Caring for cultural development - feelings after half of the 13th Congress term

Culture develops itself. That is a specific law. However, the spirit of the times and the orientation have a strong impact. The 13th National Party Congress is the convergence of national strength to "awaken the aspiration to develop the country... strive to become a socialist-oriented developed country by the middle of the 21st century". From here, Vietnamese culture is placed in a new spirit and requirements. It is from that goal that the Congress has determined the guiding thoughts and orientations for cultural development at a new level.

From a historical perspective, it is perhaps completely new. That is, for the first time, culture has become an important content, a central task, in three strategic breakthroughs: "arousing the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country, promoting cultural values, the strength of the Vietnamese people, the spirit of solidarity, national pride in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland". And perhaps, for the first time, the requirement to build a system of national values, a system of cultural values and standards for Vietnamese people, a system of Vietnamese family values has become urgent, of strategic significance, synchronizing all three stages: "research, identification, implementation" in practical life.

Along with the two major and new orientations above, the 13th Congress has identified key and main tasks that need to be implemented for all areas of culture in line with the needs of culture itself and to meet the requirements of the new historical period of the country. That is the basis and the fulcrum to recognize and feel the cultural results and achievements that have been achieved, the work that needs to continue to be done and what needs to be overcome, overcome or not implemented after half of the term.

Perhaps, in the past half term, there have been more challenges than advantages. The Covid-19 pandemic has raged for nearly two years, destroying lives and people like never before in history, disrupting economic development plans, and forcing us to turn around in a dangerous situation. The pointing out of the "internal invaders" of corruption, negativity, degeneration, and degradation that have existed and spread for many years has become a painful challenge for the whole society. However, we have overcome those harsh challenges.

The macro economy is stable, efforts are being made to find a path for growth, the Covid-19 pandemic has been pushed back, the Party and the State are determined and alert to "burn the furnace", and the people are at peace. Why have these victories been achieved? Perhaps, it is not only a victory of the economy, of fighting the pandemic and corruption, but more deeply, it is a victory of Vietnamese culture, Vietnamese people, a victory of resilience, of will, of intelligence, of compassion, for a greater cause.

And that is culture. Without love, compassion, "love others as you love yourself", there can be no strength or faith to overcome the pandemic. And those are also the traditional cultural values that have been "revived" into the internal strength of each person and the entire nation over the past two years.

The practice of the past two years has initially answered the question: Arousing the aspiration to develop the country is to promote the highest and most effective cultural strength, the intelligence and the hearts of the people. Over the past two and a half years, we have reaped many valuable cultural, literary and artistic products and works in various forms and genres that have the ability to cover and "dominate" most areas of life and meet the increasingly diverse and new needs of the receiving public. That is a result and a great effort of creators and cultural activists.

If we look deeper, it is worth noting that these products are converging towards building and nurturing the good things in people and have the power to permeate deeply into life, while also discovering the problems that reality is posing, especially the increasingly fierce struggle between good and evil, good and evil. Cultural products, literary and artistic works that were born and reached the public right in the days of the Covid-19 pandemic have become a truly great source of encouragement for us.

Due to work and passion, over the past two years, I have read, watched, and listened to hundreds of literary works and art forms. I feel that there is a change in the direction of reflecting the multidimensional reality of life and human destiny, the exploration and innovation of creative thinking systems to gradually create works with a new combination of tradition and the need to reach modernity. Although there are not yet truly excellent works, it is a new sign of creative capacity and the law of development. According to that law, we have the right to hope and wait for new achievements in the near future.

We have a unique spiritual and cultural heritage imbued with national identity. For a long time, the Party and the State have affirmed the task of protecting, preserving, promoting and developing that invaluable heritage. Continuing in that direction, from the 13th Congress to now, in a short period of time, new signs of quality and creativity have been appearing.

These are the cultural heritages of the peoples that are being revived in their creative space, becoming an element, an organic entity in the present life of the communities that created them.

That is the trend of efforts to most effectively promote Vietnamese culture, a special and unique resource of tourism , directly contributing to gradually turning tourism into a spearhead economic sector as expected by the 13th Congress.

These are efforts to promote the characteristics and strengths of traditional culture combined with science and technology to build and develop the cultural industry and cultural services with focus. Creative initiatives have begun, achievements are not high, but great prospects are certain.

And that is the quintessence of the nation's traditional culture that is being promoted to make Vietnam a destination for international cultural exchange and a soft power in international relations, affirming Vietnam's internal strength.

With efforts to overcome the shortcomings and limitations of the press, media and publishing in previous years, after taking a step of arrangement and planning, the press and media have risen to become a reliable and sober companion of contemporary life, actively contributing to development and directly participating in preventing, detecting and condemning evil, darkness, corruption, degeneration, cruelty... These are encouraging signs of a "professional, humane and modern press and media" as required by the 13th Congress for this field.

The above results are very valuable after half of the Congress term. However, compared with the requirements and tasks of culture identified in the Congress, there is still much to do. The cultural sector has a comprehensive program for cultural development in the coming years. I would like to contribute a few proposals to be able to complete the tasks of culture according to the documents of the 13th Congress.

The central and core goal of culture is to build people. At present and in the coming years, that goal has become a fierce challenge and a great task for culture. The XIII Congress document pointed out the requirement to "Focus on researching, identifying and implementing the construction of a national value system, a cultural value system and human standards associated with preserving and developing the Vietnamese family value system in the new period". That task is set for both cultural theory and practical activities of cultural, literary and artistic creation.

In the diverse and rich development of culture, it is necessary to converge all of those development streams for the goal of building human beings and to concentrate human, financial and material resources on the main stream which is the ideal of national independence and socialism, all for the sake of human beings. On the other hand, it is necessary to urgently summarize the practice to build a system of core values, orienting the development of the Vietnamese people to be national, modern and integrated.

The above works are being implemented, but have not yet achieved the results required by the Congress. Delayed completion not only misses opportunities but also greatly affects the trend and tendency of choosing values, if we do not think about the possibility of confusion, deviation from standards and even chaos that can occur in the current "long, extremely difficult and complicated" transition period.

When defining the tasks of culture, Party documents often emphasize building a cultural environment. The XIII Congress documents specifically point out the major tasks that must be done, which are "having mechanisms, policies, and solutions to build a truly clean and healthy cultural environment", and "implementing breakthrough solutions to effectively prevent moral and lifestyle degradation, repel social negativity and social evils".

That is the requirement to combine construction and resistance with very specific contents. Over the past two and a half years, we have done a lot, but perhaps we have not achieved enough scope, effectiveness and efficiency to fulfill the requirement of "truly clean and strong" with "breakthrough solutions". The people's hearts are still not at peace, there is much resentment when witnessing the evil, cruelty, and degradation of personality that is showing more serious signs than before, directly threatening the peace of life.

Perhaps, the regulatory effect of the law between democracy and discipline and the rule of law is still inadequate. And especially in terms of culture, for a long time, attention has not been paid to promoting the power of the regulatory function of culture in handling the relationships between humans and nature, society, people and themselves.

Cadres are the root of all work. That is obviously true in all fields, but for culture - a field with many characteristics, directly related to people, that root becomes even more urgent, so the XIII Congress document frankly and objectively pointed out that "the quality and quantity of the cultural cadre team have not met the needs of cultural development in the new period", thereby emphasizing a big and difficult task of "training and developing a team of leaders, directors, managers, consultants... especially key cadres who truly understand culture, have qualities, courage, professional capacity, meet the requirements of the task" and "review the entire system of cultural and artistic training schools"... to achieve the goal of "basically overcoming the shortage of cadres doing cultural work in the next 5-10 years".

In recent times, a number of projects have been developed and implemented, but in practice, their results are still limited. The "phase difference", inconsistency in arrangement and use, the lack of both quality and quantity, the signs of a generational break with enough capacity and dedication in this specific field are no longer predictions but are gradually becoming apparent. With just over seven years left, will the goal of "fundamentally overcoming the shortage of staff" be achieved?

Ultimately, mentioning the task of building a team of leaders, directors, managers, consultants... especially key officials in the cultural field is to set a high and inevitable requirement, which is to "continue to comprehensively innovate the content and methods of the Party's leadership, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of State management of culture".

Investment in culture was emphasized in the 13th Congress. We have made great efforts in the past time, but to have new and higher achievements than "investing, exploiting and maximizing cultural resources" is to invest in intelligence, understanding the role and characteristics of culture, vision, and capacity of leadership and management.

Perhaps, the above two investments are the "dual requirements" to ensure cultural development. Under such decisive conditions, cultural activists and creators believe that the tasks that are being done and have not yet been implemented will achieve new results in the remaining half of the term.

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