“Sparrow Travelogue” - a 40-page picture book, completed in 3 years, is a gift that French artist Olivier Blanchin wants to send to Vietnam, the country he has been attached to for the past 7 years.
Sharing with reporters about his relationship with Vietnam, Olivier Blanchin said that in 2018, Blanchin came to Vietnam to participate in an artist residency program at an ecological space. During that time, he spent time learning about Hanoi and became very fond of this place. He was fascinated by the architectural space, urban areas and crowded atmosphere of the city. The people he met everywhere in this land mostly welcomed him with a very warm and honest attitude, especially when he had vehicle problems or got lost.
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| French artist Olivier Blanchin (left). (Photo: Nhan Dan Newspaper) |
All of these things have inspired Blanchin to want to learn more and explore Vietnam. He planned to visit all the famous lands, from North to South, through the Central region or in the remote lands of the Central Highlands. On this journey, he cherished the project of publishing the book “Sparrow Travelogue” to tell a story about Vietnam to foreign readers in general and in France in particular.
The story is about a young sparrow named Momo, who lives in Hanoi, welcoming his cousin Nino, who lives in France, back to Vietnam to meet his relatives and embark on a journey to explore his homeland by motorbike. After Momo takes Nino around Hanoi, they meet their relatives before traveling along the S-shaped strip of land, through many famous tourist provinces and cities such as Ninh Binh, Da Nang, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Da Lat (Lam Dong)... and stopping in Ho Chi Minh City. Here, the two sparrows continue to explore the city and then return to Hanoi by train to celebrate the New Year with their family and relatives.
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| Images of Vietnam in the book "Sparrow's Travels". |
According to Blanchin, the book is built in the genre of “finding” books for children, which are very popular in the West. They train children in observation skills, descriptive skills and reasoning skills. Because it is a picture book about landscapes, the narration is brief, with some suggestions for readers to find details of the two sparrows Momo and Nino in each drawing. The small details are inserted to motivate children to explore and find the two sparrows in the picture.
"This is a book for children first, so I wanted to keep things relatively simple. Children will also enjoy looking at the scenery more than the content about food or culture. However, the book is not only for boys and girls, but I want the world in general, and the French in particular, to see a strongly developing, dynamic and peaceful Vietnam today," said Blanchin.
Blanchin hopes to publish more books in the future, on more topics and for more readers in Vietnam as well as around the world.
Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/du-ky-viet-nam-qua-nhung-buc-tranh-cua-hoa-si-phap-210582.html
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