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WRITERS ASK: 'HAVE STATE GRANTS STIFLED CREATIVITY?'
>
> May 10, 2005 Inter Press Service Author: Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
>
> Tran Dinh Thanh Lam. "WRITERS ASK: 'HAVE STATE GRANTS STIFLED
> CREATIVITY?'" Inter Press Service 2005-05-10
>
> HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - The long absence of good literary works
> from Vietnam has set off some questions among authors here, with many
> asking whether government grants given to members of the Vietnamese Writers'
> Association (VWA) have been put to good use.
>
> "VWA has a habit of using the government's money to sponsor some of
> its members - the sponsorship list is always top secret - but I
> believe that so far no outstanding works have come out from that
> money," said Nguyen Nhat Anh, author of several best sellers.
>
> This pondering question was addressed at the 7th Congress of the
> Vietnam Writers' Association late last month, where some 565 authors
> debated the issue.
>
> Though literary works - novels and collections of short stories and
> poems
> - have increased in record numbers over the past five years, there has
> not been anything that has won international accolades.
>
> Many writers blame the absence of quality works on what they call
> "state sponsorship", the subvention that VWA grants to writers to
> complete their book projects. Being a member of the Vietnam
> Fatherland Front, VWA -- as a mass organization controlled by the
> Vietnamese Communist Party -- is eligible for direct state funding.
>
> "Sponsorship is a bad measure. The writer is firstly a worker. He must
> depend on his labor to earn a living," said Nguyen Ngoc, speaking at a
> forum organised by the 'Tuoi Tre' daily entitled 'Should literature be
> sponsored?'
>
> Nguyen Ngoc, a celebrated writer in Vietnam , has no qualms about
> speaking his mind. He was VWA secretary general in the late 1980s
> before being forced to step down at the 4th VWA congress for his
> criticism of the regime.
>
> During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese writers were either
> soldiers or communist party cadres - all duty-bound to reflect the
> nation's struggle for independence.
>
> When victory came in April 1975, these writers - as recognition for
> their writing - received direct state support to continue with their
> literary work.
>
> But Nguyen Ngoc said this only lumped the non-talented writers, who
> had an income, with the struggling talented ones living from
> hand-to-mouth - making many feel frustrated.
>
> "It does not follow the principle of meritocracy and hence has turned
> literature into a stagnant pond," he told the forum.
>
> But there was a brief period in Vietnam when modern literature
> actually flourished. It was called the "renovation era" after the
> Vietnamese Communist Party's Sixth Party Congress in 1986.
>
> At this congress, party leaders emphasised the responsibility of
> writers and the media to boost the spirit of the masses and suggested
> they could do this by ensuring truthfulness and avoiding simplistic,
> clichi-ridden stories.
>
> In October, 1987, Nguyen Van Linh, the new Vietnamese Communist Party
> secretary general, attended a meeting of writers and artists and
> participated with them in a frank dialogue about the state of creative
> activity.
>
> In remarks he made at the end of this two- day exchange, the party
> secretary general stated that "one must hold fast to socialist realism,"
> but he suggested that "writers who properly adopt this approach are
> not afraid to attack evils, even evils in people holding important
> posts in the party", if these "evils prevent the new socialist man from emerging".
>
> This invitation from the most powerful person in government signaled a
> major change in policy and had a liberating effect on literary
> production in Vietnam . A period of openness lasted until 1988, where
> contacts with the West were easier during this period and they
> facilitated the translation and publication abroad (not always with
> government approval) of works by Bao Ninh, Duong Thu Huong, Nguyen Huy
> Thiep, and Pham Thi Hoai.
>
> But the period of openness did not last long.
>
> In December 1988, Nguyen Ngoc, then author and editor of 'Van Nghe'
> ('Literature and the Arts') was sacked, presumably for publishing
> stories by Nguyen Huy Thiep.
>
> Most observers believe it was Nguyen Huy Thiep's historical stories -
> 'A Sharp Sword', 'Fired Gold', and 'Chastity' -- that angered some
> communist party leaders. In these stories traditional heroes such as
> Quang Trung, who drove out the Chinese in 1789, are treated
> irreverently; and traditional villains such as Emperor Gia Long,
> accused by patriots of making deals with the French, treated sympathetically.
>
> The 1986 reformist faction began to lose power, no doubt in part
> because conservatives were alarmed by the collapse of communist
> governments in Eastern Europe and the crackdown on student protesters
> at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
>
> "Great international titles that our literature has got so far did not
> result from sponsorship, at least the works created from 1975 to now,"
> said Nguyen Ngoc. "In literature, freedom is essential. The writer
> needs no kind of guidance or directive for his creation."
>
> However, VWA General Secretary Huu Thinh mentioned some achievements
> that Vietnamese writers had made during the past five years to justify
> the present "state sponsorship".
>
> "We have more novels reflecting modern issues and short stories
> dealing with the realities of life," he said.
>
> Huu Thinh added sponsorship was necessary in order to prevent writers
> from commercialising their work. "It is true that writers could live
> and create without state subvention; but in that case we could not ask
> them not to run after market trends, not to commercialise their works."
>
> But this is precisely why the VWA peeves many writers.
>
> Nguyen Ngoc gave a sarcastic definition of the VWA. "It is a
> professional association, but organised like a state agency, with
> different departments and lots of civil servants. It gives state money
> to its members to make books."
>
> Bui Minh Quoc, a former editor in chief of a literature magazine in
> Lam Dong Province, wants a total revamp of the VWA to make it a real
> professional association.
>
> "We should change the VWA, change the way of conducting the congress,"
> Quoc said in his letter sent to his colleagues before the VWA Congress.
>
> Quoc said that in theory, the VWA Congress is a meeting of all
> Vietnamese writers. But then, he added, the Vietnamese Communist Party
> secretariat had taken it upon themselves to decide who could or could not attend.
>
> "The VWA is an organization of writers. Writers are the masters of
> their association. But when the communist party secretariat does not
> permit writers to be the masters, the association is no more useful,
> no more fun," he added.
>
>
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