From the Crown of King Dinh Tien Hoang
At the Hoa Lu Festival 2026, the appearance of the costume of the actor playing King Dinh Bo Linh caused a stir right after being broadcast live on television. The focus was King Dinh's crown. On social networking platforms, many opinions expressed questions about why the king wore a crown but the hat was... turned horizontally. Some people explained that the crown, also known as the bình thiên hat, has a flat rectangular shape on the top, placed horizontally, so it is called "bình thiên", meaning the top of the king's head is flat. According to regulations, the hat has 12 ribbons made of pearls and jade in front and behind the neck.
The jade strips are like curtains covering "long nhan", preventing mandarins from looking straight at the king, and at the same time reminding emperors to maintain composure, impartiality, and not be dominated by momentary emotions.
The debate is like that, but no one really knows what the Dinh king's hat looks like and how to wear it.
From this story, many people mention that the historical film "Ly Cong Uan: The Road to Thang Long Citadel" could not be released on schedule, even though it had been invested with 100 billion VND (a very large amount of money in 2009) but was still stopped right before the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long. Part of the reason is that the costumes of the film are considered too similar to foreign historical films.
Director - People's Artist Trong Trinh said: "There are many reasons why we are hesitant to make historical films about dynasties. The biggest difficulty is the scarcity of materials and images. Investment in historical projects is also very large. Historical films are also very easily drawn into controversy.
The above stories show that the standardization and digitization of cultural data is especially necessary, especially in the field of theater and cinema.
Building a data ecosystem for the cultural industry
The digitization of cultural data is increasingly being concerned, especially after the Project "Digital Transformation in the Culture Sector to 2030, vision to 2045" was approved by the Government in April 2026.
The Vietnam Association for Cultural Industry Development will also build a map of Vietnamese cultural data, connecting museum, library, publishing, heritage... data to serve film, game, and music production.
According to NSND Vuong Duy Bien, from now until the end of 2026, the Vietnam Association for Cultural Industry Development will focus on digitizing, standardizing and creating a source of high-quality scripts; connecting social resources; implementing infrastructure projects and key national and international film works. It is expected that the Vietnam Culture Data Map will be completed by 2030.
From a local perspective, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are taking drastic steps to digitize cultural data.
In mid-May 2026, experts, managers and scientists discussed solutions to build a specialized statistical data system to serve management, policy planning and make the cultural industry a new driving force for Hanoi's growth.
Leaders of the Heritage Management Department under the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports said: "Digitalization is not simply storing data, but also opening up the possibility of creating new cultural products in the fields of visual arts, performing arts or cultural tourism. At that time, heritage is not just a memory of the past but can become an economic resource for the present.
In Ho Chi Minh City, on July 23, the seminar "Digitalizing cultural and tourism data in Ho Chi Minh City" was also held. At this seminar, Dr. Ma Thanh Cao - former Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts - said that for intangible heritage such as Cai Luong, Hat Boi, Don ca tai tu or traditional festivals, recording, recording and storing in a timely manner is an urgent requirement in the face of the risk of fading away.
According to the Project "Digital Transformation in the Culture Sector to 2030, vision to 2045", the goal is to comprehensively modernize the national digital cultural ecosystem in order to preserve and promote advanced Vietnamese cultural values, rich in national identity, creative and proactive in international integration.
At the same time, the project aims to make digital culture a new resource for sustainable development; promote the development of the cultural industry; ensure that cultural resources are widely digitized, shared effectively, serving people, businesses and society.
The project sets a target that by 2030, 100% of cultural fields will have a common digital platform; all digitized heritages will be standardized, sharing data; 80% of public digital heritages will have identification codes to establish ownership, manage exploitation and promote the market.
