An exhibit titled “Paper then and now”, which is running in northern Thai Nguyen province from now until October 20, features Vietnamese writing and history and the paper making process spanning centuries.

At the festival, which is taking place at the Vietnam Ethnic Culture Museum in Thai Nguyen city, tourists will have a  chance to take part in highly educational and experimental activities, such as making the country’s hallmark Dong Ho woodblocks, inscribing words on stone, bamboo and dried leaves, practicing calligraphy, and competing in writing on traditional kinds of paper.

Participants will also be able to practice their writings with historical poems and essays, as well as make paper from tree bark and straw, a process passed on by the Dao minority ethnic artisans from northern Ha Giang province, and enjoy performances of cong chieng (gongs), “xoan” dances by Bana ethnic artisans, and water puppetry by artists from northern Bac Ninh province.

Tourists can also visit the reading space, home to many books and magazines on local traditional culture, and relish in cuisine and experience firsthand traditional daily activities such as rice husking, cooking rice in pots, and folk games like pole walking, bamboo pole dances and carrying buckets of water across slim bamboo bridges.