Honoring and Promoting the Values of Vietnamese Ao Dai

In sharing a thought on finding a way to revive and develop Vietnamese Ao dai, Phan Thanh Hai, Director of the Department of Culture and Sports, compared the development of a national brand for Ao dai with the Korean Hanbok.

His thoughts were gathered during the trip to Korea to attend the Hanbok exhibition event at the invitation of the Korean Cultural Heritage Promotion Association. Expressing his strong impression of the professional organization, Hai believed the popularity of Hanbok could set an example model for Vietnamese Ao dai in becoming a product of the creative and cultural industries.

Dr. Phan Thanh Hai shared the story of developing the ao dai brand at a conference.

At the conference "UNESCO Creative Cities Network and the possibility of transforming cultural resources in Hue," Hai recounted that the exhibition attracted more than 100 companies specializing in designing this type of clothing and related accessories. A wide variety of products from traditional to modern Hanbok styles, designs, and accessories such as hats, scarves, shoes, bags, handbags, brooches, hairpins, wigs... were brought to the exhibition. These products are for both men and women, from children, youth, and middle-aged to the elderly.

From this exhibition, Hai commented that Korean people see Hanbok as pride, so they have methodically worked to educate about traditions and promote tourism. Therefore, although it is rarely used in daily life like Vietnamese Ao dai, Hanbok has still built a famous brand, becoming an impressive image in the international arena.

More importantly, the Korean government clearly understands the value of the Hanbok and actively supports the recovery, branding and promoting this type of clothing. The government encourages and accompanies designers and artisans in the development of Hanbok, always considering Hanbok as a specific cultural industrial product and a national brand.

In addition, they always take full advantage of technological strengths to support the recovery and spread of Hanbok through digital technology. According to Mr. Hai, what "sees and hears" from Korean Hanbok is considered an extremely valuable lesson in making Vietnamese Ao dai become a typical product of the creative and cultural industries.

Vietnamese Ao Dai.

In the immediate future, Mr. Hai thinks it is necessary to officially recognize and honor Ao dai as a valuable traditional cultural heritage of the nation, and to include Ao dai in the list of national intangible cultural heritage. It is informed that in early 2022, Thua Thien Hue province submitted documents to the Department of Cultural Heritage to request registration of Ao dai with two criteria: the profession of tailoring Ao dai and the uses of Ao dai of Hue people.

“In the long term, it is possible to create a dossier of Ao dai with several typical and outstanding criteria to request UNESCO to enroll it in the Representative List of Intangible Heritage. But first, we need to officially honor Ao dai nationwide. It is added that the issue of honoring the Ao dai has been of interest to some researchers and the community for a long time”, said Mr. Hai.

Project “Hue – the Capital of Vietnamese Ao dai” is being implemented with many specific goals and is considered “a typical cultural model”. According to Mr. Hai, it is necessary to have a common policy at the national level for the revival and development of this costume.

“We need to consider Ao dai as a precious heritage, a typical national brand like the way Koreans do with Hanbok, then assign relevant ministries and branches to research and promulgate supportive policies to the development, artisans, materials, as well as promoting, organizing exhibitions, design competitions, promoting the development of ao dai,” said Mr. Hai.

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