The Endogenous Cultural Perspective of the Communist Party of Vietnam

Abstract

Culture serves as both a driving force and an indicator of economic and social development; it encompasses the construction of the people as the principal agents and addresses the fulfillment of their needs. While being both traditional and national, culture must also evolve with the times and adapt to international exchange. The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has advanced the perspective of endogenous culture, positioning it as an intrinsic resource. Guiding its cultural construction and development is the principle of “awakening”. This approach emphasizes national characteristics and local realities within the spatial dimension, while simultaneously adhering to the universal nature of human culture and engaging proactively with the global community. Temporally, it prioritizes the inheritance of cultural traditions alongside responsiveness to contemporary conditions, practical needs, and future orientations. In terms of agency, it underscores the leadership role of the CPV and recognizes the Vietnamese people as the primary agents in cultural creation and the fulfillment of their cultural needs. This endogenous cultural perspective explicitly opposes cultural colonization, national nihilism, and cultural obscurantism. It provides a framework to overcome challenges such as disconnection from the people, cultural rigidity, and detachment from practical realities. The endogenous perspective of culture articulated by the CPV constitutes a development within Marxist cultural theory and praxis, offering insights potentially valuable to other nations. Grounded in endogenous and complexity theories, this perspective provides a basis for further indepth research into the dynamics of cultural endogeneity, the laws governing the interaction between exogenous and endogenous variables in cultural systems, and the complexities inherent in such systems.