HCM CITY  A cultural programme honouring the history and culture of the Mekong Delta region has been launched at Hồ Chí Minh City Book Street, offering visitors a rich, multi-layered journey into the cradle of Việt Nam’s wet rice civilisation.

The programme, themed Văn Minh Lúa Nước - Đồng Bằng Sông Cửu Long (Wet Rice Civilisation in the Mekong Delta), is organised by the Nguyễn An Ninh Digital Library, specialising in southern documents, and its partner.

Quách Thu Nguyệt, who is in charge of the library, said at the event’s opening ceremony on last Wednesday that “the programme is one of three major events held by the library to honour Vietnamese culture. It includes a series of exhibitions, talks and discussions portraying slices of history, culture, people and the potential of the land of ‘Nine Dragons'."

The programme introduces a series of exhibitions highlighting the region’s potential, challenges and development, the first rice-growing villages of the southern region, seasonal rice varieties and harvests, modern hybridisation techniques, key agronomists, and the role of the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute.

The event also features a showcase of portraits of bird species found in U Minh Thượng National Park, such as golden weavers, streaked weavers, and scarlet minivets. The paintings are created by Đào Văn Hoàng, who specialises in wildlife art.

In addition, the programme includes talks on the topics of seasonal rice in the cultural life of Mekong Delta residents; the history, ecology, livelihoods and culture of the region; as well as the preservation and sustainable development of Vietnamese rice – the journey to prosperity.

They are hosted by researchers and experienced engineers, such as Chung Hoàng Chương, a dedicated voice for community resilience and sustainability from the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and engineer Hồ Quang Cua, who developed ST25 rice, a variety that has won the World’s Best Rice award three times.

The event also presents a discussion about the chivalry of southern people through the Vietnamese epic poem Lục Vân Tiên by poet Nguyễn Đình Chiểu. The 2,076-line poem, written in nôm (the old Chinese-based Vietnamese script) in the 1850s, highlights the culture and lifestyle of southern people. Topics of love, loyalty, bravery, and justice vividly portrayed.

A performance of poetry recitation is also included.

All the discussions are held at the book street and livestreamed on the library’s page.

Phượng said: “Through a series of interactive activities, curated exhibitions and academic exchange events, this programme seeks to honour the material, scholarly, cultural and spiritual values of the Mekong Delta’s wet rice civilisation.”

She also announced a book project for the Mekong Delta aimed at promoting reading culture among local people and enhancing their agricultural knowledge and innovation capacity.

Under the project, the organisers will build a digital application that will serve as a digital bookshelf introducing books in different fields of agriculture, culture and society, as well as memoirs and journals about people and traditional craft villages in the region. VNS