《TAIPEI TIMES》 Chiayi exhibition features traditional Vietnamese dresses

By Lin Yi-chang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Chiayi Performing Arts Center on Saturday last week opened an exhibition on traditional Vietnamese cross-stitch embroidery and ao dai dresses to highlight the experience of Vietnamese spouses in Taiwan.

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The exhibition, which is to run through Oct. 21, is a collaboration between filmmaker Nguyen Kim-hong （阮金紅） and fashion designer Wu Ching-ching （武清清）, both of whom became Taiwanese through marriage.

Ao dai is the formal dress worn by Vietnamese women, typically made of silk with a high slit and worn over a matching pair of trousers, Nguyen said, adding that she and her friends and family made the dresses under Wu’s direction.

The exhibition seeks to shed light on immigrant women’s experience from childhood to motherhood via embroidery and to create a space where people of all ethnicities can appreciate Vietnamese culture, she said.

The dresses are embroidered with images of the Taipei 101, cherry blossoms of Alishan （阿里山） and Taiwanese sanheyuan （三合院） houses, as well as Vietnam’s floating markets and Ha Long Bay.

To mark the exhibit’s opening, 10 students from the Sieh Chih Vocational High School’s fashion design, performance art and childcare departments modeled the dresses.

“The dress makes me feel that my posture is more elegant and the silk is very comfortable to wear,” model Chen Yu-hsuan （陳祐瑄） said.

“I am glad to represent the school and Taiwan in this event, and to help facilitate cultural exchanges between the two countries,” she said.

Chiayi County Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wu （吳芳銘） said that about 12,000 of Chiayi’s residents are new immigrants, including about 3,600 Vietnamese women.

The exhibition should help in the development of cultural pluralism in the county and deepen the public’s understanding of Vietnamese culture, he said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES