HÀ NỘI — Beneath Hà Nội, folklore is set to take on a new digital life as a child’s drawing of Thánh Gióng (Saint Gióng) appears across towering projection walls inside an immersive exhibition space, bringing traditional mythology into a contemporary visual experience.

Nearby, waves of light are expected to recreate the battle between Sơn Tinh and Thuỷ Tinh (Mountain and Water Gods), while dragons, mountains and ancient folk imagery move through sound, projection and motion.

Yet unlike many technology-driven exhibitions, Kỳ Mộng Dân Gian (Folk Tales in a Dreamscape) is not attempting to replace folklore with spectacle.

Kỳ Mộng Dân Gian (Folk Tales in a Dreamscape) aims to interpret Vietnamese heritage through light and children’s imagination. — Photos courtesy of the organisers

Instead, the project asks a more delicate question: what happens when Vietnamese folk memory enters the immersive age?

Organised by students from the Academy of Journalism and Communication in collaboration with X Space Immersive, Kỳ Mộng Dân Gian runs from May 11 to June 7 in Hà Nội.

A group of students from the Academy of Journalism and Communication, organisers of the Kỳ Mộng Dân Gian project in Hà Nội.

The project’s main immersive showcase is scheduled to take place over six weekend days from May 29 to June 7 at X Space Immersive inside Vincom Mega Mall Royal City.

Using LED mapping technology, the exhibition plans to reinterpret four iconic Vietnamese folktales: Con Rồng Cháu Tiên (Descendants of the Dragon and the Fairy), Sự tích Dưa Hấu (The Legend of the Watermelon), Thánh Gióng (The Legend of Saint Gióng) and Sơn Tinh - Thuỷ Tinh (The Legend of The Mountain and the Water Gods).

Between spectacle and cultural memory

For chief organiser Ngô Quỳnh Chi, one of the project’s greatest challenges lies in balancing technological immersion with the emotional depth of traditional storytelling.

Chief organiser Ngô Quỳnh Chi (right) and a representative from X Space Immersive discuss the project’s approach to combining technology and Vietnamese folklore.

“Technology and immersive effects can easily overwhelm audiences visually,” Chi said. “If not handled carefully, they risk overshadowing the core meaning of the stories themselves.”

That concern shaped much of the project’s creative process. According to organisers, the content and visual design teams worked closely together to ensure every animated movement, sound transition and visual layer remain connected to the original spirit of Vietnamese folk culture.

“Our goal was clear: technology must serve the content,” Chi said. “Each visual effect and each sound transition had to deepen the emotional flow and cultural meaning of the stories.”

The team said particular attention was paid to small details, from traditional costume elements and decorative motifs to the overall atmosphere of each projected world. The intention, Chi explained, was not to create fantasy characters detached from their roots, but to preserve recognisably Vietnamese imagery and cultural identity within a contemporary immersive format.

The approach reflects a broader tension increasingly visible across cultural projects aimed at younger audiences: how to modernise heritage without reducing it to entertainment alone.

Children as co-creators

While the immersive showcase formed the centrepiece of the project, some of its most meaningful moments emerged through a companion workshop series held at art centres across Hà Nội from May 11 to 17.

Members of the Kỳ Mộng Dân Gian organising team with children during a companion folklore workshop held in Hà Nội.

During the activities, children were invited to learn about Vietnamese folk tales and reinterpret them through their own drawings.

Those artworks were later digitised and projected directly into the immersive exhibition space, allowing children’s imagination to become part of the visual storytelling environment itself.

For organisers, the decision to use children’s drawings rather than relying entirely on professional visual designers was intentional.

“We wanted to preserve the innocence and originality in the way children imagine figures like Thánh Gióng or Mai An Tiêm,” Chi said.

Artworks created by young participants during Kỳ Mộng Dân Gian’s companion folklore workshops in Hà Nội.

Beyond aesthetics, the organisers see the workshops as an attempt to reshape how younger generations engage with cultural heritage.

“Children are not simply observing history,” Chi said. “They become co-creators within the cultural space itself.”

That idea of participation rather than passive observation has become central to the project’s identity.

Reimagining folklore for a digital generation

As younger audiences increasingly consume culture through fast-moving digital platforms and visual media, projects like Kỳ Mộng Dân Gian reflect a growing effort to rethink the language through which traditional heritage is communicated.

Rather than treating folk tales as static narratives from the past, the project approaches them as living cultural material capable of adapting to new artistic forms and technologies.

“If Kỳ Mộng Dân Gian is viewed as a cultural dream, we hope audiences leave with a new way of thinking about tradition,” Chi said.

Children create their own interpretations of Vietnamese folk tales during the art workshops in Hà Nội.

For Associate Professor Nguyễn Việt Hùng, one of the project’s advisers, immersive technology does not diminish folklore but may instead open a new mode of survival for traditional stories in the digital age.

In many ways, the project’s significance lies less in the technology itself than in the questions it raises: who gets to retell folklore, how cultural memory survives in the digital age and whether younger generations can still recognise themselves within ancient stories.

An immersive installation space at X Space Immersive - Photo courtesy of X Space Immersive

Inside the immersive darkness of X Space, those questions will soon unfold through children’s drawings, shifting lights and familiar legends reborn through projection.

Yet beneath the spectacle lies something quieter, an effort to ensure Vietnamese folk culture continues not only to be preserved, but actively reimagined by the generation that inherits it. — VNS