On January 11, in Hanoi, the Truth National Political Publishing House coordinated with the Ethnic Committee to organize the book launch event: Travel: Colorful costumes of women of Vietnamese ethnic groups (bilingual Vietnamese - English) by author Nguyen Bong Mai.
The book is the result of a journey across the S-shaped land called "99 days across Vietnam with Mai" to learn about culture, life, people and especially the characteristics of each ethnic group through costumes and inspirational stories.
The author of the book has researched, recorded, and vividly recreated 55 unique costumes with nearly 1,000 details on the costumes from meetings with people of 35 ethnic groups, opening up stories about culture, history, and tradition.
Not simply a photo book, recording costumes, but the book will bring a lot of emotions through telling vivid, humane historical and cultural stories about the identity of each nation, expressed through unique, sophisticated costumes.
The costumes are drawn and redesigned by a group of young people from Gen Z. The book takes readers into a colorful space of costumes of Mong, Khang, Dao, Tay, Nung, Thai ethnic women... Each costume has its own unique characteristics, and the people preserve its identity through each pattern, weaving, embroidery, dyeing, printing, and beading techniques.
Each costume presented in the book is a work of art that combines many elements: shape, craft techniques, colors and folk knowledge. More deeply, it can contain stories about culture, history, art, and is an expression and crystallization of the quintessence of ethnic culture.
Author Nguyen Bong Mai shared that the book is not only for her but also for the women she has met throughout her journey with the desire to inspire them to break social prejudices and their own limitations to "Dare to live a brilliant life".
At the book launch ceremony, Mr. Vo Van Be - Deputy Director, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the National Political Publishing House Truth - shared: "It can be said that Vietnamese national costumes are one of the interesting topics because they not only bring creative beauty but also the unique identity of ethnic groups/ethnic groups.
Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups, each with its own lifestyle and way of dressing. Although there is now a slight saturation, there is still a distinction that we can recognize just by looking at it.
In addition to the paper version, the publisher will also release an electronic version to spread the value of the work more widely. The launch ceremony is also an opportunity for readers to listen to behind-the-scenes stories, challenges and memorable memories in the process of completing the book.
According to Mr. Nguyen Thai Binh - Deputy Director of the National Political Publishing House Truth: "This is a pioneering work in our travel book series, demonstrating the spirit of cultural discovery and preservation."