Giant rooster to be featured on HCMC's iconic flower street

Giant rooster to be featured on Ho Chi Minh City's iconic flower street

The star of the annual Ho Chi Minh City Flower Street at Tet this year will be an art installation featuring a brood of chickens, with 2017 nominated the Year of the Rooster in the lunar calendar.

The 2017 Nguyen Hue Flower Street will open at 7:00 pm on January 25 and close at 10:00 pm on January 31, or from the 28th day of the final lunar month to the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

Nguyen Hue Flower Street earns its name by being held on the street which has been turned into a promenade in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.

Besides the installation of flower artworks, the festival will this year feature a huge rooster, standing 3.5 meters tall, a 2.8 meter tall hen and 15 smaller chickens.

The rooster is particularly designed to be able to move his head and crow.

The artworks are made with steel frames and different materials, and are colorfully painted by a team led by Van Tong, an artisan based in District 12.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper visited his workshop on Monday, witnessing the huge artwork in the making.

Below are some photos of the artwork in production.

~News courtesy of Tuoi Tre~

Elephants shouldn’t slave for tourists in Vietnam: experts

Elephants shouldn’t slave for tourists in Vietnam: experts

Experts in Vietnam and other countries are voicing their concern over the use and overwork of elephants for tourism activities in Southeast Asia.

During a conference on the preservation of elephants, organized in Buon Ma Thuot City in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak on Wednesday, travel specialists stated that tourists are becoming more interested in observing the happiness and friendliness of the animals, rather than forcing them to serve tourism services.

According to Cao Chi Cong, deputy chief of the Administration of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, approximately 60 domesticated elephants and 100 wild elephants were believed to exist in Vietnam as of 2015.

The number of elephants in the country has shrunk significantly over the past few decades, Cong added, explaining that 500 were recorded in 1980 and now about 80 remain.

Of the 80, 44 reside in Dak Lak, Huynh Trung Luan, director of the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center, said, adding only seven females in the herd are able to give birth to new offspring.

Furthering the problem is the poor state of elephant living conditions, with the well-being of the animals often neglected by the local residents and businesses who only raise them to facilitate tourism services, Luan stated.

The animals are not given sufficient nutritional supplementation yet are still forced to carry many tourists on a daily basis, the conservationist elaborated, adding that the elephants are also bound with chains and have heavy chairs attached to their backs.

“These poor conditions certainly compromise the elephants’ health, happiness, and fertility,” he said.

Forest elephants in the country are also threatened by deforestation and poachers hunting their ivory, Luan remarked.

Speaking at the meeting, a veterinarian from the Netherlands warned that the species could become extinct in Vietnam within the next 10 to 15 years.

Riding elephants should not be a joy

According to Sarah Blaine from the Thailand Mahouts Foundation, many villages in Thailand house elephants in a harmonious environment with local residents.

In such habitats, the elephants are well taken care of, complacent, fertile, and not bound by chains or subjected to forceful commands.

Katherine Connor, an expert from the Thailand-based Boon Lott’s Elephant Sanctuary, introduced that idea to Vietnam by stating that with good policies and management, elephants could be great contributors to local tourism while still being heavily protected.

The animals should not be used as transportation or surrounded with groups of more than six people; tourists should also not be allowed to take photos too close to them, said Connor as she listed other suitable policies.

The healthier the elephants are, the more tourists are attracted to the destinations, and the more benefits local residents will gain, the foreign specialist elaborated.

However, Nguyen Cong Chung, deputy director of the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center, stated that the concept was only viable in foreign nations as most Vietnamese visitors still love the idea of riding elephants.

The high demand leads local residents into the temptation of the large profits to be gained by using their elephants for tourism activities, Chung said.

“A change depends on many factors and will require a long process,” he added.

~News courtesy of Tuoi Tre~

Temple of Literature causes stir with controversial whitewash facelift

Hanoi’s Temple of Literature causes stir with controversial whitewash facelift

A new coat of whitewash applied to an 11th-century temple that hosted Vietnam’s first university has caused a stir amongst locals who preferred its previously weather-beaten look.

Visitors to the Van Mieu (Temple of Literature) in Hanoi have been surprised to find its age-old walls, fences and other structures being painted with a fresh coat of whitewash in the city’s move to protect the building from moss.

The temple was built in 1070 during the reign of Vietnamese Emperor Ly Nhan Tong, and is one of several temples in the country which honor the Chinese philosopher Confucius, along with several other sages and scholars. It is also the location of the "Imperial Academy" (Quoc Tu Giam), believed to be Vietnam's first national university.

The temple’s iconic Khue Van Cac (Pavilion of The Constellation of Literature) was officially chosen as the symbol of Hanoi in 2012, reflecting the country’s ancient culture of education.

Accustomed to the moss-filled look and ancient vibe of the temple prior to the facelift, locals have taken to social media to criticize the work, saying the new look has damaged to the temple’s value as an historical relic.

In an interview on Tuesday, Le Xuan Kieu, head of the temple’s Center for Cultural and Scientific Activities, explained that the recoating of the temple was a regular and normal operation carried out to preserve it from humidity and moss.

“Over time, some structures inside the relic have lost their outer layer of paint and been filled with moss and mold, posing the threat of degradation,” Kieu explained. “It’s a professional operation that has been approved by the appropriate authorities.” Kieu added that the whitewash used to recoat the structures was made of traditional limewater, the same type used by ancient Vietnamese architectures, to preserve the structures’ original color.

“The only difference is that the recoated items may appear brighter than their old look, since all the moss has been removed in the process,” Kieu said. “The old color will return after a few rains.”

“To say that applying a new coat of whitewash onto the Temple of Literature is doing damage to its ancient features is a scientifically unfounded notion,” stressed Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dang Van Bai, deputy chairman of the Cultural Heritage Association of Vietnam.

Have a look at some before-and-after photos of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi taken by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper photojournalists and provided by the temple’s Center for Cultural and Scientific Activities.

~News courtesy of Tuoi Tre~

Happy new year 新年快乐