- Hanoi City officially joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network with the goal of using cultural resources and cultural creativity as the foundation for sustainable urban development.
On October 30, 2019, the Director-General of UNESCO signed a decision to recognize 66 cities in the world as official candidates for the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, including Hanoi. This event created an opportunity for the city in brand positioning and image promotion in all areas of cultural creativity, with a vision to make Hanoi the creative capital of Southeast Asia, a destination of knowledge and creativity in the world.
- A series of cultural and sports activities to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hanoi city receiving the title “City for Peace”.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Hanoi City receiving from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) the title “City for Peace”, a series of activities took place in the city, leaving great impression and memories on citizens and tourists from elsewhere visiting the Capital City, such as the Meeting held to celebrate 20 years of Hanoi being recognized as “City for Peace” at Ly Thai To Flower Garden the two special music nights themed “I Love Hanoi” and “Light Up For Peace”, Display Space: Friendship Village, specialized photo exhibition “For an elegant and civilized Hanoi”, photo exhibition “Diary of Peace”, the Writing Contest about Hanoi – City for Peace, workshop “Hanoi – City for Peace – 20 years of integration and development”, and documentary film “Keep The Flame Of Peace Burning”.
Activities to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hanoi City receiving the title “City for Peace” were organized in a formal, practical, and economical manner in combination with patriotic emulation movements and international cooperation campaigns, contributing to communicating to officials, Party members, citizens, and international friends the great meaning of the title “City for Peace” as well as the city’s efforts in solving problems in the process of urbanization, solving social issues, and improving the lives of the people. Through such events, the image of Hanoian culture and citizens was introduced and promoted, awakening the pride among the citizens in the image of the City for Peace for joint effort in building, preserving, and promoting the value of the image the City for Peace towards building a creative, smart, green, clean, and beautiful city.
- Hanoi was the country’s number one city/province in terms of the number of artisans in the field of intangible cultural heritage and artists awarded by the State in 2019.
In 2019, the President issued Decision No. 355/QD – CTN and Decision No. 356/QD – CTN dated March 8, 2019, on the conferment of the State honorable titles of “People’s Artist” and “Meritorious Artist”. Hanoi had 43 artisans in the field of intangible cultural heritage awarded by the State in 2019 (07 People’s Artists and 36 Meritorious Artists) and 01 artist posthumously given the title of Meritorious Artist.
Also in 2019, following Decision No. 1359/QD – CTN dated August 12, 2019 on the conferment of the titles of “People’s Artist” and “Meritorious Artist “, Hanoi had 30 more artists given the titles by the State (5 People’s Artists and 26 Meritorious Artist).
- Cultural, artistic, and sporting activities left an impression on the citizens and visitors from all over the country and elsewhere in the world.
In 2019, the Department of Culture and Sports advised and helped Hanoi City successfully organize several activities to celebrate major political events and holidays nationwide and at city level, including 03 national celebrations (assigned by the Central Government) and 02 city-level celebrations.
The city’s theaters organized nearly 2,600 art performances. More than 300 art performances by businesses, agencies, and units were licensed and held in the city. 3,300 cinema screening events were held in the theaters managed by the Department and in remote districts and towns. The total number of activities and events taking place in the Hoan Kiem walking space in 2019 was 210 events (28 international events and 09 events at province or city levels), an increase of 25% compared to 2018.
The quality and scale of the cultural, artistic, and sports events continued to be renewed, expanded, and improved. Many of the events left a great impression on the citizens and tourists from other localities and countries, such as the Cherry Blossom Festival 2019, the Hanoi Culinary Culture Festival 2019, the Street Festival, the festival “Folklore in Contemporary Life 2019”, the Hanoi Heritage International Marathon Contest 2019, the Hanoi Open Dragon Boat Contest Festival 2019, and many more.
- The first festival “Folklore In Contemporary Life 2019”.
In celebration of Hanoi’s admission to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and to expand the series of activities to communicate, build, and promote Hanoi as a creative city, the Municipal People’s Committee held the first festival “Folklore in Contemporary Life”, taking place in the area of Octagon House, Ly Thai To Flower Garden from December 13 to December 15, 2019. That was the first time Hanoi had ever hosted a festival honoring folklore in contemporary life. The festival was aimed at recreating the traditional cultural space in contemporary life with the help of nearly 20 booths displaying handicraft products from several craft villages (Phu Vinh bamboo and rattan handicraft village, Ha Thai lacquer handicraft village, Van Phuc silk handicraft village, Bat Trang ceramic handicraft village, etc.) along with exhibitions introducing Hang Trong folk painting with the use of multimedia 3D Mapping, as well as other Vietnamese folk painting techniques demonstrated in ceramic works, ceramic mosaics, embroidery works, etc. The festival was also the change to introduce a new line of paintings made from pieces of silk and cloth by Van Phuc silk weaving village – VUN ART. VUN ART works were created and completed by hand by artists with disabilities. Intangible cultural heritage in contemporary life was also introduced: from Cheo Tau singing to Do singing, Xam singing, Vi singing, Trong Quan (military drum singing), and so on.
With several meaningful activities, the Festival contributed to honoring and promoting the values of cultural heritage, and enhancing opportunities for exchanges and learning about the experience in heritage preservation and protection.
- International Art Photo Contest “Proud of Hanoi”
International Art Photo Contest “Proud of Hanoi” was one of the significant cultural and artistic events held in celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Capital Liberation Day, covering a range of topics from “Thang Long – Hanoi: A Thousand Years Of Civilization” to “Heroic Capital City”, “City for Peace “, “Hanoi: Integration And Development”, “Hanoi: Green, Clean, Beautiful”, and many more. The contest helped preserve stunning moments of elegant and civilized Hanoians. Within 9 months of the start of the contest, the organizers received a total of 2,659 artworks (2,514 single photos and 145 photo series) by 430 authors from 8 countries (Vietnam: 37 provinces and cities nationwide, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Spain, Philippines, and Japan).
The photo series that won the first prize in “Proud of Hanoi” International Art Photo Contest
“Proud of Hanoi” International Art Photo Contest was voted by the Voting Council of the Department of Fine Arts, Photography, and Exhibition (Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism) as one of four most notable photography events of 2019.
- The influence of the Capital City’s sports scene in the country’s sports industry in SEA Games 30 – Philippines 2019.
Hanoi contributed 186 in a total of 856 Vietnamese athletes competing in SEA Games 30 and was the city/province winning the most medals and the most gold medals for Vietnam in the event (87 out of 288 medals, an increase of 37 medals compared to SEA Games 29, including 34 gold medals (34.69% of the total number of gold medals, an increase of 17 gold medals compared to SEA Games 29), 27 silver medals, and 26 bronze medals). Furthermore, Hanoi made decisive contributions to the historic victory of Vietnamese soccer in SEA Games 30 with the gold medal for the Vietnamese women’s soccer team and the gold medal for the Vietnamese men’s soccer team after 60 years with the defeat of the Indonesian men’s soccer team in the final match.
- Nguyen Quang Hai was named Best Soccer Player of the Year by the ASEAN Football Federation.
Nguyen Quang Hai was named Best Soccer Player of the Year by the ASEAN Football Federation. At AFF Awards 2019, Midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai of Hanoi FC beat several other excellent opponents to win the title Best Player of the Year.
2019 was a very successful year for Vietnamese men’s and women’s soccer teams as well as Nguyen Quang Hai.
- Bui Yen Ly admirably won the gold medal at the World Muaythai Championships 2019.
At the World Muaythai Championships 2019 with more than 1,000 athletes from 102 countries and territories, Vietnam sent 16 athletes to compete, including 9 athletes from Hanoi. In the semi-professional final match, Hanoian boxer Bui Yen Ly won an overwhelming victory over Russian boxer Ekaterina Gurina after defeating the Russian opponent in all three rounds.
In the night of honoring athletes’ achievements at the IFMA World Muaythai Championships (International Federation of Muaythai Amateur), Vietnamese muaythai boxer Bui Yen Ly was given the title of Best Female Athlete of 2019. It was a great honor as no Vietnamese athlete was given such a major title at the IFMA Gala before her.
- The impressive Hanoi International Heritage Marathon 2019
The Hanoi International Heritage Marathon 2019 featured more than 7,000 athletes, doubling 2018’s number. More than 1,500 international athletes competed with domestic athletes at distances of 5km, 10km, 21km, and 42km.
Since 2019, the Hanoi International Heritage Marathon, officially VPBank Hanoi Marathon, had become Hanoi’s international marathon where athletes were able to run along and enjoy the beautiful streets associated with the Capital City’s famous landscapes and structures such as Hoan Kiem Lake, West Lake, Long Bien Bridge, Flag Tower of Hanoi, Temple of Literature, Tran Quoc Pagoda, and many more.
The race is not only acknowledged by the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) but also recognized by the World Athletics (IAAF) and AIMS to meet the Boston Marathon registration criteria (i.e. athletes meeting the prescribed time standards set out in this race may attend the Boston Marathon, one of the most prestigious races in the world). Such certification verifies the professionalism of the race and its potential to become a major international marathon.
The race has been recognized as one of the two major marathons in Vietnam that are within the official competition scheme of the Vietnam Athletics Federation./.
Bao Tran