Party to help ethnic groups in border protect cultural identity
VietNamNet Bridge – Van Hoa (Culture) newspaper spoke with Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Dinh Quang Ngu on conserving ethnic minority cultures in border regions.
Vietnam shares borders with China, Laos and Cambodia which are home to more than five million people from more than 40 ethnic groups.
They live in 900 communes, 89 districts and 43 provinces and cities.
During different times in history, the border areas were always important as buffer zones or shields for the homeland.
Right from the inception of the Viet Nam Communist Party, border regions were the cradles and safety zones of the revolution, the Party and the Government. Their cultures are diverse and rich with many tangible and intangible values.
Building and protecting national borders are the tasks of the Party and entire people, of all economic sectors and organisations. But how can culture and information contribute to defending national borders?
Vietnam shares these land and sea borders with countries that have different political regimes, economies and cultures.
Though border demarcations on a map are clearly marked out, the feelings of people living in these areas are without borders.
Culture has become a bridge and a foundation for fostering friendship, solidarity and mutual assistance among different nationalities that share a border.
In the field of culture, in order to achieve the objective of equality, first of all, we have to build a healthy culture on the basis of conservation and enhancement of its good customs and habits.
Ethnic people themselves should be thoroughly aware of the beauty and unique characteristics of their own cultures. They can't afford to lose their culture.
We also understand that to achieve this objective, we have to work very hard, particularly in the field of culture which has, so far, not been appropriately considered. As a result, sometimes we were put in a passive position before the en mass infiltration of foreign cultures.
Another issue we had to tackle was to eliminate barriers hindering cultural development, such as the backward customs and habits which have been practised by local people for many years.
Work on culture in border regions differs to work on culture in non-border regions.
In border regions, it is important that the work must be carried out internally and externally at the same time.
More recently we had exerted efforts to conserve and enhance the cultural identities of ethnic minorities. We have helped them build a new cultural life style through different activities which are appropriate to their living conditions and traditions.
The culture and information sector has worked closely with the border security forces' High Command and mass organisations to promote and improve the quality of cultural activities along border lines.
Regarding external activities, there remain some limitations. We have not been in a proactive position to initiate cross-border cultural activities with our neighbours. As a result, mutual understanding between peoples living along borders is not as good as it should be.
One of the ways to improve the quality of culture and information activities in the border regions is to accelerate cultural conservation work and integrate local projects with central projects.
In addition, it is very important to develop other forms of culture and information activities suitable to the education level of the local ethnic groups.
The authorities should also help build and support institutions operating in the field of culture and information like setting up culture houses, organising cultural activities for the people and providing them with newspapers or books written in their own languages.
In line with the Party's guidelines on keeping the cultural identity of the ethnic minority groups, it is important to have a correct and objective assessment of what is in place in the regions so that we can formulate a strategy for the betterment of culture and information activities.
The ultimate goal of having better culture and information activities is to turn tly border into regions of peace and friendship, with rich cultures and strong local economies, mighty in national defence and on the path of modernisation, and industrialisation.
(Source: Viet Nam News)
Vietnam shares borders with China, Laos and Cambodia which are home to more than five million people from more than 40 ethnic groups.
They live in 900 communes, 89 districts and 43 provinces and cities.
During different times in history, the border areas were always important as buffer zones or shields for the homeland.
Right from the inception of the Viet Nam Communist Party, border regions were the cradles and safety zones of the revolution, the Party and the Government. Their cultures are diverse and rich with many tangible and intangible values.
Building and protecting national borders are the tasks of the Party and entire people, of all economic sectors and organisations. But how can culture and information contribute to defending national borders?
Vietnam shares these land and sea borders with countries that have different political regimes, economies and cultures.
Though border demarcations on a map are clearly marked out, the feelings of people living in these areas are without borders.
Culture has become a bridge and a foundation for fostering friendship, solidarity and mutual assistance among different nationalities that share a border.
In the field of culture, in order to achieve the objective of equality, first of all, we have to build a healthy culture on the basis of conservation and enhancement of its good customs and habits.
Ethnic people themselves should be thoroughly aware of the beauty and unique characteristics of their own cultures. They can't afford to lose their culture.
We also understand that to achieve this objective, we have to work very hard, particularly in the field of culture which has, so far, not been appropriately considered. As a result, sometimes we were put in a passive position before the en mass infiltration of foreign cultures.
Another issue we had to tackle was to eliminate barriers hindering cultural development, such as the backward customs and habits which have been practised by local people for many years.
Work on culture in border regions differs to work on culture in non-border regions.
In border regions, it is important that the work must be carried out internally and externally at the same time.
More recently we had exerted efforts to conserve and enhance the cultural identities of ethnic minorities. We have helped them build a new cultural life style through different activities which are appropriate to their living conditions and traditions.
The culture and information sector has worked closely with the border security forces' High Command and mass organisations to promote and improve the quality of cultural activities along border lines.
Regarding external activities, there remain some limitations. We have not been in a proactive position to initiate cross-border cultural activities with our neighbours. As a result, mutual understanding between peoples living along borders is not as good as it should be.
One of the ways to improve the quality of culture and information activities in the border regions is to accelerate cultural conservation work and integrate local projects with central projects.
In addition, it is very important to develop other forms of culture and information activities suitable to the education level of the local ethnic groups.
The authorities should also help build and support institutions operating in the field of culture and information like setting up culture houses, organising cultural activities for the people and providing them with newspapers or books written in their own languages.
In line with the Party's guidelines on keeping the cultural identity of the ethnic minority groups, it is important to have a correct and objective assessment of what is in place in the regions so that we can formulate a strategy for the betterment of culture and information activities.
The ultimate goal of having better culture and information activities is to turn tly border into regions of peace and friendship, with rich cultures and strong local economies, mighty in national defence and on the path of modernisation, and industrialisation.
(Source: Viet Nam News)
2 comments:
What the hell is this? Is this another Vietcong public relation campaing to promote the good image of the Vietcong government?
Don't do to other and other will undo you!
This is another Youn's propaganda. Is Ah Youn that nice? It's a dream. Look what happen to Khmer Krom now. Ah! Youn is trying to arrest the Buddhist monk and some monks are still in jail. They did not let Khmer Krom bring in the TRai BEI DoK books for the temple in Khmer Krom. They are afraid that the monks will learn Khmer and will rebel their government.
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