PHAN THANH NHON
Speech on 1st Vietnamese Studies
International Conference,
Hanoi 1998
The
course of culture and the course of economy share the same subject : Man.
Evolution in this two domains, either inter-supportingly or
inter-conflictingly, have been through out the time bound for man’s living.
It’s the relation between nature and society, between material and spirit,
between pragmatism and romanticism, between the past and future, between a
relatively static position (culture) and an absolutely changing course at a
point of time. Culture may sometimes be an engine and other times an obstacle
to economic development. From the standpoint of Southern philosophy (in
contrary to China being the North), that’s the relation between the two basic
elements, Yin and Yang, and from the standpoint of materialism, the two sides
of a topic that you cannot ignore one while studying the other.
Vietnam
has been enjoying a national culture regconized worldwide, which is represented
by several shining civilizations, from the grand copper drum civilization to
the Daiviet era. The continuity of said civilizations constitutes a
distinguished Vietnamese culture the strong vitality of which helps the people
of Vietnam, the nation of Vietnam to survive so many turmoils.
As
for economy, we haven’t been up to such a level. In the past, Vietnam primarily
applied a model of self-sufficiency and the economy was never stably strong.
For the time ahead, given economic development as the main target as stated by Party Chief Le Kha Phieu in a
press interview on May 5, 1998 : “In Vietnam there is only one will : To
makeVietnam rich”, and so rapid economic development is put on top, then
what will be the role of national culture
in said course, and how will it evolve ? That’s the topic of this paper.
1.
What are the characteristics of the Vietnamese culture ?
Culture,
as defined by Mr Feredica Mayor, Unesco’s General Secretary, is “the organic
aggregation of individual and collective creations in the past and present.
Over centuries, those activities have formed a system of values, customs and
tastes - which specify the characteristics of a people”.
The
Vietnamese culture goes hand in hand with the characters of the Vietnamese
people, one represents the other, one depicts the other, one serves the
development of the other in their interactive relationship, so close that
sometimes become one. A nation with several peoples, in Vietnam there are
certainly different cultural characteristics. On the whole, the culture of Viet
(Kinh) - which makes up the 85% population majority - prevails. Viet culture
has been studied by a number of Vietnamese and foreign researchers and has
become a widely known topic. This conference can serve as an example.
As a
man primarily engaged in business, with little background in culture study, I
have no intention to repeat it but will, instead, employ the findings of other
culture and Vietnam professionals.
Indisputably,
the Vietnamese culture is based on an old-time water paddy agricultural
civilization, and bears all the attributes of an agriculture-based society, in
which villages play a major role. Thanks to the vitality of traditional
villages, this country, this nation, this spirit have survived over centuries
of separation and foreign domination. That features both strengths and
weaknesses of Vietnamese : Easygoing, neutral thinking, diligent, locally
chauvinist, equilizationist, discipline lacking, vulnerable, subjective,
uncautious, sometimes selfish... This opinion has been thoroughly covered in
many works (see The Noble Vietnamese by Vu Hanh, History of Vietnamese Culture
by Dao Duy Anh, In search of Vietnamese Cultural Characteristics by Tran Ngoc
Them...). These characters inevitably have their impacts on the people’s
evolution in the past, in the present and in the future.
History
has so far evidenced the importance of Vietnamese peasants to the fate of the
nation. They’re the source of manpower and necessities for historic patriotic
wars, the source of culture and art, the source of past and present
interlectuals, the source of Vietnamese ideology. Even contemporary Vietnam’s
revolutiona leaders have their roots as peasants prior to going to urban
environment. Nowadays, the countryside remains the the social’s major labor
supply for both agriculture and industry.
This
fact should be regconized. Even though we set industrialization as our target,
we shouldn’t deny our agricultural root and nature. It’s impossible to have a
proper strategy without correct self-identification.
2.
Culture and economic development in the context of contemporary Vietnam
UNESCO
General Secretary once said in his speech :”Culture and development are
interconnected. When a country sets its track of economic development away from
the track of culture, imbalances will occur both in the economy and in
culture... Culture should be regarded an immediate engine to development and,
vice versa, development should have culture as its hub, one that fine-tunes
social activities”.
Vietnam
is always highly conscious of the role of culture. Our papers often read the
phrase “developing the economy but not forgetting to conserve national
traditional cultural values”. Such saying raises 2 points :
One,
it again regconizes a constantly potential conflict between economic
development and cultural conservation.
Second,
it shows that we are only paying attention to one side of the issue :
Developing the economy without prejudice to cultural conservation rather than
deploying the second side (though sometimes referred to) : Employing cultural
environment as an engine to economic development.
Vietnam’s
economic development process should be placed in the context of the integration
and globalization of world economy, where all relations become highly complex
and sensitive. Economic relation is combined with political, ideologic,
cultural relations. Cultural exchange between different regions and people is
easier than ever with less difficulties over time and distance.
In
that context, the reception and action of man- as the subject of culture - may
go well beyond their control in a world that good and bad information are
nested. Even developed countries encounter the adverse effects on morals and
culture that bring about by scientific progress and economic development, let
alone to say the Vietnamese society, one that started from a closed and
isolated ground.
Demand
on economic development sometimes switches us different value orientation, to
different cultural orientation. According to Mr Le Quang Thiem, “the dialogues
over social and human development have concluded three common value orientation
: Truth - Good - Beauty : Learn the Truth, do the Good in order to obtain the
Beauty”. Such orientation is put under certain pressure in the market economy.
Market rules are clear and fair : “buying and selling are to be mutually
beneficial”, everything has got to be paid for, nobody can relies on
external subsidy.
In
some optimists’ opinion :”The constant of Vietnamese culture is to open to
other cultures worldwide. It acquires those that are good, those that are
proper and denies those that are bad, those that are improper”. It’s not so
simple in practise, sometimes the evil is much easier to acquire than the good.
Culture
is nothing invariable. It’s an evolution, in which the control of a national
policy is essential to keep it on the right track. In history there are several
lessons about the extinction of peoples and nations when they were not
adequately cautious about “foreign cultural invasion”. That’s the constantly
potential conflict that we have referred to.
Vietnamese
culture itself has both positive and negative effects on economic development.
There are many analyzes pointing out which is positive and which is negative to
economic development. I have no intention to mention the positives and the
negatives, since one may well be positive in this context, in this method but
then become negative in another context, another method. That’s the
no-principle principle of economic course that become effective in culture.
So
what are the rules that can be used to control these positive-negative effects
? May I propose 3 instructions :
1.
Regconize the truth
2.
Do not go against social-economic rules
3.
Be human. Human-based culture will be everlasting, or, spiritually speaking :
“having a happy end”.
The
first and second instructions are for the sake of economic development while
the third is for the sake of cultural conservation. Correct implementation of
above-mentioned instructions will create a healthy balance of material benefit
and spiritual benefit.
3.
Employing national culture in economic management
As
previously said, we have so far touched only one side of the issue : Developing
the economy without prejudice to cultural conservation, rather than the second
side: Employing culture as an engine to economic development.
Vietnamese
culture is in the East - SouthEast Asia family, where strong and rapid economic
development have been evidenced in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong,
Singapore. Is there any link between the regional culture and economic success
?
This
is a region where cultures are relatively identical with the widespread influence of three
philosophies : Bhudism, Laoism and Confucianism; of eastern view of the world
and life. On such a ground the model for economic development has its own
properties different from the clasical western model : Stress on nationalism,
directly or indirectly consider culture an engine to economic development,
stress on business philosophy, prefer management by process (MBP) to management
by objective (MBO), long-term employment, team-made decision, team
responsibility, stress on human relation, minimize the gap between leader and
worker...
It
should be regconized that the East Asia, in comparison to the West,has
archieved their economic success with less social pains, better cultural
conservation and more stable society.
Let’s
establish a table showing the influence of culture on economic development.
|
|
Japan
|
S.Korea
|
Taiwan
|
HK
|
Sing
|
VN
|
|
Political
stability
|
Pretty
good
|
Average
|
Average
|
High
|
High
|
High
|
|
Agricultural
base
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
Human
relation stress
|
Good
|
Good
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Good
|
Not
yet
|
|
Education
|
High
|
Pretty
good
|
Average
|
Average
|
High
|
Average
|
|
Discipline
|
High
|
High
|
Pretty
good
|
Pretty
good
|
High
|
Average
|
|
Ethnic-combination
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Nationalism
|
High
|
High
|
Yes
|
No
|
Yes
|
Average
|
In
the table, we can see Vietnam in a less favorable economic-cultural situation.
In term of economic culture, every nation has its own characteristics. For
example, Chaebol is a symbol of South Korea’s economic culture, mochav is a
symbol of Israel’s economic culture. So what is the symbol of Vietnam’s
economic culture at present ? We have to admit that there hasn’t been any. So
Vietnam’s problem is how to employ national culture in economic development as
a common cause, on both macro- and micro- levels. In this paper I would like to
make suggestions in repects of nationalism build-up, educational, agricultural
and industrial development, human issue, collective issue and business unit
issue.
One
of Vietnamese’s weakness is being uncautious, only react when pushed to the corner.
In the economic struggle, there’s no visible enemy ahead, no emergency. We
therefore donot pay adequate attention. It should be understood that the
economic battle is as fierce, as deadly as the gun-and-bullet battle, be
constantly on alert for fight. Let’s look at Japan in the time of post-world
war II : Only with such a strong determination of the whole people that the
economic miracle can be made.
To
have such a determination, Japan itself sustains nationalism at a high level.
We don’t have that in the peace. So nationalism should be promoted repeatedly.
We are not afraid of becoming chauvinist, because it is away from Vietnamese’s
neutral thinking. A nationalist cultural environment should be structured.
Then,
a “people struggle” in economic battlefield should be triggered and employ all
national human resources. The inferiority, the dependence of an economically
weak nation should be regconized.
Let’s
invest more in agriculture and rural areas. The industrialization and
modernization should be carried out on the basis of a strong agriculture,
upgrading the rural areas to same standards with urban areas, appreciating the
role of peasant as the one that feeds the nation.
Let’s
seriously consider national culture education as a national policy, teaching
Vietnamese culture from the low levels. Employ the elites, limit the
eldership-favoured human policy, expediting the development of a skillful and
discipline labour force. Respect and appreciate individual success.
Highly
value individual interests, combine individual and collective interest, so that
everyone can value the role of nation and individuals. Look for long-term
interest, social welfare and equality, respect human needs. Promote individual
moral perfection in line with eastern philosophy.
Promote
team spirit on the basis of village community relationship. Let’s make the
worker feel responsible to and economically connected with his team as his own
village. Apply economic theories in harmony with national culture. Take for
example the behavior theory, the quantum theory and the system theory.
(Behavior theory : Society is the engine to productivity gain, stimulate
demand, create a democratic atmosphere like that in the village. System theory:
The integrated system should be bigger than the sum of components. In Vietnam :
The integrated system is sometimes smaller than the sum of components...)
Conclusion
This
is an open topic that calls for more opinion from other theorists and pragmatists.
May I limit the target of this paper at raising the topic for everybody’s
discussion in order to find out a common strategy for one purpose :
Conservation and development of national culture in the context of economic
development for one goal : Developing the society.
