But recently he surprised me when, during a conference on Hue culture, he suddenly I suspect there was a rather harsh and “wordy” comment. Is he no longer “afraid of trouble” as in his previous verse?
He didn’t answer my question right away. He said that he had returned to Hue since he retired. writing poetry, reading books, his biggest concern is cultural issues: “That’s been my concern for many years. I see that if we keep doing culture like this, we will continue to decline even if we are greedy The hope of developing a rich and strong country, but our culture is not well prepared, the ideal of building a good society is still far from being achieved. The economy cannot develop.
Please clarify more about this idea?
– I mean culture in a broad sense, not in the sense of organizing literary writing clubs. The whole way we do business, the whole way we conduct business, management, law… we are very lacking in culture. Vietnam has lost a lot of culture due to the war, but also because of our own loss. When people lack culture, it is easy to do bad things. I see now that in dealing with each other, whatever attitude people can express, they express very harshly. That is an unforeseeable loss to the country’s development. Wrong things in people, wrong things in culture are the most difficult things to adjust because you know how to fix them and change them.
< div class=”MsoNormal” style=”MARGIN:0 0 0″>I’m worried that many people are only seeing the phenomenon and not seeing the deep root of the problem. Currently, culture is still difficult to evaluate and to attribute. For example, an observer of Vietnamese culture criticizes those who are not good cultural leaders, but that criticism is not to any extent. That’s why sometimes there are errors that loom out there, but we still can’t talk clearly about them.
Another problem is that currently among the people there is a very common mentality that People do not like the current administrative system. People do not like and are afraid of contact with the government, while people’s lives have hundreds of things that must be tied to the government because “servants of the people” are always cold… towards the people. It is a manifestation of a deterioration in communication culture, administrative culture and behavior. With such a system, how can the country develop when there is a lack of trust between the government and the people? Currently, people only deal with the government. I’m not sure how we fix this?
In a recent conference on Hue culture, he said: “The awareness of protecting and promoting tangible and intangible cultural values is an idea. contemporary consciousness…”. As a former cultural manager at the highest level, how do you see this awareness in Vietnam?
– Yes, it is a very new consciousness that was only born a few hundred years ago. At that time, people began to think that culture was an element in developing social life and building people. In the past, many values were of course precious, but people only considered them as simple possessions (for example, an ancient vase). In our country, it must be said that this consciousness was born only when the French entered Vietnam. Soc Den Phu Dong Temple has just been recognized by UNESCO as a world intangible cultural heritage, but this has been prepared since the period of Mr. Nguyen Van Huyen (Institute of the Far East). Since the 1930s, he has written works in French about Phu Dong Thien Vuong.
To form such a consciousness in society from managers to researchers to people… a very elaborate propaganda process is needed. Because sometimes we are breaking without knowing we are breaking. There was a time when our awareness of these issues was not good. We look at previous historical values with an unfriendly eye. Standing in front of the Nguyen Dynasty palaces, we curse it as a product of the ruling class. Even an antique vase in the house is accused of worshiping feudal values. Eliminating all types of culture related to feudalism and colonialism… the deeper we have cut off the past, the better our stance will be considered. That is a very harmful attitude. Over the past few decades, it has been adjusted, but it has not been completely adjusted. That’s why we live with the values of yesterday but still despise and despise…
“Today many spiritual activities are carried out according to the principle of money, not the principle of culture, not to mention moral principles…”. Do you think that’s too harsh?
– I don’t think there’s anything harsh about it. It is true that today many of our cultural and artistic activities are chasing money. I take the example of the movie “Road to Thang Long” in the name of serving a big holiday but borrowed it from China and ended up losing hundreds of billions, so why not chase money? Or recently, the auctions to help poor people affected by floods and natural disasters… are just jokes; Then there’s the matter of publishing textbooks… all the money. Tuongcheo Cai Luong… is now all in disrepair because there is no money. If it continues like this, I don’t know how dark it will get.
Whatever makes money, you rush into it, what doesn’t make money, then ignore it… is common. When entering the market economy era, we have a very basic forgetfulness that this market economy only develops when other factors are also developed, then it can develop well and healthily. If it is purely a market that makes money, its development is not only unsustainable but also full of disaster. Remember when capitalism was born, along with it came important ideologies about democracy, humanity, human rights, protection of traditional heritage… to make people more steadfast in the face of money values. And now we seem to be letting go, only considering the economy as important. We are like a person who has been hungry for a long time and suddenly sees a pile of money in front of us and everyone rushes to grab it for as much as possible, forgetting the values that make up a person’s decency and kindness.
I repeat Question again: Does it feel like you have now stopped being “afraid of trouble”?
– Living in a society like ours, we always have to be afraid because troubles appear from sides we don’t expect, even when they come from brothers and friends because we prepare for incomplete human development. People always need freedom, serenity, and proactive choices in thinking and speaking. But currently we have not reached such conditions, so people always encounter difficulties. Even journalists’ right to speak has not been fully expressed. Or the people’s right to cast a true vote has not yet been achieved. So at any time we can be bothered.
I often tell some of my brothers that I am now a married woman. But there is only one husband. That means even if my husband dies, I will still have one husband and not remarry or secretly find a partner. I live in this society the same way. I know that I have been raised from flesh and blood to the social system and this regime. I’m always attached, but I don’t always have to think today like I did yesterday. I have to have my new thoughts on everything.
But from there to say that I went looking for other opportunities, other clues, is not. Yesterday I didn’t talk about Article B because I hadn’t thought about it yet or at that time I had only thought about it to that extent. Someone asked me if I didn’t see you talk about that issue yesterday, but now you say it? Actually, I couldn’t think of it yesterday. I have had to live like everyone else for so many years. Until now, I can only look like everyone else. Because I always want my homeland to achieve new values, not old values.
So what I like best is still “showing my face in poetry”?
– That’s right. Now I can only show my face in poetry. In poetry, you have to tell the truth, you can’t hide yourself, you can’t lie… In Vietnam, we believe that literature is morality and responsibility… so we limit creativity and limit disclosure. While literature must express the inner beauty of people. Recently, such awareness has emerged, but it is not enough. So I have retired, but many leaders expect me to be like this and that, to write poems of praise, to exhort progress… Recently, when I published some poems in the newspaper after returning to Hue, there were many different opinions, even There are even people who criticize me for “changing my voice” but I don’t care…
Thank you for the chat!
According to Hoang Van Minh
Newspaper Labor
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