Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation

announces the 2011 Balaban Award

Hue, 16^th October 2010. Today at 9:00 am at Thua Thien Hue center of Information and Technology (No.6 Le Loi street, Hue city, Thua Thien Hue province)

The 2011 Balaban Award is given to Mr. Phan Anh Dũng for his contribution to Nôm scholarship through his work with Huesoft and the creation of the Việt Hán Nôm software bundle, an input method for working Nôm characters on computers, which is vitally important to bringing the ancient script into the modern age. He is also a main contributor for developing an online dictionary of Hán-Nôm-Việt on the website : www.huesoft.com.vn, the software Viet-Han-Nom on PDA (Dictionary Software for Han-Viet, Nôm-Viet). He has also made instrumental contributions in developing software for Cham and Thai scripts (two ethnic groups Vietnam), including keyboards, fonts, web sites, and electronic dictionaries.

The Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation will also be presenting “Young Nôm Scholar Award” to Mr. Nguyễn Hoàng Thân for his promising

Hanoi, 21st Oct 2010 at the Press Club (59A Ly Thai To Street & 12 Ly Dao Thanh Street) Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation The 2010 Balaban Awards go to Scholars Dao Thai Ton and Nguyen Quang Tuan for their outstanding contribution to Nôm studies. Additionally, Mr. Nguyen Tan Cuong will be awarded the “Young Nôm Scholar Award” for his promising scholarship in Nôm studies.

Dao Thai Ton was born on September 14, 1943, in Hanoi, Vietnam. He studied Bachelor of Han Nom studies at the University of Chinese studies (1965-1972). After that, he finished his master thesis of Han Nom: From some issues relating to Ho Xuan Huong’s biography to legendary and folk evidences surrounding this author. Proffesor’s guide: Cao Xuân Huy. Thesis result: Excellent. Defended master’s thesis before the council of the Institute of Han Nom studies on July, 1977. This master thesis is still kept in the library of the Institute of Han Nom studies with the signal number is LA. 44 a. Furthermore, he did his PhD thesis: Ho Xuan Huong – biography; texts; process of legend; popularization. Science consultant: Assistant Professor: Bùi Duy Tân and Lê Chí Dũng. Defended PhD’s thesis on September, 2002. Thesis result: Excellent.

Nguyen Quang Tuan was born on June 11, 1925, in Yen Mau commune, Vo Giang District, Bac Ninh province, North Vietnam. He had his education during the French domination at Buoi School, and at that time his poem has been published in Tia Sang newspaper. He also wrote “ Tieng dich song O” drama which has been performed in Hanoi Opera House and Ha Tinh Opera House in 1946. During his

The 2009 honorees are Prof. Nguyễn Quang Hồng and Mr. Phạm Thế Khang.

This prize is awarded to Professor Nguyễn Quang Hồng, the former vice-president of the Institute for Research into Hán and Nôm (Viện Nghiên cứu Hán Nôm ). Prof. Hồng, is honored for his distinguished Nôm scholarship, including his monumental Nôm dictionary (Tự Điển Chữ Nôm, Hà Nội, 2006) for which he was editor-in-chief, his Khái luận văn tự học chữ Nôm, his profound monograph on the old writing system (Tp HCM, 2008), and especially his twelve years of effort, from 1994-2006, to transform nearly 10,000 Nôm words into Unicode and ISO 10646 International Standard.

Mr. Phạm Thế Khang, Director of the National Library of Vietnam, is honored for his visionary leadership in the creation of the first digital library of Vietnam’s ancient texts, the National Library’s 4000-text Hán-Nôm Collection, thereby opening Vietnam's Nôm past to Vietnamese and to the world. His leadership as a modern library scientist has brought world-wide recognition to Vietnam’s ancient cultural heritage.

The Balaban Award is awarded annually by the Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation to an individual or group of individuals who have contributed significantly to furthering the Foundation’s vision, that of preserving the 1000-year heritage of writing in the Nôm and Hán-Nôm ancient scripts.

Endowment for this Award comes from the Vietnamese American Scholarship Fund established by a Vietnamese scientist, Dr. Phùng Liên Đoàn. The Award is named after John Balaban, poet, and professor of English at the North Carolina State University, as well as the founder and former president of the Nôm Foundation. Mr. Balaban spent many years advancing awareness of ancient writing in Vietnam.

Honorees are selected annually by the Board of Directors of the VNPF through nomination from within and outside of the Foundation.