Vietnam Book Day 2025 at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam with the Event Series "Dreaming 4.0 - A Ticket Back to Childhood"

In response to the spirit of Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day (April 21st), the Library Department, the Department of Science, Information, and the Journal of International Studies collaborated with the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam's Book Lovers Club to organize the event series "Dreaming 4.0 - A Ticket Back to Childhood", which took place from April 14th to April 19th, 2025. The series successfully connected generations and ignited traditional cultural values through children's literature and folk games. This provided an opportunity for young people to explore, experience, and revisit childhood memories, while also honoring their generation's role in preserving and promoting these cultural values.

Inspired by the book "Give Me a Ticket to Childhood" by author Nguyen Nhat Anh, the "Dreaming 4.0 - A Ticket Back to Childhood" series featured two main activities: the "O An Quan - O Van Hoa" Festival and the "Touching the Literary Mark - Breathing Soul into Culture" Talkshow. The "O An Quan - O Van Hoa" Festival saw enthusiastic participation from a large number of students, staff, and lecturers of the Academy, while the "Touching the Literary Mark - Breathing Soul into Culture" Talkshow attracted the interest of over 200 students.

The "O An Quan - O Van Hoa" Festival was held from April 14th to 18th, featuring the "Chung Minh Thuo Be" (When We Were Young) Book Exhibition along with folk game experience activities.

The "Chung Minh Thuo Be" Book Exhibition not only offered a chance to return to childhood through children's literary works but also encouraged the spirit of reading, motivating the younger generation to delve deeper into Vietnamese folklore and history.

Furthermore, the exhibition provided engaging activities such as answering riddles via question cards, matching couplets (cau doi), or writing in a memory book to record the students' thoughts and feelings.

In the folk game experience area, students could participate in playing o an quan (a traditional Vietnamese board game), rai ranh (a traditional seed-throwing game), and other traditional folk games familiar to many generations of Vietnamese youth.

Additionally, the "Touching the Literary Mark - Breathing Soul into Culture" Talkshow featured two speakers: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Xuan Thach and writer Nguyen Truong Quy.

The Talkshow took place on April 19th, 2025, in Hall A of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. With two main themes, "Folk Culture - The Key to Nurturing Children’s Souls" and "Folk Culture - The Foundation for Contemporary Creation," the two speakers shared practical perspectives on how folk culture enters literature, from becoming material for composition to its role in nurturing the soul and inspiring creativity. The talkshow also discussed how to access and research culture through books, and how modern authors can integrate and promote folk values in their works.

The event series "Dreaming 4.0 - A Ticket Back to Childhood" by the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam's Book Lovers Club and the Library Department concluded successfully, thanks to the active participation and contributions from all staff, lecturers, and students of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in general, and the Library Department and Book Lovers Club in particular. The series successfully connected generations of officials and students, contributing to the honoring, preservation, and promotion of the unique traditional cultural values of the Vietnamese nation.