Gen Z filmmaker spends more than 1 billion dong to bring Vietnamese culture closer

Hoang The Tiep did not set out to make Vietnamese heritage look younger. He wanted to make it feel closer. Instead of producing quick, disposable videos, the 29-year-old founder of Touch Vietnam is making documentaries that run between eight and 15 minutes.

The project follows traditional craft villages and Vietnamese culture through the eyes of young people. Tiep said visits to China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore showed him how early those countries had developed their cultural industries. He was particularly struck by how Chinese people understood and took pride in their culture, from traditional trades to local food.

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Vietnam often appears through a few familiar images and short clips. I asked myself why such a culturally rich country had not been told about in a way that would make people truly feel connected to it. I believe the problem is not that Vietnamese culture lacks value, but how we tell its stories.

“Vietnam often appears through a few familiar images and short clips. I asked myself why such a culturally rich country had not been told about in a way that would make people truly feel connected to it,” Tiep said. “I believe the problem is not that Vietnamese culture lacks value, but how we tell its stories.”

Tiep had developed the idea since 2021. He and Pham Hoang Tung, 22, began filming in October 2025 at Lung Tam weaving village in Tuyen Quang. Meeting a 97-year-old woman there persuaded Tiep to leave his job and devote himself to the project.

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If I do not start now, there will not be much time left to record those moments.

“If I do not start now, there will not be much time left to record those moments,” he said. The pair have since visited 25 craft villages, sometimes returning three times to gather enough material. Tiep said local residents have become familiar with their repeated visits. He has invested more than 1 billion dong in cameras and other equipment, building a 40-terabyte archive of footage.

Tiep said heritage lives not in objects alone, but in the people who preserve it. “I am not trying to make heritage young. Heritage does not need to be young, it needs to be understood correctly. I am translating it into the language of young people so they can see that it is not only their grandparents’ story, but their own,” he said.

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I am not trying to make heritage young. Heritage does not need to be young, it needs to be understood correctly. I am translating it into the language of young people so they can see that it is not only their grandparents’ story, but their own.