Literature management must learn cinema

Pre-test or post-test?

Managing writing and literary composition contests was one of the issues discussed at the workshop to solicit opinions on the draft Decree on encouraging literary development (held yesterday, April 4, in Hanoi). Accordingly, the draft decree requires Vietnamese agencies and organizations, foreign organizations in Vietnam, who want to organize writing contests, to send a notice to the competent authority and wait for a response from that agency (if there is no response, they can organize). Furthermore, when the contest ends, they must send a report on the results to the management agency.

Deputy Director of the Department of Performing Arts Tran Huong Duong introduces the content of the draft Decree regulating the encouragement of literary development.

PHOTO: Organizing Committee

According to Associate Professor Dr. Pham Xuan Thach (Hanoi National University), this is unreasonable. As a close observer of writing competitions, Mr. Thach said that the number of competitions is very large. "A university also has a writing competition. Universities organize many writing competitions, so there is no need for such a regulation. It is only necessary to regulate the public and transparent announcement of information about the competition," said Associate Professor Dr. Pham Xuan Thach. According to him, this will avoid the need for large-scale pre-inspection, especially when the organizing units are still responsible for organizing this competition.

Pre-control or post-control is also an issue with online literature. In this draft, the decree states that the dissemination of literature on cyberspace must comply with legal regulations on information technology, network security, etc., as well as telecommunications units are responsible for preventing and accessing literary works that violate the requirements of state management. Thus, if the competitions are in the form of "pre-control", online literature will be managed "post-control".

Subjectivism, lack of policies to encourage literature

The draft also outlines policies to support authors in writing literature, with specified topics and themes. Along with that, the draft outlines 4 groups of topics and themes that are "finalized". Regarding this, writer Vu Thanh Lich, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Information of Ninh Binh province, said that listing the topics specifically as in the decree is not advisable because life in the eyes of writers is very rich and has its own value. "If that work is not included in the subjects specified in the decree, should it not be supported, invested in, honored, and promoted?", writer Vu Thanh Lich commented.

Associate Professor Dr. Xuan Thach highly appreciated the draft's mention of the state's investment in supporting the creation of high-value works, but he also regretted that the support was limited to the prescribed topics and subjects. According to him, the list specifies very specific topics serving politics. "However, over time, the Party and State's guidelines and policies are always changing, so should we revise the decree at that time?", Mr. Thach questioned. He also gave an example that the state attaches great importance to religious policy, and the Government has just established a Ministry for Religious Management. However, the decree does not mention this religious topic.

In relation to the Cinema Law, Associate Professor Dr. Thach commented: "If the Cinema Law has very clear provisions on encouraging the development of film theory, criticism, and research, this content is extremely vague in the literary decree."

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Xuan Thach said that the draft decree should be in the direction of envisioning literature as an activity of the whole society with the participation of many social components. Therefore, the decree should not only focus on the activities of state management agencies. The draft should also supplement specific policies to mobilize all social resources to participate, not just focus on state investment. This is also what Vietnamese cinema is currently doing by attracting both public and private investment.

Meanwhile, MSc. - writer Dang Thi Thuy, Vice President of the Hai Phong Literature and Arts Association, mentioned the need to ensure financial resources, human resources and facilities for the decree to come into effect. She suggested that there should be more specific regulations on transparent financial mechanisms for literary activities, as well as a balance and allocation of strong enough financial resources from the central and local levels for literature.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/quan-ly-van-hoc-phai-hoc-dien-anh-185250404230741679.htm