On 31st March 2022, Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports held a seminar on “Developing policies to support and treat artisans and clubs in the field of intangible cultural heritage of Hanoi city”.
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Mrs. Tran Thi Van Anh, Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports is speaking at the seminar
Photo: Nguyễn Thanh
Hanoi is currently the leading locality in the country in terms of number of heritages with 1,793 heritages in many forms, from traditional festivals, folk performances, indigenous knowledge to traditional customs. The city also has a strong heritage preservation and transmission community, with the largest number of artisans honored by the State in the country. In particular, the most recent awarding for conferring titles (3rd time in 2022), Hanoi has 71 artists proposed for conferring titles. However, the work of preserving and promoting the value of intangible cultural heritage in Hanoi still faces many difficulties and problems, including difficulties in terms of remuneration to support artisans to continue preserving. heritage transmission.
Recently, the Hanoi People’s Committee has issued Plan No. 55/KH-UBND on preserving and promoting the value of intangible cultural heritage until 2025; in which, the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports is assigned to develop a draft support policy and remuneration regime, and submit it to the City Council for consideration and issuance of a resolution.
According to the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports, in recent years, the city’s funding for the protection and promotion of the value of intangible cultural heritage is still small, has not yet mobilized resources from the public. Mrs. Pham Thi Lan Anh, Head of Heritage Management Department (Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports) added: “Clubs in the field of intangible cultural heritage, are actives with partial local support, However, it is still mainly contributed by the clubs members leading to a lack of funds to purchase costumes and practices; lack of funds to teach, exchange, participate in festivals, contests and performances, greatly affect the conservation and promotion of traditional cultural values in the community. In addition, Hanoi currently lacks human resources for the conservation of intangible cultural heritage resources. Most of the people who preserve and transmit Hanoi’s heritage are old, weak, and have low and unstable incomes, so their living situation is still difficult.
According to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan, Do folk artist (Liep Tuyet commune, Quoc Oai district), more than 40 years of wholeheartedly devoted to the restoration of local heritage, contributing to bringing the Do singing from the danger of being lost, now back strong with contemporary life, she has not received any support, while her life is very difficult. Similarly, Mrs. Phan Thi Kim Dung, Xam artist (Thanh Xuan district) said that heritage teaching activities to the local young generation still depend a lot on the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of artists, operating costs are still very limited. The city’s policy to create mechanisms and policies to support artisans and clubs in this period contributing to encouraging and supporting individuals and clubs to continue to maintain precious culture of the community.
On the basis of consultation with many localities that have been developing and implementing policies, the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports is expected to propose 4 different support and remuneration regimes, including: Support and remuneration regimes for People’s artisans, meritorious artisans in the field of intangible cultural heritage; support regime for clubs operating in the field of intangible cultural heritage; regimes to support practice, performance and participation in activities of artisans and clubs; level of prizes when participating in festivals and festivals.
With the establishment of a policy to support artisans, Hanoi is affirming its determination to strictly implement the Law on Cultural Heritage. Dr. Luu Minh Tri – Thang Long Cultural Heritage Association said: “The Association has conducted a small survey to confirm that the support for heritage conservation is needed. This policy is also a practical encouragement for artisans to continue their journey of heritage preservation. I also think that it is necessary to define levels of support to promote the effectiveness of the policy”.
According to Dr. Le Hong Ly, Chairman of the Vietnam Folklore Association, along with supporting policies, the City’s authority can establish a fund for activities to preserve and promote folk culture in order to mobilize resources from socialization, contributing to additional funding for activities to honor and promote heritage.
Artist Nguyen Thi Tam (on the right), Ca Tru Club of Thuong Mo (Dan Phuong district) at the Ca tru festival for Ha Noi young Singers in 2019.
Photo: Nguyễn Thanh
The seminar was a great success, receiving many enthusiastic opinions from experts, scientists, managers, and practitioners of heritage in building mechanisms and policies to “encourage” the artisans participating in heritage conservation; effectively implement the Plan No. 55/KH-UBND of the Hanoi People’s Committee on preservation and promotion of the city’s intangible cultural heritage values by 2025. The development of supporting policies for the artisans will greatly empower the artisans on the journey to preserve the precious cultural values of Thang Long – Hanoi, create new cultural values on the basis of traditional culture as well as contribute to the new cultural values creation and promote the cultural industry development.
Speaking at the end of the seminar, Mrs. Tran Thi Van Anh , Director of Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports confirmed that the seminar had many issues. The team drafting policy will gather and propose opinions to develop a quality and effective draft, contribute to the Resolution of the City Council on policies to support artisans in the field of cultural heritage. is issued as soon as possible.
Thanh Hà