Civil servants without tattoos or short skirts: What do experts say?

The Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports has just introduced a “Code of Conduct” with recommendations for civil servants not to have tattoos or wear short skirts. What do cultural experts say?

The draft "Code of conduct for agencies, administrative units, and public places in Hanoi" is expected to be issued in January 2017.

The development of the Code of Conduct aims to gradually build and form ethical standards, regulate the speech, attitudes and behaviors of individuals and organizations in the workplace and public areas in Hanoi, towards an elegant, civilized and internationally integrated city...

Professor Tran Lam Bien: No violation of personal freedom

After many years of studying culture, I think this regulation is good. Regulations on office attire should be polite, neat, and free of tattoos have existed for a long time. Hanoi has issued regulations like this only affirms that implementation needs to be more serious.

Professor Tran Lam Bien: Revealing clothes make coworkers distracted

These regulations do not infringe on anyone's personal freedom. Now, at any administrative office, right outside the door there is a sign regulating entry and exit.

Dressing in revealing, inappropriate clothing will distract your coworkers. Once your mind is distracted, work cannot be completed, not to mention that those thoughts and ideas can be distorted, greatly affecting the work environment.

In our country, there is a traditional form of community life, not individual life - that is the root of the ancient Vietnamese people - we should keep those good parts.

If someone likes freedom, it is better to stay at home because once you go to work, going out on the street you have to accept the general rules.

However, if these regulations are applied throughout the city, they should be gentle, not rigid and rigid. When implementing them, they should not be "beaten all the way and abandoned", only to be effective for a while and then abandoned.

Professor Ngo Duc Thinh - former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Cultural Studies: Flexible application

Professor Ngo Duc Thinh: Perhaps it is not possible to change the behavior of an entire community in just one or two days.

It is good that the regulations in the code of conduct are enforceable. They should be applied flexibly, depending on the conditions, circumstances, and environment.

It may work for one person but not for another. It should not be forced or applied mechanically.

Rules of conduct in society belong to culture. Culture needs education to gradually form, but if culture is forced, it becomes impractical and dogmatic.

Behavior is a matter of perception, consciousness and knowledge. It is probably not possible to change the behavior and speech of an entire community in just one or two days. This can be considered a core issue, if done well, it can change many things.

According to Vietnamnet