The event is expected to serve as a meaningful platform for enhancing cultural exchange and showcasing Vietnam’s image to international audiences.
The festival presents a valuable opportunity to promote Vietnam’s national image, culture, and brand identity to the international community.
Recognizing this opportunity at an early stage, Dang Giang—an active figure in community initiatives in France—has been closely engaged in efforts to support such cultural promotion.
Being a graduate of the Diplomatic Academy in Hanoi, she later settled in the Versailles area and has primarily worked in the insurance and financial sectors. Over the past two decades, she has remained a familiar presence in numerous community organizations and humanitarian programs. She has contributed to organizing fundraising events for orphans in Vietnam while also facilitating connections and providing guidance for many French students traveling to Vietnam to participate in volunteer initiatives.
Over the past two years, she has founded Amicale Francophonie, with a view to broadening ties with communities across Asia and Africa. One of the association’s notable highlights has been its participation in cultural parades in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, an area known for its large Asian community.
Through these networking activities, Dang Giang has gradually built an extensive network and nurtured more ambitious initiatives aimed at fostering the integration of the Vietnamese community in Europe. “We seek to contribute our voice to shaping perceptions in line with the true spirit of multiculturalism,” she noted.
In recent years, the administration of Paris and several districts across the capital have shifted to using the term “Nouvel An lunaire” (Lunar New Year) in official notices. This change reflects a broader and more inclusive perspective toward Asian communities residing in the city, acknowledging the cultural diversity beyond any single national tradition.
Despite possessing considerable talent and resources, the Vietnamese community in France in particular, and across Europe in general, remains relatively dispersed. This fragmentation poses challenges to mobilizing collective strength and enhancing cultural visibility on the international stage.
In this context, large-scale international events serve as an effective platform to foster unity, promote cultural exchange, and consolidate community resources. The Asian Pop Culture Festival 2026 (APCF 2026), with its regional and global orientation, is well aligned with this objective.
With a target of welcoming approximately 15,000 attendees, promotional activities for the Asian Pop Culture Festival 2026 (APCF 2026) have, since early May, been rolled out across major railway stations in Paris. A key highlight of the festival lies in its innovative concept of offering visitors a “journey across Asia” without leaving Paris. The festival will feature participation from 14 Asian countries, including Vietnam, and will span two consecutive days of continuous activities. Notably, the event space will be organized into eight thematic zones, each curated as a distinct cultural journey.
Among the standout highlights is Saveurs d’Asie (Flavors of Asia), an engaging culinary journey across the continent, featuring street food, traditional specialties, and interactive cooking challenges designed to captivate visitors’ senses.
Meanwhile, WanderAsia offers a cultural exploration space where participants can discover heritage values, longstanding traditions, and iconic landmarks representing each nation. Complementing this is AsiaxChange, a dynamic marketplace facilitating connections among suppliers, distributors, and buyers, centered on a wide range of Asian products.
The Asia Runway segment brings together Asian designers, showcasing modern interpretations of traditional attire alongside intricately crafted handmade materials. SoundAsia provides a vibrant entertainment space with live performances, including K-pop, J-pop, DJ sets, and energetic dance showcases.
Dang Giang said that she took the initiative to meet with representatives of the Philippines, one of the key pillars of the event’s organizing committee, to propose allocating a dedicated space for Vietnamese participants. Through direct engagement with the Filipino community, she was genuinely impressed by their professionalism, efficiency, and open-minded approach to cooperation.
Following her outreach, numerous Vietnamese associations, businesses, and partners in France, as well as several European countries, have expressed interest in jointly developing a ‘Vietnam space’ within the festival. Naturally, this will feature Vietnamese cuisine, tropical fruits, Ao dai, and handicraft products, among other cultural elements. She has also invited the We Love Pho Association to participate.
The objective goes beyond showcasing cuisine or artistic performances. For the Vietnamese community abroad to grow stronger, it is essential to collaborate with other communities and jointly create a broader influence. To achieve greater visibility and resonance, it must actively engage in shared platforms and deliver high-quality contributions.
After the conclusion of the Asian Pop Culture Festival 2026 (APCF 2026), Dang Giang is expected to coordinate with the Enfance Partenariat Vietnam- EPVN (Vietnam Childhood Partnership Association) to organize a Vietnam Cultural Week in Versailles this October.
