Creative Project: 29 “Vietnam-s” in your hands
Mini Exegesis
For the purpose of carrying out a project which can perform my creativity and illustrating a creative approach to my major, the handbook 29”Vietnan-s” in your hands is created to meet these needs. Through this project, I wish to introduce my country in new and different aspects derived from my experiences, viewpoints and nationalism. Because of this, my project is unique and interesting and I can also demonstrate many sides of Vietnam, improve the images of my country, inspire international fellow friends discover, and respect it. That is what I focus on in this project. Moreover, there are two versions of the handbook: digital version available on my Word press blog and the paper version with hand-written text and calligraphy.
In the process of my project, the formation of my idea reflects on the lecture of week 6: Creative Theories and Processes. There are two elements in the creative processes: idealists and action theorist (Manson, 2017). Firstly, my idea of creating something related to my home country formed in my mind unconsciously and the concept of making a handbook come from my own experience and interest in handmade field. As Csikszentmihalyi states that interest in the domain is important and may motivate an individual to be more creative (1996), so the process of idealist was achieved when I made my decision to create this handbook. It includes 29 letters in Vietnamese alphabet and 29 things about my country which begin with these letters. However, one thing I worried about is my project could not be considered creative or it was just the guide book for tourists because viewers may think that I just copied and pasted the information from Internet. I would strongly disagree with that. 29 items included in my handbook come from my own experience and interest in my country. I have given many opinions and also my experience or my friends’ and I also considered where I should provide them very thoroughly, so my handbook is not the same as travel guide books. Moreover, there are many posts or articles on Internet about Vietnamese cuisine, attractions, or traditions. Therefore, I have researched if there are any handbooks or books for travelers which may have the same theme as my project, which is the second step of the creative process, but I did not find any results. Finally, the idea has been completed by my experience, interest and research.
When the project was under process, some items beginning with the letters cannot match the theme. After a plenty of research I did and the assistance from my friends, I still could not find any subjects beginning with e, i, k, o, u and y. As a result, I have changed the concept that the items either start with these letters or contain them. After all, the special things I would like to present my country are:
- A: An Giang – the province in southwestern Vietnam
- A: An vat/ Snacks – delicious and popular snacks
- A: Am nhac Music – brief introduction of traditional music
- B: Banh mi – the well-known representative of Vietnamese cuisine
- C: Banh trang cuon – one of the most well-known Vietnamese food among foreigners
- D: Ao dai – Vietnamese national dress
- D: Da Lat – the favorite destination of local and foreign travelers
- E: Xe om: the popular mean of public transportation
- E: Ca phe sua da/ Iced milk coffee: typical drink
- G: Ganh da dia/ Da Dia reef – beautiful creation by nature
- H: Pho co Hoi An/ Hoi An Ancient town: the most magnificent ancient attraction in my opinion
- I: Banh pia: the special cake
- K: Truyen Kieu/ The tale of Kieu: the masterpiece in Vietnamese literature
- L: Den long/ Lantern: most-buy product in Hoi An
- M: Mua roi nuoc/ Water puppetry: a typical art in Vietnam for centuries
- N: Ba Na Hills: going on the world record non-stop cable car to get to heaven
- O: Thang long/ Dragon fruit: the typical fruit
- O: Hot vit lon/ Half-hatch duck egg: a Vietnamese weird food but nutritious
- O: Ho Guom or Ho Hoan Kiem/ Hoan Kiem Lake: the symbol of Hanoi
- P: Phan xi pang/ Mt Fansipan: the highest peak in Indochina
- Q: Van Mieu Quoc Tu Giam/ Temple of Literature: the first university of Vietnam
- R: Rung quoc gia Nam Cat Tien/ Cat Tien National Park: a natural treasure of biodiveristy
- S: Hang Son Doong/ Son Doong Cave: the largest cave in the world
- T: Tet: Vietnamese Lunar New Year
- U: Hue: one of the most famous ancient sites
- U: Banh chung: traditional rice cake
- V: Vinh Ha Long/ Ha Long Bay: the UNESCO World heritage Site
- X: Xich lo/ Cyclo: favourite vehicle of international tourists in Vietnam
- Y: Chao quay
Moreover, to motivate my creativity and maintain the process of this project going well, the creative environments surrounding me have been established effectively. This is because the creative environments that influence on creative individuals play an important role (Manson, 2017). These environmental elements are based on social and social contexts. Social context is the environment surrounding people impacts on how they view and interpret a subject and physical context is environment around a subject which has the effect on how people feel it (“Glossary,” n.d.). I wish to do a project related to my country because I live away from it and I also attempt to present Vietnam to everybody. Additionally, the built environment provides the space for me to practice my creativity. This project has been under process mostly in my room which is simple in decoration and also in classroom and quiet library. Another element that contributes to my work in terms of inspiration and emotion is music. Thanks to these effective contributions, I have been encouraged to develop my work. Furthermore, because of the requirement of individual work, I could pay more attention to my goals, but the comments of my classmates and the advice of my tutor have helped me to improve my task. Therefore, the environments enable my work to be developed, and according to the contexts, my project is considered creative work. These days, people are fascinated by travelling and experiencing the ancient features in the world, so people could find it useful and interesting. Lastly, because there has been no work that represents the concept of introduction of a country followed letters in alphabet, my project would consider distinct and unique.
Besides, I provided some photos I found on the Internet, but this is a personal work, so the photos from my friends and the ones taken by me have portrayed the image of my country clearly to viewers. Then, these pictures were advanced by information technology Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 in particular for the better quality. They are available in digital version of the handbook and credited to the source by names. Another point that makes my project remarkable is my experience, stories, viewpoints and advice given in each part. The text in the book is written in English and I also provide Vietnamese words and phrases because the items are all about Vietnam. In each blog post, Vietnamese phrases are italic. Furthermore, every item has been translated into English and explained in simple words and only basic information such as locations and characteristics given to avoid confusion for readers. Also, everything I provided in the handbook is simple for foreigners and familiar for Vietnamese people because it is not academic textbook and strange words may cause difficulties in explaining and understanding.
I wanted to make two versions of the book to meet the preference of people these days. Firstly, digital version is suitable for those who enjoy electric books and learning through images. Secondly, paper version will be suitable for those who admire conventional performance: paper book and hand writing. In addition, in my blog, viewers can leave their comments to ask me about the text, subjects, or even travel guide. I am able to give them advice and some useful information they need because I studied Business and Tourism in Vietnam for two years.
Finally, through this work, I have learned how to gain people’s attention by writing. That is to add my own views, opinion, experience, stories, and advice. Also, viewers have left their comments on my blog posts, which encourage me to work harder for my project. They introduced special things about their country as well. This makes my work more interesting.
This creative project in Creativity: History, Theory and Practice is an assessment, but it is not a big problem to me because I have much experience in doing creative work which is small-scale. This project is expected to be the largest and the most remarkable that I have done and deserve my effort.
Reference list:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). The Creativity personality. Creativity: Flow and the psychology of iscovery and invention. New York: HarperCollins.
Glossary. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://web.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/student/mural/glossary.html
I.a.m.V.i 
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