"This is the second time we have organised a ceremony to honour the top scorer in the national championship. We will make it an annual event for footballers from now on," said Nguyen Minh Hung, vice chairman of the HCM City Journalists Association's Sport Reporters Club.

In 1997, former striker Le Huynh Duc, who now coaches Da Nang, was presented with a top scorer award, but the event was subsequently suspended for 13 years.

Kesley, who was granted Vietnamese citizenship in 2008, scored 14 of Binh Duong's 48 goals in the national V-League premier football championship last season. He also netted the ball seven times in the Asian Football Confederation's Champions League and two more times in the National Cup.

Goals scored in the V-League, National Cup, Super Cup and First-Division are taken into account, as are goals scored at official matches organised by FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation and the ASEAN Football Federation, as well as during international friendly matches from January to December.

In 2005, the 31-year-old striker won top scorer and best foreign player in the V-League with 21 goals for Binh Duong. In 2009, he was the second Brazilian-born footballer called up by the national team to a training session for the Asian Cup qualifiers.

The organising committee for the Golden Boot award said an award ceremony will be held at HCM City's Palace Hotel. Aside from the trophy, Kelsey will walk away with a cash-prize of VND20 million (US$1,000). – VNS

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