Resourceful: Prof Tran Van Khe has set up a library that includes numerous books on traditional music as well as newspapers and magazines published in France and other countries. — File Photo

HCM CITY — A Vietnamese academic who lived and taught in France for six decades before returning home in 2005 has set up a library using a collection of books, newspapers, and documents he owned.

Experts from HCM City's General Science Library helped the 91-year-old Prof Tran Van Khe arrange the collection.

It has 3,920 books on traditional music, 802 newspapers and magazines published in France and many other countries.

There are copies of 2,230 articles written by Khe besides stories by foreign music researchers about him.

Khe, who taught traditional Vietnamese music at Paris's Sorbonne University, is an honorary music member of UNESCO.

Known for his lifelong commitment to introducing Vietnamese music to the world, he is also recognised as an expert on Vietnamese folk music.

The library, open to the public, is at Khe's house at 32 Huynh Dinh Hai Street, Binh Thanh District.

"The books … have been arranged for easy use like any public library," Khe assured.

The city gifted the house to him in 2006, and here he gives talks on traditional music every month.

The house also has his large and diverse collection of traditional musical instruments from Viet Nam and around the world. — VNS