Preservation of Vietnamese Culture Lu Thi Thanh Le Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities

Main Points Cultural policy of Vietnam Multicultural policy and the selective preservation of ethnic culture Preservation of Vietnamese cultural heritages

About “Vietnamese Culture” Vietnam is the multi-ethnic nation of 54 ethnic groups in which the Kinh (or Viet) is the majority group. “Vietnamese Culture”: Culture of the Vietnamese (Kinh people) The sum of 54 ethnic cultures The unified national culture of Vietnam, “unity in diversity”

Source: http://www.ikap-mmsea.org/images/ethnicmapvietnam.jpg

Cultural Policy of Vietnam Model of cultural policy of Vietnam: the role of the State as the Engineer for all cultural activities of the society The State owns all means of artistic, cultural production The State supports only cultural activities that meet political standards of excellence Funding decisions are made by political commissars The economic status of people working in cultural, artistic fields depends on their membership in official Party-approved unions. Artistic enterprises are state-owned. The centralized control of the State of cultural activities, Different from the models of facilitator/patron/architect State (Chartrand and McCaughey)

Current priorities in Vietnam’s Cultural Policy Building healthy people, ways of life, cultural life Safeguarding and promoting national cultural heritage Safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage of ethnic minority groups Developing the work of literature and arts, strengthening the work of mass media Promoting the good cultural and moral values of religions and beliefs Intensifying international cooperation in culture Building a system of cultural institutions (museums, schools, etc.)

Notable changes in the perception of the State of Culture Culture: from non-productive, non-profit area, a burden for the State budget -> an important force for the development of the country Culture as the spiritual foundation -> economic values Culture is used as the tool for cultural diplomacy, showing the national identity of Vietnam to the world VN’s cultural policy has some specific features of Vietnamese political regimes: highly centralized, Party-oriented. Also shows the readiness of Vietnamese government to integrate to the world

Multicultural Policy In the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (See Article 5 – Constitution 1992): the State promotes the equality, solidarity of all nationalities, forbids all acts of national discrimination, promises to preserve ethnic identity and promote ethnic traditions. In official documents of the Communist Party: the policy is to build a culture that is rich of national identity, the unity in diversity of every ethnic groups of Vietnam. “The culture that Vietnamese people are building is advanced and rich of national identity. It is the culture of unity in diversity of the community of ethnic groups of Vietnam” (Decision of Central Committee of Communist Party, Tenure VIII, Fifth Plenum)

Article 5 - Constitution of The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1992): “The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is the unified State of all nationalities living on the territory of Vietnam. The State carries out a policy of equality, solidarity and mutual assistance among all nationalities, and forbids all acts of national discrimination and division. Every nationality has the right to use its own language and system of writing, to preserve its national identity, and to promote its fine customs, habits, traditions and culture. The State carries out a policy of comprehensive development and gradually raises the material and spiritual living conditions of the national minorities.” ----- Meeting Notes (05/11/2013 22:20) ----- tom luoc

Actions taken by the State to implement Multicultural Policy Investing in infra-structure for cultural and economic development of ethnic minorities Allowing and revitalizing ethnic traditions and customs that once were considered as backward, superstitious Spending budget to preserve cultural heritages of ethnic groups Organizing new form of cultural festival to provide chances for ethnic minorities to have cultural exchanges and to promote tourism

The selective preservation of ethnic cultures by the State - “fine traditions”><backward/superstitious traditions (ethno-centric view point) only promotes traditions that might benefit strategic developments of the country only promotes the traditions that help to unify the ethnic group into the national community ----- Meeting Notes (06/11/2013 13:36) ----- ethno-centric view point party-oriented

The case of preserving Cham culture Distribution of Cham people in Vietnam nowadays (Source: Author’s document) Champa Kingdom’s frontiers in different historical periods (Lafont)

Cham culture as represented in the National Festival of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Cham Area, 2012 Prohibited festival (Kate festival)-> national festival to attract the tourists: employing Cham’s ethnoscapes, ethnic symbols to make attractions to the tourists (see photos) Using the event to present the unity in diversity of Vietnamese culture (unifying the Cham into the history of Vietnamese and to the community of ethnic groups of Vietnam) (see photo)

Exploiting Cham culture for tourism development Picture source: Author’s photographs, 2012

Unifying Cham people into the national community ----- Meeting Notes (06/11/2013 13:36) ----- preservation: top-down process lack of the consultancy from ethnic people, intellectuals of ethnic groups exploit ethnic culture for the development strategic programs of the country, not for preserving the cultures themselves Source: Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, Ho Chi Minh City Branch’s website

Preservation of Vietnamese Cultural Heritages – Actions of the State Issuances of Laws concerning Cultural Heritage (2001, 2009) Establishment of Department of Cultural Heritage (in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) Restoring the vestiges and exploiting the vestiges for tourism development Developing the museum system Making statistics of intangible cultural heritages Participation in international conventions of cultural heritage preservation (see list)

Vietnam’s participation in international conventions of cultural heritage preservation 1987: Approved the 1972 Convention on the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage 2005: Approved the 2003 Convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage 2007: Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions

Current Issues of Preservation of Cultural Heritages in Vietnam Effects of Globalization: chances for many heritages to be recognized and recovered/ the risk of losing national identity, the “world heritage syndrome” Effects of Urbanization: the land for urbanization takes the space of cultural heritages Effects of Modernization: the trend of modernizing traditional art forms, modernizing traditional scuptures,… Effects of tourism development, economic development: exploiting cultural heritages to serve the interest of tourists, not the local community.

Example 1: Traditional Water Puppet Theatre A national cultural heritage of Vietnam A syncretic art, gathers many arts together: ca tru, cheo, sculpture, painting, etc. Picture source: Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre’s Website

Actions taken of the State in order to revitalize the traditional water puppet theatre Investing budget in traditional villages of water puppet theatre: recovering the techniques of making the puppets, training the artists, reopening the shows. Bring the artist groups to foreign countries to introduce about Vietnamese culture. Organizing puppet festivals for different groups to compete and share the techniques.

Issues in Preserving the Traditional Water Puppet Theatre Water puppet theatre is taken out from its original culture. The semi-professional artists cannot live on water puppet theatre Lack of improvements or improper improvements

Example 2: Quan ho singing Picture source: quanho.com.vn

Quan ho singing, after being recognized as World cultural Heritage (2009) Establishment of many “new” quan ho villages (45 villages -> 329 villages), breaking the “law” of quan ho villages. Improper methods of preservation: eg. serving quan ho at restaurants or tourist destinations Renovating traditional quan ho: modernizing quan ho, making cassette tapes for easy playing, making new verses for quan ho -> the performed quan ho is far different from its tradition More investment in cultural management units than in the artists and the local communities ----- Meeting Notes (06/11/2013 09:26) ----- preservation without focus: wide area but lack of quality

Some considerations to better preserve Vietnamese cultural heritages Improving the cultural policies based on thorough research. Investing more in training professional artists and training the community’s awareness of the value of cultural heritage. Improving the management capacity of the State and strengthening the role of civil society in preserving cultural heritages.

Thank you very much for your attention!