ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT IN BRIEF 8/8

Mountaineers to conquer Fansipan peak

The northern mountain province of Lao Cai is preparing for the Mountaineering Championships to conquer Fansipan Mountain and plant a flag to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Hanoi.

The event is scheduled for October 26-30, said Hoang Thi Vuong, an official from the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The championship falls under the national action plan for tourism in the 2006-2010 period and Lao Cai, Yen Bai and Phu Tho provinces’ “Tracing the Roots 2010” programme.

The event this year will be divided into three stages and the winner of the second stage will carry the symbolic flag of the 1,000th year of Thang Long-Hanoi in the third leg to the peak of Fansipan Mountain.

During the journey, climbers will spend time taking photos of Fansipan and Hoang Lien national forest, then choose 3-5 photos to send to the organising board for prizes.

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines is the main sponsor of this event.

Artists from four countries join friendship music performance

A music performance entitled “Friendship Autumn” was held in Ninh Binh province on August 7 with artists from China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the spotlight.

The performance, organised by the Ministry of Public Security, to mark the 65th anniversary of the People’s Public Security Force (August 19), featured musical numbers extolling patriotism and friendly relations between Governments, peoples and public security forces of the four countries.

Vietnamese beer honoured at Berlin Beer Festival

Hanoi Beer and Saigon Beer have been chosen as the official beer at the 14th Berlin International Beer festival which opened on Karl Marx Boulevard in the centre of Berlin, Germany, on August 6.

At the opening ceremony, Beer King Gambrinus, and the Vietnamese minister counselor to Germany, Bui Duc Cuong, emphasised the significance of Vietnam becoming a key participant at the festival to mark the 35th anniversary of Vietnam-Germany diplomatic ties and Vietnam Year in Germany.

After the main ceremony, Vietnamese artists presented special cultural items which left a deep impression on international friends.

This is the 10th time Vietnam has attended the festival.

The festival attracted 300 beer agents from 86 countries around the world, and displayed around 2,000 kinds of beer on 2.2km of the street. It is considered the world’s biggest beer village with around 800,000 participants during the three-day festival.

Incense-burner url cast for Temple of Literature

The Chan Tam Association, under the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Association, on August 6 began casting a large-size incense-burner in Hanoi, which will be placed at the Temple of Literature in honour of the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

The url is cast in bronze and weighs 1.2 tonnes, it has a diameter of 1.55m and is 1.85m tall. It will be in the style of the Ly dynasty with three dragons on its body and lid.

The url will be made by artisans from Y Yen craft village in the northern province of Nam Dinh.

Previously, on the 990th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi in 2000, the Chan Tam Association cast the Dai Hong Chung bell weighing 1.3 tonnes and it was also offered to the Temple of Literature.

Hanoi focuses on preserving craft villages

Many artisans in Hanoi have raised concerns about how maintain and develop craft villages, which are at risk of being lost from the impacts of socio-economic development.

Speaking at a seminar entitled, ‘Hanoi Craft Villages – Potential for Tourism Development’ held in Hanoi on August 5, Director of Hanoi University’s Tourism and Culture Department, Duong Van Sau, said that developing tours to craft villages is one way to preserve their cultural values as it offers economic and cultural exchange opportunities for the villages.

He suggested that the Government should have policies to encourage and facilitate sustainable development in the villages, give tax preferences for them to export their products, and do more tourism promotion for the villages.

According to jewellery artisan Le Ba Trung, the material value of the craft villages’ products may no longer be suitable to modern life but their cultural value will exist forever.

“Therefore, we must preserve our crafts and transmit those valuable cultural values to following generations,” he said.

Hanoi (formerly Thang Long) boasts the largest number of craft villages in the country. According to the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, the city now has 1,264 craft villages, attracting nearly 1 million workers.

In 2009, the craft villages reached a total production value of VND 7 trillion, accounting for nearly 10% of the capital city’s industrial and handicraft production value.

However, Hanoi’s traditional craft villages have been declining because young generations are not well trained, leading to lower quality of the products. In addition, there are fewer people who want to learn and spend a lifetime working in traditional crafts.

To maintain their operations, many craft villages have expanded their production to new fields in order to meet market demands.

The Hanoi Craft Week 2010 entitled ‘A Thousand Years of Quintessence’, is taking place from August 4-9, is expected to be a channel to promote the traditional cultural values of craft villages and boost exports of their products.

Exhibition features Agent Orange victims

A photo exhibition entitled ‘Agent Orange – Message from the heart’ opened yesterday at the Chi Lang park in Ho Chi Minh city to celebrate the Day for Vietnamese AO victims (August 10).

The exhibition displays thirty photos on large size (50 x 70 cm) featuring the physical and spiritual pain of AO victims suffering from the consequences of chemical dioxin and their efforts to overcome their disadvantages. The photos also depict social support for the victims to help them integrate into the community.

It is the first photo exhibition on the topic held in Ho Chi Minh city.

The event, held by the Ho Chi Minh city Association for Victims of Agent Orange/ Dioxin, will run until August 8.

PV

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"Mam Ngu Qua" sends Tet traditional flavours

Tet Nguyen Dan, more commonly known by its shortened name Tet, is the most important and popular holiday in Vietnam. It is a relaxing and special occasion for everyone to think about the achievements of the past year and plan for the New Year. A “Mam Ngu Qua” (five-fruit tray) on the ancestral altar during Tet holiday symbolizes the admiration and gratitude of the Vietnamese to Heaven and Earth and their ancestors, and demonstrates their aspiration for prosperity.

For a long time, together with horizontal lacquered boards engraved with Chinese characters, parallel sentences written on crimson paper, ornamental kumquat and peach trees, and popular Hang Trong and Dong Ho pictures, the five‑fruit tray prepared for Tet has transcended its material value to become a spiritual symbol, an original national product in the spiritual life of the Vietnamese. At present, while many of the ancient spiritual values have sunk into oblivion, the custom of arranging the five‑fruit tray on the altar during the lunar New Year days is being jealously preserved as a fine legacy of Vietnam's traditional culture. The buying of votive offerings and the decoration of ancestral altars during the traditional New Year days are closely connected with the rituals of worship practiced by the Vietnamese towards their ancestors. During these New Year days, in addition to such national dishes and products as "Fat pork, salted onions, parallel sentences written on red paper. Long bamboo poles planted upright, strings of fireworks, and square glutinous rice cakes", it is indispensable for each Vietnamese family to display a five‑fruit tray on the ancestral altar for Tet.

No matter whether rich or poor, on New Year’s Eve, it is also very important for the Vietnamese to select the best five-fruit tray. The fruits are placed on a red-lacquered wooden tray and arranged in a balanced cone and in harmonious colours. Fruits that may be laid out on the tray include bananas, finger citrons, watermelons, oranges, kumquats, coconuts, apples, persimmons or tomatoes, and chilis. Each kind of fruit has its own indication. A hand of green bananas or a finger citron, for example, symbolises one's wish for the protection of supernatural powers and ancestors, pomelos and watermelons indicate fertility, and kumquats or persimmons connote wealth and prosperity.

Custom of the five‑fruit tray...

One theory says that the five fruits are symbolic of the five basic elements of oriental philosophy - metal, wood, water, fire and soil. Other theories regard the tray as symbolic of the fruits of a family's hard work throughout the past year, which are consecrated to heaven and earth and their ancestors as sign of respect and gratitude.

A five-fruit tray, though varying from one region to another due to differences in climate and fruit crops, light up altars with their ample colours. In northern areas, five-fruit trays ornamented with pomelos, peaches, kumquats, bananas and persimmons are relatively smaller than those in southern areas with pairs of watermelons, coconuts, papayas, custard apples, mangos, and figs. Improvements in people's living conditions in recent years have led to a greater sophistication in choosing fruits for the altar for the Tet holiday. A tray may contain more expensive, rarer fruits like grapes and pears, but all in all it is still a five-fruit tray, a nice offering of the Vietnamese people to their ancestors. It not only displays a life-long tradition but also sends a message of hope for happiness, good luck and prosperity for the new year.

The custom of displaying the five‑fruit tray as votive offerings at the holy place of the house has been reflected in many popular legends and tales. It has originated from ancient popular beliefs observed from one generation to another in their worship towards their forefathers. To this day, the Vietnamese still observe a long‑standing custom of placing the first ripe fruits harvested from the home garden on the altar and burning incense sticks in memory of their ancestors.

Preparation for a five‑fruit tray

Like other popular rituals, the preparation of a five‑fruit tray for Tet has become an established convention. Although it is called a five‑fruit tray, it does not necessarily contain exactly five kinds of fruit. Arranging fruits on the crimson, hourglass‑shaped wooden tray is really an art. One has to combine the colours and shapes of the different fruits in arranging them on the tray to make it look like a still life picture.

To ensure balance on the tray, one usually places the hand of bananas in the middle with the bananas pointing upright and the pomelo on the concave surface of the hand of bananas. Then one puts the oranges, sapodilla plums, apples, etc. in the gaps between the bananas and the pomelo. The last little gaps are filled in with little kumquats to create a full, compact tray of fruits. In colours, the fruit‑tray presents a harmonious combination of the different colours of fruits: dark green of banana, light yellow of pomelo, deep red of persimmon, reddish‑yellow of orange and kumquat, light green of apple, and dark brown of sapodilla plum. To complete the picture, the fruit‑tray will be covered here and there with some small, fresh leaves of kumquat.

The “Mam Ngu Qua” in Tet festival represent the quintessence that Heaven and Earth bless humans. This is one of the general perceptions of life of the Vietnamese, which is “Ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây” ("When taking fruit, you should think of the grower")

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Dong Ho Painting

Dong Ho Painting is a kind of Vietnamese folk painting originating in Dong Ho Village in Song Ho Commune, Thuan Thanh District, Bac Ninh Province. Dong Ho paintings have about 300 years of history in the north of Vietnam.

Dong Ho pictures are printed on a special kind of Dzo paper. The printing paper is made of bark of a tree called "Dzo". Artists use pine leave brushes to coat Dzo paper with sea bivalve mollusk powder to create a sparkling colorful background. Colors of the painting are refined from various kinds of tree leaves, which people can easily find in Vietnam. Traditional artists use all-natural colors for their pictures: burnt bamboo leaves for black, cajuput leaves for green, copper rust for blue, pine resin for amber, and crushed egg shells mixed with paste for white. The painting is covered by a layer of sticky rice paste to protect the painting and their colors. They are so long lasting,so that it is very difficult to make them dimmer even time or daylight.

Dong Ho Painting has produced hundreds of famous works such as the romantic and humorous “Catching coconuts”, “Teacher” which captures old educational practice and “Jealousy scene” satirizing the polygamous system. But the most famous ones are the pictures of pigs with Ying and Yang circles on the bodies. People in the countryside used to buy Dong Ho pictures for decoration during Tet.

In the past, December was the month households started to produce pictures for Tet. Dong Ho pictures were sold at most rural markets. Those who went shopping for Tet never failed to bring home several Dong Ho pictures, believing they would bring good luck.

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Vietnamese Silk Painting

Silk painting is the traditional Vietnamese art of silk painting which originates from painting and drawing on home made rice paper. Today this art has become famous around the world for its simple poetic themes and vibrant colors. Vietnamese artists find the technique to be a unique way to create mystique in their paintings.

The Vietnamese style of silk painting emphasizes softness, elegance and has a flexibility of style. The success of a silk painting very much depends on the quality of the silk. Differently with other kinds of paintings, the silk canvas are usually not painted. The Vietnamese traditional silk painting style tends to use the silk canvas directly as the background of the painting.

Vietnamese silk paintings typically showcase the countryside, landscapes, pagodas, historical events or scenes of daily life. The colors are used delicately with the canvas to make Vietnamese silk paintings. The delicate white color found in the sky, water, or human portrait, is the color of silk. The color of silk is well known to describe human figure in the paintings of many famous vietnamese artists. Delicate color and silk background give the paintings such an harmony with the nature. Whatever style they follow, silk painters must have an intimate knowledge of the material and fully exploit its shininess and its attractiveness. Painting silk is full of changing and unexpected characteristics, and a wrong stroke of the brush is irreversible.

Silk represents an important language of Vietnamese painting after lacquer. Its capacity of absorption and dilution given to the works an impression of mellowness spreading through the woofs and wefts of silk, adding a certain vibration to the forms and colours.

Vietnamese silk painting has its own unique character and colours that are distinctly different from those from ancient China and feudal Japan. Each painting is a great description of the beautiful nature and talented skills of the Vietnamese. By using contemporary colours, Vietnamese silk painting has won the hearts of many art lovers nationally and Internationally.

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Vietnamese Water Puppet (Mua Roi Nuoc)

If you are ever in Hanoi it will be regretful to miss the Water Puppet Theater - even if you think you are not a puppet kind of person. Water Puppets literally means “puppets that dance on the water”. This show is not just geared for kids, but meant to delight adults as well.

History:

Vietnamese Water Puppet originated from the Red River Delta of Vietnam in the tenth century. Some of the earliest troupes are in Nguyên Xá commune, Đông Hưng district, Thai Binh province. Water puppetry is deeply imbued with the cultural characteristics of the people of this area. This unique art first appeared around the 15^th century, when post-harvest, artists who were also farmers would gather to perform and relax. The custom remains today in many localities in the Red River Delta such as Dao Thuc, Phu Da, Dong Ca, Nguyen Xa, Dong Ngu, Nhan Hoa and Nam Chan.

In ancient Vietnam, the rural Vietnamese believed that spirits controlled all aspects of their life, from the kitchen to the rice paddies. That is the reason why the farmers in this region devised a form of entertainment and worship to satisfy these spirits. Water puppetry is the lively creation of farmers who spent their days in flooded rice fields. At some point, they discovered that the water was an excellent medium for puppetry: it not only concealed the puppeteers' rod and string mechanisms, but it also provided exciting effects like waves and splashes.

When water puppetry became more popular, villages competed against each other with their puppet shows. This led puppet societies to be secretive and exclusive, including an initiation ceremony that involved drinking rooster blood.

So far this art form has been unique to North Vietnam. Tourists can enjoy this kind of art all days in a week at Thang Long Puppet Theatre, which is the most well known one in Ha Noi.

Performance

For over a thousand years, performers in Vietnamese Water Puppet Theater’s feet have always suffered in cold and wet condition. Water puppetry is performed in a chest-deep pool of water, with the water's surface as a stage. The puppeteers stand behind a screen and control the puppets using long bamboo rods and string mechanism hidden beneath the water surface.

The puppet is carved out of wood and often weighs up to 15 kg. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers to control them. The appearance is of the puppets moving over the water. The puppets enter from either side of the stage, or emerge from the murky depths of the water. In the past when the rice fields were flooded the villagers would entertain each other using this puppet form.

A traditional Vietnamese orchestra provides background music accompaniment. Singers of Cheo (a form of opera) with origin in North Vietnam sing the songs which tell the story being acted out by the puppets. Performances of up to 18 short scenes are usually introduced by a pig-tailed bumpkin known as Teu, and accompanied by a small folk orchestra. The musicians and the puppets interact during performance; the musicians may yell a word of warning to a puppet in danger or a word of encouragement to a puppet in need.

Along with singing the atmosphere, while the decorations set the stage for each particula, traditional musical instruments like drums, wooden bells, cymbals, horns, two-string Chinese violins and flutes create r style of water puppetry. Researcher Nguyen Huy Hong believes that water puppetry combines sculpture, architecture, painting, music, stage and literature.

Content

The theme of the skits is rural and has a strong reference to Vietnamese folklore. It tells of day-to-day living in rural Vietnam and Vietnamese folk tales that are told older generation to younger generation. Of which stories of the harvest, of fishing and of festivals are highlighted.

The water also provides the best setting for the puppeteers' theme: day-to-day village life. Water puppets bring wry humor to scenes of farming, fishing, festival events such as buffalo fights, and children's games of marbles and coin-toss. Fishing turns into a game of wits between the fisherman and his prey, with the fisherman getting the short end (often capturing his surprised neighbor by mistake). Besides village life, scenes include legends and national history. Lion dogs romp like puppies while dragons exhale smoke and shoot sprays of water at the audience. Teu, a pig-tailed bumpkin, is the character who usually plays the role of introducing the performances. The introduction is always accompanied by a small folk orchestra. Spotlights and colorful flags adorn the stage and create a festive atmosphere.

Legends and national history are also told through short skits. Many of the skits, especially those involving the tales of day-to-day living, often have a humorous twist.

Water puppetry has always gone hand in hand with festivals. Each Lunar March 13, Bo Duong villagers hold village festival to commemorate their tutelary god. Aside from worship, the festival is also an opportunity for villagers to relax by watching water puppetry, taking in fireworks displays, flying kites and entering cock-fighting contests. The festival always attracts thousands of attendants. Village festivals are great wind down for farmers and artists alike.

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