Culture vultures to receive gongs

Patron of the past: A corner of Muong Cultural Space Museum owned by artist Vu Duc Hieu, who will receive a Phan Chau Trinh Award 2012 for his contribution to promoting education and preserving Muong culture. - Photo muong.vn

HA NOI (VNS)- The Phan Chau Trinh Culture Foundation has announced awards for outstanding people in the fields of culture and education, translation, research and Vietnamese studies.

Six winners will be presented at the Phan Chau Trinh Awards 2012 including a culture and education award each to educator Bui Tran Phuong and artist Vu Duc Hieu; translation award for Chu Tien Anh and Pham Duy Hien; a research award for Vietnamese overseas professor Le Thanh Khoi, and a Vietnamese studies award for French professor Philippe Langlet.

Phuong and Hieu are honoured for their contributions to promoting education and preserving Muong ethnic culture.

Artist Hieu is being recognised for the Muong Cultural Space Museum, which he established in 2007. It is the first private museum in the northern province of Hoa Binh and the only museum in Viet Nam devoted to Muong culture.

Graduating from the Ha Noi Industrial Fine Arts College in 2000, the 36-year-old artist's heart is in the Muong culture.

The 2ha museum also hosts community art activities including workshops entitled Art under the Roof in 2011 and 2012. Last year, the workshop drew over 60 artists from 15 countries.

Phuong is the rector of Hoa Sen University in HCM City which was developed from a vocational school and gathers educators from diverse backgrounds.

"The Hoa Sen University is now one of the most prestigious private universities in Viet Nam. We decided to present the award to Phuong due to her successful application of advanced educational thinking in the university," said Professor Chu Hao, one of the 10 jurors.

Phuong is a core faculty member for SIT (School for International Training) Study Abroad in Viet Nam. She has lectured on gender and social change for SIT students and has led interactive discussions between SIT and local students at Hoa Sen University.

Anh and Hien will receive the award for their translation works which have brought human knowledge quintessence to Vietnamese readers, Hao said.

France's Khoi and Langlet could not come to Viet Nam to receive the awards due to their old ages.

Khoi is recognised for his research on cultures from the East to the West and Langlet for spending his whole life studying and introducing Vietnamese history and culture.

The Phan Chau Trinh Culture Foundation, run by the Viet Nam Union of Science and Technology Associations, instituted the awards in 2007.

The awards honour patriotic scholar Trinh, a native of central Quang Nam Province.

Born in 1872, Trinh was a reformer who fought in the resistance movement against the French when he was very young.

The award ceremony will be held tomorrow at Rex Hotel in HCM City. - VNS