Cultural stories and copyright issues from the Doraemon legend

This morning (September 22), the seminar "From Doraemon to Doraemon: Comic copyright in Vietnam over three decades" was held at the Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS).

The seminar attracted the participation of many experts, researchers on the cultural industry, representatives of publishing units in Vietnam, representatives of creative spaces, cultural and creative practitioners in Vietnam, and a large audience who love the famous comic series Doraemon.

Overview of the Seminar. (Photo: Phuong Lan)

The seminar is a cooperation program between VICAS and its partners Kim Dong Publishing House and Lan Tinh Foundation to celebrate more than 30 years of the Doraemon series in Vietnam.

Attending the seminar were Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong - Director of VICAS; Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha - Director of the Center for Development of Cultural Industry and Contemporary Arts, along with prestigious speakers such as: Dr. Alisa Freedman, Professor of Popular Culture and Japanese Literature at the University of Oregon, USA; comic book researcher Nguyen Anh Tuan (pen name ChuKim); Editor Le Phuong Lien - editor of the first version of Doraemon; Editor Dang Cao Cuong, Head of the Comic Editorial Board, Kim Dong Publishing House.

Speaking at the opening of the Seminar, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong shared: “Over the years, VICAS has always pursued the goal of providing maximum support for the development of Vietnamese culture, arts and creativity.

Since 2010, our Institute has also been a research and consulting unit on Vietnam's policies and strategies for cultural and creative industries, in which the publishing industry is one of 12 cultural industries identified within the scope of the Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries to 2020, with a vision to 2030 according to Decision No. 1755/QD-TTg issued by the Prime Minister on September 8, 2016.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong, throughout the Institute's research and policy consulting activities on culture and arts in general and cultural industries in particular, VICAS always tries to participate in programs and activities related to the development practices of the industry to have assessments that are closer to reality, thereby making policy proposals more scientifically and practically based.

This seminar is a meaningful activity in the common effort to promote understanding and knowledge sharing on protection and exploitation of intellectual property, copyright and related rights in the publishing field.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong - Director of VICAS, speaking at the seminar. (Photo: Phuong Lan)

At the seminar, the speakers also had discussions to give the audience an overview of the process of publishing Doraemon comics in Vietnam; the editing and publishing of the series in Vietnam in the early days and at present; the successes of this famous series after more than 30 years in Vietnam.

Editor Le Phuong Lien - who edited the first version of Doraemon, shared. "When we edited the first episodes of Doraemon before the copyright, we were like a lonely island. At that time, the only purpose of publishing was to attract the love of Vietnamese children and how to make the pictures the most wonderful, creative, and attractive."

Besides, she also shared her personal experience in editing and publishing Doraemon, and emphasized the importance of creativity in the process of adapting content from the original work.

Editor Dang Cao Cuong, Head of the Comics Editorial Board, Kim Dong Publishing House, said that 1992 was an important milestone for the comic book world in Vietnam when Kim Dong Publishing House brought Doraemon to Vietnam.

A wave of entertaining comics attracted both publishers and readers. However, comics and cartoons in Vietnam at that time were still developing spontaneously, so copyright issues were still loose. Kim Dong Publishing House bought the copyright for the Doraemon comic series, creating breakthroughs in the issue of publishing copyright.

According to Professor Alisa Freedman - a specialist in Japanese literature and culture from the University of Oregon, in Japan and in the US, the community's attitude is often very fierce towards the phenomenon of unlicensed publishing. The Japanese government has specific policy mechanisms to develop popular culture into cultural products and spread globally.

Therefore, Manga (comics) and Anime (animated films adapted from Manga) in Japan have the opportunity to develop and have a strong influence, spreading to many other cultural fields.

Doraemon is one of the most popular comic series, and the character Doraemon is more famous in Vietnam than in any other country outside of Japan. Thanks to that, Japanese culture is known around the world, as a form of “soft power” to help Japan improve its image in the international arena.

Besides copyright issues, comic book researcher Nguyen Anh Tuan also shared legal aspects related to comic book copyright, contributing to clarifying the challenges that the Vietnamese comic book industry is facing.

To build a cultural industry from animation and comics, we must first change the mindset that this is a genre for children. If we keep positioning it like that, this genre will face many barriers.

The seminar attracted the participation of many experts, researchers on the cultural industry, representatives of publishing units in Vietnam... (Photo: Phuong Lan)

At the Seminar, the audience also actively participated in the Q&A session, expressing their concerns about copyright protection of creative works. Many opinions said that there should be clearer and more effective policies to support authors and publishers.

The event ended with profound thoughts on the future of the Vietnamese comic industry in particular and the cultural industry in general, encouraging sustainable development through respecting and protecting copyright.

It can be said that Doraemon is not only an entertainment story, but behind it is also a story of popular culture, of the way of doing cultural industry and the management thinking of those who work in State management of culture.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/cau-chuyen-van-hoa-va-van-de-ban-quyen-nhin-tu-huyen-thoai-doraemon-287285.html