 Jayanta Chakrabarty of India sends a Season's Greetings to VOV |
A: We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2023! All the best of luck and happiness in the New Year! As people around the world resume normal life post-COVID, we are all hoping for a strong recovery and a better future for everyone.
B: This week we’ve received a lot of greetings from listeners around the world. From Cuba, Yasmany Machado McCarthy wrote: “I wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2023. I love you so much.”
A: Diego Echeverri of Colombia wrote: “I wish the VOV team a Merry Christmas and a very happy, prosperous New Year. I give you all a big hug.”
B: José Luis Corcuera of Spain wrote: “It’s winter now and the Christmas vibe is all around. I hope you enjoy the last days of 2022 with your loved ones and that the New Year brings you all the best of happiness. Best wishes to you all!
A: Khampan of Laos wrote: “The New Year is coming in less than two weeks. I wish VOV and the Vietnamese people a New Year with lots of victories.”
B: This week VOVWorld received nearly 400 emails and letters from listeners in 36 countries around the world.
A: Johnny Antonio Ramírez López of Spain, who administers a Facebook fanpage called “VOV Friends” with more than 1,600 VOV fans, most of them in Latin America and the Caribbean, urged VOV to resume broadcasts to America.
B: Actually, VOV is accelerating its digital transformation and promoting its programs on multiple platforms – Facebook, podcasts, the VOV Media App and VOV Live App, and our website vovworld.vn – while continuing our shortwave broadcasts to certain regions around the world. We are closely monitoring listeners’ feedback to adjust our transmission.
A: We hope that in addition to listening to our shortwave broadcasts, you will also follow us on other platforms and send us regular feedback.
B: Uemura Akio, of Okayama, Japan, wrote: “I found your Music program very beautiful. Sitting in a café and enjoying my favorite music is really cool.”
A: Fumito Hokamura of Japan shared with us his interest in Vietnamese cuisine, culture, and folksongs.
B: Like Fumito Hokamura and Uemura Akio, many listeners asked us to feature a genre of Vietnamese each week to help them get to know Vietnamese music and culture.
A: We’ve been featuring Vietnamese music in many of our weekly programs, including the Weekend Music Program, the Sunday Show, Discovery Vietnam, and Colorful Vietnam - Vietnam’s 54 Ethnic Groups. Today we’d like to share with you some Bai Choi singing from the central region of Vietnam, which UNESCO recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2017.
 Hoi An will host several events during the next two months to mark 5 years since Bai Choi art was acknowledged by the UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (Photo: VOV) |
B: Bai Choi singing, which combines folk singing with a card game and village huts, is part of the culture of Vietnam’s central provinces, from Quang Binh to Khanh Hoa.
A: The stage for a Bai Choi performance has nine cottages, each occupied by five or six players. One of the cottages, the central house, holds a troupe of musicians. A deck of playing cards is split in half. One half is placed in the central house. The other half is distributed among the players, who stick their cards onto bamboo poles, which are erected outside the cottages.
B: The ‘game singer’, while singing a Bai Choi song, delivers a flag to each cottage and then draws a card from the central house. Whoever holds the card closest in value to the game singer’s card wins.
A: Bai Choi songs are about festivals, daily life, and work, and are accompanied by the troupe of musicians. The game and songs were developed by 16th century Mandarin Dao Duy Tu to help locals protect their crops. Now let’s listen to a piece of Bai Choi folk singing.
 Bai Choi art is acknowledged by the UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity |
B: In his recent feedback on our programs, Bidhan Chandra Sanyal of India wrote: “I wholeheartedly admit that I have loved Voice of Vietnam more than any other radio station in my life. Voice of Vietnam with its language, choice of words, sweetness, feelings, and education has always been an ideal teacher in my life, still is, and will be in the future. The Voice of Vietnam always comes to my mind and the thought of how to express my thoughts by writing a beautiful and charming letter always comes to mind. My thoughts and efforts revolve around the Voice of Vietnam. We receive such opinionated letters from listeners or their responses in the weekly Letter Box program. With love.”
A: Thank you, Mr. Sanyal, for tuning in to VOV and sending us regular feedback. We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2023.
B: After listening to our story about Lieutenant General Nguyen Duc Soat, a legendary pilot of the Vietnamese air force, Rabisanka Bosu of India wrote: “Heroic victory from Earth to the sky in December 1972. Salute to Vietnamese people and heroic soldiers.”
A: Well, it has been a long time since we last received any correspondence from you, Mr. Bosu. Thank you very much for visiting our Facebook fanpage at VOV5 English Service.
 During 12 days and nights, from December 18 to December 29, 1972, Hanoi’s tenacious fighting won the "Dien Bien Phu in the air" battle, defeating the US Air Force’s Operation Linebacker II. |
B: 50 years ago, on December 18, 1972, the US military launched a strategic air raid deploying mostly B-52 bombers to attack Hanoi, Hai Phong, and nearby provinces and cities in northern Vietnam. Operation Linebacker II was an attempt to win an overwhelming military victory and turn the Paris peace negotiations in the US’s favor.
A: With a determination to fight and win, the Vietnamese army and people defeated the air raid, creating the “Hanoi-Dien Bien Phu in the air” victory that shocked the world.
B: One target of the devastating bombing campaign, the Voice of Vietnam (VOV), managed to maintain its transmissions throughout the historic 12-day-and-night campaign.
A: Indonesian editor Susanto, aka Le Van Tho, had begun working for VOV in 1971. He recalled: “On December 16, 1972, VOV evacuated its employees to Hanoi’s outlying district of Quoc Oai, two days before the bombing began. In our Indonesian section, two people stayed in Hanoi. News stories were produced in Quoc Oaiand recorded and broadcast in Hanoi. Many aircraft droned overhead and during the fighting in the evening, Hanoi’s sky lit up like a fireworks show. We kept working despite the bombardment.”
 Antennas at the Me Tri transmission station in Hanoi during war time. |
B: Dang Trung Hieu, a former VOV technician, said, “The Me Tri station was hit but the audience could still catch VOV programs on the 290m frequency soon after. VOV had been well prepared for any contingencies to avoid interruption of its transmission.”
A: 290m (1010Khz) was one of VOV’s 5 frequencies on the morning of December 19 when the Me Tri station was attacked. Just 9 minutes after the destruction of the Me Tri station, VOV’s broadcasting on the 290m frequency resumed.
B: In his memoir marking 40 years since the battle of “Dien Bien Phu in the air”, journalist Vinh Tra, former Director of VOV’s Editorial Secretariat, said, “After this 9-minute event, VOV received a lot of commendation letters and messages from soldiers on the southern battlefields and overseas Vietnamese and foreign friends from all over the world. Japanese listeners raised 5 million yen to help rebuild the Me Tri station.”
A: During the anti-French war, President HCM said, “VOV must keep the voice of the Party, State and people uninterrupted in any circumstance.” VOV has been doing its utmost to keep President Ho’s word.
B: Thank you all for your interest in VOV and for sending us your feedback. We welcome your feedback at: English Service, VOVWorld, the Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.vn. You’re invited to visit us online at vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs.
A: Check out our VOV Media App, available on both the IOS and Android platforms, to hear our live broadcasts. We look forward to your feedback on the mobile version of vovworld.vn. Once again, thank you all for listening. Goodbye!