The Book entitled "Building an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity" by the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong not only reaffirms the Party's close, consistent leadership over the development and revitalisation of national culture, which is considered as a driving force of socialism, but also serves as a powerful testament that refutes all distorted arguments.

Hùng King’s Temple Festival - a unique cultural trait of Vietnam

In order to attack, distort, and deny our Party’s stance and policies on the development of national culture and arts, hostile and reactionary forces have been actively exploiting the Internet and media platforms to sabotage our Party. They claim that the Party does not pay attention to cultural and human development, and that such efforts are merely superficial or intended to deceive the public. At the same time, they promote the dissemination of anti-humanistic foreign cultural products. Under the guise of “freedom of speech,” “freedom of creation,” and “right to access information,” they incite demands for “freedom” and “democracy” in journalism, publishing, and arts in a bid to distort history, twist the truth, defame and falsely accuse our regime. Their ultimate goal is to deny the nature of Vietnamese culture and arts, erode and distort traditional cultural values and the ethical, humane, and compassionate principles of the Vietnamese peoples; they also seek to foster a mentality of materialistic lifestyle in an effort to facilitate artifices of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation,” cultivating political opposition with the aim of eventually eliminating the Party’s leadership. Against this backdrop, the Book titled "Building an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity" by the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong reaffirms the Party’s consistent leadership over the building of a new culture. Simultaneously, it acts as a sharp and decisive argument that refutes all the distorted and dissident narratives by hostile forces, as demonstrated by the following fundamental points.

Firstly, the Book consistently affirms that national culture is the essence, lifeblood, and strength of the nation; Vietnamese nation stays alive when its culture stays alive. Throughout the course of its leadership over the revolution, the Party has consistently paid due attention to the creation of an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity, recognising it as the driving force and goal of development. Realities and the contents of the Book show that the Party has always paid due regard to issuing numerous important resolutions, directives, and conclusions aimed at guiding the nation's path to cultural development on the basis of  absorbing the quintessence of mankind’s culture, namely the 6^th Politburo’s Resolution 05-NQ/TW, dated 28 November 1987 on "Renovating and improving the leadership and management of literature, arts, and culture, enhancing creativity, advancing literature, arts, and culture to a new height"; Resolution 03-NQ/TW, dated 16 July 1998 by the 8^th Central Party Committee on "Building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity"; Resolution 23-NQ/TW, dated 16 June 2008 by the 10^th Politburo on "Continuing to build and develop literature and arts in the new era"; and Resolution 33-NQ/TW, dated 9 June 2014 by the 11^th Central Party Committee on "Building and developing Vietnamese culture and people on a par with requirements of sustainable national development." Notably, the Party’s 13^th National Congress reiterated, “Fostering all-round human development and building an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity so that Vietnamese culture and people become a true source of internal strength and a driving force for Fatherland development and defence.” The Book clearly shows that the Party has always consistently attached special importance to the role of culture in the survival of the Vietnamese nation. Culture is seen as the country’s spiritual foundation, momentum, and internal strength, serving as a solid foundation for national development. According to the Party’s guiding viewpoints, "Economic development is the centre; Party building is the key; cultural development is the spiritual foundation; ensuring national defence and security is the crucial and continual task." These facts provide irrefutable evidence against the claim stating that the Party fails to take care of cultural development and takes no interest in the people’s spiritual life.

Secondly, the culture we are building is an advanced culture deeply imbued with national identity; national independence and socialism are put at the forefront of the building of such a culture; Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh's thoughts play a central role in the spiritual life of society. This is one of the core elements of the Book, reaffirming the Party’s consistent viewpoint that human beings are placed at the centre of development strategies; cultural and human development is both the objective and driving force of the cause of national renovation. In the process of building and developing national culture, the Party has always emphasised the inheritance of the nation's fine cultural traditions, selectively learning from cultural achievements and quintessence of the world, striving to build a civilised and healthy society for the people’s legitimate interests and dignity with the increasing levels of knowledge, ethics, physical fitness, lifestyle, and aesthetics. These objectives also reflect the legitimate aspirations of the entire Vietnamese people; therefore, it is groundless to claim that the Party and State do not care about cultural and human development. Such allegations dismiss the fact that any attempt to import and spread non-cultural, anti-cultural products runs counter to the Party’s viewpoint on building a new culture and the aspirations of the Vietnamese people.

Thirdly, the Book emphasises that human development must be the centrepiece. It clearly demonstrates that the development of the Vietnamese people in the era of renovation, development, and integration with appropriate values is closely linked to preserving and promoting Vietnamese family values, cultural value system, and national values. Traditional values are combined with modern ones, including patriotism, solidarity, self-reliance, compassion, honesty, responsibility, discipline, and creativity. Realities have shown that these values are nurtured by the core contents of Vietnamese family culture, namely prosperity, happiness, progress, and civilisation, which are further enriched and developed by an advanced culture deeply imbued with national identity, built on the foundation of national value system. These values represent the highest aspirations of the Vietnamese people, including peace, unity, independence, prosperity, democracy, equality, civilisation, and happiness. In line with the Party's guidelines on building the Vietnamese people in the new era, learning and following the ideology, ethics, and style of Ho Chi Minh have become a cultural and spiritual need. It has evolved into a key component of the cultural lifestyle of our Party, people, and Military in their entirety. Within this context, fostering a culture within the Party plays a pivotal role in revitalising national culture, which is gradually becoming central to the nation's socio-economic development strategies. Simultaneously, it is essential to actively criticise and combat negative things, such as immoral, outdated, or wrong behaviours to the detriment of culture and lifestyle. In reality, many examples from the Patriotic Emulation Movement and the "All people unite to build a cultural life" Campaign have become symbols in society, strengthening public trust in the building of national culture in particular and in the development of the nation in general. These achievements have contributed to foiling artifices of “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” in the realms of political ideology, morality, and lifestyle by hostile forces.

Fourthly, it is essential for the Party to candidly acknowledge limitations and shortcomings in its leadership over the building of national culture. In his Book, the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong candidly highlighted several key issues: cultural development across various sectors has yet to be synchronised or substantive. There is a lack of significant cultural, literary, and artistic works that truly reflect the scope of the process of national renewal and contribute positively to national construction and human development. Cultural environment remains polluted by social evils, corruption, and negativity. Cultural life in ethnic minority-inhabited, remote, border, and island areas still faces considerable challenges. Many valuable cultural heritages of the nation are at risk of deterioration or even extinction. Moreover, the Party's leadership, direction, and management of culture have been slow and inconsistent, particularly in institutionalising the Party's views, lines, and policies on culture. Investment in culture has been insufficient with subpar results. By openly recognising shortcomings and seeking ways to address them, the Party demonstrates its firm resolve, revolutionary spirit, and the late General Secretary’s deep commitment to revitalising the nation's culture. Those make the artifices of exploiting these limitations to undermine the Party's reputation become out of touch and ridiculous.

Fifthly, continually offering valuable guidance on building the Party and political system culturally and ethically, firmly combating corruption and negativity so that our Party and political system truly embody morality and civilisation, representing the conscience and dignity of the Vietnamese people. To this end, the Book emphasises the need to prioritise building a culture within leadership and governance, while highlighting the importance of example-setting role among Party members and cadres, especially those at strategic level in terms of Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, ethics, and cultural style.  

Furthermore, the Book advocates enhancing the Party’s leadership, the State’s management efficiency, and the active participation of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and other political - social organisations in the cause of cultural development. This approach lays the groundwork for improving the Party's leadership, the State's management, and the people's efforts in the building of an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity in the current period.

The Book entitled “Building an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity” reaffirms the Party's consistent viewpoint on the development of Vietnamese culture in the new era, with a belief that: “… we will undoubtedly succeed in building an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity, further glorifying our nation and people, creating an unparalleled strength to make our Fatherland increasingly prosperous, bring happiness to our people, and build a thriving nation worthy of its millennia-long heroic cultural tradition on a par with the world’s powers." This Book serves as a strong argument to refute any distorted claims about the Party’s path towards Vietnamese culture development.

NGUYEN MINH CUONG, PhD

Political Officer College