A seminar to discuss solutions for developing performing arts in the 2006-2010 period will be held in Hanoi from March 6-7 by the Performing Arts Department, the Vietnam Theatre Artists’ Association and the Vietnam Musicians’ Association.

An art performance entitled “For the children’s hearts” will be held at the Hanoi Opera House on March 4 to raise funds for heart disease children.

Professor Ross Fitzgerald, historical and political researcher at the Australian University of Griffith, came to Vietnam in late February to collect data in preparation for the first Australia-Vietnam co-operative film on late President Ho Chi Minh.

The World Cultural House has invited a Vietnamese water puppetry troupe to France to perform at the 10th World Arts Festival, which will be held in Paris from April 2-8.

Vietnamese photographers will display photos featuring the Vietnamese land and people at a photo exhibition to be held in Japan in May.

The late well-known film director Le Manh Thich has been posthumously awarded the French Medal for Art and Letters (Chevalier des Arts et des Letters) for his contribution to developing French-Vietnamese co-operation in cinematography.

The film Bride of Silence (Hat mua roi bao lau) directed by two overseas Vietnamese Doan Minh Phuong and Doan Thanh Nghia has won the Best ASEAN Film at the Bangkok International Film Festival (BKKIFF) held in Thailand from February 16-26.

The Vietnam Student Union branch at the University College London (UCL) held a programme to introduce characteristics of Vietnamese land, people and its culture to international students on February 22.

The semi-final and final of a beauty contest in Vietnam’s former capital cities will be held in Hanoi on May 15.

The Mekong Festival 2006 took place in the city of Long Xuyen and the nearby town of Chau Doc, both in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang on February 23. People from all 13 Mekong Delta provinces gathered at the festival, which aims to promote regional co-operation on tourism and investment.

Organisers of the national beauty contest Miss Vietnam announced on February 22 that the 2006 pageant will take place in August.

The National Festival of Cheo (Vietnam’s traditional opera) Villages, the second meet of this kind in Vietnam, will take place in northern Nam Dinh province from May 12-14.

The first conference of the 7th National Committee of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations opened in Hanoi on February 21.Delegates discussed solutions for increasing the quality of compositions, studies, collections and criticisms and dissemination of literature and art work in 2006. They also contributed their opinions on the union’s statutes and the 10th National Party Congress’s draft political report.

A Vietnamese-Italian cultural centre opened in Hanoi on February 21 with the aim of promoting Italian language study in Vietnam, as well as cultural exchanges between the two countries.The Dante Alighieri Centre in Vietnam is one of more than 400 branches worldwide of the Rome-based Dante Alighieri society, a large-scale Italian non-governmental organisation.

Fonds Sud, a French fund, has pledged to grant 150,000 Euros to help Vietnamese director Vinh Son complete a film entitled “Moon at well’s bottom”.

Sweden will provide Vietnam with US$7 million to implement a folk music co-operation project between the two countries till 2010.

The film Hat mua roi bao lau (The Bride of Silence), shot by overseas Vietnamese directors Doan Minh Phuong and Doan Thanh Nghia, has been selected to compete for the ASEAN Best Film Award in the 2006 Bangkok International Film Festival, which recently opened in Thailand.

A replica of the tomb house for the dead typical of the Co-Tu ethnic minority group in the central region has been unveiled at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi. 36-year-old Briu Nga, a Co-Tu from Elieng hamlet in Quang Nam province, has completed the house for six months.

Sixteen Flamenco dancers from Spain will perform at the Hanoi Opera House on February 20 on the occasion of the official visit to Vietnam by Spanish King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia.

A ceremony to announce the official recognition of Cong Chieng (Gong) Culture as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humankind will be held by the Ministry of Culture and Information in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai in March. Various cultural activities will be held in the five Central Highlands provinces to welcome the event.

The Thua Thien –Hue provincial People’s Committee, in co-ordination with CIAT Company, held a press briefing to introduce the Culture, Tourism and Trade Fair Festival Hue 2006, which will take place from June 3-11.

The project to preserve Nha Nhac (royal music) in Vietnam will receive over US$65,000 for its operation this year, said the project’s executive board.

Contemporary Chinese literature aroused keen interest from Vietnamese authors at a forum in Hanoi on February 16.

More than 90 photos on the history, culture, people and development of the Chinese capital of Beijing are on display at an exhibition, which opened in Hanoi on February 15.

Music lovers in Hanoi on February 15 were entertained by Isabelle Durin, a gifted French violinist with piano accompaniment by Tran Ngoc Bich.

A three-day seminar on Vietnam’s cultural heritage protection efforts was co-held in Ho Chi Minh City from February 15-17 by the Cultural Heritage Department under the Ministry of Culture and Information and the Hanoi-based office of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The largest T'rung musical instrument of the ethnic minority people in the Central Highlands of Vietnam has been put on display at Da Lat Flower Park in Da Lat city, Lam Dong province.

Diversified cultural activities will be organised in Vietnam from February 14-21 in celebration of Chinese Cultural Week.

Two Vietnamese young artisans, Nguyen Dang Hoang and Nguyen Duy Mui, left Vietnam on February 12 to attend the 11th Johor International Kite Festival in Malaysia.

The National Tourism Year 2006 "Quang Nam, two world heritage sites at one destination" was launched in central Quang Nam province on February 11. This was the first event of the Quang Nam Tourism Year 2006 focusing on "Cultural heritage, folk festivals, craft villages and eco-tourism."