Communist Review - “Cultural welfare” is an operating principle available in the Vietnamese culture, an important theoretical point in the cultural policy of the Vietnam Communist Party and in Ho Chi Minh's thought. However, further theoretical and empirical studies should be conducted to explore thoroughly this issue. In particular, it should be given priority in the development strategies and policies, especially in social security and culture and human development policies in association with the process of international integration and sustainable development of Vietnam.

Some theoretical perspectives and historical experience

“Welfare” in the most general sense refers to  government-sponsored assistance programsfor people in the society of that country, including its citizens and others living on its  territory . “Welfare” is often understood as the assurance of human basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter and some essential social services like health care, education and vocational training,... at a minimum level. In that way, the notion of “welfare”  often corresponds   to “social welfare”, which means the distribution of benefits regardless of labour achievement  to ensure the essential  material and spiritual needs of humans.

Culture is a creative product of human being  to meet the historical needs of human life. Based on such awareness, researchers primarily approach cultural welfare from the approaches of cultural anthropology and artistic production. The first approach emphasizes the cultural components that are easily shared in the community, such as attitudes, beliefs, customs, traditions, values, experiences, and go on. The second approach emphasizes cultural products, organizations and cultural industries⁽¹⁾.

In traditional Vietnamese culture, cultural enjoyment has obviously been recognized as an inherent and inevitable need of people. Firstly, the widespread presence of  rich and vibrant community cultural activities shows a very  diverse demand for cultural enjoyment of the Vietnamese people which are  recognized as a necessity of community life. Secondly, from time immemorial, generations of Vietnamese people have paid attention to organizing a wide range of  cultural, artistic and spiritual activities to meet the needs of the community and the entire people regardless of financial conditions, gender, age or relationship.. Even cultural activities in the form of sacrificial rituals are aimed to satisfy the people’s needs of cultural enjoyment.

It can be considered that popularity, openness and humanity are the principle and philosophy of the Vietnamese people’s cultural welfare that is embodied in festivals and other forms of community cultural activities. Thanks to this philosophy, those forms of cultural activities bring a strong and lasting vitality to the Vietnamese people. Despite experiencing many “shocks”, pressures and changes, that philosophy remains unchanged.

In Vietnamese history, there were three periods when the country was invaded and dominated by foreign forces, including the Northern domination period (about 208 BC - 938), the Ming domination period (1407-1427) and the French colonial period (1884-1945). In the  two first periods, the Northern foreign forces always sought to destroy Vietnamese culture with various devious tactics, such as demolishing stelae and monuments, burning books, arresting all the talented, and coercing Vietnamese people into changing customs for assimilation. However,, the cultural influence they imposed only had external impact, Vietnamese people have not only preserved the essence of Vietnamese culture but also known how to select  the appropriate and good cultural traits  of the foreign countries to absorb and strengthen their own cultural identity.

During the French colonial period, in the name of the “civilizing mission”, the French made every effort to impose  cultural colonial policies in order to create  a mixed  culture environment in their colonies. However, far beyond the French colonialists' calculations, a continuous and profound process of cultural exchange has resulted in a “double” effect: on the one hand, Vietnamese people still preserved their good cultural values and gradually  eliminated bad habits, vices and unsound customs; on the other hand, they actively and selectively absorbed Western cultural and civilized achievements to transform many traditional cultural activities (classical drama, traditional operetta, southern amateur music) and to create new cultural and art forms (new poetry, new literature, spoken drama, cinema, photography, painting...), thereby creating the foundation for a modern Vietnamese culture to meet the enjoyment needs of the Vietnamese people.

Since 1943, the Communist Party of Vietnam has issued the Outline on Vietnamese Culture, which affirms three principles of Vietnamese culture: “a) Nationalizing (against all slavish or colonial influences, making Vietnamese culture develop independently); b) Popularizing (against all actions that make the culture hostile towards the masses); c) Scientification (against all things that make the culture unscientific)”⁽²⁾. These three principles have a close-knit bond, among which, the second one - the principle of “popularizing”, has indicated that the master of the new culture must be the entire Vietnamese nation, and the culture must be aimed to serve and meet the cultural enjoyment needs of the “masses”, of the entire Vietnamese people.

During this time, leader Ho Chi Minh expressed  his views on culture: “For the sake of survival as well as the purpose of life, mankind created and invented language, written language, morality, law, science, religion, literature, art, daily-used tools in terms of clothing, food, shelter and learned how to use them. All these creations and inventions are considered as culture. Culture is the synthesis of living activities and manifestations of human achievements to survive and adapt to the needs of life”.⁽³⁾ Many people see this as Ho Chi Minh's definition of culture. Thus, culture is involved in human life and it aims to satisfy the requirements of human life.

Ho Chi Minh also pointed out: “Five key dimensions   to build national culture”, in which the third one is related to  building society: all causes are targeted to  the people’s welfare”⁽⁴⁾, which means the people’s cultural welfare must be considered as the key mission  of all “great causes”. These are the most important theoretical points for the Communist Party and the State of Vietnam to develop strategies and policies for cultural development in general and for cultural welfare development in particular.

Miraculously, the thought Ho Chi Minh proposed since 1943 contains the two main approaches of the world researchers on cultural welfare at present (the cultural anthropology approach and the art production approach).

Cultural welfare in Vietnam in the context of a socialist-oriented market economy and globalization

In 1437, 10 years after the great victory of Lam Son Uprising which won back independence for Vietnam from the Ming occupation, King Le Thai Tong ordered the emissary Nguyen Trai and some other mandarins to compose musical instruments and teach traditional ballet. After making the musical stone, Nguyen Trai told the king that “in the warlike time we should use martial arts, and in the peaceful time we should use literature. Presently, it is high time to celebrate musical festivals. However, without roots, a tree cannot stand firmly, without writing, literature cannot be circulated. Peace is the root of music, and the sound is its text."

This advice had confirmed Nguyen Trai’s timeless thoughts. Culture in general and art in particular must take the people's happiness as the root. No matter how sublime or interesting they are, cultural products and artworks “cannot stand firmly or be circulated” if they are not associated with people’s joy, sorrow and not sympathized  by them. Once again, Vietnamese wisdom on culture and cultural welfare shines in the benevolent, righteous and humanistic thinking of Sir Uc Trai (Nguyen Trai).

On September 2, 1945, reading the Declaration of Independence in front of his compatriots, President Ho Chi Minh solemnly cited the “immortal statement” found in the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, which emphasized equal rights, “the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”⁽⁵⁾.

Just over a month later, in his letter to the revolutionary authorities of regions, provinces, districts and villages, President Ho Chi Minh wrote: “It would not make any sense if the country is independent without bringing  people’s happiness and freedom”⁽⁶⁾. He also outlined political principles for the revolutionary government that “Whatever benefits the people, we must do our best. Whatever harms the people, we must do our utmost to avoid”⁽⁷⁾.

Once again, the Vietnamese philosophy of culture and cultural welfare was rekindled brightly in President Ho Chi Minh's thought that the people's “freedom and happiness enjoyment” was the top priority, even above national independence.

This philosophy continues to be expressed  in the Communist Party’s culture line and the State of Vietnam’s laws. Indeed, Resolution No. 33-NQ/TW, dated June 9, 2014, of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam on “building and developing Vietnamese culture and people to meet the demand for national sustainable development” has clearly affirmed the view of “Developing culture for the perfection of human personality and building people for cultural development”. At the same time, the Resolution has also defined the objectives of the cultural strategy and policy as: “Creating a healthy cultural market environment, enhancing the development of cultural industries and increasing Vietnamese culture promotion; gradually narrowing the gap of cultural enjoyment between the urban and rural areas, between regions and social classes; preventing and repelling the moral degradation in society”.

In the 2013 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Clause 2, Article 60 also clearly stipulates: “2. The State and society shall develop literature and the arts to meet the diverse and healthy spiritual needs of the People.”

Thus, both in terms of morality, political theory and the rule of law, the issue of ensuring the people's cultural welfare and the people's right to enjoy culture is very clear. Ensuring that people have the right and conditions to exercise that right is the responsibility the Communist Party and the State of Vietnam, and also the responsibility of the whole society and the people themselves. Above all, it is the political principle of the socialist regime, and also the morality of the Vietnamese nation.

However, even in the most ideal condition, the people's cultural enjoyment always has contradictions, limitations and problems that are difficult to resolve.

The first problem is the conflict and the gap between the people’s rights, needs and their ability to enjoy culture. It is evident that people are not equal in their ability to enjoy cultural products and services, even for the most popular ones. Most of them are products of creativity, especially artworks including many works of different schools or styles which have so symbolic, metaphorical, or academic expressions,… that only those who  have artistic sense can understand  the hidden message and enjoy the value and emotions they bring. Therefore, to ensure the people’s cultural welfare, on the one hand, it is necessary to thoroughly grasp the concept of “popularization”, which means there must be an appropriate process of “socialization” to help cultural products become accessible to a large number of people  so that they can enjoy them; on the other hand, it is necessary to create favorable conditions for people to improve their ability of cultual enjoyment through many solutions, from cultural - aesthetic - art education in schools and families to cultural communication in society.

The second issue is the difference in cultural choices and personal preference.  In comtemporary Vietnam, many people, especially the young, are not really interested in national traditional arts and culture (such as popular opera, classical drama, reformed theatre, folk songs, traditional folk games...), creating a narrow market of   traditional cultural products . Similarly, a part of the people, especially the young, are indifferent to revolutionary traditional cultural products. Numerous films about important events in Vietnam’s history, such as the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the August Revolution in 1945,.... are made and produced elaborately but only attracted very little attention of the audience. Few Vietnamese people  visit museums, whether it is history or fine arts museums. Meanwhile, millions of Vietnamese people, especially the young, are fond of foreign cultural products, such as South Korean, American or Chinese music and films... Some people are even caught up in depraved cultural products.

The question here is the cultural choice.

One of the factors that determines the choice is preference. Mass  preferences create trends while individual preferences are the choices of single individual. Most importantly: we  can only affect personal preferences in the indirect and persistent manner instead of  imposing people’s preferences.

The third issue is related to the market mechanism along with the conflicts between needs and fulfilled conditions, between business and social service.

This is perhaps the hottest and most complicated issue.

In the past, most of the community cultural events  were organized on the popularity principle, which means it is free and accessible to everyone, while at present, people have to pay, even they are put  to  a great expense to attend cultural events and  enjoy cultural products. The higher culture is , the higher  the expense is. This can be seen as an obstacle in the realization of the equal right to cultural enjoyment by many population groups and in the implementation of cultural welfare by many governments, including Vietnam.

Continuing to maintain and expand the scope of popular culture with many free cultural products will naturally make them accessible to  a large number of people. However, it will lead to a narrow market of cultural products and services , losing the advantage of developing the cultural industry, and reducing or even eliminating many cultural resources. Currently, this model can only be maintained in special socio-political regimes with the closed nature. In countries that are experiencing the process of globalization, the above policy will make  domestic cultural activities and products poorer, worse  and unattractive.

However, if all cultural activities and cultural environment are “floated” to the free market, it is inevitable that on the one hand, the majority of the population will be marginalized in cultural activities and cultural life due to their inability to pay for the cultural products and services, inadequacy in enjoyment capacity, preferences incompatibility; on the other hand, the rest of the population will be deeply dependent on and even “addicted” to foreign cultural products. As a result, that nation will be easily dissolved and culturally enslaved through the impact of market mechanisms and global integration. This is exactly the serious situation that Vietnam is falling into in recent years.

In Vietnam, the situation becomes more complicated and serious when some festivals and traditional cultural activities are commercialized and tourism development in some places is not well controlled. Due to the pressure of the market economy, traditional community cultural activities, including festivals, have been commercialized, and are no longer a place for villagers -  authors  and also beneficiaries of their  cultural products but only a place  for visitors to to make money. For that purpose, the organizers in some localities  are ready to “theatricalize”, copy and supplement the festival with many unfamiliar activities, especially “prize winning games” and superstitious practices. Even many mysterious rituals, funeral offerings,... are also turned into goods, into “shows” to attract tourists. Some historical sites and scenic spots have also been “distorted” due to irresponsible tourism development. Some mass media import foreign cultural products to “boost views” and make  money from advertising. This “cultural colonization” phenomenon is increasingly affecting the cultural welfare of Vietnamese people, depriving the infant development opportunities of Vietnamese cultural industry, eroding the fine cultural values of Vietnamese nation.

Some solutions in the coming time

To ensure cultural welfare for the Vietnamese people in the process of development and international integration, we must implement  solution persistently, synchronously and effectively.

Firstly, under any circumstances, in any fields or cultural areas, we must fully grasp the philosophy and morality of Vietnamese people regarding culture and cultural welfare, which is: serving the people and making the people enjoy the best cultural values are the main principle. This principle has been stipulated  in the 2013 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage (adopted at the 17^th session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on November 16, 1972).

This principle also aims to operate all cultural institutions, regulate cultural resources, develop cultural products and services markets in the context of renovation, international integration and sustainable development of Vietnam.

Secondly, it is first and foremost the responsibility of the Communist Party and State of Vietnam to develop national cultural welfare. The Communist Party determines the guidelines and policies; the State of Vietnam, notably the political system at all levels, is responsible for implementing the cultural welfare development strategy through setting up institutions, mobilizing, distributing and managing resources, organizing and managing cultural activities, developing the cultural industry and especially fostering and developing the people’s and community’s ability to participate in and enjoy cultural welfare.

Thirdly, the cultural industry, including cultural tourism should be  effectively accelerated, according to the “socialist-oriented market economy” principle. In the context of international integration, this is the most important solution for Vietnam to improve national competitiveness in the field of culture, to make the most of effective cultural resources to reclaim  domestic culture market  which is  endangered  by foreign culture; to promote the image of Vietnam’s country, people and culture abroad.

In the context of a socialist-oriented market economy and globalization, only the well-developed cultural industry will  help effectively ensure  cultural welfare and the country’s sustainable development.

The cultural industry is the big boat that best promotes the Vietnamese cultural values and the quintessence of human culture, an important platform of cultural welfare in this day and age. The cultural industry also provides  a great variety of  new cultural goods and products, offering more choices than in traditional channels. The cultural industry also generates tremendous financial and technological resources, thereby creating more conditions for the development of cultural welfare.

Obviously, specific regulatory policies are needed to minimize the negative impacts of market development for cultural products and services. It is not an easy task due to Vietnam’s inexperience in solving this problem. However, Vietnam can draw lessons from  some countries such as Korea, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands...

Fourthly, we should improve the ability of Vietnamese people and community to participate in and enjoy cultural welfare. This is a decisive factor to ensure  the sustainability and effectiveness of cultural welfare and Vietnam's successful  integration or its failure due to its cultural assimilation. Here are some solutions that need special attention:

First, ensuring the people’s right and responsibility to participate in and enjoy cultural welfare, which means to perfect relevant institutions.

Second, creating favorable conditions in terms of time and material so that people and communities can participate in and enjoy cultural welfare.

Third, enhancing education and training to improve the people's and community's ability to participate in and enjoy cultural welfare, thereby orienting the community’s and people's cultural towards healthy, progressive and humanistic  culture of the nation and the  humanity./.

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(1) Drogomir, Octavian (2020), “Cultural Goods and Cultural Welfare: Some Paxeological and Proprientarian Notes”, http://www.themarketforideas.com/cultural-goods-and-cultural-welfare-some-praxeological-and- proprietarian-notes-a217/

(2) Communist Party of Vietnam, Complete Document, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2000, Vol. 7, p. 319

(3), (4) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, Vol. 3, p. 458

(5) Communist Party of Vietnam, Complete Document, op.cit., Vol. 7, p. 434

(6), (7) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, op.cit., Vol. 4, p. 56, 57

This article was published in the Communist Review No. 959 (February 2021)