Communist Review - Culture plays a vital role in a country’s development process. As noted by the Party, culture serves as a spiritual foundation of the society. It is not only the ultimate goal, but also the driving force of socio-economy development of a nation. As the government is reviewing the National Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries in Vietnam to 2020, the accurate and objective assessment of cultural development over the years, therefore, provides a scientific basis for the planning of policies in the coming time.

Current situation of cultural development in Vietnam

First of all, the Vietnamese culture has a history stretching back thousands of years. Going through various wars as well as ups and downs, many positive values such as patriotism, bravery, adaptability, tolerance, community spirit, compassion, righteousness, and industriousness have been crystalized and formed. Nowadays, Vietnam is known as a peaceful, modern, young and dynamic country, an active member of the international community, significantly contributing to global peace and prosperity. Moreover, the combination of the old and the new has created a compelling attraction force towards its culture, which is now inheriting and upholding traditional cultural values, while accepting new ones, heading towards democracy, modernity, humanity, compassion, and openness etc. Realizing such special traits of the Vietnamese culture in the mixture of tradition and modernity is of great significance in generating the “soft power” and influence for Vietnam in the eyes of international friends.

Secondly, Vietnam is home to a diverse and rich culture which has been formed and enriched for thousands of years. Its cultural resources are not only abundant and varied in forms but also valuable in many aspects, which has been well recognized regionally and internationally. This has created a favourable condition for the country to develop its economy, culture and society. The system of copious cultural heritages and stunning landscapes is the invaluable asset that can potentially be converted into unique cultural products or services, contributing to economic growth as well as heightening the position of Vietnam culture in the international arena.

Thirdly, the legal framework regarding culture has been gradually bettered. Over the past years, many documents have been either adopted or amended and supplemented, creating a sufficient and favourable legal corridor for cultural activities. In particular, there have been a range of culture-related laws and legal documents issued, contributing to perfecting cultural institutions in the new context. Also, various policies have been formulated and approved, based on which cultural activities are implemented.

Fourthly, the policy of “socializing” cultural activities has earned some practical outcomes, initially mobilizing numerous resources in the society. Socializing serves as an important solution, aiming at attracting social resources and economic sectors to participate in organizing and popularizing cultural activities. The policy also targets at building a responsible society for the cause of culture development, triggering the vigorous and widespread development of cultural activities as well as the improvement of people’s cultural taste. The diversity of cultural subjects, the participation and coordination of social resources, and the variety of cultural forms, ideas, trends and styles have all provided people with more choices of in terms of cultural products.

Fifthly, in addition to enormous efforts to preserve and uphold traditional arts forms, cultural and art products have become increasingly diverse with different forms, expression methods, styles and themes. A number of art, music, movie works have earned high rankings in both domestic and international competitions; modern technologies have been gradually applied in the production process; many culture and art projects have been carried out, encouraging artists and producers to be creative and drawing attention from youngsters with new looks and new ideas of the contemporary society.

Sixthly, the developed economy and improved living standard have given a boost to the formation of a cultural consumption market with increasing demand. Culture, once known as a field mostly of dissemination values, has become the one with high economic values. Particularly, many cultural products have been made, creating a unique charm for Vietnam’s tourism, making contribution to local economic development and living standard improvement.

Seventhly, cultural international cooperation has been enhanced, introducing the image, culture and people of Vietnam to the world and creating the “soft power” for the country. Cultural exchanges have come along with the State multi-lateralization and diversification of foreign relations, contributing to enhancing friendship and mutual understanding, bringing the national image, culture, people to the world.

Eighthly, information and technology, especially mass communications, have experienced great advances. In fact, more investment has been put into information and communication and Internet infrastructure. Also, press activities have been continuously renovated and well matched with those in the world. Information has been multi-faceted and diverse, enabling the masses to access new knowledge of the mankind and improving productivity and living standard.

Ninthly, various cultural movements and campaigns have been launched and well implemented with outstanding achievements, which helps to protect and uphold national traditional values. Cultural, traditional and moral values have been praised, while people’s creativity, self-control and proactiveness have been upheld and promoted.

On the other hand, beside aforementioned achievements, there have existed a number of shortcomings.

Firstly, the cultural management mindset has failed to catch up with social development. The subsidy mindset and “ask-give” mechanism has still remained prominent in cultural management agencies. At present, these agencies have been doing most of the work relating a particular cultural activity without calling for the participation of the community, enterprises and associations. The management mechanism is mainly characterized by power centralization. Cultural development guidelines, policies, and plans have generally done at the macro level, whereas none has been built based on practical analysis. The laws have yet to become an ultimate tool to regulate, control and adjust people’s cultural lives. The awareness of other industries, levels are at times rigid and dogmatic. In fact, the role of culture is still not well recognized and cannot be put on par with other industries.

Secondly, Vietnam is still halfway in its transition; its socialist-oriented market economy is growing; scientific and technological level remains low and human resources are still limited in terms of number and quality. The national economy has been developing unsustainably, influencing various aspects of the social life including culture. Cultural institutions have been renovated slowly and asynchronously. There have been a number of weaknesses in the promulgation of laws. Numerous legal documents, though newly adopted, have required adjustments and supplements. Due to poor enforcement, some legal documents have yet to be translated into reality. Additionally, the implementation of culture-related regulations has been done with massive difficulties.

Thirdly, the human resource for cultural development remains limited and insufficient. They lack professional knowledge, management skills, and most importantly renovation capacity. The quality of cultural management staff at all levels has failed to catch up with the diverse and complicated developments of cultural activities, causing great difficulties in planning and implementing policies, as well as handling violations.

Fourthly, investment into culture has yet to be on par with its role and significance. As a whole, the proportion of investment into culture out of the national budget remains low, compared to other industries. The system of cultural institutions and infrastructure is under-developed, downgraded and ineffective. Moreover, the planning and investment for the development of cultural institutions in key areas are slow. The system of cultural institutions in rural areas is insufficient and asynchronous, unsuitable with local characteristics and local people’s desire. Cultural contents are poor and impractical.

Fifthly, the poor product and service quality as well as shortage of national, regional and international cultural brands have failed to enrich people’s spiritual life and nurture their morality. Another issue is the imbalanced cultural scale, in which cultural imports into Vietnam outweighs cultural exports. National cultural products are not quite creative and diverse, causing the industry to fail to satisfy the need of the public and to compete on both domestic and global markets.

Sixthly, the national cultural identity is now running the risk of being ignored. Many ethnic minority groups are now losing their cultural traits in the development and integration process. Various intangible cultural heritages of ethnic minority people haven’t been paid adequate attention to, especially in conservation and protection. What’s more, no attention has been paid to a number of art types, including both modern and traditional public arts.

Seventhly, the cultural environment is contaminated with unhealthy and immoral practices, social vices and increasing crime rate. There also remain a number of shortcomings in people behavior at public places, at work and at home. The degradation of thought, morality and behavior of a large quantity of cadres, party members has been a pressing issue, damaging people’s confidence towards the Party, the State and the regime. Corruption, bribery, indulgent lifestyle, political opportunism, and academic dishonesty or misconduct etc. are happing at an alarming rate. Occupational morality is downgrading, even in such honorable aspects as health, education, legal protection, press… Furthermore, less importance has been attached to family culture, while there are warning signs in terms of school culture. Violent, disruptive, aggressive and immoral behaviors tend to be on the rise. The gap of cultural taste between rural and mountainous areas and urban ones has yet to be narrowed.

Eighthly, critical activities in the field of culture and arts have not been promoted, failing to meet social life demands. The gap between theoretical issue and reality not only has yet to be bridged, but has also been widened. The number of studies on cultural and art theories is small and with limited quality. At present, there exist two opposing realities: first of all, cultural theories are out of date, unable to catch up with reality with a load of unanswered and urgent questions; secondly, without the wise guiding of a coherent theory, a range of cultural activities have taken place spontaneously, causing difficulties to the management and implementation of cultural policies. Cultural criticism hasn’t contributed to promptly directing, guiding and adjusting the work of compiling. The criticizing work is mainly characterized by sensibility, avoidance etc. It is sometimes featured by destroying the scientific nature of cultural criticism, without criticizing erroneous and deviant tendencies.

Opportunities and challenges to the development of Vietnam’s culture in the coming years

Globalization and international integration enable Vietnam’s culture to popularize itself to the world. Vietnam’s culture has been developing in the context of strong technological advancements. Globalization and integration has also offered opportunities to exchange, cooperate and comprehensively develop the national culture and introduce it to the world. Developed science, technologies and mass communication have brought people the capacity to create and enjoy cultural products that are effective and interactive.

The Fourth Revolution and the digital economy have generated benefits for the Vietnamese culture, enabling the country to explore the economic potentials of culture in the digital environment. Digital technologies and Internet have been accompanied with an easy and unlimited access to cultural contents. This, on the other hand, requires an idea to be different and unique in order to earn a competitive edge. Countries across the globe are now moving towards the knowledge-based economy, creative economy with digital technologies and digitalized culture (1). These changes have provided great opportunities for countries to cut production costs, contributing to creating new distribution, advertisement channels. They have also entailed sensitive and adaptive actions of countries. The shift to digital economy and the current business spirit have not only offered opportunities but also posed challenges to the field of culture in Vietnam.

The socialist oriented economy in Vietnam has been generating a social and cultural boost among the masses, providing them with opportunities to enhance their self-governing and leading capacity in organizing and creating cultural activities. Together with relevant agencies, people have played an increasingly leading role in social and cultural activities, from planning to reviewing. The internal factor of the social and cultural development has been promoted, partly demonstrating the developing role of people in a variety of social and cultural issues.

The proactive and comprehensive integration guideline of the Party and the State has enabled the Vietnamese culture to fully integrate and develop. In the context of globalization, along with the guideline of foreign relation multi-lateralization and diversification, Vietnam’s culture stands a favourable chance to learn advanced knowledge and management experience, to expose itself to the cultural essence of humanity and to create new cultural values. Particularly, the industry of culture has been recognized as the cornerstone of the national economy. Developing economy and improving living standard have contributed to the formation of a cultural consumption market with rising demands.

Besides opportunities, Vietnam’s culture is facing with various challenges:

Challenges in perfecting cultural institutions. In order to promote the diversity and dynamism of culture (without intervening and limiting creativeness), it is necessary to perfect tax policies and legal regulations of art business and market such as patent. It is also important to perfect the legal corridor to promote the participation of partners and other resources in cultural development. The development of cultural industry or creation industry needs promoting as a method of cultural development. Another key point is to build mechanisms to mobilize resources and create a general force and cooperation in cultural activities, to enhance coordination between the State and other sponsors and private sector for the sustainable and competitive development of culture.

Challenges in shifting from a centralized culture management model to a hierarchical model, which is well fitted with the context of the socialist market economy. In such model, the government has seen its role changing from directly organizing to managing cultural activities. There are also challenges in shifting the mindset of cultural leadership towards openness, creativeness and proactiveness; building policies and guidelines in accordance to the socialist market economy, with the decentralization of authority between the Party and the government in the implementation process; supervising, reviewing and assessing the implementation of cultural policies; renewing cultural management mindset which is based on the spirit of cultural rights and building a modern public administration; gradually constructing a decentralization mechanism, in which state agencies focus on developing institutions, investing in infrastructure, building a high-level human resource, and organizing state-level cultural and art events, whereas the public, enterprises, organizations and individuals are responsible for other cultural and art activities.

Challenges in improving the quality and effectiveness of cultural activities in the context that resources and investment into culture have failed to meet people’s demand and yet to be on par with its role and position in the country’s sustainable development. There are challenges in the country’s capacity of renovating and renewing the industry of culture, making it more sustainable; some of which do exist in the improvement of management and business capacity. One of the new requirements in the field is establishing stronger ties among people/consumers, enterprises and the community, contributing to enhancing public awareness of different cultural values.

Challenges of the digital economy and the Fourth Industry. Amid the vigorous development of mass media and digital technology, it is of great necessity for the field to generate a difference and a capability of applying scientific and technological advances in creating diverse and unique cultural products. The boom of information and telecommunication, along with the trend of exchanging and importing new cultural values, has brought about a number of drawbacks, especially when the current cultural staff and infrastructure have failed to catch up with new and modern ones.

Challenges in cultural globalization as a process through which cultures have become increasingly integrated and interdependent. Globalization poses a threat to Vietnam’s cultural identity if the country fails to boost its internal power and uphold its traditional cultural values. Globalization requires Vietnam to well regulate the relationship between protecting national cultural values and absorbing the cultural essence of humanity, to strengthen its internal power to stay immunized against “cultural invasion” from overseas, to well handle the relationship between tradition and modernity, nationalism and internationalism as well as settle cultural conflicts arising in the process of industrialization, urbanization and globalization.

Challenges in handling various relations of culture such as the one between culture and politics, between culture and economy, between tradition and modernity.

Suggestions for cultural development in coming years

Firstly, improving people’s awareness and inviting the whole society to act in culture construction and development. The Party and State policies and guidelines should be effectively converted into action by ministries, agencies and localities. Mass media dissemination should be done proactively, creatively and attractively, in which special attention is paid to effects of new media. It is also significant to further educate the masses on the role and position of culture in the overall development of the country. Culture should be placed as one of the breakthroughs in the country’s sustainable development in the years to come.

Secondly, building the Vietnamese people of characteristics that are suitable with the new era. These are important traits of Vietnamese people such as patriotism, compassion, honesty, unity, industriousness and creativity. Building and upholding the lifestyle of “one for all, all for one”; placing stress on forming the self-respectful, self-reliant and self-disciplined lifestyle among the masses; combining individual positivism and collective positivism; valuing personal responsibility over individual, family and society; highly appreciating righteousness, positivism, beauty and nobility as well as encouraging humane and fine values in the society.

Thirdly, perfecting cultural institutions to boost freedom and creativity; making suitable investment in culture, especially in its human resource. One of the main reasons why culture is not yet valued is that cadres of low professional quality are more likely asked to be in charge of culture.

Fourthly, a healthy cultural environment should be built so as to lay solid foundation for the development of Vietnamese culture and people. A healthy cultural environment contributes to nurture people’s cultural personalities and lifestyle. This is where the good are protected, while the bad are abolished and condemned. Education renovation should be done at all levels, in which greater attention is paid to subjects related to morality, arts and creativity, since cultural values are believed to be spread across the society from the knowledge and skills learnt at school.

Fifthly, developing cultural industries to give birth to cultural products and services of Vietnamese people and for Vietnamese people, making great contributions to disseminating Vietnamese cultural values and promoting socio-economic development.

Sixthly, intensifying international integration, including cultural integration; introducing cultural messages and images of the people and country of Vietnam to the world; absorbing the cultural essence of humanity to enrich the local culture. This is known as the indispensible trend in the context of globalization.

The development of culture in the coming years is of great significance to the whole nation. Once Vietnam can take advantage of all opportunities, bring into play its strengths and minimize its weaknesses, its culture will fully develop and turn into a driving force as well as an ultimate goal for the country’s development; and will “shed light on the people’s path” as President Ho Chi Minh once said.

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(1) Digitalization has been transforming the chain of values, production and distribution. As a result, new business models have been developed with new retail and marketing strategies. For example, the market for digital trading of cultural products through such websites as amazon.com, iTunes, the cultural dissemination through social networks (Facebook, Twitter…), the popularity of hand-held devices (phone, tablet, kinder), the integration of producers and consumers of cultural products in the interactive digital environment, in which consumers have a role to play in designing and re-designing the products.