Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Hong Ly - Chairman of the Vietnam Folk Arts Association - said that if folk art is placed in the right position in contemporary life, it will become an important driving force for cultural and economic development, society.
In the current context, how do you consider the role of folk arts in socio-economic development? What special factors do folk artisans need to have to continue to preserve their heritage?
- Currently, many types of folk cultural heritage such as music, games, and traditional festivals are being exploited very effectively. The development and exploitation of folk artistic values that the Vietnam Folk Arts Association is implementing is effectively serving socio-economic development, associated with the concept we call "heritage economy". When heritage is included in contemporary life, it is not only preserved but also creates sustainable economic value.
What worries us most at the moment is the increasing number of folk artisans, while their health has also declined over time. They are the "living treasures", the ones who hold the quintessential values of each community and each nation.
The core issue is to create conditions for artisans to pass on the heritage to the younger generation as much as possible. This is a race against time, requiring the drastic participation of management agencies, professional organizations and the whole society.
How do you evaluate the achievements of Vietnamese folk arts over the past 50 years, especially in the work of preserving ethnic minority culture?
- Recently, we have organized a major workshop to summarize the journey of preserving and developing folk art works from 1975 to present. The workshop showed that conservation work, especially collection, has achieved very remarkable results.
Many large-scale collections have been carried out, most notably in the Central Highlands and the South - areas that previously faced many difficulties in research conditions. More importantly, from the collection platform, many heritage values have been exploited and brought into contemporary life through the restoration of festivals and the organization of community cultural activities, thereby both preserving culture and creating economic value. However, there are still shortcomings, especially in the way of handling and treating artisans, as well as difficulties in funding and collection conditions in many localities.
Through exhibitions displaying many cultural and folk art works, how do you evaluate the effectiveness of spreading heritage values?
- One of the effective ways is to include ethnic cultural heritage works in books, helping a wide range of audiences at home and abroad to access them. Many books on Vietnamese folk culture are now available in libraries of many countries, thereby contributing to promoting the image and cultural identity of Vietnam to the world.
Digital transformation is taking place strongly, what solutions can be applied to the conservation of folk arts, sir?
- This is a huge problem and also an inevitable direction. First of all, we determined that we need to digitize all the collected cultural values. Second is the digitalization of forms of folk cultural performances, thereby preserving them for a long time and spreading them widely to the domestic and international communities, especially the younger generation.
Digital transformation helps heritage overcome the limits of space and time, creating conditions for heritage to " live" in contemporary life.
In fact, many heritages such as Dong Ho paintings have had to be "rescued", do you worry that other folk art heritages will also fall into a similar situation?
- Worrying is certainly there. However, I believe that when heritage is seriously threatened, there will be individuals, organizations, and businesses who have the heart and ability to stand up to join hands in preserving it. Moreover, the National Assembly's approval of the "Cultural Excitement" Program also shows the State's great determination in this field.
Many films and music videos today exploit folk materials very successfully. In your opinion, does this trend need to be expanded?
- This is a very new and encouraging development direction. Vietnamese artists cannot compete with the world through the culture of the world, but must through the cultural heritage of Vietnam. When knowing how to exploit ethnic materials on the platform of modern forms of expression, artists will create products that are both unique and have widespread influence.
Thank you, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Hong Ly!
