Creative culture needs 'open boundaries'

Commenting on the documents of the 14th National Party Congress, Ms. Nguyen Thi Le Quyen - Director of the Center for Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Vietnam (VICH) said that the creative cultural industry is in need of "expanded borders" so that "cultural assets" can be promoted and applied more strongly.

According to Ms. Quyen, the Center for Promotion of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Vietnam is a unit specializing in producing traditional cultural and artistic performances with the core being Vietnamese cultural heritage. The Center's activities aim to promote and develop the value of such types of cultural and artistic heritage to the public, especially young people and international tourists .

1(1).jpg — VICH artists perform Xam singing at the Mao Dien Temple of Literature festival - Hai Duong on the occasion of Spring At Ty 2025. Photo: VICH

During its operation, the Center has been relatively successful in performing various cultural and artistic works. However, the audience for this traditional art form is quite limited, so the market for this art form is very narrow.

“The audience for traditional art must come from a certain requirement in work or life, not from normal entertainment needs like listening to music or watching movies ,” said Ms. Quyen.

According to her, if the traditional cultural and artistic market is expanded and accepted by the public like normal forms of entertainment, the consumption rate of cultural products will be higher.

Ms. Quyen explained that this may stem from the fact that traditional cultural performances are still "framed" within old, ancient heritages in the direction of too much preservation. From there, it is easy to cause the public a feeling of hesitation and strangeness when approaching, people still see somewhere the products of the previous generation, not of the current young generation.

“Therefore, creating a new audience for traditional performing arts will require orientation and education . The community should consider traditional arts as a daily cultural activity, which will bring them nurturing values in terms of personality, skills, life experience and especially the accumulation of working and creative abilities in the future. With the cultural industry and the focus on creative industries, there will be many professions that need to use cultural capital. Heritage can become the core value and foundation for each individual to continue to develop ,” said Ms. Quyen.

From a management perspective, according to Ms. Quyen, currently, creative communities and organizations are still operating relatively separately, existing in the form of alliances and associations without any associations or organizations that can protect or guide them in the development process.

“ Creative cultural activists are entering the market in a very naive way. They receive an order or a request and then start working and designing without having enough vision of the market behind it and its potential consumption. Because they cannot envision the market, they cannot set a price for their products. They often calculate by hourly labor costs or calculate in a very spontaneous and emotional way,” Ms. Quyen stated the reality.

The director of VICH said that those who work in creative culture are having a hard time if they want to do big shows. Compared to the ticket price of a Western classical music show, they all have a threshold, "this pianist, that violinist all have a system of defining their status" , their shows must be sold for at least a certain amount of money.

But in our country, the traditional performing arts sector does not have many systems to define the value of artists, artisans, and contributors to the work. “When there is no value system, the way to sell is only to communicate and call for support for us to survive, while what we need is development to contribute practical values to the community,” Ms. Quyen emphasized.

In addition, according to Ms. Quyen, if there are associations and organizations that guide and sponsor creative cultural workers, when entering the market, it will ensure that they operate legally, especially on issues related to intellectual property. These are issues that are still unfamiliar to performing and creative units and she personally sees as major barriers.

Believing in and expecting the 14th Party Congress, Ms. Quyen shared that those working in the creative cultural industry believe that every major national event will open up opportunities for development.

“We expect the upcoming 14th Party Congress to bring new development spaces. We are looking forward to redefining a number of concepts related to cultural heritage. If heritage is considered as something that must be framed, preserved in its original state and not encroached upon, not interacted with, not applied, it will be very difficult to inherit and continue. Of course, there will be things that need to be framed, but there are also many things that are progressing and changing. We need materials to create, need corridors, open borders so that cultural assets can be promoted and applied more strongly in today's life ,” said the Director of VICH.

Source: https://congluan.vn/van-hoa-sang-tao-dang-can-nhung-duong-bien-mo-rong-10317117.html