Digital heritage, data sovereignty, and multilingual resilience: a Vietnamese model

1. Introduction

Over the past two decades, the rapid development of digital technologies has fundamentally transformed how culture is created, stored and transmitted. Cultural values once preserved through collective memory, artifacts, rituals and oral traditions are now increasingly digitized through data files, digital imagery, audio recordings, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and new forms of online-born cultural practices such as memes, vlogs, livestreams or AI-generated art. This shift not only challenges traditional notions of culture but also opens new spaces for expression, reconstruction and innovation.

Digital culture, digital heritage and online cultural practices have thus become central to interdisciplinary research. Cultural studies examine the nature of cultural value once encoded as data; linguistics investigates changes in speech and language in online environments; data science focuses on collecting, modeling and analyzing cultural information; and legal studies grapple with ownership, cultural data sovereignty and community rights. This reveals that culture in the digital age is no longer separate from technology but has become an interwoven field.

Nevertheless, most international studies on digital heritage remain focused on Europe, North America and Russia – contexts with early digital infrastructures and mature legal systems. As a result, global interpretations of digital heritage often fail to address the complexity of Southeast Asian countries, which are characterized by ethnic and linguistic diversity, layered cultural influences and unique community-based traditions. Vietnam exemplifies this situation, with its 54 ethnic groups, numerous linguistic systems and extensive intangible heritage shaped by oral traditions, performance arts, indigenous knowledge and local rituals.

At the same time, the explosive growth of Internet and social media usage in Vietnam - especially among young generations – raises questions about what constitutes digital-era heritage and how these new cultural practices should be documented. Therefore, a context-specific theoretical and practical model for digital cultural preservation is urgently needed.

This paper aims to contribute to this research gap by proposing a framework tailored to Vietnam’s cultural characteristics and by outlining policy measures for a sustainable digital cultural strategy.

2. Literature review and gaps in current research

2.1. Western-centric focus on tangible heritage and documentation

International work on digital heritage predominantly emphasizes the digitization of tangible artifacts – photographs, maps, archaeological items, administrative documents and textual archives. While valuable, this approach only captures a small portion of cultural heritage.

In countries like Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia or the Philippines, the essence of heritage lies in living practices: performances, festivals, rituals, indigenous knowledge, oral narratives, folk instruments, communal traditions and spiritual beliefs. These intangible forms are dynamic and deeply contextual, making them difficult to encode using Western models of digitization. Moreover, the lack of VR/AR simulations, spatial audio, motion capture and other specialized technologies limits the ability to preserve intangible practices comprehensively.

2.2. Legal gaps concerning cultural data sovereignty in the age of AI

Cultural data has become a strategic resource. With AI and Big Data, global platforms can collect massive amounts of cultural information – including images, voices, traditional rituals and indigenous knowledge - often stored and processed outside the originating country.

This raises critical questions for Vietnam:

• Is cultural data a form of communal property?
• Who has the authority to grant permission for use?
• Can AI companies use traditional images, voices or rituals for training datasets?
• Do communities have the right to retract their data if cultural distortion occurs?

Instances of unregulated use of cultural data for commercial or AI-training purposes highlight the risks of cultural data exploitation. The absence of legal frameworks increases the vulnerability of Vietnamese communities to cultural appropriation and loss of control over their heritage.

2.3. Online culture as an overlooked form of contemporary heritage

Digital culture has rapidly become a dominant cultural environment for Vietnamese youth. Memes, vlogs, livestreams, TikTok videos, fandom communities, online games and eSports represent creative and dynamic cultural expressions. However, research often dismisses these as temporary or trivial phenomena, overlooking their long-term sociocultural value.

Given that early Internet content is now considered historical material, ignoring digital-born culture creates a significant archival gap. Without proper frameworks, millions of socially valuable online artifacts could be lost.

2.4. Limited research on digitization in multilingual nations like Vietnam

Vietnam hosts over 20 linguistic groups and numerous writing systems, many endangered by urbanization and cultural assimilation. Digitizing these languages is still limited, with most AI and NLP resources focused only on standard Vietnamese. The lack of datasets for minority languages inhibits the development of speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS) and language-learning tools.

Without timely intervention, the disappearance of languages implies the simultaneous loss of indigenous knowledge systems, oral traditions, folk medicine and agricultural practices.

3. Cultural and linguistic characteristics of Vietnam in the Digital Age

3.1. Vietnam’s unique historical and contemporary cultural hybridity

Vietnam is shaped by overlapping cultural layers: East Asian (Han–Confucian), Southeast Asian indigenous culture, French colonial modernity and contemporary influences from the U.S., China, Japan and South Korea. This hybridity makes digitization complex, requiring sensitivity to diverse cultural logics and value systems.

Confucian traditions, Hán–Nôm scripts, Buddhist aesthetics, village structures and family rituals form a stable cultural foundation. Meanwhile, Southeast Asian elements – indigenous beliefs, matriarchal influences, rice-farming traditions and Mother Goddess worship – represent dynamic and context-dependent cultural layers that require immersive technologies for proper preservation.

Modern influences – from French script reform (Latin alphabet), printing, architecture and education to contemporary entertainment industries – have shaped Vietnam’s rapid adaptation to digital transformation.

3.2. The richness and fragility of Vietnam’s linguistic ecosystem

Vietnam’s multilingual landscape encompasses numerous language families, each containing unique worldviews, rituals, musical structures and indigenous knowledge. Yet many minority languages lack documentation or technological support. AI-based tools require large datasets, placing minority languages at risk of exclusion and eventual extinction.

Digitizing languages through corpora, recordings, dictionaries and AI tools is crucial for preserving both linguistic identity and associated knowledge systems.

3.3. The rise of dynamic digital culture as contemporary heritage

Short-form video, viral memes, eSports, virtual communities and AI-generated artworks have become central cultural forms in Vietnam. These expressions represent the aesthetics, aspirations and social practices of Generation Z and should be recognized as contemporary heritage.

If left unarchived, the cultural fingerprint of the digital era will fade with platform changes and algorithmic cycles.

4. Challenges facing Vietnamese culture in the Digital Age

As Vietnam enters the era of artificial intelligence, big data and ubiquitous digital platforms, its cultural landscape is confronted with a series of intertwined challenges that threaten the continuity, authenticity and diversity of its heritage. These challenges do not arise in isolation; rather, they form a mutually reinforcing system shaped by technological acceleration, structural inequalities and the disruptive nature of globalized digital culture. Understanding these interconnected pressures is essential for designing an effective strategy of cultural preservation that is responsive not only to technological changes but also to the social and cultural contexts in which heritage is created, practiced and transmitted.

One of the most significant threats faced by Vietnamese culture in the digital age is the loss of cultural context that occurs when intangible heritage is digitized. Intangible heritage – such as ritual ceremonies, oral storytelling, traditional music, crafts and communal festivals – derives its meaning from the environments in which it is embedded. These practices are deeply connected to local cosmologies, spiritual beliefs, community relationships and ecological knowledge. When a ritual is reduced to a short video clip, or a folk performance is recorded outside its ceremonial setting, the surrounding layers of meaning that define its authenticity are inevitably altered or diminished. Digitization can capture the visible aspects of intangible heritage, but it struggles to reproduce the symbolic, spiritual and communal dimensions that give these practices cultural depth. As digital archives gradually replace lived experience as the primary reference for younger generations, the risk emerges that future interpretations of traditional practices will be shaped more by digital representations than by lived cultural contexts.

A related challenge is the increasing prevalence of AI-generated “fake heritage”, which poses a significant threat to cultural authenticity. With powerful generative algorithms, artificial intelligence can now produce images, sounds and narratives that closely resemble traditional cultural forms but have no basis in actual cultural history. AI-generated depictions of fictional festivals, invented ethnic costumes or imaginary architectural styles can circulate widely online, especially in visual-based platforms that reward novelty and aesthetic appeal. When such content becomes viral, it blurs the distinction between authentic heritage and fabricated creations, potentially misleading audiences – including scholars and policymakers – about what constitutes genuine Vietnamese culture. This phenomenon not only distorts public understanding but also risks replacing real cultural memories with algorithmic simulations, thus weakening community-based authority over cultural knowledge. In the long term, AI-created cultural distortions may contribute to the erosion of collective identity, especially among young people who rely heavily on digital environments as their primary source of cultural information.

Vietnam’s cultural landscape is also endangered by the unregulated collection and exploitation of cultural data, an issue that has intensified with the rise of global digital platforms. Cultural data – including images of traditional rituals, recordings of minority languages, or documentation of indigenous practices – is increasingly harvested, disseminated and monetized without community consent. Such data is often stored on foreign servers and may be used to train AI models that produce commercial value far removed from the cultural communities themselves. Without clear legal frameworks and mechanisms of data governance, Vietnamese cultural knowledge is at risk of being appropriated or commodified by entities that lack cultural sensitivity or accountability. This creates power imbalances, where cultural producers – especially ethnic minority communities – lose control over how their heritage is used, represented or transformed. It also raises ethical questions about intellectual property, cultural ownership and the rights of communities to protect their cultural expressions from exploitation in the digital economy.

Compounding these issues is the problem of algorithmic homogenization, driven largely by the recommendation systems of global platforms. Such systems are designed to maximize engagement, favoring content that is entertaining, sensational or readily consumable. As a result, global cultural products – particularly those from dominant entertainment industries – tend to overshadow local traditions and knowledge-based cultural practices. Vietnamese cultural content that is slower-paced, context-dependent or aesthetically complex often struggles to achieve visibility in the algorithmic marketplace. This dynamic contributes to a narrowing of cultural consumption, where younger audiences are exposed predominantly to global entertainment trends rather than to the diverse cultural traditions of their own country. Over time, this homogenization can deepen cultural dependency, weaken local cultural resilience and marginalize heritage forms that cannot easily adapt to the fast-moving logics of algorithmic platforms.

Another layer of challenge emerges from digital inequality, particularly in relation to Vietnam’s ethnic minority communities. While digital technologies offer powerful tools for cultural preservation, not all communities have equal access to the internet, recording equipment, data storage systems or digital literacy training. This digital divide means that communities possessing some of the most fragile and unique cultural traditions often face the greatest obstacles in documenting and preserving them. Without targeted support, the heritage of these groups may disappear more rapidly than it can be recorded. Moreover, the lack of equal participation in digital cultural initiatives risks reinforcing existing social and cultural hierarchies, where dominant groups gain greater representation in national digital archives while minority cultural voices remain under-documented or even invisible.

Finally, Vietnam’s efforts to safeguard cultural heritage in the digital age are hindered by the absence of technical standards and coordinated national strategies. Digital preservation requires interdisciplinary collaboration across fields such as archival science, information technology, anthropology, linguistics and cultural management. However, current initiatives often operate independently, resulting in duplicated efforts, inconsistent data formats and incompatible storage systems. Without clear national guidelines on metadata standards, digitization protocols or long-term digital storage strategies, the sustainability and usability of digital heritage archives are at risk. The lack of coordinated planning also prevents Vietnam from effectively responding to emerging technologies that could reshape the landscape of preservation – such as decentralized data systems, advances in immersive simulation or new forms of AI-driven cultural analysis.

Together, these interrelated challenges illustrate the complex pressures facing Vietnamese culture in the digital era. They highlight the need for comprehensive and forward-looking cultural policies that address not only technological innovations but also issues of cultural rights, community agency, legal protection and ethical data governance. Without a holistic and culturally sensitive approach, the rapid expansion of digital technologies may accelerate the erosion of cultural diversity rather than contribute to its preservation.

5. Proposed layers model for digital cultural preservation in Vietnam

The four-layer model proposed for Vietnam’s digital cultural preservation represents a multidimensional framework that seeks to safeguard the nation’s cultural resources in all their complexity - from material remains to living traditions, linguistic ecosystems and emerging digital-born practices. More fundamentally, the model acknowledges that cultural heritage is not static; rather, it evolves across time, interacts with its environment and adapts to the technological conditions of each historical era. In the contemporary context marked by artificial intelligence, immersive technologies and ubiquitous digital platforms, Vietnam can no longer rely on isolated or fragmented preservation strategies. A holistic model that recognizes the layered nature of Vietnamese culture is therefore essential.

The first layer focuses on tangible heritage, which has traditionally been the most visible domain of cultural preservation. Vietnam’s landscapes - ranging from ancient citadels and imperial relics to sacred temples, communal houses and traditional craft villages – embody centuries of architectural innovation, spiritual expression and community identity. However, many of these physical structures face significant threats due to climate change, urban expansion, tourism pressure and natural aging. Digitization through 3D scanning, high-resolution imaging and architectural mapping serves not merely as a method of documentation but also as a safeguard against irreversible loss. VR-based reconstruction extends this function by creating immersive environments that allow audiences to experience historical spaces in ways that transcend physical limitations. By doing so, digitized tangible heritage becomes both an archival reference and an educational resource, enabling future generations to engage with their cultural roots even if the original structures have been damaged, altered or destroyed.

Building upon this foundation, the second layer addresses intangible heritage, the domain in which Vietnam’s cultural richness is most pronounced. Traditional music genres such as ca trù, quan họ or đờn ca tài tử, alongside ritual practices, communal festivals and folk performances, constitute living traditions deeply embedded in collective experience. The challenge lies in their inherent fluidity - these practices change over time, vary by region and depend on interpersonal transmission. Digitizing intangible heritage requires more than simple audiovisual recording. Technologies such as 360-degree filming capture the spatial dynamics of performances, while spatial audio preserves the layered acoustic environments unique to each practice. Motion capture facilitates the detailed documentation of bodily movement in dances or ritual gestures, enabling researchers to analyze stylistic nuances that would otherwise be lost. AR and VR simulations provide contextual immersion by reconstructing ritual environments, thus preserving not only the performance but also the cultural space that gives it meaning. This approach contributes significantly to the transmission of intangible practices, especially in contexts where younger generations have limited exposure to traditional cultural environments.

The third layer extends preservation efforts to linguistic and indigenous knowledge systems, which represent some of the most vulnerable components of Vietnam’s cultural landscape. The country’s remarkable linguistic diversity – comprising Austroasiatic, Tai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien, Austronesian and Sino-Tibetan language families – encapsulates distinct cosmologies, ecological wisdom and social structures. Many minority languages face the risk of extinction due to migration, intermarriage and declining intergenerational use. Digitizing these languages through the creation of open corpora, dictionaries, annotated recordings and textual archives serves not only academic purposes but also provides communities with tools for revitalization. The integration of AI-based speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies ensures that minority languages can participate in the digital transformation rather than being excluded by linguistic inequality. Simultaneously, documenting indigenous practices – such as herbal medicinal systems, agricultural rituals, weather forecasting knowledge or spiritual cosmologies – helps preserve knowledge systems that have sustained local communities for generations but are insufficiently recognized by mainstream cultural institutions.

The fourth layer recognizes contemporary digital culture as an essential component of modern heritage. Vietnamese digital culture is rapidly expanding, shaped by social media platforms, online gaming communities, meme cultures, vloggers, livestreamers and the creative outputs of AI-assisted tools. These digital-born cultural phenomena reflect the values, humor, anxieties and aspirations of young generations who now experience culture primarily through screens rather than through traditional communal spaces. While often dismissed as ephemeral, such expressions serve as valuable historical records of social change, political sentiment and collective memory in the digital era. Systematically archiving this material ensures that future scholars can analyze how Vietnamese society navigated technological disruptions, negotiated global cultural influences and reshaped identity under the pressures of digital platforms.

Together, the four layers form an integrated system in which each domain supports and enhances the others. The model’s strength lies not only in its comprehensiveness but also in its recognition that cultural heritage spans a continuum – from ancient structures to contemporary memes – and that preservation efforts must adapt to this spectrum rather than privileging one form over another. In the context of AI-driven global digital culture, such an inclusive framework is essential for safeguarding Vietnam’s cultural identity while allowing it to evolve creatively and sustainably.

6. Qualitative recommendations for a National digital cultural strategy

Building a comprehensive national strategy for digital cultural preservation in Vietnam requires not only technological investment but also the formation of a coherent legal, institutional and ethical ecosystem. The transformative impact of digital technologies – including AI, big data, VR/AR and decentralized information systems – demands that cultural preservation be approached with a long-term vision that integrates policy, community participation, technological innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The recommendations presented here aim to articulate the qualitative dimensions of such a strategy, ensuring that Vietnam’s cultural heritage is safeguarded in a manner that is sustainable, equitable and technologically robust.

A critical first step is the development of a Vietnamese Digital Heritage Law, which would establish the legal foundation for the preservation, management and protection of digital cultural resources. Unlike existing regulations that focus primarily on physical artifacts or archival documents, a dedicated legal framework for digital heritage must clearly define what constitutes digital cultural assets, outline the rights and responsibilities of institutions involved in their preservation and set ethical standards for the fair use of cultural data. Such a law must also address the emerging challenges posed by AI, particularly regarding the unauthorized harvesting of cultural content for algorithmic training. Without clear legislation, cultural data – including images of rituals, recordings of minority languages, or digital replicas of traditional art – remains vulnerable to exploitation by foreign platforms, potentially leading to cultural misappropriation or loss of sovereignty. Legal recognition of digital heritage also strengthens community rights, ensuring that ethnic minority groups and cultural practitioners retain agency over how their cultural knowledge is represented, accessed and utilized.

To operationalize these legal principles, the establishment of a National Digital Heritage Center is essential. This center should function as an interdisciplinary hub that brings together cultural institutions, universities, technology companies and community organizations. Its responsibilities would include developing technical standards, coordinating national digitization initiatives, training cultural workers in digital methods and maintaining centralized archives accessible to both scholars and the public. Such coordination is vital because Vietnam’s current digitization efforts remain fragmented across ministries, local authorities and independent projects. A centralized institution would not only prevent duplication and incompatibility but also foster innovation by promoting collaboration between humanities scholars and technology developers. Furthermore, by serving as a repository for both traditional and digital-born cultural expressions, the center would ensure that Vietnam’s digital heritage ecosystem is both comprehensive and interconnected.

Equally important is establishing a robust ethical framework for the use of cultural data in AI systems. As AI relies heavily on large data sets, cultural materials can easily be repurposed without acknowledgment or benefit sharing. Vietnam must require transparency regarding data sources, mandate informed consent from communities contributing cultural materials and establish mechanisms for equitable distribution of benefits when cultural data generates commercial value. Such regulations would protect cultural rights while also encouraging responsible AI innovation that respects Vietnam’s cultural landscapes.

Another essential aspect of the national strategy is the empowerment of ethnic minority communities in the digitization process. Communities must not be passive objects of preservation but active partners who contribute to the design, implementation and governance of digital heritage projects. Providing equipment, training workshops and financial support ensures that communities can document their own languages, rituals and traditions according to their cultural standards and priorities. This not only strengthens authenticity but also fosters cultural pride, intergenerational transmission and digital inclusion. When communities are granted agency over their cultural narratives, preservation becomes a collaborative process rather than an external intervention.

A forward-looking digital cultural strategy also requires the creation of national standards for archiving contemporary digital culture. Unlike traditional heritage, digital-born culture is fluid, rapidly evolving and often platform-dependent. Without standardized procedures for capturing, cataloging and preserving online content - such as memes, livestreams, gaming cultures and TikTok trends – Vietnam risks losing critical documentation of its social and cultural evolution. A national guideline could define archiving criteria, categorize types of digital-born cultural expressions, and establish methods for preserving metadata, platform context and user-generated interactions. These standards would provide structure to an otherwise volatile cultural domain, ensuring long-term accessibility for researchers, educators and future generations.

Ultimately, the proposed strategy situates digital heritage preservation within the broader context of national development, cultural sovereignty and technological autonomy. Vietnam’s transition into the digital age must be guided by policies that not only preserve the past but also accommodate contemporary forms of cultural creation and support the evolution of cultural identity. A holistic approach - supported by legal frameworks, institutional coordination, ethical data practices, community empowerment and standardized digital archiving – will enable Vietnam to build a resilient cultural ecosystem capable of withstanding the challenges and leveraging the opportunities of the digital era.

7. Conclusion

In the AI-driven digital era, Vietnam’s multiethnic, multilingual and multilayered cultural identity faces both opportunities and risks. Building a comprehensive digital heritage preservation model is essential for ensuring cultural continuity, safeguarding cultural data sovereignty and honoring community rights. The four-layer framework and policy recommendations proposed in this paper aim to support Vietnam in developing a sustainable and inclusive digital cultural ecosystem that preserves the depth of the past while embracing the evolving cultural expressions of the present.