The opening ceremony and seminar titled "Looking back to the Ancient City: Two Decades of Vietnamese Modern Music in Hanoi (1934-1954)" took place as part of the 2nd Thang Long – Hanoi Festival in the capital.

The accompanying exhibition showcased 102 carefully chosen musical scores and artefacts, selected from a larger archive of roughly 2,000 items that document the early years of Vietnamese modern music.

Researcher Nguyen Truong Quy explained, "It can be said that from its inception to its maturity in the 1940s, especially during the peak of the August Revolution, Vietnamese modern music created a special identity for Hanoi within the heart of Vietnamese culture."

Musician Giang Son observed that many members of Gen Z do not know these early songs, and he blamed the media system and previous generations for not giving young people enough chance to hear them.

Another obstacle is the size of performance spaces; most heritage concerts are held in halls that seat just over 100 people, limiting audience reach, and the musical tastes differ—older listeners call youth music noisy, while young people describe the old songs as sleepy.

To overcome these hurdles, speakers at the seminar proposed moving heritage music programs to larger venues such as universities, where thousands of students could attend, and encouraging students to weave the old songs into their own creative projects.