With a youthful and creative spirit, young people who are passionate about learning about ethnic culture and art, students of FPT University Ho Chi Minh City, have applied technology to digitize the zèng patterns on the brocade of the Ta Oi ethnic group in A Luoi district (Thua Thien Hue). The integration of zèng patterns with digital graphics not only spreads the traditional beauty but also contributes to preserving and promoting the traditional weaving craft of zèng brocade with modern means.
Attracting young people by art forms and a series of vivid and intuitive experiential activities, the GenZ weaving ZenG project – From weaving threads to digital streaks by a group of students of the “GenZ” generation, majoring in multimedia communication management at FPT University Ho Chi Minh City, is a combination of patterns on traditional brocade panels of the Ta Oi people when weaving zèng with modern design aesthetics, implemented on a bitmap and pixel style background.
“Weaving” zèng on a digital platform
Digitizing heritage is a trend for young people to spread the beauty of national culture. Choosing patterns and motifs on zèng panels of the Ta Oi people to digitize, project leader Dao Khanh Linh shared: “As young people, we see that our peers are tending to integrate into modern life and forget traditional values.
Therefore, I and my friends Lai Thi Dieu Thuy, Dang Thi Thanh Hoa, Nguyen Tran Thien Thanh apply technology to bring culture closer to the young generation. With this project, we hope to erase the invisible boundary between zèng patterns and modern designs as well as the distance in space, spreading each weaving stitch to our peers, helping the good values of zèng weaving appear more in the digital age.
In addition, we hope that the GenZ ZenG weaving project will contribute to raising awareness among young people about heritage conservation, while encouraging the younger generation to learn and research the brocade weaving culture of the Ta Oi people in particular and Vietnamese culture in general”.
Having made many field trips to A Ngo and A Dot communes, A Luoi district, meeting Ta Oi women who still weave zèng, the group of young people received enthusiastic support from the local people. Being able to touch, see with their own eyes and be attracted by the eye-catching color bands, the pattern system on zèng, and each delicate weaving stroke on the zèng, the project team understands more about the weaving profession that has existed for hundreds of years. Each story about zèng is a mark of a simple life, imbued with culture, highlighted by each bead and each soft thread.
Weaving zèng is one of the unique traditional weaving techniques in the brocade weaving system in Vietnam, requiring high skills, meticulousness and meticulousness. To weave a zèng, in the same operation, the worker must weave thread patterns, insert beads and thread threads without any sketches.
During the field trips, the group observed and recorded the weaving process, discovered how to combine colors to create patterns from horizontal and vertical threads as well as the logic in the art of weaving. Achoa Pâl Luuch is the oldest thread pattern, used to separate bead patterns and is the pattern with the most beautiful color tones.
The Mat Ku Boal pattern has a majestic beauty, considered to be the eyes of the gods that the Ta Oi people worship with the hope of being protected by the gods. During the process of analyzing, researching and digitizing, the group chose a bitmap style that converts the pattern into a grid image with small square pixels, which works well on monochrome beaded patterns and is easy to apply in contemporary media publications.
A group of FPT University students surveyed and implemented the project “GenZ weaving ZenG” in A Luoi district (Thua Thien Hue)
During their fieldwork, the project team observed that many young Ta Oi people had moved to large cities for work. Consequently, when the local communities saw the students working on their project, they were very enthusiastic, understanding the project’s goals. They eagerly assisted the group in learning about their crafts and expressed their hope that young people would help spread the values of zèng.
Ra Pat Ngoc Ha from A Đot Village, Lam Đot Commune, A Luoi District, noted that the younger generation will inherit and contribute to the development of weaving, so he hopes that the craft will be widely promoted among young people. A Kơ Pi Nghe, a Ta Oi member and advisor to the Ethnicity group, a community project pioneering in digitizing traditional textile patterns, shared: “Weaving zèng is an integral part of Ta Oi life. Therefore, I hope to bring the pride of my ethnic group, and the distinctive features of traditional culture, to connect with young people to share and promote this unique textile.”
Bridging culture and digital technology, the “GenZ Weaving ZènG” project’s website and fanpage actively share information about the Ta Oi’s textile culture. To increase recognition and attract young people’s attention, their posts blend trending, engaging content while maintaining cultural authenticity.
The series “Back in the Day” and “GenZ Weaving ZènG, From A to Z” provide information gathered from field trips to A Luoi District, sharing stories about people, places, beliefs, and customs. This allows people to explore weaving through digital platforms. Upon successful digitization of patterns, the group uploads the original and digitized textile designs to the GenZ Weaving ZènG digital library. This repository features a diverse range of digitized zèng patterns.
In the future, contemporary designers will release products featuring digitized zèng patterns and develop modern designs, aiming to convey messages through these products while showcasing the traditional beauty of Vietnam’s intangible cultural heritage.
To enhance the practical application of digitized patterns and effectively convey the project’s message, the team will launch a rap music video, “Weaving Your Way Back,” featuring a vocalist—a popular genre among GenZ today. They will also host the workshop “Zèng Digital Streak” to help young people understand the digitization process through interactive and hands-on activities.
Additionally, the digital exhibition “Discover Zèng Patterns” will showcase digitized patterns through various digital forms. To further promote and raise awareness of zèng weaving preservation, the project will continue with an online creative camp and finalize a documentary film about young people preserving and spreading the craft of zèng weaving.
According to Nhandan