HCM CITY — The annual Phan Chau Trinh Culture Foundation awards for 2009 for contributions to Vietnamese studies, culture, and education, have been announced.
They are given in the categories of translation, research, education, and Vietnamese studies and the jury has announced there are five winners this year.
The translation prize has gone to Le Anh Minh for his translation of Fung Yulan's A History of Chinese Philosophy and Russian expert Pham Vinh Cu for translating Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant's Dictionary of Symbols and Russian philosopher Vladimir Soloviev's The Meaning of Love.
Cham cultural researcher Insara Phu Tram has won the research prize for his works on Cham culture. Tram has published books on Cham literature, culture, and society and Cham – Vietnamese and Vietnamese – Cham Dictionaries.
Psychologist Ho Ngoc Dai has been named for the education prize for his contribution to reforming the system.
In 1978 he opened the Centre for Education Reform to teach children higher level mathematics than normal schools. His innovation has caught on and spread to 43 provinces and cities.
French Ethnologist Georges Codominas has won the Vietnamese studies prize for his research on the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands).
The 91-year-old published three works on the lives and customs of the Mnong Gar people of Dac Lac Province's Sar Luk Village between 1948 and 1950 – We Have Eaten the Forest, L'Exotique est Quotiden (To Discover New Things Every Day), and L'Espace Social (Space of Society).
At the age of 90, he returned to the Central Highlands to continue his research.
The awards will be given at a ceremony in Ha Noi next Wednesday.
The Phan Chau Trinh Culture Foundation, run by the Viet Nam Union of Science and Technology Associations, instituted the awards in 2008. — VNS