Turning heritage into national soft power
One summer morning 2026, Mr. Hoang Son, 75 years old, in Ha Dong ward (Hanoi), and his niece took a bus to visit Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam again after more than 10 years.
Returning to the relic, he was surprised when just scanning the QR code placed next to each item, information about history, architecture and meaning immediately appeared clearly and vividly, instead of the small, faded notes before.
The trip of the grandfather and grandchild becomes more meaningful when the 950-year-old "heritage world" of the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam is condensed into a phone. Thanks to the application of digital technology, heritage is increasingly closer to the public, especially young people.
That story is happening at many relic sites in Hanoi such as Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam, Ngoc Son Temple, Thang Long Imperial Citadel Heritage Site. Products such as the "Tinh hoa dao hoc" night tour, "Ngoc Son - Dem huyen bi", the play "Kinh do Thang Long" or the 3D mapping performance program at Thang Long Imperial Citadel show a new direction: Digitization is not only for storage, but also to make the heritage lively, with the ability to reach the wider public and become a material for the cultural industry.
Digitizing heritage is an urgent requirement when Vietnam has more than 40,000 relics, nearly 70,000 intangible cultural heritages, 34 UNESCO-registered heritages and more than 4 million museum artifacts. If systematically digitized, this resource can become data, creative products and national soft power.
Architect Dinh Viet Phuong - Director of 3Dart, one of the pioneers in digital heritage transformation - said that if it is only preserved in a traditional way, with static display or single-line introduction, it will be very difficult to bring the heritage closer to the public, and at the same time it is difficult to create sustainable economic value. According to him, when a relic is digitized properly, not only is the shape of the structure preserved but also opens up new access possibilities in research, education and creativity.
Foundation for shared data
The important thing is that digitization cannot stop at performance effects. A beautiful 3D mapping program can attract the public overnight, but to become an infrastructure for the cultural industry, heritage data must be built accurately, systematically, and reusable. Architect Dinh Viet Phuong emphasized that a standard heritage data system needs to ensure geometric accuracy, material structure, and a clear metadata system.
This assessment raises a very fundamental issue: To develop the cultural industry, first of all, there must be digital cultural infrastructure. That is the entire data platform, technical standards, storage processes, exploitation mechanisms, copyright protection and connectivity between management agencies, museums, relics, technology businesses, artists, designers, filmmakers, game producers, education and tourism.
Decree No. 277/2026/ND-CP on digital cultural infrastructure is issued as an important step, laying the foundation for cultural development and management in the digital environment. The Decree defines digital cultural infrastructure including digital infrastructure, digital cultural data infrastructure, digital platforms, digital systems and digital tools serving public interests. If transport infrastructure connects people and goods, digital infrastructure connects data and knowledge, then digital cultural infrastructure is the foundation connecting national identity with creativity, economy and national soft power.
In the cultural industry, data is the raw material. Movies, animations, electronic games, design, fashion, music, advertising, publishing, and experiential tourism all need a cultural data warehouse to create new products. An ancient pattern, a village communal house architecture, a traditional ritual, a national costume, a folk song, if digitized standardly, with clear copyright, and legally exploitable, will become a material source for many creative products.
In the AI era, if Vietnam does not have a cultural data warehouse large enough, standard and deep enough, artificial intelligence models will mainly learn from foreign data. At that time, digital creation products may lack Vietnamese identity, even misunderstand or pooren Vietnamese cultural values. Cultural data infrastructure therefore not only serves preservation, but also ensures that Vietnamese culture has a worthy position in the global digital environment.
