Art News

Vietnam store makes Christmas tree from cellphones

HANOI (AP).- Southeast Asia is closer to the equator than the North Pole, but an electronics store in Vietnam is ringing in the holidays with a 15-foot Christmas tree made from more than 2500 unusable cellular phones. Nguyen Trai, a store manager at Westcom Electronics in the southern city of My Tho, says 10 workers spent two weeks building the cellular Christmas tree that he hopes will raise awareness about hazardous waste and promote environmental responsibility. The glittering, cone-shaped creation has been on display for about two weeks outside the store in southern Tien Giang Province. Between 700 and 800 people visit daily, Trai told the Associated Press. “Many of them have taken pictures with the tree,” he said. Cellphones are ubiquitous in Vietnam, where more than 60 percent of the population is under 30 and hordes of young people flaunt flashy electronics to mark their rising wealth even as the