With the blend of tradition and modernity in unique sketch online in Viet Nam along with humorous storytelling and beautiful ethnic melodies, the project ‘Dong Bao Viet Phuc’ (costumes of Vietnamese ethnic groups) of a youth group born in the 90s has made the online community feel excited when exploring the culture of Viet Nam.

A painting featuring traditional costumes of the Ha Nhi Ethnic Minority people is a part of the project "Dong Bao Viet Phuc".

Digitizing cultural heritage

‘Dong Bao Viet Phuc’ is the first project in Viet Nam to create a digital art book featuring the traditional costumes of 54 ethnic groups using Augmented Reality (AR) technology. The intention is to provide information about the materials, patterns, origins, and meanings of traditional costume of each Vietnamese ethnic minority group, but also tell about the history and culture of the country through customs, beliefs, folk festivals, music, cuisine, crafts, and more.

Visiting the Facebook fanpage ‘Dong Bao Viet Phuc’, viewers are excited to explore the cultures of Vietnamese ethnic groups for the first time. Included are the custom of using firewood as a requisite element of betrothal of Gie Trieng people, and the custom of not allowing the father to leave home if his child’s name is not decided yet of the Pu Peo people, the chin tattooing ceremony of the Mang people, the Du Dem Cake of the San Chi people, paper-making craft of the Dao people, the custom of pulling out hair and crowning gold teeth of the Red Dao women to beautify themselves, the ‘Su Gie Pa Tet’ of the Bo Y people, and the typical musical instrument Hun May of the Khang people.

The project is not only attractive to viewers in terms of aesthetics, but also brings a new experience for them due to its moving images and resonant ethnic music background, thereby helping them gain more knowledge and immerse themselves in the Soong palm melody of San Chi people, Tom singing of Kho Mu People, the Tang Bu classical music dance of Khang people, and more.

'Dong Bao Viet Phuc' is the graduation project of three young people namely Tram Minh Thao, Le Vu Huyen Tran and Dang Thao Nhi. Their project idea came from a strong passion for Vietnamese cultural heritage, especially traditional costumes which are considered to be a vivid symbol of national identity.

“Our project aims to honour our country’s cultural diversity, preserve precious heritage, spread the love for our country, and promote national pride among Vietnamese people, especially young people, thereby contributing to the development of the traditional costume industry,” said Le Vu Huyen Tran who was born in 1999, is the content manager of the Facebook fanpage ‘Viet Phuc compatriots’, currently in charge of product design.

In their efforts to create the art book with 108 images and 200 pages in total that illustrate traditional costumes of men and women of 54 ethnic groups, three young people have worked hard, as well as devoted their time and effort to this book in a bid to complete it just over 15 weeks. All their hard work paid off in the end as they received positive reaction of their online community and response towards their art book as soon as the first pictures of this book were posted on social media. Therefore, the project’s developers decided to upgrade their graduation project into a community service project for nonprofits. Just a short time after launching participation invitation campaign, they attracted a lot of young participants.

Awaking the love of the country in young people

Tram Minh Thao who was born 1999 and is the illustrator of the fanpage 'Dong Bao Viet Phuc' confided: "We realize that the more modern the world becomes, the more people explore cultural values across sectors and societies. We can see other community service projects being enthusiastically responded to by young people. We are also taking advantage of enthusiasm, the spirit of daring to think, daring to do and creative thinking of young people to explore the traditional cultural values ​​of our country in an attempt to create newer approaches to the Vietnamese culture for them."

Young people with the same passion for culture and the desire to preserve national identity have worked together to develop this project, and its team members have been grown from 3 to 9. Currently, they are continuing their efforts to develop the project, and are divided into 2 groups that get involved in designing and creating content. However, their journey to promote the Vietnamese culture also encountered many obstacles as their non-profit project has been interrupted for nearly two years. However, their interrupted ‘Viet Phuc compatriots’ project is now continuing in the happiness of their loyal viewers.

“This project has helped us improve their knowledge and professional skills, as well as arouse patriotism in us. We are inspired to continue our project by positive feedback from our online community that express their desire to learn about the country's culture. That is also the source of motivation for us to be determined to continue the project", Huyen Tran said happily.

Reporting by DIEN MY - Translating by CHAU NGAN, P.TRA