It takes a village to preserve identity

Vietnamese villages with their own localised cultures are showing excellent resistance to this trend, yet have demonstrated the ability to be creatively acquisitive. Associate Professor in social sciences and humanities at the Hanoi National University Dr Nguyen Tuan Anh delves into the issue.

Globalisation: An irreversible trend

If you have a chance to visit Germany, when you stroll along the streets you may see the flow of people.

Moreover, on a visit to Berlin, you might want to take a photo where East and West Germany were once separated by the Berlin Wall-with one foot on either side of the division.

If finding Vietnamese people on the streets in foreign countries shows that globalisation increases human movements on a global scale, then the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 stands as an auspicious sign for a new stage in the globalisation process.

New York Times columnist Thomas L.Friedman writes in his book “The World is Flat” that the world has undergone three stages of globalisation.

The first stage, Globalisation 1.0, began after Columbus opened trade links from Europe to the Americas. The growth drivers at that time came from animal, wind, and hydropower, which were utilised by countries and governments to further their own agendas.

The world became smaller during this first stage of globalisation.

The second stage, Globalisation 2.0, ran from the 1800s to the year 2000, spanning two centuries. This stage featured lower transportation costs in the wake of steam engine and railway development, and reduced communication costs thanks to the creation and systematic implementation of the telegraph, telephone, personal computer, satellites, and the internet.

Growth drivers in this stage were multinational corporations that leveraged transactions among global players both large and small.

The world became even smaller during the second stage of globalisation.

The third stage, Globalisation 3.0, is the stage we are currently in. During this stage, small groups and individuals have rights and are empowered to collaborate and compete in the global market, creating new motivating forces.

Using computers, optic cable systems, and advanced software solutions, individuals from across the world, irrespective of gender, age, or social standing, can reach the global market co-operate or compete. During Globalisation 3.0, the world becomes flat and shrinks from small to micro-sized.

British sociologist Anthony Giddens, in a publication released in 2009, said that the concept of globalisation was repeatedly mentioned in numerous discussions related to politics, trade, and media fields in recent years.

Giddens, however, notes that globalisation dates back to ancient human history, and is not confined exclusively to contemporary societies.

Globalisation has necessitated global changes, whereby societies, civilisations, political systems, and economies have gotten closer, and individuals, groups, and nations have become increasing inter-connected.

Researchers such as Nicolas Yeates assumed that globalisation can be reflected through different important factors, such as the movement of capital, integration of trade activities, popularity of consumerism and individualism, manpower movement due to work or entertainment demands and trans-boundary ideologies, human impacts on the environment and global ecosystem, public awareness towards global issues, events, and risks, and the emergence of non-governmental organisations and trans-boundary political activities gearing towards regional forums.

A number of questions were raised in this context as to whether globalisation would blur local communities’ distinctions and whether globalisation would spread the popularity of western values on a global scale?

And how will Vietnamese village distinction be preserved in the face of globalisation? Particularly, what is the role social changes following the globalisation wave have on Vietnamese villages’ daily life?

Other questions are: will Vietnamese villages lose their distinction in the wake of increasing social movement and trade network expansion? Will new products and ideas that bring openness and connectively to Vietnamese villages taint their historic cultural customs? Or can they adjust to these features, then innovate themselves to confirm their distinction?

Vietnamese village virtues during globalisation

Globalisation does not necessitate creating one global culture. Instead, this process stimulates the efforts to preserve national identity distinction, tied with new innovative features through several mechanisms such as localisation.

Many recent studies about Vietnamese communities and villages indicates that the villages have made constant efforts to showcase their identity distinction during globalisation.

Through a number of studies, local authors such as Luong Van Hy, Kleinen, Mai Van Hai, Phan Dai Doan, Malarney, Nguyen Tuan Anh, Nguyen Duc Chien, and Ngo Thi Thanh Quy highlighted the return and proliferation of traditional rituals. These are related to important changes in the human life cycle, cultural practices, or religious aspects of village communities. They are often manifested in feasts and other festivities.

The researchers also pointed out in addition to resurgence of traditional rituals, many new social occurrences bearing the stamps of modernisation and globalisation have appeared, demonstrating the religio-cultural practices of local communities. Such practices include wedding and death anniversaries.

These new occurrences are thought to have come about due to a reformed organisation mode, the removal of old, unsound customs, and increases in means of modern communication.

It is noteworthy that these new elements did not lessen these rituals’ significance, which dates back to ancient times. This signifies that traditional rituals in local communities’ cultural practices have not only been restored, but also constantly improved amid current globalisation.

When studying the rehabilitation of these rituals, Kleinen assumed that looking at the past is a way to better confront the future. He asserted that communal and village tradition has played a vital role in determining villagers’ responses to global volatilities.

Restored traditional rituals combined with new ways of organising local communities’ cultural practices have demonstrated that Vietnamese village cultural distinction has acted as an endless source for cultivating village community life in the face of sweeping global changes.

In other words, Vietnamese village cultural distinction has not been lost during globalisation. Instead, it has undergone changes and been complemented by new positive factors in the context of the constant movements of capital sources, manpower, commodities, images, information, and an increasingly inter-related and complex global ideological system.

That means the Vietnamese village identity is absolutely not fading during the course of globalisation. Instead, it is evolving forwards, and gearing towards reform and development.