Respect and preserve good cultural values of the family

For generations, the family has been the place to nurture and transmit cultural values and good behavior of Vietnamese people. Ethical values in the family are spread to become social, national and ethnic values. Therefore, investing in family building is investing in sustainable development.

Photo caption — *Many families take their children to Hoan Kiem Lake before the moment of transition to the new year of Tan Suu 2021. Photo: Thanh Tung / VNA*

Building culture from the family In recent years, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has proactively developed, issued and submitted for promulgation Projects and Programs to strengthen solutions on moral education and family lifestyle in accordance with the current situation. These include the Decree on family work; Strategy for Vietnamese Family Development to 2020, vision to 2030; Project on Promoting the good values of relationships in Vietnamese families; Project on Organizing the International Day of Happiness on March 20 every year; National Program on family life education; Directives of the Prime Minister on promoting moral education and family lifestyle and strengthening prevention and control of domestic violence... According to the assessment of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism: The implementation of these movements has brought about positive effects, helping each person to appreciate and preserve the good cultural values of the family. After nearly 10 years of implementing the Vietnam Family Development Strategy to 2020, with a vision to 2030, many outstanding achievements have been made in the implementation of the Goal of "Inheriting and promoting the fine traditional values of Vietnamese families". "The whole people unite to build a cultural life" is identified as a large mass movement to bring cultural elements into all areas of social life, helping to build cultural people, cultural communities, ensuring material and spiritual life for the people and the development of the country. In particular, building a cultural family is an important goal of this movement, aiming to strengthen a civilized community, developing healthily right from each family. Through many good and creative ways, typical and outstanding cultural family models in many fields have spread throughout the localities. Many families have become shining examples, leading in patriotic emulation movements, contributing to promoting the economic, cultural and social development of the locality. Each locality has different policies to implement this model. Specifically, in Hanoi, the movement to build cultural families has spread widely to every alley, residential group, each family has actively contributed to the overall results in the process of cultural development, building elegant and civilized Hanoians. Recently, the Hanoi People's Committee has added the criterion of "no smoking" to the criteria for recognizing "Cultural Families" in the capital. This is an effective way to propagate and mobilize people not to use tobacco products in the home, residential community, festivals, weddings, funerals, family gatherings..., thereby creating a civilized, smoke-free environment in the capital. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued a set of criteria for family conduct to further strengthen the quality of the movement to build a cultural family. Accordingly, the set of criteria includes 5 main contents: General criteria for conduct (respect, equality, love, sharing); criteria for conduct of husband and wife (loyalty, affection); criteria for conduct of parents with children, grandparents with grandchildren (exemplary, loving); criteria for conduct of children with parents, grandchildren with grandparents (filial piety, politeness) and criteria for conduct of brothers and sisters (harmony, sharing). Ho Chi Minh City has implemented the set of criteria for family conduct. Many documents have been issued to communicate and change people's awareness and behavior about the relationships between family members to become better and stronger. All members are clearly aware of the role, meaning and value of the family so that they can join hands to build prosperity, progress and happiness. The set of criteria aims to identify and gradually bring into life the standards of ethical values and culture of Vietnamese people in the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen legal awareness, promote morality, conscience and responsibility of each person towards themselves, their family, community, society and country; prevent moral degradation in the family and society... In particular, the Law on Prevention and Control of Domestic Violence (amended) has been passed by the National Assembly and will take effect from July 1, 2023. Managers, experts and a large number of family workers believe that when this Law is implemented, it will create positive changes in the work of preventing, stopping and reducing domestic violence cases. The Law has met the objectives of regulating the prevention, suppression, protection, support, and handling of violations in the prevention and control of domestic violence; conditions for ensuring the prevention and control of domestic violence; state management and responsibilities of agencies, organizations, families, and individuals in the prevention and control of domestic violence. Along with that, it encourages the socialization of the prevention and control of domestic violence, while enhancing the responsibility of the State in allocating resources for the prevention and control of domestic violence in order to build and develop professional and effective support facilities. Good families make good society.

At the Conference of cadres discussing the Draft Law on Marriage and Family in October 1959, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “Paying attention to the family is right, because many families together make up a society, good families make a good society, good societies make better families, the nucleus of society is the family. Therefore, to build socialism, we must pay attention to the nucleus”. Our Party has also repeatedly affirmed, “Building a family is a major issue of great importance to the nation and the era”. The document of the 13th Party Congress once again emphasized the need to “build a national value system, a cultural value system and human standards associated with preserving and developing the Vietnamese family value system in the new era”. Talking about the core values of building the Vietnamese family value system in the new situation, Head of the Family Department (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) Tran Tuyet Anh emphasized: To build a happy Vietnamese family in the current context, a prerequisite is to establish a value system. It can be said that the Vietnamese family value system is the soul of the family, and also the core of the national and ethnic value system. Changes in the structure, function and value system of the family determine the appearance of the Vietnamese family through each historical period. On the other hand, giving different priorities to values also determines the cultural life, behavior and development of each family. The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences conducted a study on “Basic values of Vietnamese families today” in 2019, showing that Vietnamese people from all walks of life consider family as the top priority in life, followed by health, work, income, friends, education, leisure time, etc. The results of this study also show that families living in areas with low levels of urbanization tend to preserve traditional values. Meanwhile, families living in highly urbanized or high-income areas are more likely to accept modern family values (new values)... In order for Vietnamese human values to enter life, they must be concretized into standards suitable for each subject and circumstance. The standards themselves will regulate people's awareness and behavior, and the implementation process will make the values more sustainable. The aspiration to develop a strong country with rich cultural identity has been posing urgent requirements in the cause ofeducating human personality in general, ethics and lifestyle in the family in particular. These things contribute to the formation of Vietnamese people with physical stature, rich spirit, pure morality, enough intelligence and talent to integrate our country with the common civilization of humanity but still maintain the strong national cultural identity. That is the basic foundation, the most important task to realize the aspiration to build a family value system in the new situation. Family is a factor that ensures social cohesion, the sustainable development flow of the country, and is also the first and important factor to implement and enjoy related policies. Therefore, investing in family building is investing in sustainable development. Although science in the world has developed modernly and remarkably, values such as education, ethics, family cultural behavior, love, care, sharing, support, encouragement and motivation from the family to overcome obstacles and ups and downs of life cannot be replaced...

Thanh Giang (Vietnam News Agency)