HÀ NÔI — The Vietnam Centre, based in Australia, has recently kicked off a crowd-funding project.

The money will be used for publishing a book on royal customs and costumes of Đại Việt (the old name for Việt Nam) in the Early Lê reign from 1437 to 1471.

The project aims to raise funds of VNĐ200 million (US$8,800) through the website comicola.com.

Donors can choose various levels to support the project, ranging from VNĐ200,000 to VNĐ6 million, 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 Lê reign based on research by prestigious scholars such as Trần Quang Đức and Phan Huy Chú, 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 Trần Lê Trung Hiếu.

Sketches will be drawn by artist Nguyễn Hoài Dương, and paintings will be done by artist Đăng Thiên, while photos will be taken by Steve Huỳnh, Nguyễn Vũ Kỳ Phong and stylist Boongbi, who have co-operated 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 Việt Nam to introduce both traditional and contemporary cultures of Việt Nam 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 VNĐ2 billion ($87,800,000) for various cultural and art projects by Vietnamese people, 50 per cent of the capital source has been used to print comic books by Vietnamese artists. — VNS