On the afternoon of the 16th January 2017, Ha Noi Department of Culture and sports held a press briefing on the Calligraphy Festival in the Rooster Year’s Spring of 2017.
On hand were Mr. Truong Minh Tien, Deputy Director of Ha Noi Department of Culture and Sports; Mr. Le Xuan Kieu, Director of the Centre for Cultural and Scientific Activities of Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam, Head of the Organizing Committee; Mr. Tran Quoc Chi, Head of the Liason Committee for Viet Nam Calligraphy Clubs together with the Directorate of Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam, and representatives from the public police of Dong Da and Quoc Tu Giam wards.
Mr. Truong Minh Tien, Deputy Director of Ha Noi Departmentof Culture and sports chairs the press briefing
The Calligraphy Festival in the Rooster Year’s Spring of 2017 was held from the 24th December of the Monkey Year until mid January of the Rooster Year (from 21st January till 11th February, 2017) at Van lake. The opening ceremony took place at 9.00 hrs on the 21st January, 2017. The daily operating time was from 8.30 hrs to 20.00hrs; except for the 30th of the lunar year, it last until 2.00 a.m of the next day; on the 1st and 2nd of the new year, it last until 22.00hrs. With a view to serving the people and visitors, the relics of Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam would on daily basis open between 8.00hrs to 22.00hrs, from the 1st to 7th of the Rooster Year.
According to the Organizing Committee, this year’s Calligraphy Festival would have more plentiful contents. The Calligraphy Festival’s space would be split into sub-zones, including the main stage, the calligraphy writing area, the traditional craft village area, the folk paintings display area and kids’drawing zone under the theme “Let’s innovate with kids – discover Tet’s paintings”. The new thing that could be found at this festival was that the calligraphy writing area was in the front of Van lake, and the traditional craft village area was added which displayed Ha Noi’s craft village products such as pottery, porcelain, embroidery, folk painting, wood carving, bronze casting,.. especially the exhibit of an old house symbolic of the nothern countryside.
The calligraphy writing area would set up about 50 tents reserved for 13 clubs and a number of free-lance calligraphy writers. In order to ensure the quality of calligraphy, the Organizing Committee had completed testing the writers. Target examinees were the writers who had been let through the examination since 2014 up to now; and those who had officially passed the previous exams would not have to be tested again. For this year, there were 77 scholars partaking in calligraphy writing. Especially, the Organizing Committee meant a certain number of places for the writers aged over 70, who had participated in teaching, caligraphy exhibitting and made considerable contribution to calligraphy activities of Ha Noi as of 2000 till now, and highly honoured by the calligraphy clubs in Ha Noi like Mr. Cung Khac Luoc, Nguyen The Anh, Nguyen The Luc, Nguyen Nhu Phach, Nguyen Minh Chau,…
Mr. Le Xuan Kieu, Director of the Centre for Cultural and Scientific Activities of Vawn Mieu – Quoc Tu giam responds to questions by media
At the Calligraphy Festival in the Rooster Year’s Spring of 2017, there was the calligraphy exhibition titled “ còn có triển lãm thư pháp với chủ đề “Venerate teachers and respect moral principles” aimed at encouraging the youth in Ha Noi to unceasingly strive in study, show their sense of responsibilities in enheriting and appreciating Viet Nam’s teacher generations; making contribution to raising the quality of calligraphy writings and the aesthetical level and understanding of calligraphy among the public; creating an apportunity to people and particulaly the young generation to inquire into more about calligraphy arts. The exhibition would display 28 calligraphies written in Chinese characters and national language with size of 70cm x 70cm and 70cm x 140cm respectively. These were the works selected by the Organizing Committee out of 70 which had participated in the exhibition by the calligrapy clubs in Ha Noi, that could meet the formality criteria and writing quality.
The Calligraphy Festival in the Rooster Year’s Spring of 2017 would prove to be much more interesting as it would have had more art programmes, love duets music, ceremonial song, folk song of Phu Tho province, singing by repartees while working,.. with invited guests as famous singers, together with folk games namely modelling of children’s toys and square board chess,..
At present, all preparations for the Calligraphy Festival in the Rooster Year’s Spring of 2017 had been carefully made. The Organizing Committee had collaborated closely with the relevant agencies to formulate the plans to ensure environmental sanitation, security and orders, anti-fire and explosion. All the plans had been in place to make sure that the Calligraphy Festival in the Rooster Year’s Spring of 2017 the Calligraphy Festival in the Rooster Year’s Spring of 2017 would be greatly fruitful, making it a truely cultural meeting point for the Capital’s folks and tourists from far and near whenever Tet came.
By Minh Hue