Late musician Trinh Cong Son tops copyright fee earner in 2014

Late musician Trinh Cong Son topped the nation's musicians in copyright fees in 2014, earning more than VND100m for his music, the Vietnam Centre for Protection of Music Copyright (VCPMC) said.

VCPMC deputy director Nguyen Thi Luu said that, as of January, 3,116 musicians had signed with the centre, which collected a total of VND67bn on their behalf in 2014.

“We found it hard to collect music copyright fees in 2014 because many organisations did not want to pay,” said musician Pho Duc Phuong, who is the centre’s director.

The centre attracted considerable coverage for its repeated attempts to have organisers of the Khanh Ly live show pay copyright fees. There was also a row when the song “Because I Miss You”, by South Korean singer Jung Yong Hwa, of Rock CNBLUE, was covered by a Vietnamese singer without permission or payment.

The centre is upgrading application software to better manage copyright protection in 2015. On top of protecting local musicians, it has contracts with 63 organisations covering 153 countries and territories to protect copyright of foreign works.

Bach Dang Spring Flower Street opens in Danang

The Bach Dang Flower street in Danang City has evolved into one of the nation’s most coveted Lunar New Year (TET) holiday destinations, and there’s no better time than now to travel and experience it yourself.

This year’s street festival, which runs February 9-23, is expected to attract nearly 15,000 visitors per day and it’s easy to see why with its unparalleled attractions, entertainment and sizzling nightlife.

This year’s iconic street along the banks of the Han River will feature six special areas highly decorated with over 2,000 colourful flower arrangements and a spectacular floral arrangement replicating a family of Goats – the Lunar New Year’s zodiac sign.

The highlight of the event will be a LED lighting display, featuring three main decorative clusters with three major colours of blue, yellow, and white.

Tran Hung Dao Street, along the eastern bank of Han River, will also be colourfully decorated as a Vietnamese map affirming the sovereignty of the Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagos.

Binh Dien Flower Market to open in HCM City

Sai Gon Trading Group (Satra) is preparing to kick off Binh Dien Flower Market featuring a series of events in HCM City's District 8 tomorrow.

The second edition of Binh Dien Flower Market organised by Satra will take place at Binh Dien Commercial Centre.

The flower market covering an area of 2.4 ha will comprise a display and sale section for flowers, ornamental plants, fruits and other specialities of southern Viet Nam.

More than 310 households businesses and individuals from Lach Market in Ben Tre Province, Tan Quy Dong Flower Village in Dong Thap Province and Binh Dong Berth in HCM City's Binh Chanh District have registered for 421 stalls at the flower market.

Satra in cooperation with its partners will organise an event to set a Viet Nam record for the biggest banh xeo (Vietnamese crepe fried with pork and shrimp) and the largest number of cooks making a banh xeo on opening night.

The cake will be made from six kilos of stuffing, and fried in an aluminum pan with a diameter of two metres. The pancake will be served free for visitors at the flower market.

Sellers of food items for Tet and specialities of the south will offer multiple promotions for visitors to the flower market.

Cultural protection measures for ethnic minorities

As many as 39 delegates from five ethnic minorities with a population under 1,000 members took part in a workshop held by the Ministry of

Culture, Sports and Tourism in Hanoi on February 9 to discuss practical solutions to protecting and promoting their cultural values.

In his speech at the event, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho Anh Tuan said that Si La, Pu Deo, Ro Mam, Brau and O Du ethnic

groups are struggling under disadvantaged conditions, which prevent them from saving their own culture.

He underscored that languages, scripts and costumes of some of the groups have faded into oblivion while others have lost their traditional housing models and villages, adding that cultural and ethnic researchers have indicated that these are only the beginning of the disappearance of cultural features in ethnic minorities.

Po Cha Nga, representative from the Si La ethnic minority in the northern province of Dien Bien, said that although the group’s living conditions have improved in recent years, specific cultural features have faded due to exchange and expansion with other groups in the localities.

Scientists and participants agreed that comprehensive policies are needed to encourage the development of the population in the five targeted groups while improving access to healthcare, education and job opportunities for the community members.

They encouraged relevant authorities to ensure tribesmen seeking employment in other localities receive favourable conditions, including lands and cultivation tools. For those living outside their communities, participants stressed the importance of proactive cultural protection to preserve the central essence of their respective heritages.

Although all cultural values are essential to ethnic minority preservation and practice, certain central features should receive focused attention to

help direct funding and programming and ensure their efficiency, suggested the attendants.

Meanwhile, Vuong Xuan Tinh, Director of the Institute of Anthropology under Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, recommended that research on the cultural heritage of the target groups go further in-depth to determine priority features, including language, costumes, homes, folk songs, and festivals.

He also endorsed the integration of preservation with tourism development, as international visitors have expressed consistent interest in Vietnamese ethnic culture.

According to the General Statistics Office’s 2009 survey, the Si La minority has around 540 members living mostly in the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien.

Meanwhile, the Pu Deo inhabiting in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang has 687 members. There are about 436 Ro Mam people in Central Highlands Kon Tum province.

The Brau group is comprised of nearly 400 members residing in the Central Highlands while the O Du group has 276 members living in the central province of Nghe An.

Saving fading ethnic minority traditions

A recent workshop held in Ha Noi discussed how to preserve traditional identities for five ethnic groups with fewer than 1,000 people each.

The workshop gathered elders and heads of the Si La, Pu Peo, Brau, Ro Mam and O Du ethnic groups from northern provinces of Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Ha Giang, central province of Nghe An and Central Highlands province of Kon Tum as well as researchers and leaders from the cultural sector.

Hoang Duc Hau, head of the Ethnic Culture Department under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports, said that the ethnic groups were on the verge of losing their identities as they had few ways of preserving their traditions. That's why the issue should be treated as an emergency, he said.

According to Po Cha Nga, a representative from the Si La group, young people in his community no longer speak and sing in their mother tongue.

"Children don't like Si La folk songs and no longer perform Si La dances," he said.

Lo Van Thai, head of Vang Mon Village in Nghe An's Tuong Duong Commune, said that his O Du group now totalled only 400 people, who mostly lived in poverty. Many young people graduating from colleges and vocational schools could not find jobs.

"I hope the State will take more care of preserving and developing the O Du language, printing more books in the language to teach youth," he said.

"We hope to recover traditional festivals such as the crop celebrations and ceremonies for new houses".

Researcher Le Ngoc Thang said that the smaller population, the bigger the danger of it fading.

"We should encourage ethnic groups with small populations to have more children and avoid close-blood marriages to enhance the population's quality," he said.

However, the State should subsidise them more in daily life if they have more children, he said.

Researcher Vuong Xuan Tinh, director of Ethnology Institute, said it was necessary to do serious research on ethnic heritage to define priority of preservation for spoken and written languages, folk songs, folk dances, costumes and spiritual beliefs.

Deputy Culture Minister Ho Anh Tuan promised to consider all opinions and decide what to do later this year.

He also noted that the most important role in developing group culture is the very local communities.

"No one can replace family in teaching children," Hau shared the same idea.

"The communities should combine the roles of family and society in educating children."

Quang Ninh gets ready for Yen Tu spring festival opening

Authorities in northern Quang Ninh province have announced they are finalising renovations to the Yen Tu heritage complex in preparation for the opening of the spring festival on February 28, or the tenth day of the first lunar month.

Vice Chairwoman Hoang Thi Ha of the People’s Committee of Uong Bi city, where the complex is located, said yesterday that the opening ceremony will see the attendance of more than 3,000 people at Giai Oan (Absolution of Injustice) Square.

She said the organisers are rushing to finish building stops along the pedestrian trail leading to the lotus-shaped Bronze Temple atop Mount Yen Tu; install signposts; and complete renovations to temples, shrines and stupas in the complex.

Ha added that this year the organisers will step up their efforts to ensure food safety at restaurants and lodgings, and that waste will be transported out of the heritage complex within the day.

The Yen Tu complex of monuments and landscape is associated with King Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308), the third monarch of the Tran Dynasty, who was credited with founding the Vietnamese Truc Lam Zen school.

After defeating Mongol invasions, King Tran Nhan Trong renounced the throne and retired to Mount Yen Tu, where he is believed to have attained Buddhahood, the state of perfect enlightenment, for which he was given the title ‘Buddha King’.

The Yen Tu complex has been nominated to be considered for inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

As one of the sacred sites of Vietnamese Buddhism, each year Yen Tu attracts millions of pilgrims who come to pay respects to founders of the Truc Lam Zen School and pray for peace and good health.

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