ABSTRACT
Ever since the Vietnamese government launched a programme of economic reforms in the mid-1980s, which included the dissolution of agricultural collectives in the countryside and the opening up of the country to foreign investors, rapid social change and its consequences for the country's traditional culture and identity have occupied a central position in the official discourse on industrialisation and modernisation. Among party leaders and the country's theorists, it is generally agreed that, in order to catch up with the rest of the region, Vietnam has no other option but to modernise. However, although economic development remains the overriding goal, what really concerns the country's leaders is how to achieve material prosperity while at the same time retaining Vietnam's traditional culture and national identity. At a press conference held in Hanoi in 1998, Huu Tho, the Director of the Vietnam Communist Party Central Committee's Ideology and Culture Commission, told foreign reporters that ‘Vietnam wants to develop an advanced culture with the population having a high standard of education and culture and a better community life while ensuring that the national traditional culture can absorb the essence of others’ ( Vietnam News 1998). Hence, the purpose of the resolution issued at the end of the Central Committee's fifth plenum was to devise ways of preserving Vietnam's traditional culture while gradually integrating into the regional and world communities.
