For the first time in Ho Chi Minh City, nearly 1,000 people participated and paradigned at the Bach Hoa Bo Hanh event on March 8, 2025. Hundreds of costumes of all kinds from the Ly, Tran, Le, Nguyen dynasties are like "colorful" flowers in the center of District 1. On the occasion of the first "Bach Hoa Bo Hanh" festival in the Spring, Lao Dong Newspaper had a conversation with Mr. Vu Duc, one of the three founders of this Vietnamese costume Festival.
Originating from passionate love
Hello Vu Duc! It can be said that 2025 is a special milestone for the Ministry of Culture and Sports, when the festival successfully organized the biggest Vietnamese costume parade event of this spring in Ho Chi Minh City. Looking back on the past journey, can Duc share how he and his colleagues Bach Hoa Bo Hanh have approached Vietnamese costumes?
- Since 2014, the curiosity and learning of young people in the Vietnamese traditional costume movement has been "lighted up". From 2018 to 2020, sketches of traditional costumes were created from the letters of description in the documents left.
Observing the growth of Vietnamese costumes, as well as realizing that the reference documents on ancient costumes still have many limitations, in 2019, I decided to establish Great Vietnam - currently one of the most typical units in researching and practicing Vietnamese royal costumes. The Vietnamese costume market then also began to see the names of brands with outfits that had been " shaped", but were only elementary.
I, Quynh Nga and Gia Loc have been performing Bach Hoa Bo Hanh together since the first season in 2022. Currently, Gia Loc is not in the country, so Russia and I are the two main managers.
I know Russia from the Thuy Trung Nguyet project, a young factor who has actively participated in activities in the Vietnamese costume community since 2020; and Russia later brought Loc to participate. Gia Loc once attracted attention as a "Foreign Trade Student Wearing traditional costumes to school".
In March 2022, there was a sudden appointment between me and Russia. After a while, I reminded the other 2 friends in the group about the idea of a group of people wearing Vietnamese costumes parading and said that it was mandatory to do it immediately. Because if not done now, the project does not know how long to wait.
About a week later, Bach Hoa Bo Hanh season 1 officially took place.
How long has the idea of Bach Hoa Bo Hanh been cherished?
- In China, there is a Red Line Festival and in Korea, there is a Hanbok Festival for people to go out, wear and honor the traditional costumes of their country.
Not only we, the group of authors Bach Hoa Bo Hanh, but also many young people of the generation that created the traditional costume movement in the past 10 years, all want to wear Vietnamese costumes and see people wearing Vietnamese costumes confidently walking down the street.
I took advantage of the strengths that I had built for Great Vietnam to start working. In particular, the biggest advantage of the 3 members of the group when performing the Bach Hoa Bo Hanh is that we always agree with each other in every stage of organization.
No road is covered with roses
How was the first season of Bach Hoa Bo Hanh prepared? There must have been some unique confusion and difficulties?
- We held season 1 on a hot weekend in June 2022 on Hoan Kiem Lake walking street with 100 participants. In fact, the first season event is like a direct meeting of the community of Vietnamese costume lovers because the theme is to share and introduce the achievements of outstanding individuals and organizations in traditional costumes.
A week before, we based on the pre-drawn plan to implement each day: Meet with co-organizers and Vietnamese clothing brands to agree on events, open registration portals for volunteers and collaborators to support events, expand notification to media channels, then meet and arrange, and guide volunteers to wear Vietnamese clothing.
When meeting with co-organizing units and Vietnamese costume brands, we always pay attention to the fairness factor - because each unit has its own strengths in Vietnamese costume. Meanwhile, we hope Bach Hoa Bo Hanh will be a "playground" for everyone.
We know that at that time, very few people, even in the historical and cultural research community or the authorities, would not understand what we were really doing. When we parade on the street, the locals were very curious: "Normally, people wear traditional costumes such as ao dai, not dress strange like this!".
I don't remember exactly how we 3 went in a week of preparation, but it can be said that we were really tired after the event. The Russian friend lost two phones.
Closing the first event, how did the group of authors Bach Hoa Bo Hanh feel?
- When photos of the traditional costumes in the parade were posted on social media, I felt all the emotions burst out. We continuously received comments from netizens: "Forever", "or cough"... After that, Bach Hoa Bo Hanh was nominated and awarded the 8th National Award for Foreign Information in 2022.
The first season has ended, I also reminded myself that I definitely have to do a second season. Therefore, just 1 month later, we quickly searched for the host unit and decided to connect with the Delegation of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi to complete the theme "respect for teachers and priests".
Connecting the Fire of passion
Besides the open thinking about Vietnamese costumes, there are still thoughts that Vietnamese history has no ancient costumes. How do Duc and his colleagues think about this?
- Indeed, I do not care much about such opinions because the history of Vietnamese costumes always has clear evidence. In the subsidy period, the main raincoat was worn every day and this was also a familiar coat in the socialist system. In addition, the cross-court shirt is also very popular.
These types of clothes originally used the same cultural and costume assets of the region or the international community, just like today, we wear vests or T-shirts.
Looking back at the 5 seasons of Bach Hoa Bo Hanh, what is the group most concerned about? What do you want and orient for the future?
- We are very happy that young people with influence have participated and parked with Bach Hoa Bo Hanh, helping Vietnamese costumes reach more people. Vietnamese costumes have always been there, only in the past 30-40 years has the culture of traditional costumes been lost.
For example, a male friend's traditional costume, after being posted on social media, has received a series of explosive controversies because of its similar style in Chinese martial arts films. Immediately after that, we also spoke up about the Thuong Trieu Quan of the Nguyen Dynasty with a lotus hat and a coat of arms decorated with capital luxury.
Through Bach Hoa Bo Hanh, we have sent a "easy to play" playground to everyone. Normally, people only wear ao dai during Tet; currently, Bach Hoa Bo Hanh organizes many seasons, participants can wear ao dai and traditional costumes up to 3-4 times at any time of the year as we have organized in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Hue.
I think I have been able to contribute a small part in inspiring those who have not yet or are looking to learn about Vietnamese costumes, as well as those who want to expand the scale of Vietnamese costumes such as staging or making them into reality TV shows and movies.
I hope that Bach Hoa Bo Hanh will be a solid anchor for the Vietnamese costume movement. We also hope that teachers or researchers in general in Vietnam will try to pay attention to traditional costumes and include them in the education system to reach the younger generation.
