Half a century of literature and art in Ho Chi Minh City: A legacy of tradition, vibrant today

Delegates attending the workshop "50 years of Ho Chi Minh City literature and art - Promoting tradition, continuing the future" - Photo: H.HANH

Head of the City Party Committee's Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Department Nguyen Manh Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, and Vice President of the City Union of Literature and Arts Associations Duong Cam Thuy co-chaired the workshop.

Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Ngoc Hoi informed that the Tet Book Street Festival; Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day; and the annual Children's Book Festival in Ho Chi Minh City attract many visitors. In particular, the Ho Chi Minh City Book Festival always introduces many notable literary and artistic works.

Vibrant art market, many impressions

Former Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee and former Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council Pham Phuong Thao commented that during the years of the country's renovation, the mainstream of literature and art was patriotic, humanistic, depicting life, heroic fighting, encouraging and motivating people to join hands to build a new life.

"At this time, the cultural market in the city is extremely vibrant due to the significant contribution of the private sector. In 2010, the production value of these industries was 20,000 billion VND, after 10 years this number doubled to nearly 40,000 billion VND" - Dr. Vu Thi Mai Oanh added.

Journalist Ngo Ngoc Ngu Long pointed out that in the 1980s, Ho Chi Minh City General Film Studio (now Liberation Film Studio) had famous films such as Wild Field, Season of the Monsoon Wind, Flipped Card Game, Spring for You, Wandering Circus, Devil's Mark...

In the field of theater, director Tran Minh Ngoc said that with historical and revolutionary traditional themes, there are many plays that are praised by the audience such as Nguoi ven do, Song Rach Gam, Cho tinh yeu mai sau, Xa thanh pho beau...

"Currently, the socialized theater in Ho Chi Minh City is mostly invested in by young artists. Most of them are formally trained, so when they graduate, they already have a profession and respect their ancestors, not just for the purpose of revenue," said Mr. Ngoc.

According to the President of the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association, Bich Ngan, over the past 50 years, tens of thousands of short stories, novels, memoirs, hundreds of stage scripts of many genres published in many forms: books, newspapers, radio, electronic... have been sought out and enjoyed by readers according to their aesthetic tastes. With a large number, literary works play an important role in many types of music , theater, and cinema.

Ms. Nguyen Thi My Liem, Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Music Association, said: "Besides the songs praising and talking about the country's construction and the struggle to protect the homeland, Ho Chi Minh City also has beautiful love songs by many big names such as Hoang Hiep, Xuan Hong, Nguyen Lang, Phan Huynh Dieu, Pham Minh Tuan, Trinh Cong Son...".

Regarding the publishing sector, "After 1975, Ho Chi Minh City had the largest number of publishing houses in the country. Many publishers here have made important contributions to preserving, disseminating and introducing literary works to readers," shared Master Bui Thi Hoang Phuc.

Painter Dang Ai Viet (right) and photographer Nguyen Hong Nga - Photo: HUU HANH

Building institutions of book city, film city

At the event, Dr. Ho Ba Tham raised a question that made many delegates ponder: "The renovation and life-changing work, even if modest, is considered great, but why haven't we seen some great works like War and Peace , like the Nobel Prize?"

According to Ms. Pham Phuong Thao, Ho Chi Minh City is considered a locality with investment, some policy mechanisms, some projects to build infrastructure and maintain awards for literary and artistic creation...

However, investment in culture and the development of literature and art is still not commensurate, cultural institutions are not responsive and there is a lack of top literary and artistic works.

To promote its leading role in the era of national development, Ho Chi Minh City needs to accelerate development in the economic, cultural and social fields.

In the field of literature and art, Ms. Thao suggested that Ho Chi Minh City should pay attention to training human resources, taking care of and giving incentives to creative forces, creating conditions for creative ideas with ideological and aesthetic values ​​to be born.

In addition, there needs to be focused direction to highlight a number of areas in which Ho Chi Minh City has strengths such as reading culture, music, cinema... associated with building institutions for the formation of a "Book City" and "Cinema City".

Many delegates also agreed with Ms. Thao's proposal that cultural and artistic activities need to increase investment in infrastructure based on a review of which locations need upgrading and which projects need to be newly built to consider including in the investment portfolio, creating conditions for more theaters, film studios, cinemas, exhibition spaces, cultural activities, etc.

Delegates also emphasized the important role of media and press in promoting good works to the public or the education sector needs to proactively bring literary and artistic forms into schools, building a reading culture for young people and society...

Ms. Quach Thu Nguyet - former director and editor-in-chief of Tre Publishing House - said that when she went to bookstores like Fahasa, Phuong Nam or approached e-commerce platforms like Tiki, Shopee, Lazada, she easily saw that Vietnamese literature books by Gen Z authors dominated the display space on the book shelves.

Ms. Nguyet believes that state management agencies, literature researchers and teachers, and publishing units cannot "ignore" the wave of the internet, the writing, reading and entertainment needs of Gen Z today: "The problem is how to exploit the strengths of Gen Z authors as well as the need for directional support so that bold and creative experiments can have positive effects."

Honoring the contributions of artists over 50 years

Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong said that the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City expressed their gratitude and appreciation for the great contributions of the forces working in literature and art during the resistance war and the artists who over the past 50 years have devoted their youth and talent to the literature and art of Ho Chi Minh City.

"The 50-year milestone of Ho Chi Minh City's literature and arts is both a mark of patriotism for the previous generation of artists and a message to those who hold the future of literature and arts today.

That is the mission of the artist - soldier, on any front, in any period, we will live, work, and devote ourselves to the literature and art of Ho Chi Minh City," he said.

Ho Chi Minh City will be a cinema city

Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy - Photo: H.HANH

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy affirmed that the project to develop cultural industry in Ho Chi Minh City by 2030 needs to link the goal of developing cultural industry with the orientation of building a creative urban area.

"HCMC is applying to join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of cinema... which is seen as a development goal to elevate the city to the status of a global metropolis," she said.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nua-the-ky-van-hoc-nghe-thuat-tp-hcm-dau-son-truyen-thong-soi-dong-hom-nay-20250417092417626.htm