Culture, which is crystallised from material and spiritual values of thousands of years of work and creativity, is considered the soul of each nation. Culture is a passport that helps affirm the appearance and bravery of each country and is also the “key” for each country to confidently integrate into the world. Throughout Vietnam’s history, culture has always been a decisive factor in the victory of the cause of national construction and defence. Therefore, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always paid special attention to building, preserving, revitalising and promoting national culture, considering it a central task and a breakthrough with strategic meaning to promote the rapid and sustainable development of the country.

The Party’s awareness of cultural building and development is increasingly comprehensive and profound

As a confluence of the most quintessential, humane and progressive values, culture with rich and diverse expressions always creates a deep influence on each individual and the community. For each individual, culture plays an important role in forming personality, shaping ideals, and nurturing morality, intelligence and soul. For the nation community, culture is the foundation and the driving force that creates social strength and the identity card for each country on the world cultural map. Therefore, the right awareness and behaviour towards culture is the “key” to opening the door to the sustainable development of the country. Through the leadership of the Vietnamese revolution for more than nine decades, it can be seen that our Party has become more and more aware of the strength and importance of culture in the development of the country.

During the first platform of the Party in 1930, the Party mentioned the issue of developing the nation’s culture. When the country had not yet gained independence in 1943, the Party built the Draft of the Vietnamese Culture, clearly defining culture as one of the three pillars (economy, politics, and culture) that have a close relationship with each other. The Party must not only make a political revolution, but also a cultural revolution. At the same time, the Draft also outlines three principles of the Vietnamese culture including nationalisation, scientification, and popularisation.

The viewpoints and directions of the Party in this important document created a new vitality to gather intellectuals, writers, artists, and the people to promote the role of culture while unifying awareness and ideology and arousing the aspirations for national independence in addition to preparing the spirit and forces for the success of the August Revolution and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the first worker-peasant state of Southeast Asia in 1945.

  Then singing and the “dan tinh” (gourd lute) have become a familiar image associated with religious activities and folk performances of Tay, Nung, and Thai ethnic people in Vietnam. (Photo: Pham Tiep)

At the first National Cultural Conference in November 1946, President Ho Chi Minh, a hero of national liberation and an outstanding cultural celebrity made the thesis “Culture lights the way for the nation to advance”. This thesis showed the wide scope and profound influence of culture on all fields of social life, becoming an important principle with fundamental and lasting meaning throughout the development of Vietnamese culture as well as during the struggle for national liberation and the cause of national construction and defence.

In a letter sent to the participants of the second National Cultural Conference (July 16 - 20, 1948), President Ho Chi Minh emphasised: “During the great cause of national resistance and national construction, culture plays a very important role. Our cultural activists must have worthy works, not only to praise the cause of resistance and national construction but also to pass on the glorious history of the resistance for posterity”.

When the country was completely reunified, especially since the beginning of the Doi moi (Renewal), the arguments on cultural development for socio-economic development were concretised and implemented more strongly by the Party. On November 28, 1978, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 05-NQ/TW on “Renewing and improving leadership and management capacity over literature, art and culture and promoting creativity to bring literature, art and culture to a new level”. This can be considered the first thematic resolution on culture in the period of national renewal. The resolution affirms: “Culture is an essential need in the spiritual life of society, representing the general development level of a country and an era, and is a field of spiritual production that creates cultural values…”

The Resolution of the fourth Plenum of the seventh Party Central Committee (1993) on “A number of cultural and artistic tasks in the immediate years” affirmed that “Culture is the spiritual foundation of society”. In particular, the Resolution of the fifth Plenum of the eighth Party Central Committee (1998) on “Building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity” outlined five basic points of view to guide the cultural development in the process of industrialisation and modernisation as well as setting specific tasks for the building and development of Vietnamese culture and its people. The resolution supports the viewpoint that “Culture is the spiritual foundation of society, both a goal and a driving force for socio-economic development”.

  Chol Chnam Thmay is the traditional New Year Festival of the Khmer ethnic people across southern provinces. (Photo: Pham Tiep)

  Kate is the oldest and most unique folk festival of Cham ethnic minority people in Binh Thuan Province, aiming to respect the gods and pray for a favourable weather and crops. (Photo: Pham Tiep)

At the ninth Plenum of the 11th Party Central Committee (2014), the Party issued Resolution No. 33-NQ/TW on “Building and developing Vietnamese culture and people to meet the requirements of national sustainable development”, showing the development of theoretical thinking and creativity of the Party in the perception of the position and role of culture, especially the human factor in determining the direction, motivation and specificity of culture building and development. In this Resolution, the Party continues to affirm the views and tasks stated in the Resolution of the fifth Plenum of the eighth Party Central Committee while supplementing and emphasising some new issues.

The Party emphasised that culture must be placed on an equal footing with economy, politics and society while clarifying the characteristics of an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity as nationality, humanity, democracy and science. The Party stressed that the focus of culture building is the building of people with good characteristics and lifestyles. In this Resolution, the Party identified several new tasks to build culture in politics and the economy and the development of cultural industries as well as perfection of the cultural market.

  Xoan singing, a unique type of cultural folk treasure from the ancestral land of Phu Tho, is an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. (Photo: NDO)

The 12th Politburo also issued Conclusion No. 76-KL/TW dated June 4, 2020, on continuing to implement Resolution No. 33-NQ/TW, which identified major contents and orientations: Building and developing culture and people is an important and regular task of the whole political system. Culture is the soul of the nation, a solid spiritual foundation of the society, and an important endogenous strength to ensure sustainable development and solid defence of the Fatherland, for the sake of the well-being of people and a prosperous, democratic, justice, and civilised country.

The views, goals and tasks of Conclusion No. 76-KL/TW continued to be affirmed and enhanced in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress in 2021. The resolution identified one of the key tasks as: “Arousing the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country and promote Vietnamese cultural values and human strength in the cause of national construction and defence, and international integration”. For the first time, the Party officially included the term “soft power” in the Document of the 13th National Party Congress: “Promoting the soft power of Vietnamese culture” to contribute to arousing the great endogenous strength of Vietnamese culture and people which have been forged and nurtured in the historical journey of several thousand years of national construction and defence.

  New Rice Celebration Festival is held by Gia Rai ethnic group in the Central Highlands after harvest time to welcome a new year. (Photo: Pham Tiep)

The National Cultural Conference to implement the 13th National Party Congress’ Resolution was held by the Politburo and the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat at Dien Hong Hall within the National Assembly's headquarters in Hanoi on November 24, 2021, under the chair of the Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

Taking place 45 years after the first National Cultural Conference, which was chaired by President Ho Chi Minh on November 24, 1946, the 2021 conference aimed to review the implementation of the Party’s orientations, policies, resolutions, directions and conclusions regarding cultural and art activities over the years, as well as the outcomes of the development of the Vietnamese culture and people after 35 years of the Doi Moi (Renewal) process, while defining new orientations and tasks in the work for the 2021-2026 period and until 2045.

It also provided an opportunity for cultural experts, intellectuals and artists to foster solidarity in thoughts and actions while connecting cultural forces inside and outside the country to serve the nation and people; optimising the strength from the national great unity to successfully implement the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.

It can be seen that since its establishment, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always attached importance to the role of culture, and given utmost attention to the development of culture in the process of national liberation and construction, especially during the country’s period of transition to socialism.

The Party’s perception and understanding of cultural development in the Doi Moi period has been gradually augmented and advanced to become better-rounded and more comprehensive, thorough and deep, which can be seen from various angles, including from concept of culture to the position and role of culture in the development of the country and its people; and from giving directions to setting out goals, tasks and basic solutions to build and develop an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity, catching up with the country’s situation in the new period as well as the current development trend of the times.