“Vietnamese family in the modernization, industrialization, and integration by comparison approach” contains 31 distinctive research papers of local and oversea scholars who joined in the conference with same topic, selected and edited by Institute of Family and Gender Studies. The book contains 5 parts as followed: Part I – Studies on families in the industrialization, modernization and integration by comparison approach; Part II – Structure and Functionality of family; Part III – Values of family; Part IV – The diversity of family; Part V – Policies and Actions for the development of families.
As a basic institution of society, family plays an important role in the development of each individuals as well as the implementation of social functionalities. Family maintains and transmits the cultural values of nation through generations. In Vietnam, the stability of a family could be seen as one of the deciding factor of the success of industrialization, modernization and socialism building. Hence, investments on family are also investment for sustainable growth. Therefore, Vietnamese family growth strategy to 2020 and vision to 2030 has stressed on the improvement of good traditional values of Vietnamese families and building up happy and advanced families. This will help each family to become a great place for each individual, a healthy cell of society and will be able to adapt to requirements of the industrialization and modernization.
Authors have tried their best to fully evaluate the achievements and challenges of building and developing Vietnamese families in Doi Moi (Renewals) times, especially in the last decade. The book has listed out urgent issues in various aspects in Vietnamese family life and made the comparison with the development trend of other countries.
In the first part, authors stressed on the importance of family in the industrialization, modernization and integration; the role of women in family and the functional differentiation of family education in the changes of social structure as well as the socio – economic position of family.
The second part is about the structure and functions of family when discussing about the quick change of structure and family in the industrialization, modernization and integration in Vietnam. It could be shown through the down size of scope of family, the increasing rate of nuclear families, the decrease of dependence rate of family as well as chances of family functionalities. There is a decrease trend of family producing as an independent business unit and the increase in the number of individuals doing business outside of family. Also, it is the job changing between generations. The socialization function of family has a lot of changes. Parents do not have much time for children while children spend more time on friends and social networks. Impacts of external factors on education for children are increasing such as culture import, social evils, and internet. There is also clear change of ensuring traditional concepts about marriage and family as well as the relationship between husband and wife, parents and kids, and even the function of rebirth.
The value of family is the content of part three. Reports provided a lot of information about the strong changes of family values. Marriage could be an example when it is no longer the necessary as it was in traditional society. The trend of prefer having baby boys does not change and it is the major reason of increasing the gender rate in Vietnam in recent years. The role of family, who provides knowledge about the reproductive health for teenagers, is also mentioned. The aim is to prevent the abortion and its consequences. There are more challenges for the relationship between husband and wife due to changes of values as loyalty and gender equality. Also,, the other aspect of value changes is shown through the survey in rural region. Marriage and having their own family are still what rural people expect in the urbanization. Kids still do have much meaning for marriage and family life even people now pay more attention to the material values. One of the biggest changes of rural people is their idea about community which used to be very strong in the past.
Part four is about the diversity of family, expressed through information about the characteristics of families in various regions, religions, ethics and family types. In Northern delta, the impacts of modernization on family could be seen through the decrease of birth rate and the increase of marriage age. The economic growth has created more job opportunities and improved the income of families which helps for poverty reduction. In cities, there is the change of work distribution by gender when it has more benefit for female labor and men now share more house work with women. In fishing villages, the characteristics of family relationship and lifestyle are also discussed through the analysis of the cohesion between family and parentage. Ethic minorities have been playing an important role in conserving and promoting their own cultural values. Reports have especially mentioned to challenges of Catholic families facing with in the process of industrialization and modernization, for example, their marriage life and how to take care and educate the children.
Recently, a new type of family, which shows a dramatic increase, is international family which most of brides are Vietnamese women married to foreigner via agencies. Today, there are more families which couple is living together without official marriage or children living with grandparents due to their parent’s business trips in long term.
Part five is about the Policies and Actions towards the development of families. By understanding the importance of families in the national industrialization and modernization, Communist Party and Government have issued various legal documents, policies and implemented action programs for a happy, advanced and wealthy family in Vietnam. The implementation, however, still does have many limitations, disadvantages and difficulties.
After near 30 years of Renewals, Vietnamese families have had significant changes in various dimensions including structure, functions and family relationship. It is necessary to recognize and understand how important those changes are, especially its meanings in forming scientific evidences which are used for issuing law, making decrees and social policies. This will facilitate to promote the role of families in the industrialization and modernization of Vietnam.
Authors expected this book could be an useful document for researchers, practical activities and for all readers who are interested in the field of research, teaching and policy making in Vietnam.
Nguyễn Thu Hà
