Elegant and civilized Hanoians: Preserving tradition and continuing with modernity

Building elegant and civilized Hanoians is a measure of behavioral culture, the foundation for forming the identity of modern Hanoians, contributing to creating a good impression in the hearts of tourists and international friends about a friendly and hospitable Hanoi.

However, in the context of increasingly deep international integration, preserving and promoting those good values is facing many challenges.

Need to continue traditional cultural values

“Even if not fragrant, it is still jasmine/Even if not elegant, it is still a person from Trang An” - a familiar folk song not only reflects the traditional beauty of Hanoi people but also contains a reminder of a profound cultural trait that needs to be preserved and promoted in the modern flow.

The land of Thang Long-Hanoi, a thousand-year-old cultural land, is a place where the country’s intelligence and talents converge, with elegant character and polite demeanor. It is not difficult to see these beauties expressed in simple everyday things such as students helping the elderly cross the street; people enthusiastically showing the way to strangers or workers ready to lend a helping hand when seeing an accident victim in the middle of a crowded street.

These are the “cultural drops” imbued in every gesture and speech of Hanoians past and present. That spirit is vividly reflected in the photo contest “Hanoi people behave civilly and elegantly” with thousands of entries that are authentic slices of cultural life, beautiful moments in the behavior of the capital’s people.

Recognizing the position and role of culture and people in society, in recent years, the Hanoi Party Committee has paid special attention to and concretized the Central Government's guiding viewpoints on cultural development and human development.

The 17th Congress of the Hanoi Party Committee, term 2020-2025, continued to affirm that awareness of cultural development and building Hanoi people has been raised.

Image of graceful Hanoi women in ao dai. (Photo: Minh Quyet/VNA)

The Congress clearly stated the key tasks: Focus on developing Hanoi's culture on the basis of promoting the thousand-year tradition of civilization and heroism, a city for peace , absorbing the cultural quintessence of humanity; building elegant, civilized, comprehensively developed Hanoians with humanistic values and profound patriotism, respect for the law, national pride, will and aspiration for development; considering this as an endogenous strength, a great spiritual motivation for sustainable development of the Capital.

The Congress affirmed that one of the three breakthroughs of the term is to make Hanoi's culture and people truly become great spiritual values, an important endogenous resource that determines the sustainable development of the capital.

Building cultural standards in the new era

Faced with the challenges of globalization and social change, building a system of human values for Hanoians becomes increasingly urgent.

Directive No. 30-CT/TU dated February 19, 2024 of the Standing Committee of the Hanoi Party Committee was issued, clearly affirming the viewpoint: Building elegant and civilized Hanoians is not just a slogan but requires a specific system of values that can be measured and implemented. The phrases "Gallant - Elegant - Compassionate - Civilized" become the guiding principle in determining the criteria of the Capital's people in the integration period.

The Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports is proposing a draft of “Standards for building Hanoian culture,” which proposes specific criteria with two options.

Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports Tran Thi Van Anh said that both options have a common foundation of elegant, civilized, proud behavior, contributing to the construction of the capital, and have additional elements specific to the times.

This factor in option 1 is creativity in thinking and action; modernity in lifestyle (mastery, application of technology in work and life, healthy and scientific living); international integration (proficiency in foreign languages, proactive access to world civilization); responsibility in the community...

In option 2, the contemporary factor includes the spirit of deep international integration (mastering foreign languages, promoting Vietnamese cultural values to the world, integrating internationally but still preserving identity); awareness of building modern, smart cities; leading creative spirit; cultural spirit of hospitality and friendliness...

If option 1 harmonizes traditional and modern elements, option 2 emphasizes the representative role of the Capital; demonstrating the leading role of the Capital's citizens in innovation and integration.

The construction of cultural standards for Hanoi people in the new period is considered by many scientists and managers to be extremely necessary and needs to be implemented in conjunction with the system of cultural values of Vietnamese people.

Ms. Tran Thi Van Anh said that in addition to the standards being built, Hanoi needs to pay attention to some virtues suitable for today's life such as: awareness of respecting the law; preserving and maintaining traditional culture to attract cultural resources and people from all over the country...; it is necessary to add some new qualities to adapt to the new era.

From political will to concrete action

Former Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports Do Dinh Hong said that closely following the practical situation, the capital continues to persevere in the goal of building elegant, civilized, and comprehensively developed Hanoians, forming a new system of cultural values on the basis of inheriting and promoting the profound humanistic values of Thang Long-Dong Do-Hanoi with a thousand years of civilization.

The city promotes propaganda, education, and dissemination of cultural values and the strength of Hanoi people to foster patriotism, national pride, love for Hanoi, traditions of solidarity, dynamism, creativity, exemplary morality, lifestyle, aspiration for innovation, and will to rise up of each citizen, representing the culture of the nation.

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Recreating "Vietnamese Tet" with the traditional custom of wrapping Chung cakes to welcome Spring like the people of old Hanoi. (Photo: Thanh Tung/VNA)

The city constantly organizes and implements, creating breakthroughs and key highlights for the task of human development through many action programs, plans and solutions.

Results so far show that the work of building civilized and elegant Hanoians has achieved many comprehensive successes, contributing significantly to socio-economic development, ensuring political security and social order and safety of the capital.

Head of the Department of Building Lifestyle and Family Culture (Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports) Bui Minh Hoang said that the sector has mobilized people to preserve the beautiful behavior of Hanoians, popularized the implementation of the Code of Conduct in the family and commended typical cultural family groups in each field such as: promoting education, preserving heritage, humanitarian charity... so that people can look into their own families and adjust their own behavior.

However, besides beautiful images, there are still many bad behaviors, tarnishing the image of civilized and elegant Hanoians.

Directive No. 30 of the Standing Committee of the Hanoi Party Committee clearly stated: The work of building elegant and civilized Hanoians has not met the requirements, has not gone into substance, and still reveals many limitations and weaknesses.

The implementation of the two Codes of Conduct, especially in public places, has not had a strong change. In terms of awareness, some Party committees and authorities, especially the leaders, still underestimate the cultural values and human values of Hanoi in developing all aspects of social life; still focus on economic values, not paying attention to cultural and human factors in building and implementing socio-economic development plans and projects, leading to the destruction of architectural space, the encroachment of cultural heritage, and the deformation of urban and rural landscapes.

There are still uncivilized behaviors towards the natural environment, social environment, deviant manifestations in family culture, school culture, public culture; attitudes of worshipping money, hedonistic lifestyle, indulgence, not focusing on building and developing future generations.

The state of ideological, moral and lifestyle degradation, especially among a number of cadres and party members, has not been prevented or pushed back, threatening to erode the elegant and gallant beauty of Hanoians and limit their spirit of dedication and devotion to building the capital.

The above limitations have objective causes such as the negative impact of the market mechanism, the influence of foreign cultures that are not suitable for national traditions and customs, the explosion of information technology and social networks with negative aspects, the mechanical population increase... but subjective causes are still the main ones.

That is the organization and implementation of directive documents of Party committees and authorities at all levels is not drastic and synchronous, lacks regular inspection and supervision; sanctions are still limited. Policy communication has not met requirements.

The coordination between the education sector and families and communities in building a synchronous cultural environment, perfecting human personality, educating aesthetics, tastes, and beautiful lifestyles for the young generation has not received due attention.

A part of the capital's people still underestimate cultural values and humanity - core values in building the personality of elegant and civilized Hanoians.

To build elegant and civilized Hanoians, we cannot stop at slogans or short-term movements. It is a persistent process, requiring the synchronous participation of the entire political system, the exemplary role of cadres and party members, and especially the proactive participation of each citizen of the capital.

The image of Hanoians as “elegant-polite-loyal-civilized” is not only reflected in their appearance but also in their daily thoughts, words and actions. It is benevolent behavior in the community, awareness of preserving common spaces, and a modern lifestyle that is still imbued with identity.

Only when each citizen is a “cultural ambassador,” will Hanoi truly become a cultural-modern-civilized capital in the eyes of international friends and the Vietnamese people themselves./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/nguoi-ha-noi-thanh-lich-van-minh-gin-giu-truyen-thong-va-tiep-noi-hien-dai-post1044942.vnp