Last Friday afternoon, in a cozy house in Hanoi’s Thanh Cong residential complex, Ri Young-hui and her husband Pham Ngoc Canh hurried about, preparing to attend a dinner at the North Korean embassy. Canh, 69, has been a familiar guest at the embassy in Hanoi since the 1990s. He is the only Vietnamese man to marry a North Korean woman, but behind this simple fact is a very complicated, moving story of love overcoming all odds. "I am currently the only Vietnamese ‘son-in-law’ of North Korea," Canh said, showing his invitation for the dinner. Since North Korea does not allow its citizens to marry foreigners, Canh and Ri’s marriage could very easily have not happened. In 1967, Canh was among 200 Vietnamese students sent to North Korea to learn necessary skills to reconstruct the country after the war with the U.S. Four years later, while he was doing an internship in a factory in the north of the country, he met Ri Young Hui, technician in a chemistry … [Read more...] about Stuff of legend: a Vietnamese-North Korean love story – VnExpress International
Beijing love story
Stuff of legend: a Vietnamese-North Korean love story
Last Friday afternoon, in a cozy house in Hanoi’s Thanh Cong residential complex, Ri Young-hui and her husband Pham Ngoc Canh hurried about, preparing to attend a dinner at the North Korean embassy. Canh, 69, has been a familiar guest at the embassy since the 1990s. He is the only Vietnamese man to marry a North Korean woman, but behind this simple fact is a very complicated, moving story of love overcoming all odds. "I am currently the only Vietnamese ‘son-in-law’ of North Korea," Canh said, showing his invitation for the dinner. Since North Korea does not allow its citizens to marry foreigners, Canh and Ri’s marriage could very easily have not happened. In 1967, Canh was among 200 Vietnamese students sent to North Korea to learn necessary skills to reconstruct the country after the war with the U.S. Four years later, while he was doing an internship in a factory in the north of the country, he met Ri Young Hui, technician in a chemistry lab. … [Read more...] about Stuff of legend: a Vietnamese-North Korean love story
“The Story of Stamps”
The exhibition was aimed at giving viewers a new perspective of stamps which contain information on remarkable cultural and historical events. With a passionate love for stamps, painter Hoang Thuy Lieu created these paintings based on stamps issued by the Vietnam Post. Each stamp is a work of art that she has enlarged, allowing viewers to enjoy the stories therein in a different way. Her works show national culture through legends and historical stories, namely Auco-Lac Long Quan and the Imperial Capital of Hue. The exhibition also showcased the valuable stamp collections of Vu Van Ty, including five standard stamp frameworks of the bamboo and life collections which won a bronze medal at the International Stamp Exhibition in Beijing, China in 2003 and others about traditional Vietnamese art and architecture. Vu Van Ty said that when he was a student he pursued a passion for collecting stamps which gradually grew with the years he worked in the post office sector and then the Stamp … [Read more...] about “The Story of Stamps”
Edinburgh International Festival heads east in 2011
The Edinburgh International Festival EIF focuses on the Orient in 2011, as Festival Director Jonathan Mills brings a heady mix of acts to the world's largest annual artistic extravaganza from the Far East ranging through China and Japan, Vietnam and India. Edinburg festival … [Read more...] about Edinburgh International Festival heads east in 2011
Para Games opening to highlight love
The opening ceremony of the Guangzhou Asian Para Games will not focus on high-tech performances but emotion - a feature that will display disabled performers' and athletes' love for life and society, Zhu Jianwei, director-in-chief of the ceremony, said. The ceremony, scheduled on Dec 12 at the Aoti Main Stadium in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, includes three parts - each with an emotional theme to convey love among family, society and disabled persons, Zhu said. … [Read more...] about Para Games opening to highlight love