Poet Nguyen Quang Thieu - Photo: GIA HAN
On the afternoon of February 29, speaking at the meeting between President Vo Van Thuong, Party and State leaders, intellectuals, scientists, and artists in the spring of Giap Thin 2024, Chairman of the Writers' Association Nguyen Quang Thieu took time to talk about the issue of cultural development.
Cultural investment is essential.
According to Mr. Thieu, some people spoke up about 350,000 billion VND when the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism gave an estimated figure for cultural revival and said that it was spending too much money while people were still like this and that.
"But the opinion of writers, including me, is that 350,000 billion VND is still a very small number. Investing in culture is extremely large. Culture is not about us planting potatoes and sweet potatoes and then planting from January to April to be able to harvest the potatoes, but it takes hundreds of years," said Mr. Thieu.
He cited that sometimes in Hanoi, a person passing by in a public place throws a bag of trash down, and this only takes 10 seconds, but it takes a hundred years for a person passing by to see the bag of trash and automatically pick it up and throw it in the trash.
"That is the time to form beauty and cultural behavior. So I think investing in culture is extremely necessary," Mr. Thieu emphasized.
He quoted poet Huu Thinh, when he was the chairman of the Vietnam Writers Association and a National Assembly delegate, who once said in the National Assembly that if we save or reduce one dong spent on culture, we would have to spend 1,000 dong to build prisons.
According to him, this saying is not poetic but true, containing the importance of culture, and at the same time warning that if we abandon culture, there will be negative consequences.
In particular, if we save or reduce one penny spent on culture, invest in culture, then one hundred years later, our descendants will have to spend money together to build prisons for moral and personality issues...
"I think the State will invest reasonably and accurately in culture," Mr. Thieu said, adding that since becoming chairman of the Vietnam Writers Association, he has become "a beggar... full of patience and inspiration."
He said that many projects and works of the Vietnam Writers Association, such as free books for children in remote areas, by 2023, after 2 years of work, 70,000 books had been delivered to children in remote areas.
He said that the Party and State have paid great attention to culture by investing in, caring for, and listening to artists, scientists, and intellectuals.
"When politics is stable, has a position in the world, and has a culture, that country is a strong country, not afraid of any invasion or threat to its survival...", Mr. Thieu said.
He added that next year, entering half a century since the country's reunification, the big question that must be answered is how will we take the nation on the upcoming path?
"We have done so many things beyond imagination, but there are still gaps in our culture that have not been filled," Mr. Thieu added.
The film 'Peach, Pho and Piano' made with State investment has just been enthusiastically received by the audience.
Need to innovate the treatment and honor system
Chairman of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations Do Hong Quan suggested that there should be a policy to take care of comprehensive development of both material and spiritual aspects so that artists have the conditions to create and contribute the most.
In particular, young artistic talents need to be discovered early, trained and nurtured properly, honored and valued.
In addition, it is necessary to innovate the treatment, use and honoring of artists' talents, and attract Vietnamese talents around the world to serve and contribute to the people of our country.
He also suggested that rewarding talents and honoring the outstanding creative careers of artists should be considered comprehensively, closely, scientifically, impartially, transparently and promptly, creating excitement and trust in society, consensus and solidarity throughout the world.
Regarding the mechanism, Mr. Quan emphasized the need to place the development of Vietnamese literature and arts in the national cultural industry development strategy, and as an important component of the national target program on reviving and developing Vietnamese culture and people in the new era.
It is necessary to develop a specific project on developing literature and art in this national target program.
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