A Cultural Encoding–Decoding Approach to The Preservation of Traditional Vietnamese Tuồng Theatre

Abstract

Traditional Vietnamese Tuồng theatre represents one of Vietnam's most sophisticated forms of classical performing arts, integrating dramaturgy, choreography, music, costume symbolism, martial aesthetics, and philosophical values into a unified semiotic system. Despite its historical significance, Tuồng faces increasing challenges associated with modernization, declining audiences, changing cultural consumption patterns, and the gradual disappearance of traditional performance knowledge. Existing preservation initiatives have largely concentrated on documentation, performance reconstruction, and institutional conservation, while comparatively limited attention has been devoted to understanding Tuồng choreography as a structured communicative system capable of transmitting cultural knowledge through encoded symbolic movements. This article proposes a cultural encoding–decoding approach that interprets Tuồng choreography through semiotic theory to strengthen preservation strategies. Drawing exclusively upon established scholarship in semiotics, theatre studies, and Tuồng research, the study synthesizes Roland Barthes' theory of signification, Vietnamese literary semiotics, theatrical semiotics, and traditional Tuồng scholarship to construct an analytical framework for preserving choreographic knowledge. The research adopts a qualitative review methodology combined with conceptual synthesis to examine how bodily movement, gesture, martial patterns, spatial organization, costumes, and actor-audience interaction collectively function as interconnected signs within Tuồng performances. The findings indicate that choreography should be preserved not merely as physical movement but as a dynamic system of cultural codes requiring contextual interpretation for effective intergenerational transmission. The study further demonstrates that integrating encoding–decoding principles into preservation practices can improve documentation accuracy, educational methodologies, and digital archiving while maintaining cultural authenticity. The proposed framework contributes to heritage conservation by repositioning Tuồng choreography as a living semiotic archive rather than a collection of isolated performance techniques.