Building a Cultural Village: Linking the preservation of national identity

(Baonghean) - From the first cultural village model in Nhan Trai village (Dien Xuan, Dien Chau) until now, after more than 20 years, the whole province has nearly 3,000 cultural villages (accounting for 50.6%). Particularly in mountainous districts, although there are still many difficulties, thanks to this movement, the face of mountainous villages has changed, both in material and spiritual life.

The Great Unity Festival of Pieng Van village, Dong Van commune (Que Phong) this year is really meaningful because at the end of this year, the village will be recognized as a Cultural Village. Mr. Lo Van Thi - a resident of Pieng Van village said: "Pieng Van village is a resettlement village of Hua Na Hydropower Plant. When moving to the new place, people miss the stream and river in the old place very much. But the more they miss it, the more they tell each other to preserve the stilt houses of their ethnic group; to preserve the gong culture, brocade weaving, dances, folk games..." Therefore, after only 3 years of moving to the new place, Pieng Van village has met all 5 criteria to be recognized as a Cultural Village.

The most prominent is the movement to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, and help each other develop the economy. From emulation movements and support from social security programs, the village has reduced the poverty rate from 51.28% to more than 35%. Outdated customs in weddings and funerals no longer exist, families in the village all follow a new lifestyle, not letting funerals last more than 24 hours. 100% of families in the village have sanitary facilities and have moved barns off the floor. When people are sick, they go to medical facilities for examination and treatment, pregnant women have regular check-ups, and children are fully vaccinated.

In addition, the appearance of the village has also changed significantly, the roads leading to the village are more spacious; social evils have also been pushed back... "Besides Pieng Van village, Dong Van commune also has Hua Na 1, Hua Na 2 villages, Thong Thu commune, although located in the mountainous border area with many difficulties, is striving to build a Cultural Village" - Mr. Kim Van Lai, cultural specialist of Dong Van commune excitedly said.

A corner of Pieng Van village (Dong Van commune - Que Phong).

Although it is a mountainous district, the economic life of the people is still difficult, but in recent years, the movement to build cultural villages and hamlets in Que Phong has had a strong influence and positive impact on all aspects of economic, cultural and social life, making the rural face much better. Up to now, Que Phong has had 72/194 cultural villages and hamlets, accounting for 37.11%. In 2013 alone, 17 villages and hamlets registered to build Cultural Villages. It is expected that by the end of this year, there will be 7 more villages and hamlets achieving the cultural title, bringing the total number of cultural villages and hamlets to 79.

Up to this point, Con Cuong district has also had 57 recognized Cultural Villages, accounting for 44%. After more than 20 years of implementation, the changes and shortcomings in the movement to build Cultural Villages have also been considered and evaluated. That is, the number of well-off and rich households is increasing day by day. The number of students going to school, excellent students and passing the entrance exams to universities and colleges is increasing day by day, the number of dropouts is decreasing. The number of families achieving the title of Cultural Family is high and of good quality. In the whole district, there are many villages that have not had a third child for more than 10 years, such as Bai Gao village (Chau Khe commune) for 17 years, Khe Ran village (Bong Khe commune) for 15 years, Phieng Xu village (Lang Khe commune) for 7 years.

Coming to Xieng Cultural Village (Mon Son Commune), we can clearly see the changes of the village after more than 10 years of being recognized as a Cultural Village. The village has 164 households, 100% of which are Thai people. Although life is still difficult, over the years, the villagers have tried to preserve the good customs and practices of the village. In the village, there is a Thai folk song club, a place for the villagers to preserve the melodies and folk songs of their people. No one in the village has a third child, no one is involved in social evils... "Thanks to preserving that traditional beauty, in early 2012, the village was surveyed and selected as one of the four stops in the community tour" - Mr. Ngan Thanh Mai, Head of Xieng village proudly said.

Mr. Nguyen Huy Chuong - Head of the Department of Culture of Con Cuong district said: "However, the work of building cultural villages and hamlets is not always favorable, especially the later it gets more difficult because currently the unrecognized hamlets are often in remote areas, with limited education and awareness. Many hamlets have been built for many years but have not achieved the target because of violations of the Population - Family Planning policy, increasing the rate of drug addicts. That is why, in the past 2 years, the number of hamlets registered to build Cultural Villages has reached more than 10, but only 3 have been recognized... There are hamlets like Phe Village Cultural Village, although it was recognized in 2010, it took nearly 2 years to receive the certificate because of violations of population policy".

Since the Resolution of the 5th Central Committee (VIII term) of the Party on building an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity, the movement to build cultural villages in our province has received attention from all levels and sectors. Particularly for mountainous districts, the construction of the cultural village movement is determined to be the focus in the work of building cultural life at the grassroots level, so each locality and each sector has proposed many ways of doing things and many separate solutions. In Thanh Chuong district, attention has been paid to building and promoting many effective cultural activity models in cultural villages, focusing on building and implementing conventions and village rules. Thanks to that, solidarity and mutual assistance have been created in the community, typically in Van Ha village, Hanh Lam commune, Minh Duong village, Thanh Tung commune, Trieu Long 1 village, Thanh Lam commune...

Quy Chau district focuses on building a cultural village movement combined with the movement to eliminate hunger, reduce poverty, and create stable jobs for people. Quy Hop district directs the construction of village cultural institutions, combining tradition and modernity, creating places for cultural activities for residential communities. In Anh Son, Con Cuong, Tuong Duong, and Ky Son districts, the movement to build cultural villages has been implemented by localities in many forms such as building village covenants and conventions to implement cultural lifestyles in weddings, funerals, and festivals in cultural villages and hamlets, while actively mobilizing people to develop a garden economy in the direction of goods, be aware of preserving cultural identity and promoting folk games, traditional occupations, and building good customs. Thanks to that, although there are still many difficulties, the rate of villages achieving cultural standards in many districts is higher than the average of the whole province and higher than many plain districts such as Ky Son (65%), Quy Hop (75.8%), Quy Chau (63.3%).

Mr. Phan Huu Loc, Head of the Department of Cultural Lifestyle and Family - Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: Due to the uneven development between regions and localities, the organization of building cultural villages in mountainous districts is still slow and ineffective. The main reasons are geographical conditions, low educational level, funding, and weak staff working in cultural work at the grassroots level. The propaganda and mobilization work to mobilize people to participate in the movement has not been promoted, many social evils, especially drugs, are still latent in life, significantly affecting the quality and effectiveness of building cultural villages. In addition, on the local side, due to the economic difficulties of the people, the majority of people still want to enjoy the regime and policies to support poor households. Therefore, the work of mobilizing people to register to build cultural families and cultural villages in the locality still faces many obstacles.

In the coming time, in addition to promoting propaganda work, it is necessary to continue to integrate the movement of building cultural villages closely with the movements of "All people unite to build cultural life in residential areas" and other patriotic emulation movements. At the same time, continue to build and promote the role of typical outstanding cultural villages in each region, each ethnic group in the province to replicate, towards enhancing and sustainably developing the title of Cultural Village.

My Ha - Pham Ngan