A fourth-year student at the Hue University of Arts in Vietnam’s central province of Thua thien-Hue has won the Grand Prize at the second international Furoshiki (wrapping cloth) design competition in Japan. Phan Khanh Trang was awarded 100,000 Japanese Yen (over VND20 million) as the Grand Prize, the Japan-Vietnam Culture Exchange Center announced February 22. Her compatriots, Tong Thi Ngoc, Bui Thi Mai Anh and Nguyen Thi Thu Loan from the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts received the consolation prize. Another Vietnamese, Pham Son Tung from Danang Architecture University, won an honorary prize. The contest was launched in September 2010. The Japan-Vietnam Culture Exchange Centre in Vietnam selected 15 entries from Vietnam to compete against more than 200 designs by students from Germany, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, the U.S., Brazil, Russia and Singapore. The competition, organized by the Japanese International Exchange Foundation, aims to boost cultural exchange between Japan and other countries around the world, and introduce Japan’s traditional culture to international friends. At present, about 2,800 Vietnamese students are studying in Japan. Though Vietnamese students had won lots of medals at international contests, their achievements have not been applied in daily life, analysts noted, admitting that almost Vietnamese students are still good at theory, but weak at practices. (english.vovnews.vn Feb 23)
