Saving Han-Nom heritage

 The HCM City General Sciences Library will hold a cultural-heritage conference on preserving historic Han-Nom documents starting tomorrow, November 25.
Nearly 100 participants including researchers and collectors, experts from the Viet Nam National Library, the city Culture, Sports, and Tourism Department, and libraries from Da Nang to Ca Mau provinces will discuss ways to preserve the old documents in Nom (old Vietnamese ideographic script adapted from Han Chinese script).
The General Sciences Library, National Library, and archives and information agencies will also talk about their experiences collecting ancient documents, their preservation and the promotion of their value.
Bui Xuan Duc, director of the city General Sciences Library, said after the loss of many Han-Nom documents due to storms in Hue and Phu Yen, the library started to collect them from the region for restoration and digitalisation.
The library is continuing its document-finding trips to Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces with a special interest to find old papers which describe the location of Sai Gon-Gia Dinh, from the time when Nguyen Huu Canh first discovered the southern land, Duc said.
An exhibition featuring a collection of more than 100 articles and documents written in Han-Nom scripts including books, seals and administration papers from libraries, and collectors and researchers like Nguyen Van Pham and Tran Dinh Son, as well as digitalised versions will also be presented.
The exhibition will open until Friday at the city General Sciences Library at 69 Ly Tu Trong Street, District 1, HCM City.
The conference and exhibition are organised by the city library, Library Department and National Library to celebrate Viet Nam Cultural Heritage Day on November 23 and to report the first phase of the project of collecting and digitalising Han-Nom documents in Hue and Phu Yen.