Visitors to the exhibition that opens on April 15. (Photo: VNA) The event is held at an old villa at No 49 Tran Hung Daostreet, Hoan Kiem district, on the occasion of the 50th foundinganniversary of Vietnam - France diplomatic relations, the 10th anniversary of the bilateral strategic partnership, and the 12th conference on decentralised cooperation between the two countries.
It displays the first 30 colour pictures of Hanoi, which werecaptured by Leson Busy between 1915 and 1921. They describe the start of aWestern-style city where local traditional characteristics co-existed withforeign factors imported from France.
Asidefrom the structures that helped change the urban face of Hanoi, many details inthe photos also show the presence of the Western culture in the Old Quarter andlocal living spaces, reflecting the strong influence of the French culture andits confluence with the local culture in the city in the early 20th century.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’sCommittee Duong Duc Tuan said that the city and the Ile-de-France region of France formed the first pair of partners in theVietnam - France decentralised cooperation in 1989.
Over the past years, the two sides have cooperatedfruitfully in the fields of sustainable development, urban planning, culture,and heritage conservation, he noted, adding that the villa that hosts theexhibition was the first from the French colonial period to have been restoredby Hanoi with technical support from the Ile-de-France region.
Inthe coming time, they will continue working together to collect and showcase evidenceof the confluence of the French and Vietnamese cultures in the first half ofthe 20th century, aiming to show the public the local administration’sdetermination and French partners’ assistance in heritage conservation and callfor the community’s support for the conservation, according to Tuan.
Mésadieu, member of the Regional Council of Ile-de-France,affirmed that collaboration in heritage and cultural affairs is always a priorityof the two countries’ decentralsed cooperation./.
VNA
