Làng Văn: The Timeless Pulse of Vietnamese Music

Few names have endured for over four decades in an industry that rises and falls with the tides of technology and trends. For almost half a century, Làng Văn has not only survived. It has become a steward of legacy. From cassette tapes to the era of artificial intelligence (AI), the company has bridged the analog and digital with heart, vision, and a dedication to preserving Vietnamese musical heritage. Today, as one of the world's most comprehensive Vietnamese music catalogs, Làng Văn stands as a forward-thinking powerhouse writing the next chapter of the region's music history.

The name Làng Văn, meaning "village of literature" or "village of letters," was born from a longing for home. When its founders arrived in the US as refugees, they felt a profound yearning to preserve the culture they had left behind. That desire sparked the creation of Làng Văn not only as a label but as a cultural sanctuary where artists, storytellers, and the Vietnamese diaspora could gather, remember, and create.

Based in Westminster, California, a city that became one of the centers of post-1975 Vietnamese music, Làng Văn has long served as the backbone of Vietnamese audio and visual media. It has become a custodian of the Vietnamese sound, with an archive of tens of thousands of audio recordings, numerous videos, and the acquired catalogs of multiple labels.

Whether the golden voices of renowned names or the rich spectrum of genres from traditional folk to modern hip hop, Làng Văn preserves identity. It has been a musical lifeline for generations of Vietnamese people in the United States and Vietnam, capturing the stories of people and carrying them into the future.

Besides its massive catalog and iconic artists, Làng Văn stands out for its roots, which are deeply personal, familial, and intertwined with the history of the Vietnamese diaspora. Its origin story begins with Làng Văns COO, Mimi Nguyễn's mother, Lan Nguyễn, and father, Chúc Lê. Nguyễn's mother is from a family whose bloodline runs thick with music, enterprise, and cultural impact.

Her eldest sister, Thanh Lan, was more than just a celebrated beauty. She founded trung tâm Thanh Lan, one of the first Vietnamese-American record labels, launching timeless albums. Another sibling, the youngest brother, Billy "Bắc" Bui, would go on to launch his own label, trung tâm Thúy Anh, signing rising stars who later became household names. From this lineage of creators and entrepreneurs, the founders of Làng Văn emerged, whose vision was always about legacy.

When Làng Văn released its first album in 1982, few could have predicted its future as one of the bedrocks of an entire industry. At the time, the Vietnamese-American music scene was a constellation of labels. Dozens of them clustered in the small but vibrant community of Westminster. Each label added a new voice to a growing community of post-migration culture.

Over the decades, as some closed and others merged, Làng Văn slowly, methodically acquired many of them. "Our goal was to ensure that no piece of the Vietnamese musical story would be lost to time," says Nguyễn. Today, while only a few independent labels remain, much of the collective legacy of Vietnamese music in the US has been gathered under Làng Văn's roof, forming a unified archive of cultural memory.

Evolution isn't always smooth sailing, however. The company, like the industry itself, had to navigate a slow and often difficult transition from physical formats to digital. In the early days, Làng Văn thrived on the sale of cassettes, VHS, CDs, and DVDs. As technology began to outpace tradition, the shift to digital proved challenging, especially for the first-generation leadership.

The founders faced the overwhelming task of digitizing an ever-growing catalog while continuing to acquire more. That's until their children stepped in. After completing their studies, Nguyễn and her brother, Phiton Nguyễn, returned to the family business with a mission to modernize. The work was painstaking and tedious, but essential. Bit by bit, album by album, they began digitizing an empire. Hidden among the stacks, they found long-forgotten recordings. "Seeing all the unreleased tracks and lost footage like moments frozen in time, it felt like uncovering buried treasure," Nguyễn shares.

Now, with the digital infrastructure firmly in place and the weight of history in its vaults, Làng Văn is once again looking forward. This time, the future isn't about digitizing the past but reimagining it. With a fully owned catalog and empowered by emerging technologies, the company is embracing innovation with the same boldness that defined its beginnings.

"We're currently exploring AI as a tool for artistic reinvention. It's usually seen as a threat to creative authenticity. But we see its potential in producing fresh interpretations. Think remixes, samples, and modern arrangements that introduce classic Vietnamese songs to younger audiences and global listeners," Nguyễn shares. Because Làng Văn owns its entire catalog, it's positioned to create a limitless canvas for reinvention.

Làng Văn's essence remains rooted in its mission to protect, preserve, and propel Vietnamese culture through music. It stands out in an industry that usually prioritizes trends over tradition. Nguyễn states, "We're here to protect a legacy born from displacement and diaspora, champion voices that history might otherwise overlook, and ensure that Vietnamese music continues to evolve without forgetting where it came from."