‘Hello Vietnam’ showcased in New York

It was a part of the AMNH-hosted Asian New Year festival program with the participation of Vietnam, Korea, China, and Tibet.

The program included the Ao Dai Fashion show and the Dong Ho Folk Painting & Calligraphy exhibition.

The first event, the fashion show, featured 30 sets of Ao Dai Vietnamese traditional style with 15 Vietnamese models at AMNH’s Hall of the Universe in West Central Park.

The 30-minute fashion show, under the theme song "Hello Vietnam" performed by Pham Quynh Anh, was a long and complex one, showing the natural beauty of the Vietnamese traditional dress.

Before the show that drew over 500 American and Vietnamese guests, NBC Television hosted an interview with Prof. Laurel Kendall on the meaning of the Vietnamese Tet holiday and with designer Le Thanh Phuong for the Ao Dai fashion.

This is the first time an American leading television station introduced Vietnam's culture and traditional fashion to the American audience.

Meanwhile, the calligraphy show of artist Vu Hoi attracted most viewers in Asia Festival program.

Vietnam ambassador to the UN Le Hoai Trung told Tuoi Tre: "I am so thrilled to see the show. I have been working at the UN delegation for many years but this is probably the first time I saw an Ao Dai fashion show that attracted so many Americans.”

“This is probably also the most meaningful exhibition about Vietnamese calligraphy,” he added.

Adian Williams, chief organizer of Asian New Year program, said Vietnamese Ao Dai is too beautiful, so it should be organized annually.

In 2001, AMNH had a major exhibition program about Vietnam for six months with the theme “Vietnam: Journeys of body, mind, and spirit”.