VietNamNet Bridge – Ly Khanh Quynh, a 9th grader of the Thoai Ngoc Hau Secondary School in An Giang Province, has won a major competition to join the Global Forum of Young Leaders to be held in New York this August. She spoke with Ha Nguyen about her experience and expectations. Achiever: Ly Khanh Quynh of An Giang’s Thoai Ngoc Hau secondary school will represent Viet Nam at the young leaders forum in New York. Photo courtesy of EF Viet Nam Congratulations! You have been chosen from more than 10,000 Vietnamese students to participate in the Global Forum for Young Leaders (GFYL) to be held in New York in August. How do you feel? How have you prepared for the trip? My trip to representing our country at the GFYL will be the journey of a lifetime. It feels incredible. It felt like a dream to me when I was announced … [Read more...] about Disney cartoons a great way to learn English
How to bring luck into your life
Artist breathes life into traditional drama
Inner Sanctum Artist breathes life into traditional drama Dam Lien was only 15 when she performed her first tuong (classical drama). She has since become a master of the art, entertaining audiences throughout Viet Nam and the world. She talks with Ha Nguyen about her career. Inner Sanctum: You’ve been involved in tuong for nearly half a century. Do you think you were pre-destined for it? Some people say one chooses his or her own career but it was quite definitely that tuong chose me. Since I was a little girl, my dream was to become a dancer or a film actress. I was good enough to join the dancing troupe of renowned artist Phung Thi Nhan and the College for Stage and Cinema but my mother directed me to follow her career as an artist of tuong. When I was 15, I was a member of a theatre troupe and the director asked me to perform in a tuong play. At that time I didn’t know anything about the traditions of tuong. After a few months of practising I still wanted to study … [Read more...] about Artist breathes life into traditional drama
Too musical to be loved, yet
Too musical to be loved, yet By Thuy Linh in Hanoi If your goal is to get Vietnamese people to listen to jazz, get a new goal. Or at least equip yourself with plenty of patience, passion, and yes, more patience. Suppose you have them all, and Vietnamese still don't listen to jazz (this is likely), then increase their quantities and pray for luck. So when there is somebody who does, he gets (and deserves) the attention and admiration from almost all quarters except for the one he is most anxious to court: the Vietnamese audiences at large. "Vietnamese are used to songs and listen to the poetry in songs rather than the music," said 55-year-old Quyen Van Minh, one of the few impractical people in the country. The man, hailed as "the godfather of Vietnamese jazz," said it would take a very long time for wordless things such as classical music and jazz to get a big hearing here. But that doesn't deter him, because he can wait. At any rate, he has given too much to this cause to stop … [Read more...] about Too musical to be loved, yet
Woman remembers what it was like to be poor
Viet Nam News A woman in the province of Đồng Tháp has memories of being very poor. Now that she is not as poor as she was when she was younger, Võ Thị Thiền likes to help people who are still poor. To make money to help them, she raises ducks. She also plants trees so that when poor people's houses break, she can offer them wood to help them fix the houses. by Tâm Bình - Thu Hương Võ Thị Thiền from Phong Mỹ Commune in the southern province of Đồng Tháp is always seen busy raising her ducks to save every penny - for charity. Thiên is not well-off, but she is rich in her generosity. Since 2000, she has supported and built about 30 new houses for poor residents of the commune and the vicinity. Though it is not hard to find Thiền's house, which is located in the middle of nowhere by following the pathway along the canal, it is not easy to find her at home. "She is absent from home all the time. If she is not busy fixing some houses, she can be found leading her ducks to the … [Read more...] about Woman remembers what it was like to be poor
How China’s shadowy agency is working to absorb Taiwan
Ever since a civil war split the two sides more than 60 years ago, China has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province that needs to be absorbed into the mainland. To that end, the legion of Taiwanese businessmen working in China is a beachhead. In June, hundreds of those businessmen gathered in a hotel ballroom in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. They were there to toast the new head of a local Taiwan merchants’ association. They sipped baijiu liquor and ate seafood as a troupe performed a traditional lion dance for good luck. An honored guest, senior Communist Party official Li Jiafan, stood to deliver congratulations and a message. “I urge our Taiwanese friends to continue to work hard in your fields to contribute to the realization of the Chinese dream as soon as possible,” said Li, using a nationalist slogan President Xi Jinping has popularized. “The Chinese dream is also the dream of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait – our dream of … [Read more...] about How China’s shadowy agency is working to absorb Taiwan