Connecting the dots: A cartoon entitled Ba Giai Doan (Three Phases) by Ha Xuan Nong won the Viet Nam Press Cartoon competition.
In the awarded cartoon, Ba Giai Doan (Three Phases), he portrayed a bridge built by two projects, but the bridges faced two different ways. The two bridge-heads don’t meet, so a third project is launched to connect the two and complete the traffic construction.
As the competition focused on published cartoons Nong said he wasn’t pressurised by a deadline. He selected cartoons which had already been printed in newspapers. He found inspiration from the traffic chaos found in Viet Nam.
Bamboo Dragon is the name of a satirical play by Nguyen Ai Quoc (President Ho Chi Minh), who was the pioneer of the Vietnamese press cartoon.
The competition, the second of its kind, has run, and it offered the chance to show a humorous view of traffic in Viet Nam, said Ngo Ha Thai, deputy general director of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
“The first contest was welcomed by veteran and young cartoonists alike,” Thai said. “Some veterans had given up cartoon drawing but they eagerly took part.”
The biennial competition is funded by the Cultural Development and Exchange Fund of the Danish government and the Ford Foundation. Last year, it attracted 99 entrants and 900 cartoons.
An exhibition of the prize-winning cartoons opened at Exhibition House, 29 Hang Bai Street, Ha Noi, and will be showcased in HCM City in May.
