"What did I learn
about development this semester, about how development relates to Vietnam, and
about how development relates to me?"
Introduction
Since the Doi Moi (Rennovation) in
1986 and especially these recent years, “development” has become one of the
most popularly mentioned term in Vietnam. Other than being cited merely in
terms of economic affairs, it also refers to changes in many different aspects,
including economic, social, political, and cultural sides. The rationale is
that those aspects are closely related and interdependent. Thus, the rapid development
performance of Vietnam in the economic side these years[1]
has brought up many changes in the other aspects, both positively and
negatively. In this paper, I will focus on the cultural development of Vietnam
in accordance with the commonly defined “development” in our society. In
particular, the paper will reveal the effects of development on the
traditionally cultural values of Vietnam. There will be some specific examples
and comparison among the case of different areas of Vietnam whose levels of
development are varied.
Theory
It becomes easier and easier to say
that development is a good term which is desirable in every society. This term
is often mentioned to appreciate the attempt of a country’s government to
develop the national economy and the world standing of the country. However,
sharing the same situation as the other Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam is
also developing another stream of ideas called “alternative visions of
development” alongside with the existing mainstream.
Table
1: Mainstream versus alternative visions of development (J. Rigg, p.46)
Mainstream development Alternative
development
1. Treats
people as “objects” of development 1.
Treats people as “subjects” of development
2. Applies
exogenous theories and methods 2.
Applies endogenous theories and methods
3. Top
down 3.
Participatory
4. Interested
in ends of development 4.
Interested in means and ends of development
5. Concerned
with practicalities 5.
Concerned with ethical and moral issues as
well
as practicalities
6. Applies
modern technology 6.
Applies “appropriate”, sometimes
“intermediate”,
technology
7. Undertaken
with full support of the state 7.
Bypasses the state, and is sometimes anti-state
8. Increases
the role of market in people’s lives 8.
Sometimes aims to decrease the role of market and
promote self-reliance
9. Centralizing 9.
Decentralizing
10. Stresses
the empirical 10.
Stresses the cultural
According to
this, with an alternative conception of development, people tend to think of
this term from different dimensions, both positively and negatively. Development
has no longer been a perfectly positive innovation of the society which
indicates the improvement in many aspects. To the other extent, it reveals to
be a negative force which may bring different drawbacks. One of the hottest
issues related to this is the lost of many traditionally cultural values during
the process of economic development.
Differences
- Experiences and examples
Since the rice harvesting time in
Dong Anh, we have witnessed and discovered a recent trend happening in the
countryside of Vietnam, especially in the suburb of a fast-developing Hanoi.
People are now heading for non-farming activities other than doing farming as
traditional. Almost 50 per cent of Xuan Trach villagers have changed to jobs
like factory workers, paper makers, sellers in the market in central Hanoi,
electricians, or shop sellers. They are seeking for another way to earn a
better living and leading their children to the urban area by encouraging them
to learn and find a job in Hanoi. In other words, farming work is now losing
its importance in the priority work agenda of people. Changing from an
agriculture-based community to an industry or service-based community means
that the customs and the habits of those people are changing as well. In the
past, when doing farming, people had to depend on each other and live more
closely together in a village. Therefore, communication and interaction among villagers
are more frequent and their relations are warmer. Turning back to these days,
when people have more chances to earn money, they put themselves in a busier
routine. Communication is reduced due to a lack of free time. People tend to
live more individualistic and focus almost on their own benefits rather than a
traditional community-based benefit. However, in my opinion, since there has
been not much industrialization and commercialization in this area (the other
50 per cent of all villagers still do farming), this village still keeps some
core values in its traditional culture. The common pond and the village gate
are the most obvious evidences for a typical Vietnamese village with its own
cultural values.
The fact that different levels of
development leading to different levels of effects on traditional culture can
be proven more clearly by comparing the culture of communication in a poor
commune of Ha Giang, in the Old Quarter of central Hanoi and in a new-built
luxurious Ciputra to the Northern of Hanoi. I have just spent 3 weeks doing
research in Nam Dich Commune, Ha Giang Province – a mountainous area inhabited
almost by ethnic minorities like Tay, Nung, H’mong, Man, etc. In comparison
with Hanoi and other more developed province in Vietnam, this area can be seen
as “backward” and “underdeveloped”. Almost all residents are subsistence
farmers. Because there are not too many families in the nearby villages, they
know each other very well. In periods in between crop seasons, they have more
spare time to visit each other’s house to have tea, talk, or even have lunch or
dinner together. During the time I stayed there, I found it very interesting to
see that it becomes a custom in that area when neighbors gather in a house and
drink wine, eating something and chitchatting. Everyone is really nice with
their friendliness, hospitality and generosity despite their poverty.
Let’s see what happens in the Old
Quarter these days. Almost every house is a shop selling different things,
traditional or non-traditional. Close neighbors still know each other and
sometimes, they gather and talk but rarely come and have a meal together as
warmly as in the above example. Even worse, they tend to “gossip” rather than
just chitchatting for fun and compete with each other in the market. Then it
comes to jealousy, prejudice and even abhorrence in their relations. Individualism
in communication culture and in daily life is more evident.
The case in even more interesting
in a newly-built luxurious Ciputra. We had spent an afternoon walking around in
Ciputra to map this area and interestingly found out that on big roads, there
were only cars moving and guards wandering. We had to walk a lot in order to
find one or two residents there. In general, it is really quiet, fresh and clean.
We asked an old lady on her way home about whether she knew her neighbors well
and received her answer that, people living there almost concerned about
themselves and their family. They are too busy to care about others. Thus, she
does not know any neighbor well. They are easy to ignore the others. Apparently,
individualism is a feature and a part of this area.
Taking into account those three
cases about only one aspect – the amount of interaction and communication among
neighbors – it is obvious that the more developed and richer people get, the
less time they spend on communicating with their neighbors, thus the less warm
their relations are. The traditional culture of communication has changed to
different extent depending on how developed the society is.
There is another typical example
about the effect of development on traditional cultural values. It comes to the
case of spiritual actions of ethnic minorities groups versus science
development. When the government carries campaigns to develop a local area,
they often suppose that the spiritual actions of some ethnic minorities (shamanism)
are superstitious and backward, trying to use science to explain. Then they
tend to encourage the locals to use new technological and scientific
achievements in doing farming, curing diseases and controlling the nature. This
is more obvious when a group of Kinh people came to this area several decades
ago with the ideal intension to help ethnic minorities people develop the
commune. This approach of the government, to some extents, has cleared some of
the traditional ritual values of those ethnic minorities while there is still
not enough evidence to prove that all those ritual actions are ineffective. For
example, when I asked a villager in Nam Dich commune about a potential
prevention measure for erosion and landslides in the rainy season, she brought
up the idea of inviting a shaman to carry out ritual actions and according to
her, there has been a lot of evidences to prove its effectiveness. Indeed,
there are still things that cannot be explained by the scientific knowledge of
the human beings. In this example, the so-called “development” achieved by the
government has gradually demolished the traditionally cultural values of the
local people.
Development can be seen as
obviously as the blur of many traditional values in Vietnamese culture. It
comes to the question of how to develop sustainably and alternatively, i.e. developing
in various aspects at the same time with preserving core values and considering
possible consequences. This might not be meaningful for the change in mind of
an individual, but many individuals will create a difference.
Talking about my personal understanding
about development this semester compared to that in the time before, there are
not many changes but rather difference in depth. It is more difficult for me to
see clearly the difference in my perceptions about Vietnam’s development in the
sense that it is the country where I live and I know since I was born. The
knowledge of mine has been shaped through years of education and my own
exploration. Therefore, it is less possible to see the issue in an objective
way other than the current subjective view. However, the theories and
experiences I learnt in this course have provides me a deeper understanding
about the things that are happening around me. I also see the difference
between my perceptions of Vietnam’s development and that of UC students who
come from another country, another culture, and with different values in their
mind. It helps sharpen my understanding as well. Thus, during the course, I
tried to learn how to see a particular issue from various dimensions and put
myself on the boots of others to see a broader picture. It is one of the most
valuable achievements of mine this semester.
