Vietnam Centre raises funds for publishing book

The money will be used for publishing a book on royal customs and costumes of Dai Viet (the old name for Vietnam) in the Early Le reign from 1437 to 1471.

The project aims to raise funds of 200 million VND (8,800 USD) through the website comicola.com.

Donors can choose various levels to support the project, ranging from 200,000 VND to 6 million VND, and will receive different gifts according to their support.

Titled “Weaving a Realm”, the 100-page English-Vietnamese book will include two parts on costumes and customs of the Early Le reign based on research by prestigious scholars such as Tran Quang Duc and Phan Huy Chu, and objects at museums in the north.

Besides text, the book will be illustrated with sketches and paintings clearly describing the forms, structures and materials of each costume. The book will also include photos of royal costumes that the organisation designed in the last year for the project by artisan Tran Le Trung Hieu.

Sketches will be drawn by artist Nguyen Hoai Duong, and paintings will be done by artist Dang Thien, while photos will be taken by Steve Huynh, Nguyen Vu Ky Phong and stylist Boongbi, who have cooperated with world famous photo magazines such as Vogue, Promo and BeauNu.

The Vietnam Centre is a non-profit organisation established in March 2017 based in Sydney, Australia, by Vietnamese people living in Australia. The centre aims to advertise Vietnamese culture to the world.

It also aims at setting up a network of Vietnamese culture centres in bustling cities across the world, and to connect researchers and artists in Vietnam to introduce both traditional and contemporary cultures of Vietnam through exhibitions, art performances, workshops, film screenings, concerts, and teaching Vietnamese language and culture.

Through the crowd-funding model, Comicola has called for a capital source of nearly 2 billion VND (87,800,000 USD) for various cultural and art projects by Vietnamese people, 50 percent of the capital source has been used to print comic books by Vietnamese artists.