More than 300 Vietnamese students attended the event together with their international friends.

Musical programmes were performed at the gala to introduce Vietnam’s folksongs and cultural values.

The event aimed to strengthen solidarity among Vietnamese students in the UK and encourage them to uphold the cultural traditions of their home country. It was also a good opportunity to introduce Vietnam’s traditional values to international friends.

Warwick University is among the leading universities in the UK that hosts students from more than 100 countries, including 70 students from Vietnam.

Writers’ Associations in Vietnam and Laos boost cooperation
 
The Writers’ Associations of Vietnam and Laos will continue promoting cooperation and sharing experiences in writing, translating, and training young writers, said the President of the Lao Writers’ Association, Chanthi Duonsavan.

Talking after a press conference on the third Mekong Literature Award Ceremony, in Vientiane on March 15, the Lao President said that over the past years, the two associations have closely cooperated with each other, especially in organising writing contests on the Vietnam-Laos special friendship.

He expressed his gratitude for the Vietnam Writers’ Association’s effective assistance and said that the two associations have helped promote mutual understanding and friendship between the two nations.

Handicapped children show their artistic creativity
 
An art festival for children with disabilities was held in HCM City on March 14 by the municipal Vietnam-Japan Friendship Association and the Volunteers Group Coupii Vietnam, a community-based group with about 80 members established in 2008.

At the event, hearing-impaired and mentally-handicapped pupils from two schools in HCM City joined other disabled children from Binh Duong province in creating artwork.

This festival provided a chance for these disadvantaged children to integrate more fully into their communities and call for support from society.

Kim Ngan, a coordinator of Coupii Vietnam, said artistic activities like this, though simple, would help the children build on their creativity and show their own languages. She said they would have an opportunity to interact with the community and receive more attention from society.

Hoi An Ancient Town hosting festive week 

Hoi An City – home to Hoi An Ancient Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Center – will organize a week of culture and tourism events on Mar. 21-28 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the city liberation (Mar. 28).

The Ancient Town, a favorite destination for international tourists, will take center stage during the festive week.

The events will include a meeting, a parade, shows of traditional songs, competitions of decoration, a march of flower-decorated carriages and a camping, according to organizers.

Also included in the week are a gala entitled “Melody of the Time”; a gathering of writers, artists and outstanding athletes; women-football, coastal volleyball and net-knitting competitions and a fishing village festival.

Hoi An, in the central province of Quang Nam, will switch its lights off from 8:30 to 9:30 pm on March 27 to respond to the Earth Hour 2010 campaign.

Hoi An Ancient Town is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th to the 19th century. Its buildings and its street plan reflect the influences, both indigenous and foreign, that have combined to produce this unique heritage site.
 
Hoi An is 30 kilometers south of Danang City and stands on the banks of Thu Bon River, which made the town a trading port in the old days.

Arabs fascinated by Vietnamese cuisine
 
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has hosted an Asia Culinary Fair, at which guests and diplomats from many countries had the chance to enjoy Vietnamese food.

After the opening of the fair, hundreds of visitors, including local people and foreign ambassadors, called on the Vietnamese stand and tasted the food. They especially favoured such dishes as chicken and beef noodle soup (pho), spring rolls, and pickled vegetable.

The fair, which took placed in the capital city of Abu Dhabi on March 13, was attended by the embassies of Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The Vietnamese stand, decorated with flags, flowers and paintings of the country’s land and people, displayed a wide variety of traditional Vietnamese dishes that characterize the country’s national identity.

Visitors to the fair were overheard raving about the Vietnamese dishes. They were aware of Vietnam’s long history of heroic struggle for national independence and construction, but they didn’t realize that in addition to being good at fighting off invaders, the Vietnamese could also create such delicious food.

They were also surprised as Vietnamese Ambassador to the UAE Nguyen Quang Khai revealed at the end of the fair that the dishes they tasted were not cooked by professional chefs but by the wives of the embassy’s staff.

A reporter from the local Khleej Times, Anwar Ahmad, remarked that the Vietnamese cuisine stand attracted the most visitors at the fair. “If Vietnam opens restaurants in UAE cities, it will lure a lot of customers,” he said.

The Melenium Hotel in Abu Dhabi has invited the Vietnamese embassy to join it in holding a seminar to promote Vietnamese food.

Vietnam's ‘Adrift’ (‘Choi Voi’) screened in US
 
The Global Film Initiative featured Vietnamese director Bui Thac Chuyen's film "Adrift" ("Choi voi") at downtown Letelier Theater on the night of March 12.

’Adrift’ is one of the ten award-winning narrative feature films selected for screening during the Global Lens Film Series.

The film was granted the FIPRESCI, an award of the Venice International Film Festival and it is Bui Thac Chuyen's second feature film with the first being "Living in Fear" which was awarded the Asian New Talent Prize for Best Film at the 2006 Shanghai International Film Festival.

Also during the Global Lens Film Series period, ‘Adrift’ was shown to the public in New York in mid-January, beginning a yearlong tour of over 35 cities across the US and Canada.

Earlier, the film won Bronze Taiga award at the Spirit of Fire film festival in Russia.

The Global Film Initiative is a US-based non-profit organization founded with the mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding through the universal language of cinema by acquiring, distributing and supporting independent films from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

PV