Awakening heritage, opening a new journey

One morning in the countryside, the sound of a rooster crowing echoed from the backyard, lingering in the early morning mist. A familiar yet strange scene: a green rice field, next to it was a straight concrete road that had just been inaugurated. A farmer wearing protective clothing, one hand holding a hoe, the other holding a smartphone to check the weather forecast. The scene made us suddenly realize: The countryside today is not just a memory, but is the intersection between the past, present and future.

The sound of roosters crowing is like a bell calling people to wake up, but more deeply, it is like calling us to awaken to a new journey: the journey to awaken the inner values of the countryside.

We have done a great job of investing in infrastructure: village roads, electricity, spacious schools, clean medical stations... But the countryside is not only measured by kilometers of roads or the number of constructions. A village can only truly have a "soul" when it has "soft" infrastructure: reading spaces, art clubs, community activities, family bookcases, rural markets, and education promotion movements.

Hard infrastructure changes the face of the countryside; soft infrastructure changes the soul of the countryside. Only when these two factors go together, can the countryside become a livable place.

Each village has its own "treasures": pottery, carpentry, Quan Ho melodies, folk medicine, festivals, traditional dishes... If we know how to awaken and combine them with technology, they will become invaluable resources.

A rustic cake can become an OCOP product. A traditional craft can become an experiential tour . A historical story can become an inspirational lesson for the younger generation. When the community sees the value of their village being honored, they will be proud and ready to join hands to preserve and develop it.

Village communal houses, banyan trees, wells, festival drums, folk games - all are rural heritage. Heritage is not only for nostalgia but also to create new economic and social values.

Turn the village communal house into a cultural and creative center, festivals into tourism products, and craft villages into living galleries. When heritage is “activated,” the village becomes a destination for knowledge, creativity, and pride.

Rural heritage is not a frozen past, but an inspiration for creating the future.

Rural areas are not just “rear areas”, not just “lowlands”. Rural areas are a serious research object of sociology, rural studies, and development planning.

Rural areas are a place of convergence. Population structure: many generations living together, attached to the land. Economic structure: agriculture, services, secondary occupations, traditional craft villages. Cultural identity: festivals, village conventions, customs, beliefs, community memories.

The future shape of the countryside must be a harmony between modernity and identity, between technology and memory, between economic growth and environmental preservation.

The ultimate goal of the new rural areas is to increase income, so that the gap between urban and rural areas is no longer too far. When living standards, public services, and social infrastructure are close to each other, people will have the opportunity to choose to stay in the countryside instead of migrating to the city, and those who leave will be welcomed back.

A livable countryside is a place where wifi covers the fields, there is a regular health care program, there are schools with open education thinking, there are playgrounds for children and meeting places for the elderly, there are farmers' markets organized by farmers themselves and there is a proud craft village museum.

It is time to step out of the mindset of “rural areas are just raw material areas”. We must build a rural economy: diversifying industries, combining agriculture - services - tourism logistics - renewable energy - e-commerce, expanding tourism space, OCOP products.

In which, heritage economy plays a pivotal role: exploiting the values of communal houses, festivals, craft villages, and folk culture to create income, jobs, and retain young people in the village.

No one can build the countryside instead of the villagers. The villagers themselves must be the subjects. But for them to become the subjects, there must be guides: Commune, village, and hamlet cadres. But who will guide the grassroots cadres: Experts from agricultural cadre training schools combined with sociology experts.

Rural cadres today need knowledge of community management, skills to activate participation, an empathetic attitude and methods to mobilize collective intelligence. When people do not stand passively by the sidelines, but proudly say: “This is our project”, the new countryside will have soul and vitality.

The new rural development program has changed the face of thousands of villages. But if recognition is only given when a commune meets all 19 criteria, the unique and creative efforts of the community risk being forgotten.

Behavioral psychology shows that timely rewards and recognition of each step of progress help maintain long-term enthusiasm. Instead of “all or nothing”, recognize typical criteria: Communes leading in tourism, OCOP products, digital transformation, heritage preservation or creative rural economy, to encourage spirit and create motivation to conquer the remaining criteria.

Imagine each commune as a mountain climber. Each outstanding criterion is a “small flag” planted on the journey. Once there are a few flags, people will be confident and enthusiastic to conquer the peak of 19 criteria. Praise early - encourage early - spread quickly, turning the arduous process into a series of successive joys.

New rural areas are not just a certificate of recognition hanging on the wall, but a story that awakens aspirations. Let’s light up each “spot of light” so that the rural picture becomes brighter day by day.

Japan has the “One Village One Product” movement, Korea has “Saemaul Undong”, Europe has the “Smart Village” model. The lesson is: Rural development must connect infrastructure, economy, culture, and people.

But more importantly, we must preserve the Vietnamese soul: the sound of festival drums, the smell of kitchen smoke, the river wharf, the banyan tree… all need to be “wrapped in a new coat” of technology, creativity and knowledge, so that the countryside can be both modern and retain its soul.

The countryside is not a slow-paced place, nor a burden. The countryside is a living heritage, a place to preserve memories, a place to produce creativity, a place to nurture personality. Let the countryside become a place worth living, worth working, worth dreaming.

Let each rooster crow in the morning not only awaken a new day, but also awaken a new journey, a journey to revive rural vitality, unlock inner values, and build a "rural civilization" amidst the flow of industrialization, modernization, and urbanization.