Preserving ethnic costumes to become tourism products

On the afternoon of October 25, in Vinh city, the Department of Culture and Sports organized a training course to support capacity for artisans and prestigious people in the community of Nghe An province in 2019.

Attending the event were Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Ethnic Culture - Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; leaders of the Department of Culture and Sports, the Provincial Ethnic Committee and 110 trainees who are cultural officials, artisans and prestigious people in the community in 11 mountainous districts and towns of the province.

At the training session, the trainees learned two topics: Preserving and promoting traditional costumes of Vietnamese ethnic minorities in the current period; Promoting the role of artisans and prestigious people in the community in preserving and promoting the cultural identity of ethnic minorities in the current period.

Thai ethnic women in Ky Son district display traditional brocade weaving products.

In the first topic, students will receive the viewpoints, guidelines, and policies of the Party and State on preserving ethnic cultures and the current situation and changes in traditional costumes of ethnic minorities. From there, they will grasp the results achieved, the changing trends and the existing and limited aspects in the work of preserving and promoting traditional costumes.

In particular, it emphasizes that costumes are a humanistic tourism resource that needs to be researched, preserved, and promoted to become a tourism product, helping people have more income. This issue can be exploited by building production, performance, and sales spaces for costumes at tourist attractions; building museums and displaying products to attract tourists; organizing performances at ethnic cultural festivals and displaying at costume stalls and fairs.

In the second topic, students are equipped with knowledge about preserving and promoting the cultural identity of ethnic minorities, the opportunities and challenges in the context of globalization and international integration. The biggest challenge is the risk of losing traditional languages, the soul of national culture, which is also a means of conveying the thoughts, feelings and emotions of a community. Along with that is the risk of losing the identity of music, costumes, and cultural space.

Thai ethnic people in Binh Chuan commune (Con Cuong) are always conscious of preserving traditional costumes and cultural space.

The solutions currently being implemented are to promote identity in the community cultural environment; to promote positive elements of traditional social institutions of ethnic groups. In particular, focusing on promoting the role of prestigious people such as village elders, village chiefs, and clan leaders in mobilizing descendants and community members to preserve traditional cultural identity.

The training program is also an opportunity for artisans and prestigious people in ethnic minority communities to exchange and learn experiences in preserving and promoting cultural identity.