Sports

The statistic was published in the first edition of Vietnamese Esports 2021, released by Vietnam Recreational and Electronic Sports Association (VIRESA) on June 10.

According to the white book, esports in Vietnam thrived in 2020 and became a form of entertainment due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Specifically, 80 percent of players said they spent more time on esports during the social distancing period, with 52.5 percent playing games daily at an average time of 2 hours 55 minutes.

Broadcasting platforms also recorded a spike in esports content. Typically, views on Facebook Gaming increased by 81.37 percent during the outbreak, while engagement and coverage also increased by 50 percent and 79.6 percent, respectively.

The sudden increase in the number of viewers and consumption of digital content in the past year has also benefited from the pandemic. Specifically, the views on YouTube Vietnam of some major tournaments like Arena World Championship 2020 reached 109 million, twice as high as in 2019.

2020 is also the year that esports became an official discipline at the 31st SEA Games, scheduled to take place in Vietnam later this year.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) handed Vietnamese shooting an inviation slot for Olympics Tokyo in July. The Vietnam Shooting Federation (VSF) said the inviation is for a Vietnamese athlete in the 10 meter air pistol category.

Vinh won the historic gold medal in that category back in Olympic 2016. With his achievements and experience at the event, he was chosen for the slot.

In March, Vietnamese shooters Tran Quoc Cuong, Phan Xuan Chuyen and Nguyen Dinh Thanh failed to qualify for the Olympics at 2021 ISSF World Cup in India. Vinh didn’t compete in the tournament for personal reasons.

VSF will propose Vinh to represent Vietnamese shooting at the Olympics to the Department of Physical Education and Sports for approval and confirm with IOC before the June 18 deadline.

The Covid-19 pandemic severely affected Vietnam’s Olympic hopefuls, who couldn’t take part in many international tournaments due to travel restrictions and thus, had little chance to qualify.

Hoàng Xuân Vinh of Việt Nam (right) poses with South Korean four-time Olympic shooting champion Jin Jong-oh in Hà Nội’s National Sport Training Centre in 2018. Vinh is expected to have his second Olympics this July. Photo danviet.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam have received an invitation to compete in shooting at the coming Tokyo Olympics.

In a letter, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) offered a slot to one Vietnamese athlete in the men’s 10m air pistol category and asked the local federation to send an outstanding or well-known marksman to the Games this July.

At the last Games in Rio five years ago, Vietnamese shooter Hoàng Xuân Vinh secured the country’s first Olympic gold in the 10m air pistol.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced many tournaments to be cancelled or delayed, Vinh and his teammates failed to secure a berth in Tokyo.

The Việt Nam Shooting Federation (VSF) will likely choose between Vinh and his teammate Trần Quốc Cường for selection.

The 47-year-old Vinh became the first Vietnamese shooter to rank No 1 in the world after his Olympic victory, but has performed poorly since and now sits at No 38.

Meanwhile Cường, also 47, had his best result at the Beijing ISSF World Cup in 2010. The former SEA Games champion, who also competed in Rio in 2016, is now No 19.

“We will discuss and confirm with the ISSF and the International Olympic Committee before June 18. Vinh might be picked. We will not miss this chance,” said Nguyễn Thị Nhung, VSF general secretary.

On his side, Vinh was happy about the invitation.

“I knew about it for several days. I am excited about it. (If selected) I would do my best to make something at the Tokyo,” Vinh was quoted as saying by danviet.vn .

“My teammates and I are training in Hà Nội. Due to COVID-19, our training schedule is affected a lot but we have to adjust and overcome difficulties. I will have five weeks to prepare for Tokyo,” said Vinh.

Shooting is the 14th slot for Việt Nam at the July 23-August 8 event, following those in taekwondo, swimming, gymnastics, boxing, badminton, rowing, archery and weightlifting. More slots in athletics and boxing will be confirmed later. — VNS

Movie star Việt Trinh (left)  performs in Người đẹp Tây Đô (The Beauty of the South), a TV series on Vietnamese revolutionists in the 1930s-40s directed by Lê Cung Bắc. The film was released in 1996 and has been rebroadcast on the Hồ Chí Minh Television. (Photo courtesy of the HTV)

HCM CITY — Meritorious Artist Lê Cung Bắc, a leading film actor and director of the South, died of cancer on Sunday in HCM City. He was 76.

Bắc was born in Quảng Trị Province in 1946. He loved theatre and led a drama club when he was at university in Sài Gòn (now HCM City).

Before 1975, he worked as a lead actor for drama theatres such as Sông Thao and Quê Hương in Sài Gòn. He attended short-term training courses in theatre in France and Canada in 1974.

In 1982, he began to be involved in movies. He performed in 200 TV shows and films.

Meritorious Artist, film actor and director Lê Cung Bắc performed in and directed many films and TV shows during his 50-year career. (Photo courtesy of HCM City Artists’ Association)

In late 1992, he worked as a video director for the State-owned Giải Phóng (Liberated) Film Studio of HCM City, one of the country’s leading film companies in the 1980s and 1990s.

He was a pioneer in videography and filming who helped the film industry develop professionally.

His first film Trên Cả Hận Thù (More Than Just A Feud), a production about love and women, was a hit in the market in the early 1980s.

He directed and produced several TV shows and films, including prize -winning productions at national film festivals launched by the Việt Nam Cinematography Association and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

He won a gold and a silver medal for the year’s Best TV Show at the National Television Festival in 1996 and 2006.

“Bắc developed his career during the 1980s-90s period, which is recognised as the golden age of Vietnamese movies. His films provided viewers with deeper knowledge about the south’s history and culture,” said movie star Việt Trinh of HCM City.

Bắc’s latest TV show, Mỹ Nhân Sài Thành (Beauties of Sài Gòn), was a production about the lives of Sài Gòn women and their lifestyle in the 1950s and aired on Việt Nam Television in 2018.

The 49-part series focuses on three characters who decide after a bout of soul-searching to join the Việt Minh Front (Việt Nam Independence League’s Front) and develop a business.

The film attracted more than 120 skilled and amateur actors, including dozens of foreigners who live in the city.

It includes beautiful scenes of rivers and forests in Sa Đéc and Gò Công, both famous destinations of the south, interspersed with folk songs and traditional customs of southern people.

His funeral took place yesterday and was attended by popular Vietnamese artists in HCM City. — VNS

Entitled Secret Moments of Maikos, the exhibition offers visitors a glimpse into the hidden world of the young women, who are considered as symbols of the beauty of Japan, together with geishas and geikos.

Shot in the famous geisha district of Gion in Kyoto by French photographer Philippe Marinig, the images capture the grace and beauty of the women in this age-old profession.

All thephotos were shot in the famous geisha district of Gion in Kyoto.

Together with the photo collection, the exhibition also showcases a video by Marinig presenting a maiko who practises dancing in accordance with strict rules.

According to the website www.maiko-kyoto.jp, “Maiko is a ‘person of hospitality’. Hers is hard work, which doesn’t only include serving drinks, but also entertaining guests with Japanese traditional performances, such as dances and shamisen play. The charms of Maiko are a beautiful dance, serving guests with the mindset of superior hospitality, always being elegant and splendid, as well as creating the ‘dream world detached from the daily life’ for a little while.”

“Maiko aspires to the highest level of sophistication in the Japanese ‘hospitality businesses’,” it wrote.

A photo depicts a maiko in the background of the red autumn leaves.

Photographer Marinig was born in Château-Arnoux in the Alpes de Haute Provence in 1962 in a family of artists and became interested in photography at a very young age. After training in Photographic Art with famous veteran photographer Denis Brihat, he studied photography in Boston in the US.

For more than 10 years, from 1992 to 2005, Marinig ran his own company, specialising in the processing of advertising and fashion shoots, in Cape Town, South Africa. Since 2006, he has devoted himself entirely to artistic projects that take him to southern Africa, Japan and Europe and which are the subject of numerous solo exhibitions.

Maiko aspires to the highest level of sophistication in the Japanese ‘hospitality businesses’.

In 2010, he received the Scam Roger Pic prize, awarded by the Civil Society of Multimedia Authors.

The Secret Moments of Maikos is open to the public until June 2. The Japan Foundation is at 27 Quang Trung Street.

The exhibition is part of the month-long photography event Photo Hanoi ’21 initiated by the French Institute in Hà Nội, L’Espace, featuring 30 photographers, visual and creative artists from Việt Nam and abroad.

Through the photos and activities, Photo Hanoi ’21 tells stories as well as express diverse perspectives and approaches to the multi-coloured world prism of domestic and international photographers. VNS